by Beth Andrews
“Please,” Celeste, sitting behind the desk, said. “Let her stay.”
He shouldn’t, but he had a feeling Tori needed to hear this firsthand.
It was probably the only way she’d believe it.
He nodded once. Tori took the chair beside him. He remained standing and he handed Celeste the item he’d received that morning.
“Miss Vitello, do you recognize this?”
“What is that?” Tori asked as Celeste studied the email he’d printed.
Celeste sat back, her face white. “Where did you get this?” she asked, her voice strangled.
“From your computer.”
“You searched her computer?” Tori gripped the arms of the chair. “Are you allowed to do that?”
Telling himself he wasn’t insulted she’d question his ability to do his job, he nodded sharply. “I assure you all of the proper search warrants were obtained.” He kept his eyes on Celeste as he added, “Mr. Sullivan was in the residence the entire time.”
Celeste swayed but then steadied herself. “Tim knows?”
“That at the beginning of June, one day after Valerie Sullivan’s remains were found you ordered potassium cyanide from a website?” Walker asked. “Yes.”
Tori glanced between him and her boss. “Wait…what? You bought cyanide? Why would…” Her eyes widened and she slowly shook her head. “No. Oh, no.”
“Miss Vitello,” Walker said, “did you kill Dale York?”
“Don’t answer that,” Tori said quickly, digging into her pocket for her cell phone. “Don’t say anything. I’ll call Uncle Ken and—”
“No,” Celeste said, sounding weary and somewhat…relieved. “Tori…don’t. He can’t help me. Not now. I need to do this. I need to tell the truth.” She raised her chin and met Walker’s eyes. “Yes. I killed Dale York. After Erin and Collin’s engagement party, I waited until Tim was asleep and then I snuck out. I went to Dale’s room. I didn’t think he’d let me in but he’d always considered himself quite the ladies’ man,” she said, her mouth turned down in disgust. “I…flirted with him. Talked him into inviting me in for a drink. He was so cocky, so sure he was smarter than everyone else, that I was no threat to him.”
“You put the cyanide into his whiskey,” Walker said.
Her hands were clasped together on top of the desk, her knuckles white. “I almost didn’t. Wasn’t sure I could but when he went to the bathroom, I…I saw myself adding it to his glass, it was like my hand belonged to someone else.” She licked her lips. “I waited until he came back, watched him drink it, my brain had…shut off. After he drank, he just…collapsed…and I left.”
“But not before taking your glass—and your fingerprints—with you.”
“I was scared,” she said. “Out of my mind. I was so afraid he’d hurt someone in my family again, like he did to Val. What I did, I did to protect my family.”
He noticed Tori flinch but he couldn’t comfort her, he had to keep his head in the game. “And yet you ordered the poison weeks before Mr. York’s return to Mystic Point. Before you were even aware that he was still alive.”
She shut her eyes, slid her hands to her lap. “I didn’t buy it to kill him,” she whispered. “I bought it to…to…”
“To kill yourself,” Walker said.
Tori spun on him. “That’s ridiculous,” she snapped.
“You ordered that cyanide because your secret was about to come out,” Walker continued to Celeste relentlessly. “Dale didn’t kill Valerie Sullivan. He was innocent and he knew there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him. He was safe. So he came back to make some more money off Ken using Valerie’s affair with Ken, and Nora’s paternity, as leverage.”
Tori shook her head. “What are you talking about? Of course Dale killed my mother. Everyone knows that.”
“He was telling the truth about getting to the quarry only to find Val wasn’t there. But her car was so he took it. He probably figured she’d backed out of their deal and that it would be easier to ditch her car than his. He started his new life, spent all these years thinking Valerie was still alive. When he found she wasn’t, he may have even suspected Ken Sullivan was the murderer. Something else he could blackmail your uncle with.”
Tori’s eyes widened. “You think Uncle Ken—”
“No,” Walker said emphatically as he pulled a photo out of the folder. “I don’t think he’s guilty, either. This—” he shook the picture “—tells me who really killed Valerie.” He faced the woman behind the desk. “Isn’t that right, Miss Vitello?”
