“No, Garth...I love you more...”
Wainwright bent to kiss away the frown that appeared on the forehead of his one true love. He kissed more tears away, then kissed her lips and held her to him as tightly as he could. As he raised his head from Lacey’s, peace and contentment replaced her anguish...and then her heart no longer beat against his palm.
IT WAS A VERY LONG few minutes before Greg reentered the room. Two EMTs and a SWAT officer followed. Greg briefly paused at the door then walked passed the inconsolable Wainwright. He was holding the woman he loved tightly to his chest and silently crying, his rising and falling shoulders signaling his grief.
The EMT approached. “Sir, please. Let us take care of her.”
In reverent and slow movements, the SWAT officer followed behind the EMT and picked up a handgun from the floor near Lacey’s hand.
One EMT attendant gently took Lacey’s body from Wainwright’s arms, while the other moved Wainwright aside.
Wainwright saw that they carefully and respectfully attended Lacey. He didn’t hear the EMT’s comment to his companion: “Look, Larry. She’s smiling.”
The paramedics placed Lacey’s body on a gurney and covered her with a sheet. They left the room and a sobbing, brokenhearted man, sitting on the floor, leaning against the desk where he had found Lacey.
The SWAT office handed the gun, now in an evidence bag, to Greg. “Sir, you’ll want this. It was near the deceased’s right hand.”
“Thank you, Deputy.” Greg placed the bag in his pocket.
He wanted to give his friend the space he obviously needed right then. He saw the shattered, ruined French doors busted open. The iron railing was dangling, ripped from the side of the building. Stepping out onto the small balcony, he discovered the answer to the last remaining question below.
Impaled on the tall iron spikes of the pool enclosure was Marcos Murtagh. He had fallen—or been pushed—from a height of approximately fifteen feet. The man’s substantial weight had caused the spikes to fully penetrate his midsection. Five sharp spikes speared his stomach, tenting the white silk robe. At the back of his head, an open gunshot wound fed the pool of blood that collected on the pool deck. Murtagh’s attack dogs, predisposed to raw meat, were enthusiastic about what had suddenly been offered.
Wainwright came from behind and joined his friend on the balcony.
“Are you okay?” Greg asked.
Wainwright wiped a hand across his eyes. “I don’t have the slightest idea if I’ll ever be okay again. All I know is I’ve got to get out of this place. Can you get me cleared with the sheriff’s deputies?”
The SWAT deputy, standing nearby, said, “You’ve been cleared to leave, sir, but we’ll have plenty of questions for you later.
EPILOGUE
WHEN WAINWRIGHT HAD FIRST woken in the hospital this past April, he couldn’t remember anything. Then there were weeks of disjointed past-present memories, sending him into a fog. As additional parts of pasts resurfaced, his mind played tug-of-war with the emotions of those recollections. Windows opened on who he had been, who he was, and who he might be tomorrow.
The fog of the unknown he had struggled with for so long had lifted from him as he held Lacey for the last time; all conflicts had been resolved. What he knew now came from a place deep in his heart. Love is short, he thought, but forgetting is so long.
Wainwright hardly noticed that several coroner’s hearses had replaced the ambulances and SWAT van in the motor court. The good and the evil will take their last ride together.
He had no destination in mind or any way of getting there, since he’d lost the keys to Wilson’s ride. So he just walked. One foot in front of the other, down the drive and out Kings Road to Sunset Boulevard.
Dawn’s light shone pink in the clouds over downtown Los Angeles. Few cars traveled on Sunset at this hour. Wainwright kept walking west, alone, emotionally hollowed by the loss of Lacey. He just had to keep walking.
He became aware of a big black Bentley convertible pacing him from the right-hand lane. Apparently it had been there for some time. He turned to find Ariel Amiti at the wheel. Wainwright and the convertible stopped at the same time.
“Get in.”
As if on autopilot, Wainwright complied. They drove in silence. The rising sun cast a shadow in front of the Bentley, leading it west toward the Beverly Hills Hotel. Amiti drove up the winding drive to its porte cochere.
