Beauty to Die For

by Kim Alexis

  Crystal couldn’t even comprehend such a thing. Her eyes filled with tears in spite of herself. “When did this happen?”

  “The spring I was seventeen. Val was sixteen.”

  “Oh, Greg. I’m so sorry. Were you the ones who found her?”

  He nodded and looked away. “Val and I. The school bus had just dropped us off. After it drove away, we heard yelling.”

  “You can’t blame yourself, Greg. It’s not your fault you didn’t make it in time.”

  “Oh, we made it in time. Soon as we heard her, we came straight over to see what was wrong. Found her there on the ground.” Again, he shone the light on an empty spot of dust. Then he turned and tapped the butt of his flashlight against the broad stone surface of the boulder behind him. “See this rock? Once we figured out what was going on, we climbed up on top of it, Val and I. Sat there together and listened to her screams and watched her die.”

  “You . . . watched your mother die?”

  Greg looked at Crystal, his eyes empty and flat. “Yeah. We did.”

  She swallowed hard.

  “Then, once we were sure it was over, we called the police. Told them we found her that way. Told them she was already dead by the time we got home from school. Not one person ever questioned it.”

  JULIETTE AND DIDI LOOKED at each other, eyes wide. Though they hadn’t caught every word, they had been able to pick up the gist of the conversation taking place up above. Bottom line, by letting his mother die out here years ago, Greg had essentially killed her. Now he was unraveling—and he seemed intent on killing again. No doubt, the further he went from reality, the more danger all of them were in.

  They had to do something, before it was too late.

  Though Juliette’s head was spinning and her body ached, she had an idea she wanted to attempt. Greg had called this an Indian well, said that his mother had “managed to drag herself all the way back up to the top.” That meant this was probably a Cahuilla Indian well, and that somewhere inside would be crude steps, just as Juliette had read about the other day in a magazine.

  Looking to Didi, she put a finger to her lips and crept toward the side wall. Squinting in the darkness, she scanned the surface, searching. She moved counterclockwise around the pit until she came to a series of holes and staggered stones jutting out from the wall. Were these the steps?

  Her eyes traced a path diagonally upward. Had to be, though over the years the protrusions had worn down to mere nubs, many of the holes clogged with dirt and debris. She wasn’t sure she could make it out this way . . . but she had to try.

  Juliette returned to Didi’s side and whispered her intentions, explaining that she was going to climb up and go for help. Didi looked horrified at the thought, but she had to know it was their only option. Reluctantly she handed over the car keys, and the two women embraced. Juliette shoved those keys into her pocket and returned to the steps.

  She took a deep breath, ears still tuned to the conversation taking place between Greg and Crystal above, and found a foothold. Then, grasping the irregular ridge of stone with her hands, she lifted herself up.

  So far so good.

  Now if she could do that about twenty more times, she just might make it to the top.

  CRYSTAL STARED AT GREG, astonished. He watched his mother die.

  He let his mother die.

  She had never heard anything so horrifying, yet his voice remained matter-of-fact.

  “It was quite the story, those poor teens coming home and finding their mother dead like that. We were in all the papers. Afterwards we went to live with our dad. Up in Utah.”

  Crystal’s mind reeled. “I can’t imagine what an experience like that must have done to you. To you and your sister.”

  “Yeah, kind of messed us up for life, you might say. Then again, our mother had already messed us up pretty good before then.”

  Comprehension dawned. Of course. After all the abuse, all the craziness, all those years of being a madwoman’s victim, Greg and Val had finally fought back. They’d fought by clinging to each other and doing nothing as their mother died. Incredible!

  Sucking in a ragged breath, Crystal looked toward the rock and wondered if she could use it to escape. If he would loosen his grip just a little, she could break away and run around to the other side, putting the boulder between them. From there she could either dash back to the road or strike out across the property in the other direction and try to get to those flashing lights she’d seen earlier.

