by Lorena May
Gabe had been hounding Ana, she knew. All it took was a simple text from Ana’s phone. (Ana always left in her purse in the staff lounge). ‘I will meet you in the staff-room Saturday at midnight.’
Gabe had answered almost immediately. ‘Saturday midnight it is.’ Accompanied by a heart emoji.
Oh please! Chloe almost vomited. Then she erased the messages on Ana’s phone. Ha! Clearly she’s not the innocent little prude she pretends to be. Gabe hadn’t seemed in the least surprised by her text.
SHE WAS THERE WHEN he walked in, seductively perched on the bed. He’d seemed surprised to see Chloe, but not disappointed. In fact he’d leered at her with his tongue hanging out. Figuratively speaking, at least.
“Glad to see me?” she’d quipped with a deliciously sexy little grin.
“Yeah, baby. You have no idea how much I’ve missed . . .” He dove onto the bed, as she gracefully slipped away.
‘Not so fast,” she said, walking away, hips swaying, feeling him watching her, reaching furtively into her purse, slipping on a thin, plastic glove . . .
He leaned back on the pillow, arms behind his head, laughing. “Still playing hard to get, my little vixen. But you want me. You’ve always wanted me.”
She approached him with her hand behind her back. Even now, sitting here on this grubby old bus, she can feel the hard, cold metal grasped in her hand. The fury that filled her chest.
“You were nothing but a diversion; a meaningless little play-thing. Stupid and boring,” she’d sneered. She reached the bed and looked down at him with disdain. “What I want most – what gives me the ultimate pleasure - is this.” With one swift movement she whipped her hand from behind her back, aimed, and shot him in the chest, loving the look of horror that filled his baby-blue eyes.
Chapter 55
~ Darby
They follow the ambulance to the hospital.
“She’s alive, thank God.” Darby is visibly shaken.
“I saw the tattoo. Was that Chloe?” Brandon scratches his head.
Darby’s mind is racing. “Or her sister? The woman at the Banff Centre May 11th had that same tattoo. Maybe they both have one. Damn! Why didn’t we notice that?”
“So who is the older woman that left just before we arrived?” Brandon asks.
“Could it have been the sister? Has she changed that much? It’s been a few years . . .”
“And what of Ana? She seemed genuine this morning, but . . .”
“I do remember seeing her leave around 11:00 when we watched the security tapes,” Darby says. “She could’ve doubled back, though.”
When they reach Emergency they wait. “We’ll let you know as soon as we know anything,” a harried nurse tells them.
“Can we question her then?”
“If she’s up to it.” The nurse hurries off.
They sit, anxious and jumpy. “Well, this time we know it wasn’t Steve. Do you still think he’s guilty?” Darby asks her partner. She paces the waiting room.
He sighs, sitting back, legs stretched across the floor. “In her note Chloe specifically said she couldn’t lie for him any longer.”
Darby frowns, striding faster, hands on her forehead.
Finally, after what seems hours, a doctor approaches Darby. “She’s okay. I think you caught her early enough to have alleviated any permanent damage from carbon monoxide poisoning. She has a large amount of rohypnol in her system. It’s probably why she passed out,” he says. “She’s on oxygen, but she’s conscious now. You can talk to her.”
Grace looks thin and white against the sheets, an oxygen mask on her face She blinks rapidly as the two officers walk into the room. Darby nears the bed, looking tenderly down on her. Brandon stands back.
Darby introduces herself and Brandon. “How are you feeling?” she asks.
“Why am I here? What happened?”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
Grace closes her eyes. Her face is pallid and beaded with sweat. She pulls up the oxygen mask and speaks slowly. “Chloe and I were having a lovely drink. In her kitchen. Beautiful house.”
So this is Grace? Darby looks at her wrist. She sees a small, home-made tattoo, a blurry and faded letter ‘L’.
“You’re Chloe’s sister, Grace?”
She moves her head on the pillow. Yes.
“Do you know where Chloe is now?”
Grace’s eyes radiate confusion. “She’s not here? Why am I?”
