Ava looked up at Elizabeth and nodded her head in confirmation.
"Well, then," the woman said pleasantly, "It's time for you and me to have a little chat."
With the gun still pointed at Ava, Elizabeth looked around until she spotted the chair. She took several steps towards it. Without taking her eyes off her, Ava reached for the phone in Kevin's pocket. She realized, with some relief, that it was hers.
As Elizabeth grabbed the chair and started dragging it closer, Ava swiped, enabling the camera feature. With a slight glance down, she moved the option to video and hit record. She hoped the phone would pick up their conversion in case something happened to her.
Elizabeth brushed her hand across the seat as if dusting it off then sat down. She then motioned with her gun for Ava to sit on the floor beside Kevin.
"Well, then," she crossed her legs and rested her arm on her thigh, the gun aimed at Ava's head. "There is no reason for at least one of us to be comfortable."
"What do you want?" Ava asked.
"Ah, straight to the point," she mused. "I like that."
"Why did you shoot Kevin?"
"So many questions," Elizabeth mused as she looked over at Kevin with distaste. "I'm afraid that Kevin outlived his usefulness. He became a liability, and I can't afford any more mistakes."
Ava's hand inched closer to the shovel but stopped when the woman's eyes bore into hers.
"I wouldn't try that I were you," she warned. "I will put that bullet straight into your brain the moment you try anything funny."
"You're not going to get away with this," Ava said.
"Oh, I can and I will," she smiled coldly. "This is not the first time I've had to clean up a mess."
"What do you want?" Ava asked again.
"That is the question for the ages, isn't it?" she mused. "You have such a bright mind. So much potential. In the right hands, a bright mind can be moulded into a handy tool. You know what the problem is with such clever minds?"
Ava stared at her. "What?"
"They overthink. Ask too many questions. Stick their noses where they don't belong," she curled her lip in distaste. "They have a very short life span. You want something done with no questions asked, you get brawn. They don't get philosophical. They just do the job."
"Which one was Kevin?"
The woman looked amused at the question. She glanced again at Kevin's body lying in a pool of blood.
"Kevin could have been both, but unfortunately for him, he was neither."
Ava looked over at the body as well. She tried to remember the Kevin, who was her friend. The supportive fan who organized meetups for true crime enthusiasts and amateur sleuths. That Kevin likely wasn't real, but it made her feel better to remember him that way.
The body on the floor was a crazy-eyed Kevin who drugged, abducted and beat her. She didn't know who that man was, but the woman holding the gun on her clearly did.
"What does this have to do with me?" Ava asked.
"Oh, it has everything to do with you, my dear," she smiled. "We wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you."
"I don't know what you think I did," Ava said. "But this has to be a mistake. You must be confusing me with someone else."
"I know exactly who you are, Ava Reed," Elizabeth said. The smile was gone now. Her face was cold and ruthless.
Chapter 20
"What do you want, Elizabeth," Ava said. She was tired, in pain and seriously dehydrated. She also didn't know how much batter she had left. Better make this quick.
"Ah, so you do know who I am as well, "Elizabeth nodded approvingly. "Not just a pretty face, I see."
"Are you here to pay my compliments, or are you going to tell me what the hell you want?"
Elizabeth laughed. It was a joyful sound that echoed in the empty space, but to Ava, the sound was deafening.
"I think that under different circumstances, I would have enjoyed having you around," Elizabeth said. "You really are a delight."
"What do you want?"
"I want what's mine, of course," Elizabeth shook the gun in Ava's direction. The smile was gone. "What your mother took from me."
"You want Sharon's stuff."
"Sharon stole from us," Elizabeth said impatiently. "My family gave her a job. We took care of her. What did she do to pay us back? She took what didn't belong to her. And now, I want it back."
"And what makes you think that I have it?"
"You know what's been the biggest obstacle in my life?" she asked and continued without waiting for a reply. "I'm surrounded by weak-minded men. They are all so useless. Every single one of them.