* * *
A ROARING SOUND filled Tori’s head, made it difficult for her to think, to process what Walker was saying. What he was implying.
He handed Tori the picture. It was one she’d seen before, one of her father, her mother and Celeste. Valerie was laughing, her head thrown back while Tim stared at her, his love for her clear on his handsome face.
But it was Celeste’s image that Tori couldn’t tear her eyes from. Celeste who had her arm linked with Val’s, who was staring at Tim with such…longing. Almost…obsession.
Walker took the photo from her numb fingers and handed it to Celeste. Tori’s throat felt like it was on fire and she couldn’t stop staring at the other woman. Couldn’t help but see the guilt in her dear friend’s dark eyes.
“Celeste?” she asked, unable to hide the shakiness of her voice, the plea. “What’s he talking about?”
Walker stepped forward. “Dale didn’t kill—”
“No,” Tori snapped at him. “No. I want to hear it from her.” She walked up to the desk, met the eyes of the woman who’d been more of a mother to her than Valerie, the woman who’d been like another grandmother to her son. The woman who’d given her a job and helped her when she’d been a scared, pregnant teenager, who’d held her hand when she’d told her father and sisters she was pregnant. The woman her father had lived with, had loved, the woman who’d been a steady presence in her life.
“I want to hear it from you,” Tori told Celeste. “Tell me.”
Celeste nodded, her eyes filled with tears. “Dale didn’t kill Val,” Celeste whispered, her voice ragged. “I did.”
Tori wheeled back as if she’d been pushed. Walker was there to help guide her into a chair, to lower her head when she gasped for air. He murmured at her, told her to take it easy, to just focus on her breathing, his large hand warm and steady on her back.
She didn’t want to breathe, didn’t want to focus. Not when that meant she’d have to accept what Celeste had just said.
“No,” Tori said, her head still bent, her voice ragged. “No.” She raised her head. “You didn’t…you couldn’t…”
Celeste was crying, the tears streaming silently down her face. She looked older. Broken. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Let’s go down to the station,” Walker said in his calm cop’s voice. “We’ll take your state—”
“I didn’t mean to,” Celeste said, her eyes pleading, but Tori’s heart was cold, frozen. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Walker start a small tape recorder and at that moment, she hated him. Hated him for doing his job, for being so calm and unemotional when she wanted to run, to hide from this truth. From what she knew was going to be a confession, one she didn’t want to hear. Wasn’t sure she could survive.
“You spoke with Valerie Sullivan the night she disappeared?” Walker asked. “You saw her?”
Celeste didn’t take her eyes off Tori and for the life of her, Tori couldn’t look away. “I saw her,” Celeste said. “She stopped by my apartment, told me she was leaving town with Dale and that she wanted to say goodbye. I was…shocked.”
“You didn’t know she was having an affair with Dale York?” Walker asked.
“I knew but I didn’t think she’d leave Tim or the girls for him. There had been other men…” She shook her head as Tori realized what that meant. Other men. Not just Ken. Not just Dale. Tori’s sto
mach turned. Oh, God. “Val was never serious about any of them,” Celeste told Tori quickly as if reassuring her. “But she said Dale had figured out a way for them to be together, for them to escape Mystic Point. She said they came into some money but I hadn’t realized they’d blackmailed Ken for it.”
Celeste swallowed. “She was so happy, so excited and all I could think was, how can she be this happy knowing she’s leaving her husband? Her children? I asked her about the girls and she just…shrugged. Said they’d be fine with Tim…that she loved them but she wasn’t cut out to be a mother. She needed to be free.” Celeste frowned, looked at Walker. “That’s what she said to me. I need to be free. I can’t be tied down, not to one man, not to one place. I’m bigger than that. I’m more.”
Walker nodded slowly. “What happened next?”
Celeste pressed her fingertips against her temples. “I begged her not to go. Told her she was making a huge mistake in picking Dale over Tim and their children but she smiled and said Tim would get over it, her girls, too, because they’d have me, wouldn’t they? She said with her gone, the coast would be clear for me and Tim.”
