Masques and Murder — Death at the Opera 2-Book Bundle

by Blechta, Rick

  No, the man felt quite safe. He could play with Marta as long as he desired and they could do nothing to stop him. Everything was going exactly as planned, although he would rather have grabbed her just before the premiere of the opera. That would have indeed been sweet.

  Last night, though, had just been brilliant. In and out of that hotel room in less than three minutes, out of the building in less than seven. Hell! Just wait until they viewed the surveillance tapes. What had actually happened would drive them insane when they found out.

  There were only two flies in the ointment. That Czech vocal coach was too smart for her own good and sooner or later she might put two and two together. The blond detective might be a threat too.

  The man would have to keep a close eye on them and move fast if their actions warranted it.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I spent a long time, eyes squeezed closed to keep reality away, certain I would go insane if I opened them. Where had he taken me? My worst fear was that I’d been buried alive, that I would be left alone until I died of thirst or starvation. How much time did I have? How do you keep track of time when you can’t see, hear, or even smell anything? My entire existence consisted of a metal cot and the chain binding me to the floor of my prison.

  Eventually I dozed off, because the next thing I was aware of was being jolted awake. Had someone or something made a sound? I blinked a few times, making sure my eyes were actually open.

  I listened but detected nothing. Perhaps I’d moved in my sleep and the chain had clanked.

  Needing to pee, I got off the bed and again searched to the limit of the chain around my ankle without discovering anything that would help me. Then I had a brainstorm and looked underneath the bed. I found something that felt like one of those enamel chamber pots I’d had at my old log home near Ottawa. It was no big deal to squat and shoot since I’d done that many times before when I was too cold or too lazy to descend two floors to the basement where my parents had added a bathroom shortly after buying the place.

  Sitting again on the bed, I took stock of things. I’d gone to bed naked, and I was here naked. Since this bastard had already seen me in that state many times through his frigging cameras, it really didn’t matter. It would certainly be part of his agenda to humiliate me, and I was damned if I would make that easy for him.

  I was also absolutely starving. That probably would have concerned me more, but after finding the chamber pot, I got the feeling he hadn’t locked me in here to let me starve to death. Also, if I knew this creep, he’d want to come in with his smug voice and lord it over me.

  I thought of poor Tony. He must be going out of his mind with worry. Of course he would blame himself for not being there when I needed him, but I looked on that as a good thing. He was still alive and would move heaven and earth to find me. And he would find me.

  I lay back down, put my hands behind my head, and thought about my part in the new opera, going over everything I remembered (quite a lot, actually) in an attempt to fill the empty hours that stretched ahead as I waited to be rescued.

  Eventually, that got boring so I vocalized a bit — good for my voice and it just might attract attention if the room wasn’t completely soundproof. It also could bring my captor running, which might not be a good thing.

  My voice felt really good and it was a shame to waste it on emptiness, but singing made me feel I really did still exist, regardless of my isolation. They were probably rehearsing the opera right now, with my understudy thinking she could actually be getting her big break. I idly wondered whether she had something to do with this. The opera world could be pretty cutthroat. But I wasn’t really serious. Best to keep my dauber up any way I could.

  Then I did hear a sound. I was sure of it. Straining my ears, I counted out twenty-two seconds before I definitely heard the unmistakable sound of bolts being moved. It came from the blackness directly in front of the bed.

  A moment later the light of a thousand suns assaulted my eyes. I gasped and covered them with my hands. A door opened — and he came into the room.

  This time my enemy used his regular voice. “You’re awake.”

  It sounded jovial and friendly, as if I was his guest for the weekend.

  “Turn off those damned lights! They’re killing my eyes.”

  He chuckled. “In a feisty mood, are we? That’s not the wisest course to take with me.”

  “Turn off your bloody lights!”

  “No.”

  His voice suddenly went calm and dead sounding — and it scared the crap out of me.

  Change of tack. “Why are you doing this to me?” I asked, with a hint of a whine.

  Friendly voice again. “Well, now that is a complicated question, one that deserves an answer. But not just now. You must be hungry.”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Okay Miss High-and-Mighty Opera Singer, what you have to learn is that when I ask a question, I expect an immediate answer.”

  Like the flick of a light switch, his mood had changed again. If Lili were here, she’d have had a field day analyzing what was going on. To me, it felt as if I was standing on shifting sand. This guy seemed majorly unstable. It would probably be best for my wellbeing to not antagonize him in any way.

  “Well?” he asked.

  My inner thoughts had distracted me to the point I’d forgotten his question. “Well what?”

  “Are you hungry?” he thundered. “Good God, Marta. Focus!”

  I bit back a tart reply, simply saying, “Yes, I am hungry.”

  “That’s better.”

  “May I have something to wear?”

  “No.”

  “Please? Just a blanket. I’m cold.”

  “Really? The temperature in this room is eighty-five degrees, just the way you say you like it.”