“What are we doing here?” Wainwright asked.
“Pretty much anything you want.”
Wainwright shrugged. “I don’t want anything.”
“Yes, you do, but that you cannot have, my friend. This morning, we both lost something precious. BJ is gone. I know it’s not the same as Lacey, but she just left me, walked away. She’s gone.”
With more emotion than he felt, Wainwright said, “I’m sorry.”
“When Murtagh’s mansion started filling up with gendarmes, I thought it prudent to be absent. I came back to the bungalow and found her note.” He shook his head. “You know how that feels.”
“What will you do?”
“Nothing. She left for her own reasons, whatever those may be. I’ll move on, as will you. I’ve neglected my business and need to attend to that. And you have a manuscript to finish.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve got an idea for a really great ending.”
“I’m pretty sure BJ’s with Sean Quinn,” Amiti continued. “I don’t think you met him, but he was one of Lacey’s clients. He concluded the sale of his company on Friday and now Quinn is also gone—I checked with his housekeeper. He’s five hundred million dollars richer than he was before Friday. BJ likes money. You know that. To her, money is the security she must have to support her need for love and affection.” He sighed. “I’m guessing all this, but I think I’m right.”
Amiti opened the driver’s-side door and walked to the passenger side. He dropped the car keys in Wainwright’s palm. “Keep the Bentley. My client gave it to me, sort of a bonus, but I have no need of it. You are presently without a vehicle. It is fitting, no?’
Ariel Amiti, the Assassin, disappeared into the Pink Palace, ending a phase of Wainwright’s life he would never forget. He hoped, however, he would only remember the good parts.
[]
LIST OF CHARACTERS
(in alphabetical order)
Angel Beltran, RN
OPERATING ROOM CREW chief
Ariel Amiti
THE ASSASSIN
Armando Vasquez
ONE OF THE VASQUEZ cousins & power plant employee
Auntie Emma Shirey
WAINWRIGHT’S MOTHER’S younger sister. Wealthy widow in Montecito
Barbara Joyce Dreaver – BJ
DATED WAINWRIGHTS, broke Amiti out jail
Beatrice Eugena Bailey
A BJ ALIAS, NAME ON US Passport Don Fuentes provide
Bobby Wainwright
WAINWRIGHTS YOUNGER brother. Owner of Wainwright Erectors
Carlos
CREW MEMBER ON MURTAGH’S yacht. Delivers Lacey’s meals
Carson Starr, Esq.
MANAGING PARTNER OF JLS, an international law firm
Chief Thomas Flannery
CHIEF OF BOSTON POLICE Department
Clint Robinson-
DEPUTY OF LA COUNT Sheriff’s Department. 1st Responder
Collette Haggerty
PEARL HAGGERTY’S OLDER brother’s youngest daughter & care giver
Danny-
DISABLED OPERATOR OF newsstand Kiosk in LA
David Ortega, EMT
BOBBY WAINWRIGHT CONSTRUCTION accident site 1st responder
Delilah
LACEY'S ALTER EGO/IMAGINARY pal and helper
Don Armando Juarez Fuentes
A RESIDENT OF MONTERREY Mexico. Former drug cartel leader
Dorothy-
STARR'S PARA-LEGAL & long time Admin Assist
Ernest Cruz
FORMER ASSOCIATE AT JLS, now lawyer to Murtagh mob
>
Fabio Murtagh
SON OF CRIME BOSS. Murdered while Pop’s in prison
Father Hohenems
IGNORED BY CHURCH ARCHBISHOP. Pastor of St. Leopold
Father O’Reilly
LONGTIME PASTOR FOR Beacon Hill residents
Gambol Schwartz-
AN ASSASSIN’S DISGUISE
Garth Wainwright
PROTAGONISTS OF WAINWRIGHT Mystery Series.
Greg Mulholland
ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT in Charge in FBI Sacramento office
Hector Vasquez
ONE OF THE VASQUEZ cousins & Zodiac boat drivers
Marcos Murtagh
BOSS OF LARGEST CRIMINAL enterprise West of Mississippi river
Maria
MURTAGH'S MAID IN MONTERREY hacienda and ranch
Mark Fitzgerald, MD
ER DOCTOR AND ATTENDING physician at UCLA ICU
Mrs. Pearl Haggerty
TIMOTHY O’MANNELY’S long time housekeeper, Collette’s aunt.
