Andy Wallace came into Sheski's office, pulled a white handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to Sheski.
Sheski delicately unwrapped the cloth, exposing the coveted piece of jewelry. All eyes were on the magnificent nine-carat diamond ring. The stone glimmered and shone, proudly displaying its priceless attributes.
The four suspects were poised to retrieve it, but, wisely, none made the move.
"You son of a bitch. How the hell did you get that?" Burns screamed at the officers.
Deadly turned to Burns and, seething, said, "So you're the one who stole it out of my locker."
"I deserve it, not any of you," Burns exploded. "For everything you put me through. I knew how badly all of you wanted that diamond. So, I figured I'd hit all of you right where it hurts ... in your pocket. Make you pay for the pain you caused me. Having an affair with my wife right under my nose, Lesley. And you, Kylie. You make me sick."
He then triumphantly informed Deadly, "The ring wasn't really hidden well after all, was it, brother? I suspected you of murdering Rose all along. She was frightened of you, told me so herself, more than once. I thought she was just imagining things, but I guess she had good reason to be scared, didn't she? So, after her death, I decided to do a little searching of my own, looking for anything that would tie you to Rose's murder. All I had to do was get into your locker and look around. I waited until you were out on one of your little errands. Then I found it ... in that old leather haversack under your security clothing. You took what I wanted, so I took something all of you wanted"
Stone looked at them and then at the ring. "I'm the only person with a claim to that diamond! It belongs to me. I didn't want to believe that you had doublecrossed me, Deadly," he said, enraged. "I really thought maybe it had washed down the stream, or that Lana Stahl had it. Well, I want it back"
Stone lunged for the ring but, again, Mike was too quick for him. The officer made his move and got between Stone and Sheski, who was still holding the treasure. He then locked Stone's arms behind his back and pushed him down in his chair. Stone had been warned for the last time, and Mike quickly placed him in handcuffs, wrists behind him.
"We obtained search warrants this afternoon for all three of your properties, including Stone Haven, in an attempt to find the ring and any other evidence," Sheski said. "After talking with each of you and some others earlier, we had plenty of probable cause to present to the judge and he was happy to oblige. Andy Wallace dispatched men to search all those places after our informants assured us you were away from the areas. We made some interesting discoveries with those warrants," Sheski said, looking at the four suspects soberly. "The Darling Diamond was in your office, Dr. Stone, close enough that you could have gotten it whenever you wanted to"
Stone's face became crimson with rage.
"It was carefully tucked away inside an old hospital feeding cup in the glass display case, next to the Pratt journal. Very clever of you, Burns, to hide it in Stone's office. He would never have thought to look there. And if by chance it was discovered by the authorities, you figured that maybe we would believe that Stone had hidden it. But we knew better. Stone was still desperately trying to find the ring, so we knew he didn't have it. It had to be someone else."
Sheski carefully folded the ring back up in the handkerchief and stuffed it into his pocket.
"That's mine," exclaimed Kylie. "It was promised to me"
"Don't be stupid. That diamond is worth a fortune," Stone said roughly.
Kylie turned a venomous look on her lover.
"Richard is right, isn't he, Lesley? You had no intention of marrying me. You were using me just like you used everyone else" She looked over at her husband and then back at Stone. "I've been such a fool," Kylie said sadly. "I believed you. Everything you said. I even believed that once Richard was out of the way we would be together and share our fortunes"
"What do you mean, out of the way?" Richard asked, bristling. "What does that mean?" His voice rose and he sounded scared.
Sheski looked at them and said, "I'm not sure, so correct me if I'm wrong, you two. Deadly would soon have been been visiting Dr. Burns, and Kylie would have inherited everything. Then, by marrying her, Stone would increase his wealth even more. And Deadly, who already had gotten a settlement from his claim to the Burns fortune, could have been rewarded with a percentage of that take. Money and a heritage he thought he deserved"
Sheski shook his head back and forth as if in disbelief. "And I'll just bet that's what they told you, Kylie, to get you to be part of the scheme. Stone probably convinced you that you would share in his wealth" He paused for a few seconds. "Anyone who really knows Stone says that he doesn't share anything."
"Share," Stone sneered, raising his voice. "Share! Share what? That was my money, mine. No one else deserved it. Not her." He nodded toward Kylie. "Not my mother and brother, either. Mother was going to waste it all. Give it away to charity. My own mother," he said incredulously. "She didn't even ask what I thought about that. Thought I'd be content with just Dad's money. What a fool"
Burns appeared overwhelmed by all that he was hearing. His face was outraged and, yet, puzzled. "But what about Samuel," he said uncertainly. "Your brother had his problems, but when he took his medicine, he was a decent guy. You could have kept him locked up and been guardian over his share. You didn't have to do away with him."