Tori gasped. “You and Dad were having an affair?”
“No. God, no. But…I loved him. Valerie knew, of course. She could see it. She’d often tease me about the crush I had on her husband. That night she told me that with her out of the way, I could step into the role of Tim’s wife, as a mother to you girls. I was so angry that she’d treat us all that way, I knew how devastated you all would be if she left so when she turned toward the door I…God, I don’t know what happened. I don’t even remember anything except this utter rage filling me. The next thing I knew, I was standing over her body, holding a lamp in my hand.” Tears flowed again. “I’d hit her. Hard. I’d killed her.”
“You hit her at your apartment?” Walker asked. “How did she wind up at the quarry?”
“I took her there,” Celeste admitted in a hoarse whisper. “I panicked. She wasn’t breathing, she was just so…so still and then she got so cold…” She shook her head and when she spoke again it was as if she was far away, her voice monotone, her eyes glazed. “She’d told me she was meeting Dale at the quarry. I dragged her to her car and drove it out there, and put her behind the wheel of the car and then hid in the woods.”
“You thought Dale would be blamed for her death,” Walker said.
Celeste nodded. “He had a history of violence. I thought she’d be discovered and he’d be arrested once word of the affair came out. I waited for an hour and he finally showed up but when he saw Val, he dragged her body into the woods and just…left her there. Then he took her car. I walked home and waited for my secret to come out, waited for someone to figure out what I’d done.”
“Except no one did,” Walker said. “Everyone thought Valerie was with Dale.”
“I realized I’d been given a second chance,” Celeste said. “Everyone already thought Val had just walked away and she would have, she would’ve left you all,” Celeste told Tori as if that made what she’d done all right. “So I kept my secret, my guilt. I buried it and I did my best to be there for you and your sisters, to be the kind of woman Tim needed…the kind he deserved. But it wasn’t enough, it was never enough for him,” she said hoarsely. “He still loved her. After all this time, I’m still second best to him.”
Tori was shaking, her head spinning. “You killed her. You killed her and you left her out there in the woods. My God, how could you?”
“I thought she’d be found. I thought for sure she’d be found.”
Tori didn’t even realize she was crying until a tear dripped off her chin and landed on the back of her hand. She lifted her fingers to her cheeks, surprised to feel the wetness there, to realize she could cry when inside she was so cold, so numb. “You were her friend. Her best friend.”
“I loved her,” Celeste said. “I loved her like a sister. I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
Walker touched Tori’s shoulder gently then stepped forward. “Celeste Vitello, you’re under arrest for the murder of Valerie Sullivan. You have the right to remain silent—”
“I’m sorry,” Celeste said, her eyes locked on Tori’s. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Tori felt as if she was out of her body, somehow looking down on the scene. The sound of Walker’s voice as he told Celeste of her rights faded, time slowed. Walker reached for a pair of handcuffs on his hip even as Celeste moved, bent to get something from the bottom drawer. Some memory tugged at Tori’s brain, told her to stop Celeste. Realization had her leaping to her feet.
“No!” she screamed.
Celeste straightened, the gun she kept locked in her desk drawer in her hand. Walker pushed Tori aside as Celeste raised the gun, pressed the barrel against her own temple.
“Forgive me,” she said, somehow too calm, too composed, her eyes beseeching. “Please, forgive me.”
And she pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
WALKER GAVE TORI a day, twenty-four hours, and then he went to her. He couldn’t stay away, not any longer than that, not after she’d been so crushed, so traumatized yesterday.
Hell, he’d been traumatized, too. When Celeste raised that gun, his first instinct, his only thought, had been to protect Tori. Which he’d done, he assured himself as he walked up to her house. But he hadn’t been able to protect her from Celeste’s death.
Or from the truth of what Celeste had done.
He exhaled heavily and then knocked on the door. Cars lined the driveway. He wasn’t the only one who’d stopped by to check on her.
