Eviscerating the Snake - The Complete Trilogy

by Ashley Fontainne

  “Yes, I’m sorry. I’m just in a bit of shock.”

  Her voice took on a deeper, raspier tone as she said, “We are too. I’m kicking myself for not listening to my gut yesterday.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked her, my head spinning with too many scenarios.

  “I knew something was wrong when she called me yesterday and asked me about Diane Martin, but I was overwhelmed with too many items on my plate after our break-in early yesterday, and then this morning we found out that a former employee’s daughter was murdered outside of Chandler. God, poor Angie. She had finally stopped drinking and was working on getting her GED—oh, such a tragedy! She used to work for us in the summers answering the phones,” she said, her voice starting to crack under the tears that were stuck in her throat. “I’m sorry, Ms. Tanner, it’s just still so fresh on everyone’s mind here, so I just put my conversation with Ms. Lincoln on the back-burner. Well, that is, until this morning when Jeff called, and now you.”

  I sat up straighter, grabbed my pen, and furiously began scribbling down what she just said as I started spouting questions out. “You spoke with Gabby yesterday? What time? What exactly did she say?”

  “Well,” Heidi said, clearing her throat and trying to sound more professional, “she thanked me for getting her an appointment to see Rosemary at The Castle, which I didn’t do, as well as for sending Diane Martin to fetch her, and I was totally confused by that because I don’t have anyone working for me by that name. Then I heard another voice in the background say something, but I couldn’t make out what it was. I’m sure that it was a female voice, but then, the line went dead.”

  I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. Did this woman really think that whole conversation was normal? Why didn’t she tell the police, especially after Jeff called this morning, wondering where in the hell his fiancé was? I wanted to reach through the phone and slap her for being so damned ignorant and blasé about the entire incident, but then I scolded myself for thinking so harshly of her since she didn’t have the emotional investment in Gabby like I did; plus, someone she knew had suffered a terrible tragedy.

  “Ms. Thomas, this is very serious. I need for you to contact the police right now and tell them what you just told me. You said you had a break-in yesterday, correct?”

  “Yes,” was her reply, her voice taking on the tone of a scolded child.

  “Well, then you need to contact the officer in charge of the investigation because I have a feeling that your break in and Gabby’s disappearance are connected. Please, do it now!” I yelled, my own voice cracking a bit as it rose about an octave. I was shaking so badly that I could barely push the keypad on my phone to call Steve.

  His phone went straight to voicemail. Damn! I disconnected and tried the station.

  “Summerset P.D….Sandy.”

  Thank God, a familiar voice. “Sandy, this is Audra Tanner. I need to speak with Detective Ronson please. It’s quite important,” I said, hoping that my voice wasn’t betraying the fear that now fully engulfed me.

  Sandy initially treated me with an icy reception since she had such a monster crush on Steve, but somehow, the ice between us melted over the last few months and a truce was reached, which I was thankful for now because I didn’t need any attitude from her today.

  “Hey, Audra. Steve isn’t here, but I know where he is. Hang on while I patch you through. If I lose you, call me right back.”

  As I waited, the infernal melodic piano notes that bored into my brain made me want to scream, so I decided to use the time to finally check the weather in Summerset as I had planned to do earlier. But before I could click on the weather link, another link caught my attention:

  STORE ATTENDENT FOUND

  BLUDGEONED TO DEATH,

  POLICE BAFFLED FOR MOTIVE

  The body of 25 year old Angie Heatherton, an employee of the Last Stop Exxon on Highway 367, ten miles outside of Chandler, was found late last night by another employee during shift change. Police aren’t releasing much information at this time, but Cohemia County Sheriff’s spokesman, Michael Clements, stated that this appears to be a botched robbery attempt, although no items appeared to be missing, according to store owner Dan…”

  My blood ran cold as I stared at the screen, my thoughts literally frozen inside my mind. Not again—not another senseless murder. God, I couldn’t handle another, but some inborn instinct whispered silently in the frozen tundra of my brain that the death of this poor girl was connected to Gabby. How could it not be? A break in, some fake employee taking her to Chandler, the fact that she had yet to call or come back—it all added up to a conclusion that I just couldn’t bear to consider. I didn’t dare let the thoughts form in my head, yet I was helpless to stop.