  Oh, who was she kidding? Greg was far stronger and bigger than she was. Probably faster, too. Her only hope was to talk her way out.

  She had to get him to listen to reason.

  “Greg, just because your mother hurt you and Val doesn’t mean you have to hurt anyone else.”

  He looked as if he hadn’t even heard her. “You know, I always feared my sister might kill again. I just didn’t know she’d end up killing herself.”

  Crystal swallowed hard. “I thought you said she was murdered.”

  His eyes narrowed into angry slits. “She was murdered. By all of them!”

  “All of them?”

  “Raven. Andre. Reggie. Xena. The counterfeiters. Ty.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  His grip on her wrist grew even tighter in his rage. “Raven, who complained about the treatment Val gave her. Andre, who didn’t take that complaint seriously enough. Reggie, who took it too seriously. Xena, who tried to pass all the blame onto Val rather than where it really belonged, on the counterfeit products she’d been given to use. The counterfeiters themselves, who don’t care who they hurt, or how. Ty, for putting the bad product into the treatment room in the first place. Again, Ty, for taking advantage of my sweet sister then breaking her heart. She lost her job, her reputation in the business, and the man she loved—a slimeball who never deserved her. She’s dead, thanks to all of them. They killed her, don’t you see that? I can’t bring her back, but at least I can even the score. I owe her that much.”

  JULIETTE PRAYED WITH EVERY agonizing step. She was making progress, but the higher she went, the scarier it got. What if she slipped and crashed back down to the hard stone floor? If she landed wrong, she could break her neck. She could die.

  Or what if Greg stopped his babbling and took some sort of action?

  What if she made it all the way to the top, only to be spotted and kicked back down? Or run into a rattlesnake, just like Greg’s mother?

  Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

  She swallowed hard, claiming that promise more than ever before as she kept going, step by slippery step. Her heart pounded, her legs trembled, her hands could barely hold, and yet she pressed onward. Finally, as she neared the top, she paused and listened, trying to gauge exactly where Greg and Crystal were standing. They had to be close, but from the way their voices carried, it sounded like they were on the far side of the boulder, off to the right. If that were true, then Juliette should be able to climb out without being seen and move to the left side of the boulder.

  The last few steps were the toughest. She was dripping with sweat now, her hands and knees slippery and slick. Her terror—at falling, at getting caught—was so real, tremors coursed through her body. But she had to keep going.

  It was time for the final push.

  As silently as possible Juliette summoned a burst of energy from deep inside and used her legs to thrust herself upward and out, onto the ground. Hands flailing, she scrambled for something to grasp but came up with only dust. Finally her fingers brushed something solid, and she caught hold. It felt like a rock—or at least one pointed end of a rock—jutting out from the earth. Gripping it with both hands, she used every ounce of strength to pull herself forward until her hips were over the edge and she was safely on the ground.

  She made it.

  Only then did she dare look around. Relief flooded her veins. Her calculations had been correct. Greg and Crystal were just out of sight, on the far side of the
boulder.

  Wasting no time, she peered over the edge of the pit and gave a thumbs-up, though it was too dark to know if Didi was looking or not. Then Juliette quietly stood, moved to the boulder, and pressed herself against it. Straining to listen, legs wobbling like Jell-O, she inched herself around until she felt like she was exactly opposite Greg and Crystal’s location.

  What now?

  If only she had a working phone!

  She would have to use the car to go get help instead. Of course, as soon as she unlocked the vehicle, Greg would hear and see what she was doing and probably come running. But if she moved fast, she should be able get away before he could stop her—unless he had a gun or something, in which case she’d just have to risk it.

  First, though, she had to get to the car, which meant making her way from the rock into the darkness, to put some distance between them. Refusing to think of snakes or holes or more booby-trapped wells, she took a deep breath and set off toward the road. When she finally reached the blacktop, she turned and began to run, despite the pain that jolted her with every step. When she saw the metallic glint of their car ahead, she sprinted the rest of the way then crouched behind the bumper and tried to calm her pounding heart. Knowing her next actions would alert Greg to her presence, she thought through each step she would take—unlock, jump in, lock, keys in ignition, start, go—until she felt ready. She was about to spring into action when she heard an odd noise nearby.

