by Jude Pittman
The tape stopped but Kelly sat for several minutes staring at the machine. An ugly suspicion had been lodged in the back of his mind ever since last night's conversation with Stella. Now, reluctantly, he let it float to the surface. First Anna's murder, then Penny's narrow escape and now Andrew's mysterious phone call.
What if Stella was right? How well do I really know Krystal? They'd gotten close—maybe too close—in the weeks following Anna's murder. But Stella had known her a lifetime.
Reaching into his pocket, Kelly pulled out the letter he'd taken out of her box in the attic.
Leaving Andrew's office, he started down the hall, something drawing him toward Krystal's bedroom. He'd always had a sixth sense for impending disaster and right now his neck prickled like a spider had crawled down his spine.
Krystal's room was bright and youthful. A border flocked with pink rosebuds circled the walls and frothy pink curtains covered the casement windows. A cream-colored French provincial bookcase stood in the corner, its shelves covered with antique dolls. A writing desk with a small white chair stood in front of the window. Kelly walked over to it and pulled out the chair.
He took a swallow from the beer, set it down and reached in his pocket for the envelope. Inside he found a handwritten letter and a blue bound legal document. Kelly opened the letter. The spidery writing had faded and there were dark splotches on the paper. The writer had used an old-fashioned fountain pen. Kelly squinted his eyes to focus on the words and began to read.
Dear Andrew,
I realize this letter is going to upset you. However, we must all accept our suffering. As you are aware, I'm beginning to suffer some of the deterioration often associated with old age. Therefore, while I still have all of my faculties, I have attended to various legal matters. Undoubtedly, you'll resent my decision.
I am leaving all of my stock in Davis Oil to Krystal. You, of course, will be named her guardian. I have considered this decision carefully. Clayton killed himself because you committed adultery with his wife and I cannot go to my Maker with the knowledge you escaped punishment."
Your Mother,
Vivian Davis
Kelly put the letter aside and picked up the legal document. He read it through quickly and when he came to the signatures, he closed his eyes and dropped it on the counter. In one stroke, Anna Davis had signed away her life, her fortune and her child. The old woman had been thorough and merciless. She'd left nothing to chance. Every detail of Anna and Andrew's affair had been spelled out and acknowledged by both of them.
Tears pricked the corner of Kelly's eyes. He knew the truth now and he had to face it. Krystal hadn't been trying to find her mother to ask why she’d abandoned her. She already knew why. She'd wanted to find Anna to could kill her. Kelly knew it in his gut, just as he knew she'd succeeded. And that she had Andrew.
Chapter Nineteen
Kelly sat in Krystal's room for a long time. In his mind, he recreated all their conversations and the pattern of her lies became clear. All the seemingly innocent remarks she'd made about her Uncle Andrew, the story of her neglected childhood, even their lovemaking, had been designed to enlist Kelly's support and sympathy.
Finally getting a grip, Kelly took the letter and headed downstairs to Andrew's study. He had to get hold of Gus. He walked over to the desk and reached for the phone. He'd call Detective Petrie and see if Gus was still in town
"Detective Petrie is out on a call," the dispatcher told him. "Can I take a message?"
"I'm trying to get in touch with Detective Graham," Kelly said. "Do you know if he's still there?"
"Hold, please. I'll check."
Kelly struggled to get his thoughts in order while he waited. If Gus was gone, what should he do? Kelly's instincts told him Krystal was involved in whatever had happened to Andrew but Detective Petrie wasn't likely to be impressed with his gut feelings. Cops went on facts and Kelly wasn't a cop anymore.
"Hello!" The dispatcher's voice came back on the line just as the door opened and Stella walked into the room. Kelly lifted his hand and motioned her over to the desk. "Did you find him?" he said into the phone.
"Detective Graham left for the airport a couple hours ago," the dispatcher replied. "Would you like me to locate Detective Petrie?"
"No, thanks. I'll try him later." Kelly hung up the phone.