  I could hear someone calling my name and the sound finally cracked through and reached me when I realized it was Steve.

  “Audra, Audra! Are you there?”

  I shook my head to rid myself of the residual icicles and said, “Steve, Gabby’s missing. I think someone kidnapped her.”

  I HUNG UP THE phone from my conversation with Deputy Clements and waited impatiently for him to email me the surveillance video from the gas station. Silently, I glanced up at the clock. It was only ten o’clock in the morning, yet it felt like it was much later. My eyes were gritty and sore from being opened entirely too long, and the shower I took earlier seemed like ages ago. I thought about snagging another cup of coffee, but I was jittery enough, and I needed to concentrate on the task at hand—finding Piper Rancliff.

  After releasing Olin’s neck from my hands…Oh, come on, Steve. Fenter made you let go!...I opted not to continue my interview with him since I came within inches of actually taking his life. I focused my attention on Nick, for he was about to explode from stress. Getting information from him in the parking lot was a rather simple task and one that he seemed almost relieved to release. Of course, after hearing what he had to say, I could definitely understand why.

  I grabbed my notepad and flipped it open, glancing at my horrendous scribble on the pages that no one else would ever be able to decipher should I ever lose the thing, and I began reading from the beginning, trying to fit all of these convoluted scraps of information together to form a cohesive flow, but my God, could this situation be any more fucked up?

  Piper, once married to Nick, had an affair with Olin at work, divorced Nick because of said affair, went insane and attempted suicide after Olin rejected her, spent years at an asylum, and now her ex-husband was representing the ex-lover that jilted her—one that she had visited twice in jail. Oh yeah…and it was under an assumed name. I felt like I just walked onto the set of a daytime soap opera and needed cue cards just to keep up. All of that information was extremely weird and twisted, yet didn’t explain so many things.

  Nick appeared at my office door looking dejected and slightly nauseous. As Olin’s lawyer, I was still shocked that he not only cracked the bastard’s nose but also at his insistence on coming back to the station to talk. He cleared his throat as he eased down into the chair in front of me, his eyes refusing to hold steady on any object for more than a few seconds, and he said, “Off the record, right?”

  “Of course.”

  He took a deep, shaky breath and began to talk, his gaze finally steady as he stared at his hands in his lap, his head hung low as he spoke.

  “I loved her, but not like I should have or what she deserved. We met straight out of college at Winscott, and I was attracted to her smile and her quirkiness, which was a strange sensation for me since I had never before been attracted to a female. But, as a gay man struggling to hide my true self from the world, I used her to hide behind, hoping that she would never find out about my preferences. But she did, and even though it was unbelievably difficult on her, she stayed. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Piper isn’t a saint or anything. She had terms that I needed to abide by to keep the charade up that we were a happily married couple, which pretty much consisted of her doing whatever she please
d and me remaining silent.

  “I knew within the first year or so of our marriage that she was in love with Ralph Winscott, which deeply saddened me. Poor Piper…she gravitated toward men that would never truly be able to bestow true love upon her. She didn’t know it then, and I doubt she knows it now, but Ralph was a closet gay. I found that out while working there as an intern, but I never had the heart to tell her. Who was I to take away her fantasies?” he said, finally bringing his eyes up to meet mine.

  “He was the polar opposite of what I was: gruff, short, cocky, loud and abrasive, and for some reason, she was mad about him. She would meticulously plan our entire year around her audit schedule, making sure that she went to every location he did and would pout for days if someone else got chosen to go rather than her.

