Judith flashed a quick smile and shook her head. “I'm too nervous for coffee,” she said, then looked at Flint. “Good morning, Detective... you look... upset.”
Flint glared at Judith. “I'm on a case, young lady. I told you to be here at eight sharp. You're late,” he snapped.
Tori quickly changed into the part of Good Cop. “Flint, knock it off. We're all tired, okay. I'm sure Judith didn't sleep very well.”
“Not a wink,” Judith admitted and bit her thumbnail. “Well, I guess we better go inside and look around.”
“Just a minute,” Flint said, “open your purse. Arnold, frisk her.”
“What?” Judith exclaimed, shocked. “You have no right to... I mean...”
“If you're not hiding anything, then you won't mind if we conduct a little search,” Flint said, then took Judith's purse and placed it on the trunk of his car. “Frisk her, Arnold.”
Tori rolled her eyes. “Always paranoid, Flint,” she said and focused on Judith. “Might as well let me frisk you, Judith. Ol' Flint is a bit on the paranoid side this morning.”
Flint opened Judith's purse and fumbled around inside. He didn't find a gun. Tori, however, did. She pulled a Glock19 from a holster attached to Judith's ankle. A silencer was attached to the barrel of the gun. “Explain,” Flint ordered Judith.
Judith looked at Tori for help. Tori shook her head. “Why were you concealing this gun?” she asked.
Flint took the gun, removed the silencer and clip and cleared the chamber. “I...” Judith stumbled.
“Listen,” Flint growled, “I know you're scared. But we're the cops, get it.”
Judith watched Flint open his trunk, toss in the gun, and slam the trunk shut. “Call me paranoid all you want, but I don't like civilians having loaded guns around me. Come on.”
To Judith's surprise, she watched Flint march up to the front door of the mansion. “I'm... sorry...” Judith said. “I only want to protect myself.”
“That's okay. I understand,” Tori replied without letting Judith know that a woman can protect herself without attaching a silencer to her gun. Judith didn't realize that she had placed herself in a very tight, sticky web, with no way out. “I better go unlock the front door.”
Tori followed Judith onto a marble porch lined with beautiful wooden columns. Flint nodded his head at her while Judith unlocked the white door made of strong, thick wood. “Let's go on a treasure hunt,” Flint said.
Walking into a beautiful foyer lined with pure white marble, Flint calmly withdrew his gun from a holster attached to his belt. Tori bent down and removed her gun from an ankle holster. “Where do we look first?” she asked Flint.
Flint waited as Judith shut and locked the front door and reset the security alarm. “Judith, I want to search out every hidden hallway first,” he explained. Knowing that the killer was lurking somewhere in the mansion, Flint understood that his first priority was in catching the killer and then finding the hidden safe.
Judith hesitated. “Detective, I know this mansion by heart. If there was a safe hidden someplace, I would have found it by now. I've been exploring this mansion since I was a little girl and—”
“Let me decide if there is a hidden safe in this mansion or not,” Flint interrupted. “Arnold, handcuff her to the stairs.”
“What in the world for?” Judith nearly yelled.
“You just tell me where the hidden passageways are,” Flint growled and then in a low, convincing whisper, he said, “The killer might be around. I need to use you as bait. Play along, girl. Didn't you learn anything in Nevada?”
“This way,” Tori said in a tough voice. Pulling Judith to a beautifully grand staircase lined with red carpet, she quickly handcuffed the woman's right wrist to a wooden banister. “Stay put.”
Judith, confused, sat down on the bottom stair. “Where else can I go?” she asked sarcastically.
“All right,” Flint said in a loud voice, “where is the hidden hallway upstairs?”
“Next to the master bedroom is a painting of a Scottish countryside. Behind the painting is a switch,” Judith explained. “The switch will open a secret opening under the painting. You will have to crawl through the opening to get into the hidden hallway.”
“You better to be telling me the truth,” Flint warned. “It will be wise for you to start telling the truth for once. Maybe the courts will go easy on you for killing Henry Parsons.”