"My father was the worst of them. An overbearing buffoon with no respect for female intellect. I expected better from my very own son. But he turned out to be such a disappointment." Elizabeth looked at Kevin's body with distaste.
Ava looked at Kevin, then back at Elizabeth. It finally clicked. How did she miss that?
"You're Kevin's mother," she said. It wasn't a question.
"See? I knew you were bright."
"But you shot him. You killed your own son," Ava said in disbelief.
"Frankly, he was always weak," she tilted her head slightly as if reminiscing about her son's failed potential. "Too emotional. He lacked the brains and the brawn. I had such hopes for him."
The conversation with Burnett came flooding back. The intruder who broke into Stan's house was related to Anthony Lowell. The man they discovered was, in fact, Antonio DiPalma. That means Elizabeth knew DiPalma. She knew Sharon. She thought of the picture of Sharon and DiPalma together.
"What about this father, Antonio DiPalma?" she asked.
"What about him?"
"Was he also a disappointment?"
Elizabeth's head perked up at the question. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she studied Ava. She looked almost amused.
"My, my. Maybe you are smarter than I gave you credit for," she mused. "It seems that you were quite busy digging into the past."
"Must have pissed you off when he got cozy with Sharon, though," Ava said and watched with satisfaction as the smile fell from Elizabeth's face. "Was that what happened? Sharon moved in on your man? That must have pissed you off."
Elizabeth pointed the gun at her and fired. The bullet whizzed by her ear.
"Consider this a warning," she said. "I won't miss the next time."
"While I'd love to chat about your daddy issues," Ava continued. "I already told you that I don't have Sharon's stuff."
"If you're even near as good as your mother was," Elizabeth said. "You have the stuff. Despite being surrounded by many useless men in my life, I chose to surround myself with brilliant women. Sharon was brilliant. I knew that with her at my side, we could be untouchable."
"My mother wasn't a criminal," Ava said flatly.
"There is no need to get hung up on semantics, my dear," Elizabeth's eyes narrowed as they bore into Ava's. "I gave your mother a business opportunity. A chance to make something out of her life using her talents. She was the one who decided she didn't want to play."
"So you decided to eliminate her," Ava said.
"I am always disappointed when a great mind is being wasted," Elizabeth said. "But it's like dealing with a rabid dog. If you can't fix it, you must put it down."
"So you had her killed," Ava said, the realization dawning on her. "Did DiPalma kill my mother?
"I already told you," Elizabeth said flatly. "Never leave a man to do a woman's job." She leaned towards Ava, her eyes filled with distaste. "I killed Sharon. If you don't get me what I want, I'm going to put a bullet between your eyes just like I did to her."
***
"If you're going to kill me anyway," Ava said, "what's my motivation for giving you what you want?"
"This isn't a negotiation, Ava."
"Actually, it is," Ava pointed out. "I have something you want. I'm sure we can come to some sort of an understanding."
"What's stopping me from putting a bullet
in your head and then doing the same to your grandfather? Maybe put one in your father's head or that pretty wife of his for good measure?"
"You don't strike me as someone who likes to leave a mess," Ava said. If she was going to die, she wouldn't go down without a fight. "Killing me, my grandfather, my father. That's messy. People are going to ask questions. Besides," she continued. "The police are going to figure this out sooner or later. You see, unlike my mother, I didn't keep the information to myself. I didn't hide it from everyone. The police have copies. I've also uploaded everything to a folder stored in the cloud. There is a trigger date. If I don't recall it, everything Sharon hid will go live."
"You're bluffing."
"Why would I?" Ava asked. "I have resources my mother didn't have. People I can trust. They probably already know who kidnapped me. They are looking for me as we speak. It won't take them long to put things together."
"Is this your idea of a negotiation?" Elizabeth asked. "I'm not scared of the police. They can be bought just as much as anyone else."
It was Ava's turn to smile now. She could see a slight hint of hesitation in Elizabeth's eyes. She was smart, but she didn't know everything.
"Why did you kill Sharon?"
