Rachel will find out you spent time in the mental institution at Bolivar.
“You’re crazy! I did not go to a mental institution.”
You’re lying, girl. You were there three years. And Rachel’s smart. She’ll find out.
“She’s not as smart as I am. Just leave me alone.” Was it true? Did they really put her away for three years? And her father. If he was dead, why did she keep hearing his voice?
46
BY FIVE O’CLOCK, Rachel had reviewed every frame of surveillance video taken from Friday night until after Culver’s collapse on Saturday. Nothing stood out. She might as well have been at home, for all the good she’d done. Her cell phone rang and she answered.
“I-it’s m-me, Erin.”
Erin never called her. “Honey? Are you okay?”
A muffled sob came through the line. “Terri can’t take me to Elvis’s house to light my candle tonight. Can you?”
Rachel’s heart sank. Erin had been looking forward to this for weeks. “Why can’t she take you?”
“She’s sick.”
Another call beeped in. Terri. “Hold on a sec. I think she’s calling me now.” Rachel switched over to the other call. “Terri?”
“Yeah. Look, can you take Erin to Graceland tonight? That migraine last night? It’s had me with a vengeance, and while it’s easing, it’ll be another hour before I can function—too late for the vigil.”
“Hold on a second, let me check.” Rachel looked around for Boone. He was looking through a file. “I’m done here. Do you need me any longer?”
He looked up. “No, there’s nothing else for you to do.”
She gave him a thumbs-up. Maybe this desk job wasn’t all bad. “I can take her. But don’t forget, Boone wants to speak to you.”
“I know. He’s called a dozen times, but I just couldn’t answer the phone.”
“Call him as soon as you can. Let me tell Erin I can take her.”
She switched the call again and was surprised Erin was still there. “I’ll come pick you up in half an hour, okay?”
“Really?” Her voice brightened. “Can I wear my new red shoes?”
“Of course.” Rachel smiled. It took so little to make Erin happy. “See you soon.”
After she hung up, she grabbed her keys. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Where are you going?”
“You said you didn’t need me so I’m taking Erin to Graceland. Oh, and Terri is in bed with a migraine. I told her to call you.”
Boone frowned. “Are you certain you want to get in that crowd?”
“I don’t have any choice now. I told Erin I’d be there.”
“I don’t like it.”
“It will be fine. We’ll be out there with thirty thousand other people.” Thirty thousand? She hadn’t thought this through.
Donna stuck her head in the doorway. “I didn’t know you were here. Happy birthday.”
“Thanks.”
The office manager turned to Boone. “I’m leaving a little bit early. Going to get my place at Graceland’s candlelight service.”
“You too?” Rachel said. “Wait and I’ll walk out with you.”
“Wait—” His cell phone rang, cutting him off.
She waved him off. “Donna and I will hang out together. We’ll be fine.”
Rachel left him talking on his phone and walked to the elevator with the office manager. She glanced at the cropped palazzo pants and the loose-fitting top her friend wore. “Love your outfit,” she said. Then she noticed the umbrella Donna carried. “Is it supposed to rain?”
“The weatherman said there might be thunderstorms, but they should hold off until after the vigil,” Donna said. “I didn’t know you ever went to this.”
“I don’t usually. But I just now promised Erin I’d take her. There are some perks to not working the case.” She let Donna go first on the elevator. There were several people riding down with them and neither of them spoke until they’d exited the elevator.
“So you have to pick up Erin?”
Rachel nodded. “But I’d like for us to hang out with you. Where do you want to meet?”
Donna smiled. “I have an idea. Parking is going to be murder as well as finding you two in that crowd. Why don’t I just follow you to Erin’s and we’ll go in my car from there? You can pick your car up when we take her home.”
She hadn’t been looking forward to driving in all the traffic that was sure to be near Graceland. “You don’t mind?”
“Of course not. It’ll give me a chance to get to know Erin better. Your father acts really fond of her.”
“Yes, he is. How is it going with you two?”