At this, Stone exploded again. "I couldn't count on it. My crazy brother was blowing tens of thousands of dollars on useless garbage. While I was away at college, he was home buying jewelry and stuff that he didn't need, and all kinds of gifts for the lowlife friends he met at the hospital. He was wasting our inheritance, my inheritance. I couldn't afford him," Lesley said coldly. "He had to go, too."
Kylie shuddered as she witnessed the depths of evil in the man she'd thought she loved.
Mike picked up on her anxiety and said slyly, "You know, if I were you Kylie, I'd have been watching my back, too. If both you and Richard were out of the way, there would have been no other heir to your estate. As a half-brother, Deadly could have contested his earlier settlement and walked away with everything. After all, he would be the only survivor to the Burns fortune."
Kylie slumped back in her chair, finally defeated. Tears were flowing and she was whimpering quietly to herself. Her husband stared at her with contempt on his face, realizing that he could have been Deadly's next victim, the next one to feel those keys dig into his back.
"Why did you pull Mrs. Stone out of the wreckage, Deadly?" Richard asked. "She was dying."
Deadly looked at his half-brother with disdain. Then he began, "Do you know what it was like living the way I did? I guess not. You with your Harvard degree, living in a fancy home off the family inheritance. While I had to live a life deprived of a legitimate background. My mother's family, prominent, wealthy, and thinking they're too good for me, embarrassed by me. My father a lunatic child-killer. I could feel your family's hatred for me, and so I nursed my own hatred right back at all of you. I vowed that someday they would pay for taking my mother away from me, for buying me off when I was just an infant, like a nobody, having to keep silent as a provision of the settlement," he said sullenly.
"And that bitch Rose. Yes, I went there that day to kill her. When Lesley asked me to do it, I was glad. I hated her. Always acting as if she was better than everyone else. She once called me trash, and I never forgot it. I enjoyed killing her, too. When I was done with her, she didn't look like much, did she?" He was enjoying the memory of their confrontation.
"Unfortunately for Barry, he was part of our plan, too. A pity. He was always nice to me. Barry was alive, you know, when Lana Stahl saw me in the garden," he said to Sheski. "That weakling was easy to overpower. I had him bound and hidden until she went in the house. Then I put him in his truck and took him back to his place. We walked together to the creek and I stuffed Rose's jewelry in his pockets before disposing of him. I kept the ring, though. I just couldn't bear to part w
ith it."
"That wasn't the plan, was it?" Sheski asked. "You knew that was Barry's day to work at the Stones' property. Dr. Stone wanted you to put all of Rose's jewelry deep in Barry's pockets for the police to recover when his body was found. Then it would look like he had killed Rose and all of her diamonds could have been returned to him. But you got greedy, didn't you, Deadly?"
"I deserved that ring more than they did," Deadly said. "So I told Lesley that I must have dropped it at their home when I killed Rose, or maybe it fell out of Barry's pants at the creek. That I wasn't sure. That put him onto Lana Stahl and off my back. Someone had to pay for how I've been treated. Everyone trying to make out like I was nothing when I was just as good as they were. That's why I pulled them close to me before they died. I whispered into their ear and told each one of them whose son I was. That I was just as good as they were. Maybe better. Where they were going, they couldn't tell anyone, so I knew they would keep my secret"
Deadly's boastfulness then changed to a softer tone. "I couldn't help it, you know, killing those little girls in 'Nam. It's not my fault. That was part of my inheritance from my father. I shouldn't be held responsible for something I cannot control"
Sheski couldn't help himself. The murders of those children really bothered him. He just had to know the reason for it. His face looked pained as he asked the question to which they all wanted the answer.
"There was a war going on, Deadly. You could have had a belly full of killing. Legitimately. You could have killed off Viet Cong soldiers to your heart's content. Why murder little children?"
The room went silent. All eyes were on John Deadly. Eager for the answer, yet afraid of what the answer could be. They were not prepared for the shocking truth.
Deadly leaned his head to one side and looked disgusted at their stupidity. His softer tone gave way to a sinister reply. "Because I couldn't get my hands on their babies, that's why," he said matter-of-factly. "Parents are so careful with their infants. I couldn't get close to any of them. But their children have the run of the village. It was so easy, almost too easy to be inter esting. Like my father, I was very good at getting them to want to be with me" He smirked and continued. "It was payback time for what had been done to me. I was just a baby myself when adults tore me from my parents. Took my heritage, my identity ... everything was taken from me. Someone had to pay"
He could see that he had shocked them all. The expressions on their faces showed the depths of horror they were feeling. They didn't get it, the fools. He was justified in extracting his revenge. It wasn't his fault.