Judith's eyes grew wide. She wasn't sure if Flint was being serious or role playing. “I'm telling the truth,” she promised.
“Arnold, let's go,” Flint said impatiently. Walking up the main stairs, he glanced over his shoulder. Judith was staring at him with worried eyes.
“Right behind you, partner,” Tori whispered, stepping off the top step into a long, gorgeous hallway lined with antique furnishings and priceless paintings.
Aware that the killer had to be watching him by now, Flint stayed on course. “Arnold,” he said in an authoritative tone, “Judith Morris is going to rot in prison for the murder of Henry Parsons. Our objective now is to find the safe and end this case. I'm not interested in Edwin Wayberry. Let the Nevada people handle him.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Tori said, following Flint down the hallway. Looking to her left, and then to her right, she saw paintings of creepy old men with large, greedy eyes. As she passed one of the paintings, she could have sworn she saw a set of eyes move, and her heard thudded and skipped like crazy as she caught her breath.
“Here we are,” Flint said, stopping at the painting Judith had described to him. Tori made a quick and funny look with her eyes. Flint nodded. “Listen.” he searching the hallway with clear eyes. “We need to find Judith's boyfriend after we locate the safe. I know Judith is claiming he killed Henry Parsons, but I think she's lying.”
“Well, for his sake, he better come forward and talks with us if he wants to stay out of prison,” Tori said.
Flint nodded his head. “I knew I could break her once I got her into questioning. A woman like Judith, as pretty as she is... well... let's just say I knew she was lying about the whole single act.”
“Yeah,” Tori agreed.
A man wearing a black jogging suit watched Flint and Tori in a hidden hallway. With narrow eyes, he looked at them through the eyes of an old man sitting in a dusty painting. Alarm and anger gripped his chest. “You ratted me out,” he whispered in an angry voice.
“Judith Morris murdered Henry Parsons,” Flint continued. “That old man wasn't strangled to death by a man.”
“And we found her fingerprints on the murder weapon, too,” Tori added.
“Judith's boyfriend better make an appearance quick before his face is pasted all over every news channel and newspaper in Los Angeles,” Flint said.
“No,” the killer whispered in a desperate voice. “Judith... you betrayed me. Why?”
Flint returned his attention back to the painting. “Before we go exploring, let's recheck the main bedroom again,” he said. “I don't want to walk into any traps.”
Tori followed Flint into the main bedroom. After closing the door, she watched Flint run across a beautiful green carpet toward a large walk-in closet. Flint yanked the closet open and dashed inside. Tori followed. She watched Flint make his way toward the end of the closet, moving past expensive suits and old boxes. “What are you doing?” she asked Flint.
Flint took out a crumpled piece of paper from his coat pocket. “Here,” he whispered.
Tori took the paper and studied it. The paper was a map of the mansion. “Flint, this map shows every hidden passageway in this place.”
Flint nodded. “We need to hurry,” he said. “Take my gun.”
Tori took Flint's gun and stepped back as Flint pressed hard against the back wall of the hallway. Slowly, the wall began to rotate. “My gun.”
Tori handed Flint back his gun. “I'm learning from the best,” she said, impressed. Following Flint in a simple wooden hallway lined with old carpet, Tori
felt as if she were running back into time—running down a hallway leading into a strange portal filled with old black and white movies and the sounds of laughter and bright lights seen and heard through thick clouds of cigar smoke.
Flint ran down the hallway and paused at a set of steep stairs. Not wasting any time, he descended them and came to a stop at a wooden wall. “We're under the main stairwell,” he whispered to Tori. “This door opens up on the right side.”
“Okay,” Tori whispered back. “We wait until the killer gets out in the open. When we're sure we have the jump on him, we'll rush out.”
“Be ready to shoot if needed,” Flint confirmed.
*****
As Flint and Tori waited under the stairs, Judith struggled against her handcuffs. “I'm in real trouble,” she said in a desperate voice.
“Yeah, you are,” an angry voice said.
Judith looked up the stairs and saw Landon Camer charging down at her. His dark eyes were narrowed in anger. “You ratted me out to the cops,” he growled. Coming to a full stop on a stair above Judith, Landon threw his head behind him and looked up. “The cops are in the main bedroom.”