"What's wrong?"
Kelly picked up the letter from where he'd dropped it on the desk and handed it over to Stella. "I found this in Krystal's toy box," he said. "It looks like you were right all along."
Stella read the letter while Kelly sat with his head in his hands trying to figure out what to do next. When she'd finished, she put the letter back on the desk and placed her hand on Kelly's arm.
"I'm sorry."
Kelly lifted his head and looked into Stella's eyes. "Did you know about this?" he asked in a harsh, grating voice he barely recognized as his own.
"No! I didn't know about the letter but I did suspect she'd found out something about Anna and Andrew the last time she was down here."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you wouldn't have believed me. Andrew’s never listened to anything I said about Krystal, so why should you?"
"Andrew's message said something about meeting Krystal at someplace called Sea Isle. Do you know where that is?"
"Andrew's at Sea Isle?"
"That's what he said. Here, I'll rewind the tape and you can listen. Maybe you can figure out where he's planning on meeting Krystal."
"You don't need to." She shook her head. "If he's going out to Sea Isle, he must be meeting her at our beach house. It's called The Last Resort." The name came out as a kind of giggle and she clapped her hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry." She gasped. "I don't know what's wrong with me."
"It's my fault." Kelly went to Stella and put his arm around her shoulder. "I shouldn't have sprung it on you like that. You're shaking all over. Do you want to sit down?"
"No. I'll be all right." Stella leaned against his chest. "Just give me a minute."
Kelly tightened his arms and held her until the shaking stopped. When her breathing slowed to normal, he released her.
"What should we do now?" she asked.
"I think our only choice is to go out to Sea Isle and try to find Andrew," Kelly said. "I could be way off base here but every instinct I have tells me Krystal’s up to something. I'll feel like a damn fool if Andrew's off on some romantic rendezvous and I stick my big foot into the middle of your personal life but I can't shake the feeling something stinks to high heaven.
"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm so used to Andrew's antics it wouldn't faze me even if I caught one of his bimbos sneaking down the back stairs." Stella's spirits rose at the thought of Andrew pulling one of his tricks and she actually grinned at Kelly. "Do you want me to call the beach house?"
"No. I don't think that's a good idea. When Andrew called, he said he was on his way to Sea Isle to meet Krystal. If he's out there to meet someone he's not likely to admit it to you. Maybe the whole thing about Krystal is a blind. I'd just feel better if we checked it out. That's all. Is there any way to get up to the house without Andrew—or Krystal for that matter, if this is an innocent misunderstanding—knowing we're there?"
"Sure. The beach area's wide open but the Shelton place is next door. They're good friends of ours and I've got a key to their house. If Andrew's down there, we'll see his car from the main road and we'll have a clear view of the place from the Shelton's front room. Maybe we'll spot Andrew and either Krystal or his latest companion."
"I'm sorry, Stella."
"Hey, don't be. I'm used to it. Besides, as you've probably figured out, I'm no saint myself. I will tell you one thing though. If Andrew's up to something, I'll bet it involves somebody else's wife."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because he sure as hell wouldn't go to all this trouble just to pull the wool over my eyes. Things are way past that stage in our household."
"Anot
her question. I don't want to spook you, but we are dealing with a potential kidnapper. Since I flew up here I didn't bring my gun. You don't happen to have one here in the house do you?"
Stella's eyes widened. "You're not going to shoot him."
"I'm not planning on shooting anyone. But we don't know what we'll find. Do you have a gun?"
"There's one locked in the desk." Stella took a key from Andrew's desk and unlocked one of the drawers in his file cabinet.
"I don't like guns, but Andrew insisted on having one." Stella pulled a revolver out of the drawer and handed it over to Kelly.
"I'm sorry to drag you into this," he said, "but I'll feel better once we make sure everything's okay out there."
"I don't mind," Stella said. "I think you're wrong, but what if you're right? Andrew's a bastard but if Krystal is out to kill him, the least I can do is warn him."