  Thunk.

  She twisted her head around, eyes wide, listening.

  Thunk. Thunk.

  Greg’s truck. The sound was coming from the back of Greg’s pickup truck, just a few feet away!

  Holding her breath, she rose to get a better look and realized that the bed was sealed over, capped with a solid-looking black cover.

  Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

  Someone—or something—was in there, trapped under the lid.

  Heart pounding, she crept to the back of the vehicle, pressed her ear to the hatch, and listened. More thunks, followed by shuffling noises.

  She didn’t know what to do. Her instinct was to open the tailgate and look inside—but what if it was something awful, like a wild animal? What if opening that door was like opening Pandora’s box?

  On the other hand, what if that was a person in there, one who was injured or running out of air, in desperate need of help?

  Thunk. Thunk.

  She had to do something. Leaning forward, she waited for a break in the thunking and then spoke into the narrow slit just above the latch, praying her voice wouldn’t carry all the way over to Greg. “Is someone in there?”

  The shuffling stopped, and then came an odd sound in reply—muffled but masculine, like a man with a gag in his mouth, trying to talk.

  Juliette gasped. Marcus?

  It didn’t necessarily sound like his voice, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

  Heart pounding, she gripped the latch of the tailgate and carefully lifted it upward to disengage it. With a soft, metallic thong, it popped free.

  She lowered the door then bent forward to peer inside the dark space. It was a person, a man, just as she’d thought. He was bound at the wrist and ankles, a blood-stained pillowcase over his head. With a gasp, she ripped that pillowcase off, and he twisted around to look at her, nostrils flaring as he sucked in great breaths of air, eyes filled with terror. It wasn’t Marcus after all.

  It was Ty Kirkland.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  CRYSTAL COULD HEAR THE desperation in her voice as she tried to reason with Greg. “It’s not too late, you know. Why don’t we go somewhere else and think this through? It can still be fixed.”

  Greg shook his head, features contorted. “No, it can’t. Things are already in motion. Raven’s dead. Reggie’s dead—or he will be soon. Ty comes next, then your friends.” He exhaled slowly. “At least I figured it all out. It’ll be Ty’s fault. Police will think he killed everyone else then ended things by killing himself.”

  Crystal began to tremble, great spasms of terror coursing through her body. “Why, Greg? Why are you doing this?”

  He shrugged. “Val had her Nietzsche quote, I have mine. ‘It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.’” He looked at Crystal, tilted his head. “Don’t you see? They have to pay, all of them. Ty most of all.”

  Crystal shook her head, her heart aching. How had she not seen this side of him before? How had she not known he was capable of this? “You don’t have it in you, Greg. I would’ve seen it if you did. I would’ve known.”

  He pursed his lips, clicked his tongue. “Poor Crystal. So naïve. So innocent. So sweet.”

  She closed her eyes, despising herself even more than she feared him. Not naïve or innocent. Blind was more like it. She had blinded herself to his true nature, just as she’d blinded herself to her mother’s mental instability for so many years.

  Greg touched a hand to Crystal’s cheek, making her flinch. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry about having to kill the others.”

  She opened her eyes. “The others?”

  “Marcus and Juliette and Didi. They never did anything to me—or to Val. But they’re too close to figuring out the truth, so they have to go. I’m just glad my plans were well underway before they came into the picture. The shed. The house. The well. Even with the additional three bodies, I had enough traps already set to handle it. I’ve had to do some quick thinking and a few alterations, of course, and Xena and Andre still have their turn coming later. But I feel confident it’ll all work out in the end.”

  Work out? He spoke as if he were talking about schedule changes or party plans—not murders!