“Really well. Of course, he’s preoccupied with the ricin deal. He had to call a mistrial, you know.”
No, she didn’t. Maybe the whole ricin thing had been about getting a mistrial. “Just remember he’s been single a long time. Don’t set your sights on marriage.”
Donna grinned at her. “Don’t worry about me. But if I do, he’ll come around. Everyone usually does, one way or the other.”
47
BOONE HURRIED UP THE STEPS to the Med. Randy Culver’s nurse had called with the message that Culver had remembered something and wanted to see him. Boone started to call Rachel and decided to wait until he knew if the information was important.
Culver was dressed and sitting on the side of the bed. “Are you being discharged?” Boone asked.
“Tomorrow,” he said. “Doc says I’m going to be fine.”
And he looked much better. “Do you have anyone to stay with you?”
“He didn’t think I needed anyone.” Culver pinned him with a hard look. “Do you have any leads on who switched my bottle of insulin? Still can’t figure out why anyone would do something like that.”
“I believe it has to do with Vic Vegas’s death. I think his killer saw him tell you something Friday night.”
Culver pressed his hands to his head. “I started getting bits and pieces of what happened this weekend earlier today, but I don’t see how anything we talked about could be that important.”
“What do you remember?”
He looked up. “Vic asked me again about Harrison Foxx. Had I ever heard that he gambled a lot—that was the first time we talked. Told him I barely remembered Foxx. The next time, Vic showed me this necklace and asked if I remembered seeing it. I thought he was crazy, but he said it was important. That it belonged to some woman who had died. Then he said something about Harrison Foxx, but I can’t remember what.”
Could the woman be Gabby Winslow? “Can you describe the necklace?”
“It was either platinum or white gold and shaped like a guitar. And it had diamonds in it. Really nice. Told him I’d never seen it before, and believe me, I would have remembered if I had. That thing cost some money.”
“Did he say where he got it?”
“If he did, I don’t remember, but that conversation didn’t last over thirty seconds,” Culver said. “I had to go on stage and I was concentrating on my song anyway. When I finished, Vic was gone. And the next day, I learned he was dead.”
“Do you remember anyone he talked to? Especially a woman.”
“Let me think.” He scratched his jaw and looked down at the floor. “Everything is such a blur, and he was always talking to someone . . . but I do remember this woman with dark hair . . .” He looked up. “Yeah, I remember now. Vic was talking to her . . .” He shook his head. “Wait. Monica. He stopped and talked to her just before I went on stage.”
Monica could have easily switched Culver’s insulin, and she had been at the hospital every day. Checking to see what he remembered? “Did he have the necklace when he talked to her?”
“I don’t know. It’s all jumbled in my mind.”
“Do you think you could describe the necklace and the other woman to a sketch artist?”
“The necklace, yeah, but I’m not sure about the woman. They were sitting in a dark cor
ner of the room. Mostly what I remember is the hair.”
Boone took out his phone and dialed a forensic sketch artist he knew. She agreed to bring her sketchpad to the hospital. He hung up and turned to Culver. “Someone’s coming by in the next hour. Just do the best you can.”
When he returned to the office, Lucien Winslow was waiting for him in the conference room. “Hello, sir. Don’t get up,” he said as the older man started to stand. After shaking hands with the Judge, Boone sat behind his desk.
“Sorry I’m late,” the Judge said. “Is Rachel around? I have something to say and wanted her in on it.”
“She just picked up Erin to take her to Graceland.”
“I’d forgotten about that. It’s just as well, I guess. I doubt she’s told you, but I had an argument with Harrison Foxx the night he was murdered. She learned about it yesterday, and I’m afraid it’s put her in a hard place.”
“Yeah, I know about the argument.”
“Then you know Foxx tried to blackmail me.” He tilted his head. “I’m surprised she told you.”
“She didn’t. It came out during a conversation with Monica Carpenter.”
He leaned forward. “And that’s why you took her off the case?”