"This is getting tedious now," she stifled a yawn. "Didn't we already cover this?"
"Humour me," Ava said.
"I will not tolerate insolence," Elizabeth's eyes went flat again as she smirked at Ava. She got up and walked up beside Ava. The barrel of her gun firmly pushing into her temple. "Don't fuck with me. If you had what Sharon took, you'd know everything there is to know. You wouldn't be asking me to tell you."
"I'm telling you the truth," Ava said, hoping the cops or somebody got here soon. "I just want to know more about my mother. You knew her. Tell me about her. Please."
Elizabeth considered her words. The gun moved away from her head, but it was still pointed at her.
"Sharon, much like you, was an annoyance. I still don't understand why my brother hired her. Probably thought she'd sleep with him. So many did in those days," she said with disgust as she started to pace. "He was so taken by her. Said how brilliant she was. I tried to get my father to talk some sense into him, but he too fell for her charms. Men, always thinking with their dicks." Elizabeth's mouth twisted in distaste. "I told them both that she would ruin everything. And I was right."
"My father always valued his useless illegitimate son over me, his rightful heir. He actually thought his useless idiot would take over the family business. But he couldn't even keep it in his pants long enough to think about business." Elizabeth swore as she kicked a rock and sent it flying across the floor. "He couldn't wait for Adam to take his name when he finally married his mother. But he didn't. I made sure of that."
"What did you do?"
"Blackmail, dear," Elizabeth continued to smirk. "Men are simple creatures. They can be manipulated. My father thought he ran the business, but it was me. I was the one making sure everything went smoothly. And it did. Until Sharon came along."
"She figured it out?"
"Your mother was clever, but it took her a while to put things together," she said. "She got many opportunities to back away, but she just couldn't keep her mouth shut. Tony was supposed to convince her to let it go."
"But she didn't."
"No, she didn't," Elizabeth's mouth turned into a smirk now. "Sharon had great potential. Unfortunately, she wasn't very malleable. She, too, turned out to be such a disappointment."
Straight as an arrow, Stan's words echoed in Ava's mind. Her mother wasn't a criminal mastermind after all. She wanted to do the right thing, and it cost her everything.
"How will I know that once I get you Sharon's stuff, you won't kill me too?" Ava asked.
Elizabeth laughed. "I never said that I wouldn't kill you too."
***
Detective Jones came back with news. They found Ava's location. As Nick suspected, Kevin took her to a property owned by the NorFast group not far from where Mitchell lived.
"We found some evidence that Frank Mitchell was paid off to cover up Sharon's disappearance," he told them. "The RCMP was looking at him for several crimes that went back to when he started on the force."
"I never liked that guy," Stan muttered. "I suspected he knew more than he was saying. Did he even look for Sharon?"
"He was likely paid to look the other way," Tyler said as he walked into the room. "The books Sharon took copies of were payments to different high ranking officials, builders and politicians. The family business paid well, and it bought a lot of loyalty."
"Was Studio 416 even a real gallery?" Nick asked. "That art was nothing spectacular."
"Well, based on what Sharon had, what was in the safety deposit box and what we found at Kevin's apartment, I'd say it was a front."
"A front for what?" Joan asked.
"Anything you can think of, "Tyler said as he flipped his folder open and looked through the pages. "Drugs, stolen artifacts, money laundering. It was quite successful for some time before anyone even suspected anything going on."
"So DiPalma wasn't a real artist?" Stan asked.
"He was a different type of an artist," Tyler said. "He was a forger. A very skilled one at that. A trait he tried to pass on to his son."
"Kevin was a forger too?" Nick asked.
"Unfortunately for him, he didn't have his father's talent," Jones chimed in again. "But he was a packrat, and he kept a lot of his father's old stuff. It's like a goldmine of information."
"Does that prove he killed Sharon?" Stan asked. "The father, I mean."
"It doesn't look like it, Mr. Novak."
"How did he end up with her wallet and those other documents?"
"We're still trying to piece that, but he was either cleaning up or took it as evidence."