The door opened and Brandon stood in the foyer. “Hi,” the kid said solemnly. “You here to see Mom?”
“I’m here to see both of you. How are you holding up?”
Brandon lifted a shoulder, looking so much like his mother, Walker’s stomach clenched. “I’m okay.”
Walker stepped inside, shut the door behind him. “And your mom?”
“She keeps saying she’s all right but she’s not,” Brandon said, sounding older than twelve. “She didn’t sleep at all last night and I heard her crying,” he added in a low voice. “But no one else knows that,” he rushed on.
“They won’t hear it from me,” Walker promised. He followed Brandon into the living room to find Chief Taylor talking to Tim Sullivan. Tori’s dad was tall with graying blond hair and blue eyes. He looked distraught, his face weathered, his eyes weary. Astor Sullivan joined them, said something to Tim and laid her hand on his arm. He patted her hand, nodded then walked away with her.
His brother kept his distance, sat in a chair next to a pretty blonde who was probably his daughter, Erin. Griffin York stood by the window, listening to Brandon’s dad and Colleen.
“Bertrand,” Taylor said, coming up to him. “Everything in order?”
Walker knew he was asking about the report. “All filed. I recommended that no recourse be taken against either you or Captain Sullivan.”
He’d found no reason for charges of misconduct to be filed against either of them. They’d played it by the book during a difficult time. Walker wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to have done the same.
“I appreciate that,” Taylor said, as if he meant it. Then he held out a hand. “Thank you.”
Walker shook the chief’s hand, knew he was being thanked for more than just his findings in the case against him and Layne. He nodded.
Taylor sipped his beer. “Tori’s in the kitchen with her sisters.”
And how the chief knew she was the real reason he was there, Walker had no idea. Wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
He went into the kitchen as Tori slammed down a can of coffee and said, “I’m perfectly capable of making a pot of coffee in my own damn house.”
“Of course you are,” Nora said in a soothing tone. “Layne was just trying to help.”
“I don’t need her help,” Tori said as if through gritted teeth. She peeled the top off the coffee, waved the scoop at her sisters. “And I d
on’t need you two hovering over me. I’m fine.”
“Yeah,” Layne said, leaning back against the counter, her ankles crossed. “That’s clear.” She noticed him, raised an eyebrow. “Detective Bertrand,” she said. “What can we do for you?”
All three Sullivan sisters looked at him. He felt edgy and restless, didn’t know what to do with his hands, wasn’t sure why he was there. He was out of place. Tori didn’t need him there, didn’t need him at all. She had her family, her sisters. It was them she’d turned to yesterday.
When Celeste fired that gun, the room had filled with the scent of gunpowder and blood and he’d rushed to her, had called in the situation to get an ambulance as soon as possible. He’d checked her pulse but it was too late.
He’d turned in time to see Tori—her face and chest splattered with blood—sway, her eyes wide, her pupils dilated.
Then all hell had broken loose. People had come running, a waitress had burst into the office and he’d barked at them all to get the hell out as he’d gone to Tori, had led her out into the hall where she’d crumpled against him. He’d kept the gawkers at bay. Joe, the cook, had helped calm the waitresses and the customers and, fifteen minutes later, the ambulance had come and Celeste’s body had been taken away.
Layne and Nora had arrived within minutes of each other. He’d filled Layne in on what had happened and while she’d seemed as shocked as her sisters, she’d taken control. Had helped Tori to the ambulance where she could be treated for her shock. Nora stood by silently crying.
Walker had left Tori with her sisters, had done his job to make sure Taylor knew exactly what had happened. He’d given his statement, filled out the reports and hadn’t made it back to his room until late. Though he’d been exhausted, he hadn’t slept. Couldn’t stop thinking about Tori.
She’d gotten under his skin. If he wasn’t careful, she’d worm her way into his heart.
“I came for Tori,” he said, then his neck heated as he realized how that sounded. He cleared his throat. “I came to see you,” he told Tori.
“I swear to God,” she told him, “if you ask me if I’m fine or if you can do anything for me, I’ll shove this scoop so far up your—”