  He continued, his voice growing soft. “It’s dominoes, you know? One by one, each person down the chain did something to lead to Valentine’s death. She may have tied the rope. But they were the ones who kicked away the stool. Every last one of them who brought her to that place in her mind. They stole her hope. Made her think life wasn’t worth living. They murdered her, as surely as if they’d pulled a trigger. That’s why they deserve to die.”

  WITH TREMBLING HANDS, JULIETTE put a finger to her lips in warning. Then she reached out and tore away the wide strip of duct tape that covered Ty’s mouth.

  “What happened?” she whispered. “Did Greg do this to you?”

  “Yeah, I was—”

  “Shhh! Not so loud! Greg is still close.”

  “Sorry.” He lowered his voice and asked her to untie him.

  She shook her head. “Nothing doing. Just tell me what’s going on. Where is Marcus? Is he okay?”

  He sighed. “No idea. He was supposed to come meet me at Laskey Park. I was out there waiting for him when somebody knocked me out. I’m not sure how long I was unconscious, but when I came to, Greg Overstreet had tied up my hands and was working on my feet.”

  She took note of the matted, bloody clump of hair on the side of his head. “Did Marcus show up? Did Greg do something to him too?”

  “Not that I saw. I think we got out of there before Marcus ever came. Greg was moving pretty fast.”

  Juliette sucked in a ragged breath, praying Marcus was okay, fearing he couldn’t be—otherwise, how could Greg have ended up with his cell phone?

  “Anyway, once my feet were tied, he taped over my mouth, put the pillowcase on my head, and crammed me in the back of this truck. That’s all I know.”

  Juliette studied the man in front of her. He’d broken into her hotel room earlier. Admitted to killing Raven in the note he left behind. If that’s the kind of person he was, could he be believed now? Her eyes narrowed. “You’re bigger than Greg is. You’re telling me you couldn’t get away from him, even with your hands tied?”

  “Oh, I got in one good kick. But then he pulled out a handgun, and that was that.”

  She gasped. “Greg is armed?”

  “Yeah, a large caliber S and W. Between that and the wild look in his eyes, I decided to cooper
ate.”

  Juliette swallowed hard. “So then what happened?”

  Ty shrugged. “Not much. Once he stashed me in here, he took off and drove for a while. I figured we were heading out into the desert where he could shoot me and dump my body. Instead, he just parked and got out and then nothing. I’ve been trying to get loose ever since.”

  Juliette’s mind raced. Maybe Ty was telling the truth.

  “I’m just glad you showed up. Can you untie me now?”

  She pursed her lips. “You’re kidding, right? Like I need to deal with two murderers on the loose?”

  Ty’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t play dumb, Ty. You already admitted to killing Raven. How do I know you won’t kill me too, the minute your hands are free?”

  He eyed her. “I’m confused.”

  Juliette forced herself to remain calm, but his behavior angered her. How dare he play dumb like this? Did he think she was stupid? “You said it yourself, in that note you left on my pillow.”

  “That note had nothing to do with Raven.”

  She grunted. “It said you wanted to confess.”

  “Yeah, I did. But not to murder.”

  Juliette hesitated, eyes narrowing. “To what, then?”

  Ty let out a soft groan. “My involvement with the counterfeiting. I’ve been wanting out for a while, but after this morning’s raid at the flea market, I realized it was now or never. That’s why I needed to talk to somebody from the FBI. I was going to trade names and info on the counterfeiters, in exchange for immunity.”

  CRYSTAL HAD TO GET through to Greg somehow. Summoning her nerve, she reached up with her free hand and held it to his cheek.

  “Valentine wouldn’t want you to do this.”

  Enraged, he knocked her hand away, tightening his grip on her other arm. “You don’t know that! You didn’t know her at all!”

  Crystal forced herself to hold his gaze. “Maybe not, but I know the kind of person she must have been. Gentle. Kind. I know because I’ve seen those same qualities in you.”