Darby touches her shoulder lightly. “Grace, it appears you were given a drug that put you to sleep. Any idea how that happened?”
A slight shake of her head indicates no.
“Was anyone else at the house with you and Chloe?”
Again, a shake of the head. No.
Darby exchanges a look with Brandon. So the woman leaving the house must have been Chloe in disguise. And Chloe tried to kill her sister?
“I see you have a tattoo on your arm with the letter ‘L’. What does the letter ‘L’ stand for, Grace?”
A tear slips from Grace’s eye. She lifts her oxygen mask. “It was my foster mother. Her name was Lyn.”
“She must have been very special to you.” Darby smiles a little. “In your past there was man named Gabriel. Have you any contact with him now?”
“No.” Grace’s voice is weak. “He went to jail a long time ago, and I haven’t heard from him since. His family lives in the States. He probably went there when he got out.”
So, probably not Gabe. Darby changes tack. “Does Chloe have the same tattoo?”
Grace closes her eyes, shakes her head. No.
Darby takes her phone out of her pocket, scrolls through it a moment and holds it up for Grace to look at. “Grace, is this you at the restaurateur conference in Banff?”
Grace’s eyes flicker. Is it shock? Fear? Indecision? She stares at Darby’s phone.
“I see the tattoo here on your arm, Grace. Was it you who attended the conference in Banff?”
Grace closes her eyes, and appears to fall asleep. The nurse moves in. “I think she’s had enough for now,” she says.
As they leave the room Grace’s thin voice calls out. “Would you call my employer, Sue, and let her know where I am?”
Chapter 56
~ Darby
Darby sets a Tim Horton’s cup on her co-worker’s desk. “Double-double, right?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you!”
“Jill, I know I looked at the photographs taken in the Williams’s house when they did the search after Steve’s arrest. I didn’t see anything, but I want to look again.”
“Sure thing.” Jill scrolls through her computer, forehead puckered. “I don’t think they found anything. Depends what you’re looking for.” Her eyes flicker. “Here we are.”
Darby nods, her face a mask of concentration, as she pores over photos of immaculate rooms, drawers, cabinets . . . There! She clicks a photograph of the medicine cabinet. Shoved in a corner is a small plastic vial. She can barely make out the letters on the front. She enlarges the picture. There’s no mistaking them now. Rohypnol! How did we miss this?
“Okay. Tell me if I’m crazy.” Darby’s eyes exude a fierce, unbroken excitement. “This is my theory. Chloe got her sister, Grace to go to Banff the weekend of Gabe’s murder. Got her to take photos and post them to Facebook showing she was there. She did it for herself, not Steve. In fact, it made Steve look like a liar. Probably contributed to his arrest.”
Darby stops, hoping for reassurance. Jill nods. “She and Steve did go to the cabin just as they said, and on Saturday night she put the rohypnol in Steve’s drink. It’s tasteless and odorless. He’d never know. I’m betting she took off, – it’s only an hour’s drive back to Rockydale – met Gabe at the Ritz and shot him. She could’ve easily gotten Steve’s gun. Easily could’ve thrown a few things around the house while Steve was working in the back yard. How long would it take? Just pretend you’re going in to go to the bathroom or something.” Darby’s mind is b
uzzing. “That way it looked like she was covering for him. Made him look more guilty. What do you think?” Darby jumps up from where she squats by Jill’s desk. “It all fits! Later she places the gun in the staff-room, knowing it has only Steve’s prints on it. All she had to do was wear gloves.”
“But Ana texted him asking to meet then.” Jill isn’t completely convinced.
“Ana’s phone did.” Darby rubs her fingers through her hair, thinking. “The staff leave their phones and purses in the staff-room when they work. Chloe could’ve taken Ana’s phone and texted any old time. Let’s have it analyzed for prints, just in case.”
“And then she erased it so that Ana never knew,” Jill concurs.
“But why . . .” Darby’s voice trails off. She taps her fist against her mouth, puzzled. “Why try to frame Ana when she wanted Steve framed?”
“Good question,” Jill nods. “Back-up? Overexuberance?”
Darby shakes her head. “And I thought the woman calculated perfectly!”