Taking I-45 South from Houston, they crossed the Galveston Causeway, took 61st Street to the beach and followed the seawall until it turned into FM 3005.
"It's about five miles ahead on the beach," Stella said.
As they drove, Kelly thought back to the time he'd spent with Krystal, trying to reconcile what he thought he knew about her to what he'd just found out."
"It's tough, isn't it?" Stella seemed to read his thoughts.
"I guess I'm having a hard time realizing I could've read someone as wrong as I did Krystal. Do you really think she's capable of murder?"
"Yes!" The word came out hard and brittle. "I'm sorry, Kelly. But there's a side to Krystal most people never see. When she was small, she'd do mean, spiteful things, like breaking ornaments in my room and stealing my jewelry and throwing it into the trash. But as she got older, her pranks got more vicious. I used to have a toy poodle I adored and one night she disappeared. I was frantic. I searched for Mitzi for weeks but I never found a trace of her. That spring the landscapers called me out to the back yard. They'd been digging in one of the flowerbeds and found Mitzi's remains. I suspected Krystal immediately. She knew how much I loved that dog. But of course I couldn't prove anything."
"Didn't you at least discuss it with Andrew?"
"What for? He’d never have believed me. Remember, Krystal's the heiress. Andrew always took her side against mine. Besides, what was the point? Mitzi was dead. Nothing I did was going to change that. Things were difficult enough right then. Vivian’d already started going downhill and she absolutely refused to let the nurses take care of her personal needs, so most of it fell to me."
"I thought she hated you?"
"She did, but I guess over time she'd gotten used to having me around. Toward the end, it got so bad I was the only one who could touch her."
"That must've been tough on you."
"It was. Anyway, to get back to Krystal. One night after I'd finished settling Vivian in for the night, I went to my room to get dressed. Andrew and I had a dinner engagement and when I went to put on the dress I planned to wear, I found a big tear under the arm. Krystal was always getting into my closet and taking my clothes without asking and that night, I exploded. Vivian’d been difficult all day and I simply couldn't take anymore. I went in Krystal's room with the dress under my arm and started screaming at her. She just sat there on the bed and smirked."
Stella hesitated, obviously embarrassed at her own confession and Kelly patted her shoulder. "Go ahead," he said. "I'm not making judgments."
"I don't know what got into me but something seemed to snap and I lost control. I dropped the dress and leapt onto the bed and the next thing I knew we were pulling hair and screaming."
Without thinking, Kelly chuckled and Stella flashed him an angry glare.
"Sorry!"
"I suppose it does sound funny but believe me, at the time it wasn't. Krystal's younger and stronger than I am and within a few minutes she had me flat on my back with her legs straddling my chest and her hands wrapped around my throat. It was like she'd gone insane. She kept squeezing as hard as she could and just before I blacked out, she put her face right down next to mine and said 'Now you can go be with your precious Mitzi.'"
"You must've been terrified."
"I was too busy trying to breathe to realize how scared I was. I found out later the only reason she didn't finish me off was because Andrew heard all the commotion and came into the bedroom and stopped her."
"Wasn't that enough to convince Andrew she had a problem?"
"Of course not. Krystal showed him the dress I'd dropped on the floor and told him I'd attacked her for wearing my dress. I ended up getting a lecture about controlling my temper. There wasn't any point in arguing about it. What could I prove and what would it accomplish anyhow? I knew for sure after that episode that there was something seriously wrong with Krystal."
"You poor kid," Kelly said. "I could kick myself for not listening to you earlier but I was too caught up in my own fantasy. I'm not very proud of myself right now."
"You're not to blame. Krystal's very good at winning people over when she wants to, so how could you, a relative stranger, be expected to see her dark side. Andrew's the one who's blind. He's lived with Krystal for years and if he wasn't such a self-centered, pompous jerk, he'd have realized a long time ago she had some serious problems."