Henry-
A TOP LIEUTENANT IN Murtagh mob & Collette’s latest crush
Jose Vasquez
RUDY’S BROTHER AND parasail rigger
Lacey Ann Kinkaid Wainwright
WAINWRIGHT’S WIFE, kidnap victim of criminal cartel
Louis
A THUG/ENFORCER IN Murtagh’s mob
Myrtle
LACEY'S PARA-LEGAL and Admin Assist
Nurse Crandall, RN
SUPERVISING NURSE ON Wainwright’s ward
Renato Wilson
BOSTON DA’S INVESTIGATOR, former BPD and Lacey searcher member
Rudy Vasquez
JOSE’S BROTHER AND Amiti’s radio operator, man Friday
Sal
WAITER @ POLO LOUNGE in Beverly Hills Hotel
Seaman Whitey-
CREW MEMBER ON MURTAGH’S yacht
Sean Quinn
BEVERLY HILLS INDUSTRIALIST, seller of company to Don Fuentes
Silvia
PARA-LEGAL AND ADMIN Assist to Zack Grandy Boston DA Office
Sister Beatrice
A BJ DISGUISE WHILE hiding in Salzburg, Austria
Stacy Simpson Mulholland
LACEY’S SOUTHIE PAL, law school roommate, wife to Greg Mulholland
Stanley Chambers
BOSTON PORTFOLIO MANAGER & friend to Lacey’s uncle
Tercero Aquino
FORMER CHAMPION RACE car driver and employee of Murtagh
Timothy O’Mannely
LACEY’S MOTHER'S OLDER brother & court appointed guardian
Tommy Shaw
WAINWRIGHT’S FORMER business partner and best friend
Trinity Stormm
DELILAH’S ESCORT SERVICE persona
Vincent-
PARISH HANDYMAN & AMITI disguise while hiding in Salzburg, Austria
Wolfgang Krantz-
FAMOUS SILENT SCREEN Director. Murtagh purchased his house
Zack Grandy, Esq.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY, Suffolk County, MA. Starr’s brother in law
[]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WALTER DANLEY IS THE AUTHOR of The Wainwright Mystery suspense thrillers series, a fast-paced, highly praised series to die for. He grew up on the beaches of Southern California were the after-school activities were surfing and boogie boards before running his paper route. His blue-collar upbringing is far from the emotionally compelling, high-flying characters he has developed for his novels.
Walter’s military service was as a Navy Hospital Corpsman, and later as a medic in the Fleet Marine Force. He said that a few of those stories have shown up in his novels and it’s a good bet that others will in later tales.
A former principal of a national real estate investment firm, he was blessed to have some really smart partners that made the company very successful. When the company was sold, it was one of the largest firms of its kind in the country.
There are five Danley’s that call him pop, and a whole bunch of short people that thinks he’s just Gramps. Danley lives in the heart of the Texas Hill Country where he reads and writes every day as he studies to improve his craft. Critics say if you like mystery and suspense with exhilarating thrills, blind curve plot twists, and page-turning action, you’ll love novels by Walter Danley.
Stop by his website and say hello sometime. http://www.walterdanley.com
[]
A PERSONAL NOTE
INSIDE MOVES IS THE second book in the Wainwright Mystery series. While it isn’t necessary to read The Tipping Point first to enjoy Inside Moves, those that do will have more details with which to enjoy the second volume. Book 1 is available at all fine book sellers and at the authors website.
Writers spend hours concentrating on words, story arcs and character’s. In my case, it takes months of writing and rewriting the manuscript, compelling it into a draft that will get rewritten, again and again. It’s solitary work, being in your own head for hours at a time. I appreciate the emails and letters from readers. I am inspired to know my work is appreciated and is being enjoyed.
[]
[]
[]
Inside Moves Page 26