A Simple Lie

by Mary Bush

  Although they were still a distance away from the river, Val could hear the rush of water from where she stood, at the top of the trail in Devil’s Hole Park.

  Gwen tightened the laces on her shoes and then bent over, touching her toes, stretching her legs in preparation for the hike. Jack had a map and pointed out where Jeanne’s skull was found, explaining where they would go once they reached the bottom of the Niagara Gorge.

  They were about to enter the walkway leading down the gorge to the water’s edge. Val read the state park sign posted at the entrance to the trail. The Devil’s Hole was a large cave that was once used by Seneca Indians as a hiding place in times of war. To keep the hiding place secret, all those who entered the area were killed and that section of the gorge quickly got a reputation as the home of a spirit of evil.

  The notoriety was intensified when the Senecas and British soldiers fought a fierce battle there in 1763. The Senecas were about to lose control of their land. They ambushed a wagon train, scalping the troops that accompanied it and the oxen and carts were driven over the cliffs. This skirmish was named the Devil’s Hole Massacre.

  This place certainly has a violent past. Val looked around. The terrain was rough, aggressive almost. Dense foliage covered the walls of the gorge. Thick woods lined the slopes down to the water’s edge. Leaves were budding, masking any view they might have had of the Niagara River from this vantage point. But you didn’t need a view to know the Lower Whirlpool Rapids were below; the thunderous pounding was an obvious sign.

  Val knew immediately this journey wasn’t going to be an easy one. She skeptically evaluated the condition of the near-vertical winding stone staircase that would bring them to the river’s edge. She examined the sign that stated the distance of the trail: “Two miles down.”

  Val reluctantly grabbed a rubber band from her pocket and pulled her hair into a ponytail. It was a warm day and she was already sweating. After some personal debate on the level of intense strenuous activity she was about to endure, she ventured down, slowly at first. The steep stones were in need of serious repair. They were jagged and worn away in many places, making the footing difficult. She slipped several times on just the first flight, becoming worried about breaking a leg somewhere on the rest of the journey. She stopped on the nearest landing, evaluating the crumbling condition of the next section. This wasn’t going to get any easier.

  As they made it farther, one landing at a time, the sound of the water grew louder, and at the one-mile marker Val looked back up to where they’d started, and immediately wished she hadn’t. Though the trail was intimidating in the direction they were going it was much more so in the opposite direction.

  “I’m more worried about the trip back to the top,” she said to Gwen. “A two-mile grueling StairMaster trip like that might kill me.” Val grew irritated as she watched Jack. He wasn’t even out of breath as he quickly moved down the stairs.

  “I’m already feeling like I could spit up a lung,” Gwen said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get back to our car.”

  They pressed onward, silently. The further she went, the worse it was getting. All Val wanted to do was reach the end. She was determined to just get this over with. She kept her head down, eyeing each stair, checking her footing to make sure she wouldn’t fall.

  When she finally reached the bottom, Val hobbled to the nearest rock to sit down. She rested her head and her hands, pushing the sweaty strands of hair that managed to escape from her rubber band, from her face. Her legs felt wobbly and she needed a moment to catch her breath. Gwen made Val scoot over and share the space on the rock.

  Jack laughed at them and after a few minutes said, “Well, come on. We still have a way to go.” He held the map out, pointing with his finger at their destination.

  Val reluctantly rose from her seat. Gwen did too and they both followed Jack wearily down the trail along the water’s edge.

  The more Val walked, the better she felt. It was much cooler down by the water and the trail was fairly flat here. She looked around and thought the view really was breathtaking this close-up. White caps covered the rushing water as it sped past them at about twenty-five miles an hour. Ten- to fifteen-foot waves churned, rolling forward. It appeared as if they would swallow and destroy anything in their path. Val stared, mesmerized, when the sound of Jack’s voice made her jump.

  “There. That’s where it was discovered!” he exclaimed.

  “How do we get over there?” Gwen asked.

  “I don’t know. It looks kind of dangerous,” Val said. She’d thought the walk down the stairs was treacherous but seeing where someone had to go to find this skull gave a new meaning to the term “unsafe terrain.” Along this part of the trail a section of rocks jutted out into the river. To get to the water, you’d have to walk a short distance out onto the rocks, some of which were mostly covered by the rushing water. Though it was close to the shore, the likelihood of slipping and being swept away by the current was pretty big.

  “How would a hiker have retrieved this? Who in their right mind would even go out there?” Gwen said. “The other remains have been purposely placed so they would be seen readily. But this is impossible to get to.”