Suddenly, as if realizing what she was saying, Stella gasped. "I can't believe I said that. For all we know Andrew's life is in danger and here I am calling him a jerk. I'm scared, Kelly. Talking about Krystal’s made me remember what she's capable of. I think maybe we should call the police."
Kelly shook his head. "And tell them what? She has an alibi for the night of Anna's murder and even though I'm positive she somehow managed to trick Penny into lying for her, I don't have any proof."
"What about the letters you found in her toy box?"
"They won't mean a thing to the police. They might even suspect you put them there yourself."
Stella clutched his arm. "You don't believe that do you, Kelly?"
"No, I don't." He shook his head. "I've had time to realize how easily Krystal manipulated me into believing what she wanted me to believe. But knowing what she's done and convincing the police are two different things. Right now, what we need to do is find out what's really going on with Andrew."
"There it is," Stella said, pointing to a blue-and-white beach house perched on tall stilts at the edge of the water. The two-story building, with its peaked roof and wraparound balcony, resembled a modern schooner.
"Nice," Kelly said.
Stella nodded. "We don't use it much but I love it out here, especially late in the fall when the tourists are gone."
"There's a car parked around the far side. Can you tell if it's Andrew's?"
"I'm not sure. It looks like it but we need to get closer."
"Is that the Shelton place?" he pointed to a bungalow off to their right on the high side of the beach.
"Yes. That's the one. There's a driveway about a hundred yards ahead. It's not marked, so be ready to turn when I yell."
Kelly slowed the car and kept his eyes peeled for signs of a track.
"Stop, turn here!" Stella let out a yelp.
Kelly swerved to the right and eased the Jag onto a narrow ridge of hardened sand.
"Pull around to the far side. That way we'll be hidden from the beach house."
Kelly nodded, followed the track around the house and pulled up next to a small shed.
"I think the house is empty but I'll go knock just to be sure." Stella got out of the car and headed toward a set of wooden steps that led to the back door.
Kelly watched as she climbed the steps and rapped loudly on the door. She waited a few minutes, then took out her key, opened the door and called out. Satisfied, she waved her arm as a signal for Kelly to join her.
"Come through here." She motioned him through the small, narrow kitchen into a large wide-open room with a panoramic view of the beach.
"That's just what we need." Kelly nodded approval when Stella stopped in front of a la
rge telescope.
"We won't be able to see inside the bungalow because we keep the windows shuttered on this side but once I get into position, I'll be able to tell if that's Andrew's car," Stella said.
"Good! There doesn't seem to be any activity around there and only one car. Hopefully, that means Krystal hasn't arrived yet."
"It's Andrew's, all right," Stella said. "I really think, under the circumstances, it would be better if I went over there alone."
"I guess that's a good idea but I'm coming with you anyway. At least as far as the back door."
"Okay, he won't be watching the back anyhow if he's waiting for Krystal. I'll try to talk to him but don't expect too much. Even after I explain, he's not likely to believe me and he's going to be really mad."
"That's fine. At least he'll be warned. If nothing else, he'll probably tell Krystal. Knowing what we suspect might stop her from killing Andrew."
"Let's go then. If I put it off any longer, I'll get cold feet."
Chapter Twenty
"We'll go down the beach and come up behind the house. That's the best way to keep from being seen," Stella said.
Kelly followed her along the patio and off the back steps to a hard packed path that led from the bungalow down to the beach.
"At least it's deserted." They left the path and made their way toward the beach house.
"This is a fairly private area," Stella said. "During the summer season we get a few visitors but not many. Too far off the beaten path for most of the tourists."
"I don't see any sign of life."
"Which could mean Andrew's busy inside," Stella said. Kelly noted the edge to her voice.
"You want me to go inside and scout around?"
"No. I'll go. If he's in there with someone, I'll make enough noise to give him time to hide the bimbo and get decent."
Kelly reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "I'll be right outside the door. If you need me, just yell."
"I will. Don't worry." They reached a plain white door and Stella inserted her key in the lock, turned the knob and stepped inside.