  “I think she looked at him like some sort of father figure, you know, since she grew up as an orphan, bouncing from one foster home to another.” He paused, and I noticed that a few tears were floating in his eyes but had yet to spill out. “Her mother’s death always haunted her, and she suffered from terrible nightmares about her for years. Her name was Bridgette Summers.”

  I nodded while I continued to scribble notes, understanding now his immediate reaction to the jail log.

  “Ralph gave off the essence that he was stable…knew what he wanted, and although wild at times with others, she mistakenly took his lack of succumbing to her advances as some sort of morality inspired strength, which made her crave him all the more.

  “After she caught me with my assistant and things literally were in the open, things were tough for about a year after that, but then, we sort of worked out a sick compromise and lived together more as friends, eventually getting to the point that we could talk about things. She thought she was confiding in me by admitting her love for Ralph to me one night, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that not only did I already know that, pretty much everyone else that knew her did as well. I mean, she was so obvious!”

  God, could things get any weirder? I thought to myself as I continued to write.

  “When she failed to make equity partner the third time she was up for it, she was devastated, and even though our relationship probably seems quite odd to you, I still loved her and felt like her big brother…like it was my job to keep her from harm…so I decided to intervene. I scheduled a lunch date with Ralph and, after a few drinks, took him back to a hotel and videotaped our tryst.”

  I shouldn’t have asked, I thought as my hand briefly paused, not sure I wanted to write down what I knew was coming next.

  “A few days later, I contacted Ralph and told him that if Piper didn’t make equity partner, I would make sure our tape became public. Of course, he freaked, and sure enough, Piper was promoted. A week later, I attended the end of tax season party at a strip club that Ralph threw, you know, to celebrate his hetero lifestyle, and gave him the tape back. Unfortunately, Olin found out about the tape. We just didn’t know it at the time.”

  Things were clicking now.

  “To this day, I am still not really sure how he found out or how he accomplished the feat of getting a copy, but he did. The day before Ralph killed himself, all of the partners at Winscott received a mysterious package—a courtesy copy provided to me too—that contained a copy of the tape. Ralph flipped his lid, as you can imagine. He called and accused me of doing it…for not holding my end of the bargain up. He was absolutely beside himself, rambling incoherently about his life being ruined and vowing to kill me. I tried to calm him down…explain that I had nothing to do with it. I was in just as much shock as he was. I never intended to make that tape public. I just used it as leverage,” he said, the tears finally spilling out of his guilt-ridden eyes and sliding down his cheeks. He looked me straight in the eyes, his beseeching mine to believe him as he said, “But I swear, Detective, I didn’t send those tapes.”

  I believed him.

  “Less than twenty-four hours later, he killed himself. Or, at least, that’s what everyone believed, myself included, until I received the jailhouse phone call from Olin, requesting me as his counsel.”

  He paused again, his body lightly shaking, his face as pale as a ghost. I remained quiet, waiting for him to continue. “He told me I had to, or he would make sure that the extra copies of the tape would be released to the media and that he would testify that he saw me go into Ralph’s office that night and fake his suicide.” Openly sobbing now, he clasped his hands around his head and muttered, “I knew then that Ralph’s death wasn’t a suicide at all, and that I was trapped—the blackmailer was being blackmailed. Fucking ironic, isn’t it?”

  I could count on one hand the times in my forty-four years have I been stunned into silence, but this one surged to the top spot, surpassing all others with ease. I stared at Nick with a mixture heavy in disgust and light in sympathy as I let his words sink in, mulling over each bit of unbelievable information. God, Audra wasn’t kidding when she referred to Winscott as a pit full of vipers.

  And she was right smack dab in the middle of the pit.

  “At what point did Olin and Piper hook up?” I asked, prodding Nick to finish the story.