Judith could see that her boyfriend had suddenly become her number one enemy. Glancing at the gun Landon was holding in his right hand, she nervously began to speak. “Landon, I don't know what you're talking about... please, help me get free.”
“First you come back from Nevada without the gold,” Landon growled.
“Edwin betrayed me,” Judith pleaded. “He was supposed to kill the two detectives for me.”
“Edwin betrayed you because he found out you lied about the gold,” Landon snapped. “Why did you lie, Judith?”
Judith kept her eyes on the gun Landon was holding. The man's short blond hair was sweaty and his face was boiling with anger. Judith knew her life was in danger. He could quickly shoot her and escape into the hidden passage beneath the stairs before Flint and Tori could come to her rescue. “I want Edwin dead,” Judith confessed. “All of those years...”
“All of those years what?” Landon demanded. Without any hesitation whatsoever he aimed his gun straight at Judith's chest. “Talk to me, girl!”
“Don't shoot me,” Judith begged and began to cry. “Landon, I will find the gold. Flint figured out that the ticket he found was a combination to a safe. If we find the safe, we'll find the gold. I'm sure of that. Baby... I need you to trust me.”
“I heard the cops talking upstairs. They said you blamed the murder of the old man on me,” Landon said. “You betrayed me. Now you die. No more lies.”
“Please... no,” Judith begged. “Landon, I didn’t tell the detectives that you killed my grandfather, I swear!”
“Liar!” Landon hissed.
*****
“Flint?” Tori whispered nervously.
“Count to thirty and then walk out, talking in a loud voice. Pretend you're lost,” Flint whispered back and ran off. Charging out from beneath the stairs was obviously not going to work. He needed to catch the killer a different way.
Tori counted to thirty, drew in a deep breath, and opened the small wooden door. “Hey Flint, I think I might have found my way out of this maze,” she said in a loud, confused voice.
“Help me!” Judith screamed as soon as she heard Tori's voice.
Landon turned and ran up the stairs, where he practically bumped into Flint.
“Don't even flinch,” Flint warned.
Landon stared into the barrel of Flint's gun. “Okay, man... stay cool,” he said, dropping the gun in his hand and nervously raising his hands into the air.
Flint stared at Landon with disgusted eyes. “Okay, boy, back down the stairs. One wrong move and I'm going to fill you full of holes, got it?”
Landon read something in Flint's eyes that nearly made him wet his pants. “Okay, man... just stay cool, okay. We're all friends here.”
“You can make friends on death row, scumbag,” Flint said through gritted teeth.
Tori watched Flint walk Landon down the stairs at gunpoint. “Why?” she asked Judith.
Judith bowed her head in shame. “You'll never understand,” she whispered. “I thought I had the perfect plan.”
“Call this in,” Flint ordered Tori.
Tori dug into the front pocket of her dress and retrieved her cell phone. “Chief, this is Tori. I need a cage car down at Parson's Mansion ASAP to transfer two—”
“One,” Flint quickly corrected her.
Tori gave Flint a confused look. “Uh, I mean, one murderer.”
“Murderer?” Chief Cunningham asked, shocked, nearly spilling the relaxing tea he was drinking. The tea tasted like sour cardboard, but his anger management teacher insisted that he needed to return back to his 'calm' zone after he exploded at her during a public session.
“We bagged the loser who killed Henry Parsons,” Tori explained.
“I didn't kill anyone,” Landon protested. “Man, my lawyer is going to eat you pigs alive.”
“Shut your mouth,” Flint growled. “You were found trespassing in a private home carrying a weapon, dressed in black clothing. Yeah, sure, your lawyer is really going to have a field day, Einstein.”
Landon glanced down at the black jogging suit he was wearing. “Judith planned the murder. She threatened me... and said if I didn't kill the old man she would have Edwin kill me.”
“Liar!” Judith screamed.
“What's going on?” Chief Cunningham asked Tori.
“Love spat.”
“I'm on my way. Good work, Detective Arnold.”