“Maybe wanted us to think Ana was involved?” Jill’s eyebrows furrow. “We may never know.”
‘I’ll bet those nude photos were of her!” It suddenly hits Darby. “Of her and Gabe. Maybe they were having an affair that went bad. She’d have double motive to kill him. Gabe was hurting the business she loved so much, and blackmailing Steve with her nude photos.”
“So Steve would have known she’d had an affair with Gabe,” Jill chews her lip.
“Yet he never said a word to us implicating her,” Darby says. “He seems to idolize her.”
“And she framed him!” Jill shakes her head. “Planted his gun, had pictures on Facebook that were supposedly taken in Banff that weekend making it look like she was providing a false alibi, speculating we’d find out. Days before the murder she threw things around the house so that Steve would think the gun had been stolen when asked . . . Wow!”
“I remember how she looked surprised for a second when Steve told us the gun must have been stolen. I thought she was covering for him. Ha! She’s just a good actress.” Darby smacks her forehead with the palm of her hand. “And with Steve in jail . . .” Darby is pacing now; on a roll.
“She’d have full control of the business, money, everything.” Jill says.
“She must’ve tried to kill her sister so that we’d think that she, Chloe, was dead.” Darby stares at Jill, flabbergasted. “Maybe found out we knew about the sister? Knew we’d figure out what she’d done?” Her eyes shoot sparks. “She’s a bloody psychopath!”
Jill shakes her head. “Unbelievable. But is the photo of rohypnol enough to prove your theory? We can certainly charge her with the attempted murder of her sister. If we can find her.” She points to where the prisoner cells are housed. “You’d better talk to Steve.”
“Okay. In the meantime, see if we can get the GPS from Chloe’s car.”
STEVE IS ADAMANT. CHLOE was beside him all night May 11th. He felt her in the bed with him. Yes, she had a momentary lapse with a younger man, but she wouldn’t hurt anyone. He knows of no sister or of the drug rohypnol. Someone is trying to frame them. He’s unshakeable in his belief.
Fucking, idiot. She’s got him. Hook, line and sinker.
Chapter 57
~Grace
Through a haze Grace pictures the policewoman’s earnest face. ‘It appears you were given a drug.’ She and Chloe, sitting just off the kitchen. Chloe’s smile. ‘I’ve mixed us a drink.’ Where is Chloe?
She remembers way back to the day Chloe was adopted. Chloe, handing her a chocolate bar. Ex Lax. ‘Gracie, I got this for you.’ She’d eaten it all. Soon afterward the sickness came. Diarrhea. Vomiting. She could hardly look at the older couple in Lyn’s living room. She had to run to the bathroom. They chose Chloe. Chloe, I know what you did. She’d forgiven her sister. Chloe was like a part of her, and such help lately. As long as it helped Chloe too. Thoughts are drowned in the sound of blood pulsing in her ears She wills herself back to sleep. I don’t want to think about it.
A hand touches her shoulder. Groggy, Grace looks up into Sue’s worried face. “Sue!” Grace can’t help it. She cries. Tears, bitterness, sadness. It all gushes out of her.
“Oh, Honey. What you’ve been through!” Sue rubs her back, circles, over and over. “We came as soon as they called.”
We? Grace looks at her friend through questioning eyes.
“Mike is with me, but he knows you may not want to see him.” Sue rolls her eyes in disgust. “He was such a dick.”
A discordant, ear-piercing laugh erupts from Grace’s throat; a mixture of hilarity and tears. “Sue, you’re priceless.” She’s finally able to speak. “What do you mean?”
Sue casts a skeptical glance at the doorway. “I mean he should’ve told you how he felt instead of running off, scared of his own shadow.”
“But I was the one who ran off, Sue. Did he tell you all about it?”
“Just today, on the way here. He said he had a chance to speak to you the other night when he came into in the restaurant, but he ran away.”
“What was he scared of?” Grace asks.
Sue shakes her head, back and forth, lips set in a line. Who knows? “Do you want to talk to him?”
Grace looks gravely at her friend. “I do.”