  “Piper went into a deep depression after Ralph’s death. It took years for her to come to terms with it because she never knew about the tape. She thought he killed himself over her, you know, the whole Romeo & Juliet type saga of unrequited love. It sort of became an inside joke at Winscott with all the other partners. I can only assume no one ever let on about the tape to her because she was so unstable at that point; I don’t know, maybe they feared telling her the truth would break her, and she would taint the founder of the firm’s image even more. That’s what I always assumed since every single one of those bastards only care about money,” he said, anger beginning to take control over his emotions, drying his tears and replacing them with vibrant anger.

  “About seven years ago, Piper followed her same pathetic pattern and fell for a man that would do nothing but bring her harm—Olin. Oh, and that greedy bastard played right along, knowing damn well she had fallen in love with him. He didn’t care. He just used her as an extra vote to take over Winscott and oust Eric. And it worked. She cast the deciding vote. That’s when she came to me and said she wanted a divorce to be with him. I will never forget the look on her face when she told me. I didn’t even recognize the woman behind those eyes. That’s when I realized she was slipping deep into insanity. I felt partially guilty for that trip since I started the entire ball rolling with the tape, so I let her go. But then Olin’s true colors emerged, and when she realized she had been duped and that he didn’t really love her, something inside her snapped, and that’s when she tried to kill herself. That bastard drove her to insanity’s edge, kicked her over, and then laughed when she hit the bottom!” Nick seethed, his anger fully engulfed now. Unable to remain seated any longer, he stood up and began pacing in front of me, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

  “Somehow he’s still slithering around inside her poor, fragile brain, controlling her like some twisted puppeteer. I can’t believe—no, I won’t believe—that she could be responsible for hurting anyone like you seem to think she has. The only person she ever hurt was herself. But,” he continued, his face glistening with sweat and so red, he looked like at any moment he was going to have a stroke, “if she is somehow tied to Robert’s death, then it’s only because he’s controlling her.”

  I took a heavy breath to control my own raging emotions, for I was being bombarded with all sorts of thoughts now after hearing this incredibly sordid story. The two strongest were an unbelievably intense hatred toward the monster that sat in the Yarkema County Jail’s infirmary, and the other, sheer panic for Audra’s safety.

  “Nick, sit down. You need to clear your head and think. We need to find her, and I mean right now. I need every bit of information on her you have…addresses, phone numbers, make and model of her car…” I said, and he nodded in agreement as I shoved a piece of paper in his direct
ion, pointing at him to get started.

  As he wrote down the answers to all my questions, a heavy knot of dread had formed in my gut, and a cloud of worry slowly swirled around my head, making me feel slightly dizzy. The enormity of the depths of Piper’s insanity pounded through my mind.

  OH MY GOD, WOULD the rental car ever get here? It was 3:30 already, and I was starting to panic since I had to meet Mrs. Lancaster and Nicole in two and a half hours. I was sure that I had made a lifelong enemy after my last conversation with the harried representative who assured me that my rental would be arriving any moment. That last call was twenty minutes ago and still, no vehicle.

  Tired of pacing in front of the window waiting for the car, I decided to recheck all my packed bags for the trip to Summerset tonight since I had nothing else with which to occupy my time. After my conversation with Steve a few hours ago, I was a jumble of nerves and eager to get out of this stuffy house. When he told me he wanted to send an armed officer down to retrieve me and bring me to Summerset, I told him he was overreacting and that I would be fine on my own, and I promised to text him every hour until I left. I did my damnedest to placate his fears by reminding him that I was surrounded by a security gate that no one knew my pass code to (not even him!), and I wasn’t going alone to my meeting tonight. I could hear the stress seep through his voice, and I knew he was genuinely concerned about my safety, but I wasn’t.

  I was concerned about Gabby’s.

  Steve promised me after our conversation that he would make the appropriate phone calls to get her disappearance listed as a kidnapping rather than just some routine missing person, and sure enough, less than ten minutes ago, there was a breaking news alert by none other than Jan Patakee. For the first time in years, I was actually glad to see a news report tied to Winscott since I was going bat-shit crazy with worry. If something happened to her because of me…