  A memory of the previous summer floated back. The AC in our building was out for a few days and Toronto was under a heat advisory. Tony was feeling the effects and I told him eighty-five degrees was just fine with me. I prefer it hot. Of course this bastard would have heard it, considering the way he’d had our condo wired for sound. I also remembered Tony and I had just finished making love and were covered in sweat.

  I felt ill.

  “Bastard,” I mumbled under my breath.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing….”

  “What did you say, Marta? Tell me!”

  I didn’t see any reason to lie, and this wasn’t the first time a short fuse and a big mouth had got me in trouble. “I called you a bastard.”

  “And you’re going to go hungry for that. Marta, you will learn or you are going to die.”

  With that he walked to the door and slammed it behind him. I could hear bolts being moved again. Then the lights mercifully went out.

  I said a few more unladylike things, not caring that he probably had the room bugged.

  The past few minutes had been completely surreal. I’d just had my second conversation with someone I’d still never seen. This time he’d forced me to keep my arm over my eyes since his lights had seemed to be about sixty gazillion watts, all of them focused on the cot. After having spent hours in utter darkness, there was no way I could have seen a thing. Standing outside the ring of lights, he’d been as good as invisible.

  Think, Marta, I told myself. There are things to be learned here. What are they?

  Well, considering the first time we’d been face-to-face in that Venetian alley he’d whispered, it seemed obvious he’d been afraid I’d recognize his voice. Was that a reasonable assumption? And if it was, did it mean now that he didn’t care any longer? Maybe he’d just been playing with my head. What did that say about my chances of getting out of this? He had used those lights so I couldn’t see him — or had that just been part of his control thing?

  I sighed. How I wished I had the knowledge Lili did. Maybe it would be best for my survival to appear like a whipped dog. Still, he was smart enough to probably realize what I was doing if I pl
ayed him that way.

  I certainly needed to play my cards smarter, because having talked about food so much, now I was really hungry. Thirsty, too. Maybe there was water under the bed.

  So I got up, crawled all around the bed, feeling with my hand. By one of the legs I found a roll of toilet paper. No water. Great.

  The only thing I could do now was wait for him to come back. Next time I’d do whatever I needed to get food and water. I squeezed my eyes shut. No. I couldn’t do that, not for anything.

  I’d starve to death first.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Shannon looked at each of the people sitting in Lili’s living room, sizing up their chances of doing any good for Marta.

  The diminutive vocal coach was a formidable woman, no doubt. Tony was still beside himself with worry and that didn’t bode well. Anyone helping needed to have a cool head under fire, and her gut told her she couldn’t rely on him. He had every reason to be in the state he currently was, though, and she had to cut him some slack.

  Where the hell was Dan? He should have gotten here by now.

  Even though she hadn’t known Dan Hudson for long enough to be sure of him, he’d come highly recommended and had proven reliable so far. The real issue was that he seemed to be taking the situation far too personally. In her experience, things could get ugly in a big hurry when that happened.

  If it was simply a matter of wounded pride, she could hopefully get him past that. But if it was more, what then? Marta and he seemed to have become pretty chummy while in Italy. Had something transpired between them? That would definitely not be good and she’d have to move Dan out. Things were enough of a mess without something like that.

  The doorbell rang. Hopefully it was Dan.

  Lili got slowly up and limped out of the room, the cast on her leg giving her gait a rolling quality.

  Dan came in lugging his two large flight cases of equipment.

  “What’s with those?”

  “Could you help me with something outside?” Dan said by way of answer. Once out on the sidewalk, he told her, “We’ve been played again by this asshole.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just came from your office. He had the phone bugged and a live mic right behind your desk.”

  Shannon felt almost nauseous she was so angry. “Anything else?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s why I brought my equipment. We need to check Lili’s house. We should probably check your house, your car, Tony’s car, any place this bastard might use to get information. Then we have to make certain everything stays clean.” Dan pounded his hand on the roof of his car. “Damn it! This guy is like some freaking ghost. I am so pissed right now, I can’t stand it.”

  Shannon sighed. “That makes two of us. Okay. We’ll get this done tonight, but we should leave one ‘channel’ open. Make him think we’ve missed something. We might find it useful to feed him a bit of misinformation somewhere down the line.”

  Dan nodded. “Good idea.”

  “Dan …”

  He turned to her. “What?”

  “I need to know. Did anything happen between you and Marta while you were in Italy?”

  “No. Of course not. Why are you asking?”

  “Just a gut feeling, a vibe you two were giving off before she was taken.”

  “Well, there was something….”

  “What?”

  “That night in Venice when we were attacked, Marta had enjoyed too much bubbly, so I took her arm to make sure she didn’t stumble or fall while we were walking. It wasn’t anything much, really, just my arm in hers, walking a bit close together. A little later, she did stumble and I had to grab her other arm to keep her from going down. We wound up face to face. She was completely embarrassed. I told her to forget about it and laughed it off. Thinking about it now, though, a person watching might have thought there was, well, something going on between us.”