  “A hiker didn’t retrieve it,” Jack said. “He saw what appeared to be a human skull and reported it to the police. The police recovered it.”

  “Why put it there then? Why risk your life to put it in a place where it was unlikely to be found?” Val asked.

  “This is why you should always visit the scene. It was probably tossed into the water upstream, then hit the rocks and got caught. That could be how it got to be broken,” Jack said. “So, the answer to your question, Val, is simple. I don’t think this particular skull was meant to be found.”

  29

  Val wasn’t having an easy time checking on Francine’s prescription for doxycycline. The doctor listed on the pharmacy records insisted that he had never prescribed it.

  “Are you certain, doctor?” Val asked. “It was called into the pharmacy. Maybe you forgot to record it?”

  “I don’t forget to record medications I prescribe by phone.” His answer was strong and to the point. The implication that the doctor could have made an error was not taken lightly.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest any omission on your part. It could have been simply overlooked.”

  “Again… I do not overlook such issues.”

  “Of course,” Val said diplomatically, almost humble at this point. Do you have any idea why she would need to take this drug? Did she ever complain of an infection?”

  “No.” There was silence after the one-word answer. Val sensed this discussion was over and thanked the doctor for his time.

  Francine must have had an infection. Julia also had one. They both needed the same antibiotic. They’re both now dead, killed the same way.

  There’s another person connected to this case who currently has an infection, Val thought. Colin Turner’s girlfriend has one. The one that Julia was accused of purposely giving her. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Three women tied to this case that had infections? Two murdered? Why is this woman the only one still alive?

  “Today,” Jack told Val, “You are going to learn to question suspects.” She happily agreed because that suspect would be Lauren Fitzgibbons, Colin Turner’s girlfriend. Val was Thomas’s and Jack’s best choice to be at the interrogation. She had a good knowledge of drugs and infections, plus she had some insight from Julia DeHaviland herself that this woman somehow helped Colin set Julia up.

  The big problem with all of this though: Dr. Blythe must not find out what Val is doing.

  “Val, to protect your identity, you’ll be working undercover,” Jack further explained. He said it like this was no big deal.

  To Val, it was huge. “Holy crap, what do I do?”

  “Interrogation is all about asking questions that seem innocent. With some of them, you have better knowledge of than your subject. Some will make your sus
pect wonder how much you really know. When you jockey for control, that’s when they mess up. But be careful. Never be too confident unless you know you can be.”

  Val took a deep breath: the instructions only made her more nervous.

  “How am I going to get my money now that the bitch is dead?” Lauren wasn’t a person who held back on what she was thinking. Her disfigurement could have easily caused this nasty demeanor, but equally possible was that maybe, she had always been this way. At this point, Val couldn’t really tell.

  A temporary prosthesis hid the lost section of her face, but the material gaped and the chin portion didn’t fit properly. Lauren resembled a worn rag doll with a fraying face.

  One of her wounds still wasn’t healing and serious measures were being taken to keep it under control. She had what Val recognized as a catheter for intravenous antibiotics on her arm, an aggressive attempt to prevent the infection from spreading. Lauren explained that the infection had been waxing and waning for months, since the surgery. Luckily, it hadn’t caused any further loss of tissue. However, it was obvious she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Lauren confirmed, though, that out of all the antibiotics she was given none were doxycycline.

  “Your lawsuit is something you’re going to have to discuss with your lawyers. Colin hired us for other matters,” Thomas said.

  Val learned Thomas and Jack had questioned Colin at great length that morning about how Lauren acquired this infection. Other than his own opinion that Julia did it on purpose, Colin gave them nothing solid to follow up on. But, in the end he did say something interesting, though it took some pulling to get it out.

  Colin finally admitted that when he returned home that night from Julia’s, Lauren wasn’t there. She didn’t return home until the next day.

  While she was crude, Val sensed that Lauren Fitzgibbons probably had a lifetime of men surrounding her. Several photographs were on display around the room, depicting the woman she’d been, and she had been gorgeous. Those days were certainly over and clearly her personality wasn’t going to make up for her looks.

  “Can you tell us what happened the night of Julia’s murder?” Jack asked. Val knew her own questions would focus on three subjects: drugs, infections and Colin’s affair. Everything else would be left to Jack and Thomas.

  “She called and asked him to come over.” Lauren seemed angry as she spoke, her arms crossed tightly, making it obvious she didn’t approve of Colin’s trip to Julia’s house.

  “Did he tell you at the time where he was going? Or did you find out later?”

  “We have no secrets,” she snapped. “I knew.”

  “You didn’t care that he was going to his wife’s house?” Jack raised his eyebrows.