Another officer poked her head in the door.
"I got the locals on the phone," she said. "They have uniforms on the way. They are sending an ambulance too."
"Patch them through," Jones said. "Let's end this and bring Ava home."
***
"I get where you're coming from, Elizabeth. Your father underestimated you," Ava said as her hand found the hilt of the shovel. "How did you convince him to let you run things?"
"Most men underestimate women," she shrugged. "They walk around like they know everything best. They don't. I was the one who came up with the idea of using the gallery as a front. Art doesn't have to be great to be valuable. You can smuggle a lot of things under the guise of a painting."
"I bet it was challenging to juggle it all."
"Money talks. Many people in important positions can be bought. If money doesn't talk, there are other ways of getting people to do what you want."
"Is that what happened with Sharon?" Ava needed a few more minutes to keep her distracted.
"Sharon was overconfident," Elizabeth paused, then continued to pace. "She threatened me. Said she would go to the police and expose the whole operation. When it became clear that neither Tony nor Adam could get her to back off, I knew I had to handle it myself."
"That's cold," Ava said. "How did you lure her, Elizabeth?"
"It was easy," she smirked. "I told Sharon I wanted to talk. She refused to give me back the books, the receipts, the records. Thought she was smarter than me, but she changed her tune when I pulled out the gun."
"So, you shot her when she wouldn't give you what you wanted."
"She left me no choice. The rest was so easy. Move things around, change her name on a few transactions. As long as she was gone, nobody knew the truth."
"What about DiPalma? Your father? Adam? Did they know?"
"I already told you that men are simple creatures. They did as they were told. Tony was supposed to get rid of her body so nobody would find her. Clearly, he couldn't get the job done. If he didn't end up in that harbour, I would have killed him myself."
'Yeah, I can relate," Ava said as she got ready to move. "It's so hard to find good help
these days."
Sirens sounded in the distance. They were getting closer. The sound was enough to distract Elizabeth. When she glanced away, she automatically lowered the gun. It was all Ava needed. She sprung up and swung the shovel into Elizabeth's midsection, sending her stumbling backwards.
The gun fell to the ground as Elizabeth charged at Ava. She was surprisingly fit and agile for her age. She swiped at Ava, her nails clawing across her face.
"Do you really think you're going to get out of here alive?" Elizabeth hissed as her boot expertly connected with Ava's knee, almost sending her on the floor.
"I'm not my mother," Ava winced as she wiped the blood off her lip.
Elizabeth snatched her hair and yanked it hard, forcing Ava's head to the side. As she looked down at her, ready to slap her again, Ava's fist shot out and connected with her jaw. As Elizabeth's grip loosened, Ava elbowed her in the stomach and followed up with another punch. This time it connected with Elizabeth's nose. She definitely wasn't a crier.
Elizabeth stumbled back and tripped over Kevin's body. She crashed to the ground like a fallen tree stump, blinking in surprise as she struggled to breathe. Their eyes connected as Ava stood over her, holding the shovel to her throat.
"Don't even try it," she warned and wiped the blood off her face.
As Elizabeth moaned in pain, Ava limped over to the pile Kevin dropped on the floor. Under the tarp, she found a bag with rope and large zip ties. She grabbed both and limped back to Elizabeth. She got one of the zip ties and secured it around Elizabeth's ankles. Deciding that securing the zip ties behind Elizabeth's back was beyond her strength, Ava straddled the woman and forced her hands together. She secured them tightly and waited for the cops to arrive.
Chapter 21
When Ava woke up in the hospital, she had to remind herself that it was over. Her room was filled with flowers, cards and stuffed animals from well-wishers. The sun was shining through the window, and there was soft music playing on the radio. It was a nice change from the dingy warehouse.
Her face was still swollen and bruised, but it was healing. Thankfully, her nose wasn't broken, but she wouldn't have felt anything anyway with all the pain meds she was on right now. The doctors told her that her knee would require some physiotherapy, but there were no broken bones.
Rooted in Lies Page 20