He walks in like a dog with its tail between its legs, his face shrouded with remorse. Standing away from the bed, he asks, “How are you doin’?” and then, as if they both realize the idiocy of his question at the same time, he and Grace burst into nervous giggles.
She reaches to take his hand and gently pulls him closer. “I’m okay.”
He looks down at her, tears forming in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Grace.”
She is silent for a time. “You’ve nothing to be sorry for. It had to be a shock.”
His words come uncertainly. In little surges. “It was, at first.”
“I understand.”
“I’d already fallen for you. But I didn’t see the whole you.”
“No, you didn’t,” she agrees.
“But you were still the woman you are. It took some soul-searching, though all the time I knew I loved you, and I realized how hypocritical my doubts were.” Grace gazes fondly up at him, letting him speak.
“I was an ass-hole. I didn’t deserve you. When I came into the restaurant and saw you, finally, I couldn’t face you.”
Grace reaches up to touch his face, pulling his lips to hers. His kiss is fiery and vibrant.
When their lips part, and they look lovingly into each other’s eyes, Grace says, “Yes, we do. We deserve each other.”
Chapter 58
~Darby
Brandon struts into Darby’s office, a big triumphant smile on his face. “Got ‘er,” he says. She was at Canada Place looking to get an expediated passport under the name - you guessed it.” He does a little victory dance. “Grace Hanson. She’s on her way here as we speak”
“And,” Darby can hardly contain her excitement. “the GPS from her car confirms our theory.” Well, mine. She grins to herself. “On May 11th her car left the cabin at 10:46 pm, drove to the Ritz and arrived back at the cabin at 1:35 am.” She jumps from her chair, high-fiving her partner. “Son oie est cuite!”
“Her goose is cooked,” Brandon says. “Did they print Ana’s phone?”
“They did. Only Ana’s prints show up, but we’ve got enough, don’t you think?”
“Guess we release Steve?”
“Absolutely. Not that he’ll be too happy about it.”
LATER, WHEN DARBY VISITS Chloe in the holding cell she’s reminded of a caged animal. Dangerous. Chloe’s shed her disguise and is back to being Chloe Williams, but now her face is ugly; twisted with hatred. She refuses to speak. It’s a short visit, and when Darby leaves she finds Grace in the precinct’s waiting room. It takes her aback. Chloe’s clone. But with a soulful presence.
Grace jumps up when she sees Darby. “Can I see her? Please?”
Do you know she just
tried to kill you?
‘I’ll take you,” Darby says. “She just got here, and hasn’t been officially charged yet. They’ll need to search you, though, and you’ll be recorded.”
Grace follows the policewoman to a room in holding. It is sparsely furnished with a table and two chairs. Cameras and recording devices are the only furnishings.
“Believe it or not, I’m glad you’re alive,” Chloe says, looking at Grace with a wide-eyed, earnest stare.
“Who ARE you?” Grace spits.
Chloe sits impassively. “Do you know you’re the only person I’ve ever cared about?”
Grace’s face crumples. “You tried to kill me.”
Chloe continues, “Aside from myself.”
Neither speak. Each gazes across the table at her own mirror image.
“I truly wanted to help you. Honestly, seeing you get better gave me pleasure. And I hoped it could be just you and me. Living together, doing things . . . ”
Grace is flabbergasted. She gawps at her sister, speechless.
“I had no choice. They were closing in on me. I had to appear dead.”
Grace fingers her tattoo, rubbing it over and over.
“I know you’ve always blamed me for making you sick that day, but Grace, you didn’t need to get away like I did. You had Lyn. You were her favorite. She knew about me.”
“What did she know?”
“She knew I was different.” Chloe thinks for a minute. “Like when our cat died. You cried your heart out, and I couldn’t even pretend to care. In fact the only thing I enjoyed about that cat was watching it kill birds and mice.”
Grace shivers with the memory. “Like the time you threw her into the wading pool?”
Chloe nods. “I couldn’t help it, you know. The only person or thing I ever cared about was you. But it was because you’re a part of me, Grace. We’re like two halves of the same person.”