Death at King Arthur's Court
Page 20
‘And she was able to involve Skee in the scheme.’
‘Hell, that beach boy used to sleep with anyone for a ten-dollar gratuity. He probably felt that getting their hands on the trust fund was the mother lode of all tips. Add that to the fact that my sister controlled the musclebound sociopath like a marionette, and you have a built-in accomplice. He was her buddy until something poisoned them.’
‘We’ll never really know what actually caused the break between them,’ Lyon said. ‘It’s possible he was willing to go along with Morgan’s for-profit murder but not the others. If not that, perhaps he tried to play a little game of extortion. Either alternative would guarantee his death warrant as far as Rina was concerned.’
‘But why did she kill Bambi? That woman never harmed anyone, unless you consider topless dancing a mortal sin. Rina hardly knew her, and the fact that she was Morgan’s lover didn’t justify her murder.’
‘Bambi was here to get money for the child she had with Morgan,’ Lyon said. He did not add the possibility that Bambi had been killed accidentally by a shot Rina meant to kill her twin. With Clay dead the whole trust fund devolved to her. Bambi’s accidental killing was knowledge best kept from Clay. He had enough emotional baggage to carry.
‘The insane greed of it!’ Clay said. ‘When we were young I was always the neat, quiet, calculating one, while Rina did everything in life with a vengeance. When she rode horses as a teenager, she had to jump the highest. When she became a rock groupie, she had to be the creepiest. When she decided to save an endangered species, it had to be the most majestic. Everything in her life was excessive.’
‘It was a zest that could have been beneficial,’ Lyon said. Unspoken between them was the bloodlust for killing that had somehow been unleashed during her first murder. Killing Morgan might have been greed, but during the commission of the act something evil within her had been released. There was no need to mutilate his body in that manner, just as there had been no need to kill Bambi or Skee in such a painful manner. Proman had been exploded, and Lyon and Bea were slated for her bullets in what had ultimately turned into a bloodlust. It would never have ended.
‘God only knows, the money has been useful to me at this point in my life, but now there’s more than I need,’ Clay said. ‘There’s more than either of us would have needed.’ He turned from his distant gaze into the night to look directly at Lyon. ‘Bambi wanted a quarter of a million for her kid, so I’ve set up a trust for little Barney. And Rina’s memorial is over there.’ He pointed toward the condominium’s naked steelwork.
‘What?’ Lyon asked in surprise.
‘The developers of Camelot weren’t too happy with their project. Due to the rocky location, costs were already out of hand. The units increased in price at a time when the condo market was soft. And that wasn’t helped by Rina’s unpleasant publicity. I gave them a fair price, if that’s ever possible in a distressed project.’
‘You bought the damn thing?’ Lyon asked in astonishment.
‘Yes. I’ll have the high steel dismantled for salvage and the concrete that’s already poured will be broken up and carted off. We’ll bulldoze it down and reforest over what they’ve done so far. When the land is reclaimed, it will be donated to the land trust in perpetuity as the Rina Dickensen Bird Sanctuary. It’s the best beginning I can make of her very bad ending.’
‘It would be a natural habitat for eagles,’ Lyon said.
‘At this point, it’s the only thing I can do for her and also attempt to make amends to you and Bea,’ Clay said. He waved a hand over the patio. ‘Rina wanted Nutmeg Hill in the worst way, you know? She knew you and Bea together would never sell it. I’m sure it occurred to her that with Bea gone she’d have a couple of alternative opportunities to get her hands on it.’
Bea wondered what Clay and Lyon were taking about. The conversation in the far corner of the patio seemed to have run the gambit from the deeply morose to the nearly cheerful. Well, she’d find out later tonight when they were alone.
‘I want to apologize,’ Martha Herbert said to her.
‘What?’ Bea shifted her attention away from the men at the far end of the patio to Martha, who stood conspiratorially by her side. ‘Apologize?’
‘Do you remember the day that Morgan drove his RV over here to stay a few days? I stopped in to visit and found you both here on the patio talking. I think I jumped to a conclusion because I wanted to jump to a conclusion. It’s hard for me to explain, but I knew that Rocco felt …’
Bea put her hand on the other woman’s arm. ‘It’s forgotten, Martha. Really.’
Lyon realized that he stood at the parapet near the exact location where Rina had posed when she sensed the presence of her eagle. It was his turn to feel the bird’s flight. High above them in the night the eagle soared a circling pattern. Rina was released and free.
About the Author
Richard Forrest (1932–2005) was an American mystery author. Born in New Jersey, he served in the US Army, wrote plays, and sold insurance before he began writing mystery fiction. His debut, Who Killed Mr. Garland’s Mistress (1974), was an Edgar Award finalist. He remains best known for his ten novels starring Lyon and Bea Wentworth, a husband-and-wife sleuthing team introduced in A Child’s Garden of Death (1975).
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2005 by Richard Forrest
Cover design by Andy Ross
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3792-1
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