“Thanks, Chief,” Tori said proudly. Putting her cell phone away she smiled. “Chief is on his way, Flint. He's proud of us.”
Flint didn't smile. “We caught one snake,” he said, “but we have other vermin to go after.” Staring at Judith, he shook his head. “You're going to prison, young lady.”
“I figured that part for myself,” Judith said as tears dripped from her eyes. “I'm... not a bad person, Detective Flint. I had my reasons.”
“You set a trap for Detective Arnold and myself,” Flint said. “You words are meaningless to me. But rest assured I'm going to use you to take down Edwin Wayberry. First, I'm going to do a little digging into a certain old lady.”
“Please,” Judith begged Flint, “leave Amanda out of this. You don't understand.”
“I will soon,” Flint said. “Arnold, I need you to check with Melinda and find out more about Fiona Parsons.”
“Fiona...” Judith gasped as her face became pale. “How did you find out... I mean...”
Flint kept his gun pointed at Landon. “One step at a time, sister. First, who left the photo album on Henry Parsons bed?”
“We want straight answers,” Tori warned Judith.
“I did,” Judith confessed. “I wanted it to appear like my grandfather committed suicide. You see—”
“Shut up!” Landon yelled.
Flint took his right foot and kicked Landon is the chest, knocking him over. “One more word from you and I swear I'll go to prison myself for murder!”
“Go on,” Tori urged Judith.
“Landon,” Judith said, sliding down into a sitting position, “was supposed to shoot my grandfather... make it appear like a suicide.”
“Did Henry Parsons really call you the morning he was killed?” Flint asked.
Judith nodded. “He was very upset. He... began talking about Amanda... I had to do something.” Judith closed her eyes. “My grandfather was furious when I arrived, not scared...”
“Okay,” Flint said, “keep going.”
“I slipped a few sleeping pills into a drink and tried,” Judith continued, “but my grandfather wanted nothing to do with me. He kept yelling at me, claiming that I was operating with Edwin Wayberry behind his back.”
Flint looked at Landon. “Talk to me, boy.”
“The old man was insane,” Landon said in a desperate voice. “We were up in the main bedroom. The old man was yelling at Judith
, threatening her life. I saw the scarf lying on the bed. I don't know... I just grabbed the scarf and strangled the old man to death. Judith panicked and we came up with a lame plan.”
“Why did you two remain behind in the mansion?” Flint demanded.
“The ticket,” Judith said. “My grandfather kept yelling at me that I would never find the ticket that leads to the gold.”
“We hid in the hidden passages,” Landon said. “I saw you and the female pig—”
Tori grabbed Landon by his hair and yanked his neck back. “Watch your mouth,” she warned.
Landon looked up into a pair of eyes that told him he had crossed a very dangerous line. “Yeah... sorry... take it easy.”
“We saw you and Detective Tori find the hidden passageway in the parlor,” Judith explained. “Landon tried to find it.”
“The old man kept yelling something about some ticket being hidden in the parlor,” Landon said. Tori let go of his hair. “Judith and I figured there had to be a hidden passage somewhere in the parlor.”
“You don't know this mansion by the back of your hand, after all, young lady,” Flint said.
“I lied about spending practically growing up in this mansion,” Judith confessed. “Amanda hated me. She never allowed me to come here. It wasn't until after she died that I was allowed to visit my grandfather on a regular basis.”
“Your grandfather?” Flint said in cold voice. “You murdered a man you call your 'grandfather'?”
“I had to,” Judith said desperately. “You don't understand... I had to protect Amanda.”
“The woman who hated you?” Tori asked.
“Amanda didn't hate me... She hated... my family,” Judith said, breaking open a box of deeply hidden secrets. “Amanda was from Sicily and... no, I've said enough. Not another word.”
“The Mafia,” Tori said. “That would explain the illegal gun running operation.”
Flint nodded. “Smart woman.”
Judith kept her eyes closed.
Landon stared up at Flint. “Hey man, I... can't we make a deal?”
Detective Flint Box Set: A Detective Story Box Set Books 1-3 Page 33