“Yes. She’s too close to it. Although I did assign her some desk tasks.”
“I should have called you as soon as I knew she had the information,” he said.
Boone leveled his gaze at the Judge. “I don’t know all the details. Would you like to explain?”
48
RACHEL LOOKED IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR. Erin fidgeted as she stared out the window. She should’ve had Donna meet them closer to Graceland. Erin didn’t do well in the back seat by herself. And it didn’t help that Donna practically ignored Erin as Rachel complimented Erin’s heart pendant and new shoes. Just now they’d finished discussing Rachel’s sandals, and she was about out of topics to talk about.
A traffic light turned red, catching her as she shifted lanes to avoid a slow-moving car. While she waited, Rachel drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and tried to puzzle out how they ended up in her car. When she had returned to her car after signing Erin out of the group home, Donna was sitting in the front passenger seat of Rachel’s Honda. And the office manager had been very quiet.
“You okay?” Rachel asked her as they pulled away from the light.
“My stomach is bothering me. Must have been something I ate.”
Erin leaned toward the front seat. “Donna has an Elvis necklace. Do you think she would let me wear it?”
“An Elvis necklace?” Rachel said and glanced toward Donna with an apologetic smile. Since she wasn’t wearing a necklace, where had Erin come up with that question? “I don’t know, but you can ask her—she’s sitting right there. Although if she has one, it’s probably at her house.”
“No, you ask her.”
Rachel sighed. Sometimes her friend’s social graces needed work.
“What are you talking about?” Donna snapped. “I don’t have an Elvis necklace.”
The older woman’s sharp tone made Rachel flinch. Evidently Erin wasn’t the only one who lacked tact. She checked the rearview mirror, hoping Erin would let the matter drop. She could get so obsessed with a subject sometimes, especially when it came to jewelry, but Erin stared out the backseat window, fingering the small heart pendant hanging from the chain around her neck, and Rachel relaxed a little. Her cell phone rang, and she grabbed it off the dash and thumbed the answer button. “Hello?”
Then she frowned as she noticed that the fuel gauge was almost on empty. She’d forgotten to fill up this morning.
“Where are you?”
Boone’s voice blasted into the car, jolting her. She’d accidentally put the call on speakerphone. “Just picked up Erin at the group home and we’re on our way to Graceland. Hold on a sec.” She managed to take the call off speaker.
“Is that Boone?” Erin said, unbuckling her seat belt and leaning between the front seats.
“Erin, you have to keep your seat belt fastened. Okay?”
“I don’t want to. I want to talk to Boone!”
“Buckle up or we’ll turn around and go home.”
“No!” But she complied, albeit with a frown.
“Okay, I’m back. What’s up?” she asked.
“I talked earlier with Randy Culver, and he’s starting to remember this weekend. Said Vic Vegas showed him a guitar-shaped necklace with diamonds.”
Adrenaline shot through Rachel’s body. A guitar-shaped necklace? That was the necklace Culver couldn’t remember? She’d only seen one like it in her life. The one Harrison Foxx had given her mother the night she died. How had she forgotten it?
In her peripheral vision, Donna sat up straighter. Then Rachel had to concentrate on traffic as a car cut in front of them, and she almost rear-ended it.
“Are you still there?” Boone asked.
“Yes. Traffic is awful. I’ll call you as soon as I can.” She dropped her phone in her bag, her mind whirling. Was it possible? There couldn’t be that many diamond guitar pendants around. She wished she’d asked if he knew where Vic got it.
In the back seat, Erin leaned forward. “I want to go to Donna’s house and get her Elvis necklace,” she said. “So I can wear it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I told you I don’t have any such necklace.”
Rachel glanced toward Donna and stiffened. Donna’s face had turned dark and brooding. And her eyes . . . What was going on with her? “I’ll handle this,” she said quietly. “Erin, sweetie, we don’t have time.”