At this point, he started to laugh. "I enjoyed every moment of it, oh yes, I did. Daddy and I, we understand each other."
It was the first time that either lieutenant had heard him laugh. It was raw and biting. As if he alone was privy to some marvelous insight that others could never expect to understand.
Sheski looked at the four persons seated in front of him. "Each of you selfishly valued something that you wanted above all else. Even above human life. But there's one thing you forgot about the vermin like yourselves that you hooked up with. You forgot that your kind are not team players and will only ever really be looking out for yourselves. Every one of you thought you had manipulated the others and were going to get what you wanted."
Sheski tapped the interoffice button on his phone twice, and eight fully-armed state troopers entered the room. Two positioned themselves in front of each suspect and proceeded to place them under arrest. Surprisingly, there were no escape attempts. And there was no escape to be had. One by one, they were handcuffed and taken from the room.
As Deadly was being led away, Sheski leaned over and whispered in his ear. "That haversack we found ties you in to some monkey business you pulled on Bobby Snyder in Vietnam, too. When this is all over, he'll be glad to get it back"
Before Sheski could get out of the way, Deadly, grinning in defiance, spit full in his face. Fighting the impulse to slug the smaller man, Sheski wiped his face with a handkerchief and said to the staties, "Get him out of here"
SATURDAY EVENING, 8 P.M.
Lana was dressed in a casual black jumpsuit and black flats when Sheski came to pick her up for their date. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face, and around her neck she wore a simple gold cross. He kissed her lips gently as they sat in the front seat of his car. They then drove to his house in Lewisburg. After a quick tour, he escorted his date into the dining room and seated her on a cloth-covered chair. Yellow candles in silver candlesticks were lit, and he began serving the promised meal.
He placed chilled forks on the yellow and blue colorcoordinated cloth napkins, and served each of them a crisp watercress salad with vinaigrette dressing.
"I'm impressed," Lana said, smiling up at him.
"Wait until you taste the bouillabaisse, standing rib roast of beef, and bourbon-soaked chocolate truffles," he said, grinning.
Lana looked at her handsome host in his dark slacks and white shirt, blue half-apron draped over his lap, and asked, surprised, "Where did you ever learn to cook like this? This is fabulous."
Sheski shared with her his depression after the death of his wife and his lack of desire to engage in social activities. He explained how Mike, out of desperation over his friend's grief, enrolled the two of them in cooking classes at a local college and browbeat him into going.
"Mike eventually got bored and dropped out," Sheski said, "but it was good therapy for me. I became hooked and stayed on. I still take classes sometimes."
Lana took a few bites of the fresh watercress and said impishly, "I could get used to this."
Sheski took her hand, and she rose up out of the chair. Pulling her close to him, he looked into her clear green eyes, kissed her full on the mouth, and said, "I hope so, darling. I hope so"
Due to plea-bargaining and testimonies of the defendants, neither a coroner's inquest nor exhumation of bodies long dead would be necessary.
Barry Brown's missing truck was eventually found in the river, where Deadly had disposed of it.
Dr. Richard Burns would not face charges for his possession of the Darling Diamond, and, clearly shocked by the full extent of his wife's involvement in the crimes, willingly provided evidence against all of the accused. Through his attorney, he swiftly served Kylie with divorce papers.
Kylie Burns, crushed by the knowledge of Dr. Stone's plans against her, also plea-bargained to avoid a long prison sentence. She was placed in a program for first offenders and given six years' probation. She eventually gained the state's approval to move to Philadelphia, where she now works at an animal shelter.
Dr. Lesley Stone, in an attempt to avoid the electric chair, pleaded guilty to his part in the deaths of his mother Elizabeth, brother Samuel, wife Rose, and Barry Brown. He also was cooperating with the United States Army, Vietnamese officials, and local police in their investigation of John Deadly. Stone was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in the state penitentiary at Rockview. His precious money was turned over to his daughter, Mrs. Karen Walter.
In an attempt to capitalize on his famous Pratt heritage, John Deadly tried to plead innocent, due to insanity, of the murders of six Vietnamese little girls and four Montour County adults. The District Attorney, however, countered with a full examination by a state psychiatrist, who found him sane and capable of standing trial. While in jail awaiting trial, Deadly surprised everyone by hanging himself in a basement cell, using a prison bed sheet flung over a ceiling light.
The notorious Darling Diamond is scheduled to be sold, again, at a Christie's auction next month. Because of this latest grisly chapter in its history, the gem has generated interest from wealthy collectors all over the world. Proceeds from the sale will go to a charitable foundation in the names of Elizabeth and Samuel Stone.
ive.
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