  “And was there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Was there any attraction for you?”

  “She’s a lovely lady. I like her a lot, but relax, I can separate work from pleasure. Besides, she’s not really my type — too high strung.”

  Shannon moved right into Dan’s line of vision. “I need to know I can count on you.”

  “To the bitter end.”

  “And you swear you’re telling me the truth.”

  His gaze was steady right back into her eyes. “Absolutely.”

  “I had to ask.”

  “Understood. Now, let’s get to work.”

  From his command post, the man watched as one by one, his observation stations winked out over the course of the evening. Shit! It was probably that damned spook the O’Brien woman had hired. Time to turn up the heat, let them know he was not to be trifled with.

  When he checked a few hours later, there was a big smile on his face. They hadn’t thought of all the places to look for bugs. He still had an opportunity to find out what they were up to. O’Brien liked talking to her boyfriend about her cases — and he might get the added pleasure of watching them make love again. She was quite the athletic minx.

  He loved technology.

  Tony and Lili decided to go out to dinner at a nearby restaurant while the two experts went over her house. Both were uneasy about the implications of what Dan had discovered and Tony was beginning to understand the pressure Marta had been under, knowing as he did now that every move they made could well be observed by unfriendly eyes.

  “I need to ask you a question, Lili,” he said after their order had been taken, “and I need an absolutely honest answer.”

  “And from me you will get that.” She reached across the table and put her hand over his. “I also know what you are asking. Yes, I believe that Marta is in a very bad situation, but I also think she is still alive. This man has no reason to kill her. It is about having power over her. But you also need to know that he may feel the urge to do something to her. I know that is hard to think about, but you have to be prepared for it.”

  “I know. I’ve thought about nothing else today. God! I feel so helpless.”

  “We all do, Tony dear, and that is also part of his game. We have to be strong for Marta and we cannot rest in our quest to find her.”

  “The police called me just before I arrived at your house. They didn’t verbalize it, but I don’t think they’re having much luck. Apparently, too, the Roman police are not coming up with anything.”

  “If you want my opinion, I believe it will be up to us to find her.”

  Tony nodded. “Me, too.”

  “That is where we must put our energy.”

  “Well, let’s start right now.”

  Lili smiled across the table. “My sentiments exactly!”

  Before they began speaking, both looked around the tiny restaurant. It was Lili’s favourite, but their adversary seemed so resourceful, they couldn’t be sure he hadn’t followed them.

  “How many people do you recognize here?” Tony asked.

  “Except for that couple in the corner, everyone I have seen before. Luckily, this is a slow evening, or we could not be sure.”

  Tony rubbed his hands together. “Okay, then to work.”

  After having found several bugs at Lili’s, as well as the two Dan had previously located in the office, two more and a camera were uncovered in Michael’s place. There had even been one in Shannon’s car. She had to admit, their adversary was very good, very resourceful, as well as wealthy. The gadgets being used didn’t come cheap. After checking in with Dobbin, she learned that Marta and Tony’s hotel suite had also been bugged.

  “He obviously was nearby and knew Marta had minimal protection,” he’d confirmed. “The kidnapper knows what he’s doing.”

  Michael naturally put his foot down when Shannon suggested they keep the audio and video bugs in his living room active, but with the way the similar setup in his bedroom had been hidden, she felt it would be convincing they might have missed
it. She had her fingers crossed that would be the case. Their string of failures was getting embarrassing. Eventually, she convinced him.

  Shortly past eleven, Tony called, insisting on meeting with Shannon and Dan.

  “I wonder what those two cooked up at dinner?” she asked Dan as he packed his flight cases.

  “Lili said they were going to brainstorm, whatever that means.”

  “We could certainly use a few good ideas right about now.”

  Shannon suggested her office since it was now clean of bugs. Hopefully, for once, they were ahead of the bad guy. Regardless, Dan insisted on doing yet another sweep of the inner and outer offices, just to be certain. High-tech surveillance cameras were due to be installed in the morning to make sure there were no more “accidents.”

  Lili and Tony arrived a few minutes later. They seemed to be almost giddy as Dan let them in.

  Shannon was seated behind her desk, looking over business-related emails. At least her computer’s firewall had stood up to their adversary’s assault.

  She swiveled her chair. “So what’s up?”

  “We have some very good ideas,” Lili said, taking the seat in front of the desk.

  Tony smiled for the first time all day. “I don’t know how the cops will feel about it, though.”

  Shannon frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “The list of suspects we came up with is made up entirely of high rollers, the kind of people I suspect cops don’t like to bother.”

  She leaned back in her chair. “Explain.”

  “I’ve sent you an email of our preliminary list. Have you read it?”

  “I will now.” Shannon turned to her computer, clicked a key or two, read for several seconds, then gave a low whistle. “Quite the list. Why are they on it?”

  “Because they all fit the physical profile of our adversary, are all connected to the opera community in some way, and all of them have plenty of money.”