Erin crossed her arms. “But she’s telling a fib, and you’re not supposed to do that. She had it on when I saw her with Elvis.”
Terri had said she’d taken Erin to the Elvis tribute contest at Blues & Such Friday night. She must have seen Donna then.
Donna snorted. “Elvis is dead.” She fidgeted with something in her pocket. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“No! I saw him Friday night. He gave me his shiny tie.”
Erin was talking about Vic. She looked in the mirror again, and Erin’s face had turned red. A meltdown was coming if Rachel didn’t divert her attention. “You can wear my necklace,” she said. “As soon as we get parked.”
“No! I want that one. It’s pretty.” She pulled against the seat belt as she leaned toward the front seat. “I know why she won’t let me wear it. Elvis took it when he yelled at her.
“‘Give me that necklace!’” Erin lowered her voice in a good imitation of Vic’s Southern drawl. “‘This is the necklace Harrison gave Gabby! You killed her and then you killed Harrison when he found out.’”
Rachel’s world upended. She tried to get her breath, but it was frozen in her chest.
Erin spoke in Vic’s voice again. “‘I’m taking this to Rachel Sloan and—’”
“Shut. Up.” Donna jerked her seat belt off and reached over the seat for Erin. She was surprisingly fast.
“Leave her alone!” Rachel swerved, dumping Donna back in the seat. Then she saw the small pistol in her hand. “What are you doing? Are you crazy?”
“Shut up and keep driving. Turn right at the next corner.”
“I want to go home,” Erin whimpered in the back seat.
Donna poked the gun in Rachel’s ribs. “Either you find a way to keep her from talking, or I will.”
“I’m pulling over. We need to discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss. Keep driving or I’ll shoot her.”
“Ra-chel!” Erin wailed. “Take me home!”
“I’m warning you. Keep her quiet . . .”
Rachel’s mind raced. Erin hadn’t made up what she heard. Donna had killed Vic. And the only way she could have had the necklace . . . Rachel was going to be sick.
Focus.
She tried to recall what she’d learned in the hostage negotiation classes she’d taken and tried not to let her mind go to the fact that the woman she tho
ught was a friend had killed at least two people. Focus. Keep the hostage-taker calm. That started with not letting Erin irritate her.
“Erin, honey,” she said, keeping her voice soft. “I need you to be really quiet. Okay? If you are, I’ll find you a pretty Elvis necklace.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
She took her eyes off the road long enough to look in the mirror again. Erin had settled back against the seat. Good. Now Rachel had to find a way out of this. She glanced at the gas gauge again. It was past empty. They couldn’t go far. Maybe if they stopped she could get someone’s attention.
“We’re almost out of gas,” she said.
“Drive,” Donna commanded. “What did you do with your cell phone?”
Rachel did not want to give up her phone. She flinched when Donna poked her in the ribs again with the pistol. “In my bag. Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t have any choice. All you had to do was drop Vic’s case, but you wouldn’t do it.” Desperation had crept into Donna’s voice. That was never good.
“I don’t understand.”
“Just keep your eyes on the road.” With the pistol still trained on Rachel, Donna pulled the phone from Rachel’s purse and stuck it in her pocket.
She had to get the phone back. It was the only way she could contact Boone for help. Wait. She still had her automatic. Back at the garage, she’d taken it off and put it under her seat. If she could find a way to get her gun, she would have a fighting chance to save them.
Rachel licked her lips. “There’s no need for this to go any further. I’ll pull over and let you get out.”
“You don’t understand. I’m not going anywhere. Not until I take care of you.” She slammed her fist on the console. “This is all your fault!”
Another traffic light caught them, and she risked a glance at Donna. Their gazes collided. The wild look in her eyes made Rachel’s blood run cold. This couldn’t be happening. And especially not with Erin in the car. She couldn’t let anything happen to her. Get your automatic. She couldn’t. Not with Donna holding a gun and looking at her like she’d seen a ghost.
“G-Gabby?” Donna drew back against the door. “Go away.”
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