  “He only went there to find out what the hell was going on. We both knew she was up to something. He could have spent as much time as he wanted with her. I couldn’t have cared less. I had no reason to be jealous of that nasty bitch.” She glared at Jack. Her fingers began to drum hard on her crossed arms.

  Jack just nodded in an exaggerated manner, emphasizing he didn’t believe Lauren’s response. “Did he call you before he came home?”

  She hesitated.

  “We can check phone records.”

  “Yes, he called.” Her words were slow, cautious.

  “What did he say to you?”

  “He said Julia didn’t have any money and she fixed everything to ruin us.”

  “What did you say to that? Were you angry?” Jack inquired further.

  “Anybody would have been angry. You have no idea what she was like. She had everything planned. She wanted to destroy us. First me, then Colin.”

  “Weren’t you trying to do that to her? Destroy her, that is. You were already having an affair with her husband when you befriended her,” Val said. Julia had suspected Lauren knew that Colin was married. Val decided to see how Lauren reacted to the accusation.

  “When I befriended her?” Lauren sat forward and pointed a finger at Val. “Where the hell did you hear that crap from?”

  “Julia. That was her version of the story.”

  “I’ll tell you what shit her version of the story was. She came up to me one day in the gym and commented on my haircut. She asked where I had it done. I told her the name of the salon. That’s all I had to do with her.” Lauren almost spat out the words.

  “But then the two of you started to do things together,” Val said.

  “More like she wouldn’t leave me alone. She started talking to me more and more at the gym and then she asked me to have lunch with her. I didn’t know who she was. I didn’t know she was Colin’s wife. She and Colin have different last names and he never said her first name. He always said ‘my soon-to-be-ex.’” Laurens’s demeanor grew increasingly heated as she spoke. “Hell, I didn’t even like her.”

  Val sat forward. “Then why go off and do things with someone you don’t like? You did have lunch with her on more than one occasion, am I correct? In fact, you did many things with her; things friends do. That doesn’t sound like someone you didn’t like.” Val remembered what Julia had told her and pressed Lauren on it.

  Lauren appeared to be caught off guard. She sat back in her chair, seeming to search for an appropriate answer. “I found out she was a plastic surgeon. I don’t know many plastic surgeons. So, I was interested.”

  “Interested in what? What she could do for you?” Jack said.

  “Interested in having a fellow professional friend.” Lauren glared at Jack.

  “Oh yes, I’m sorry. You found it necessary to have a professional equal as your friend. And might I ask what your profession is?”

  Lauren didn’t answer. What remained of her jaw clenched hard.

  “Were you even employed when you met Julia?” he asked.

  Lauren lurched forward, looking as if she wanted to tear Jack in two.

  “When did you go to Julia’s office for the first time?” Thomas spoke up quickly.

  Lauren’s chest heaved with anger. Thomas repeated the question, once and then a second time.

  “She asked me to work for her. She asked me to stop by and check out the office. Later, she offered to remove my mole free of charge, practically insisted on it.” The words were rattled off in quick orchestrated succession. Val couldn’t help but think that this wasn’t the first time Lauren had said this explanation.

  “And you agreed to it?” Thomas asked.

  “Yeah, she was going to do it for free and it’s something I’d been wanting to do for a while. If I had known who she was, I never would have let her touch me. I started with the infection the next day. She did it on purpose. She knew who I was.” Lauren sat back in her chair.

  “Did she ever say that to you? That she knew?” he asked.

  Lauren paused.

  Thomas said it again. “Did she ever tell you that she knew you were having an affair with her husband?”

  “Christ, she had to have known. No one is that stupid.”

  “What would make you think that?”

  “Colin was out almost every night with me. You don’t think she was suspicious? If my husband was out every night, I’d wonder where he was going.”

  “When did Colin leave her?”

  “Right after I got the infection,” Lauren said. “He was going to leave her anyway. This just sped things up. He saw her as a monster for doing this to me. He couldn’t stand her after that.”

  “That’s awfully convenient then, isn’t it? You just said it ‘sped things up.’ Made him not stand her. Maybe he wouldn’t have left Julia otherwise,” Jack said.

  “Colin loves me! Not her. He was just worried about hurting her feelings!”

  Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Thomas intercepted. “How long were you with Colin before he left Julia?”

  “About eight months.”

  Thomas’s eyes opened wide. “You were with Colin before he married Julia?”

  “Yes,” Lauren said with confidence. Her eyes were piercing
, challenging him. Daring him to ask more.

  “How did you feel when he married her? Had you expected him to call off the wedding and marry you instead?” Val asked.

  Lauren scoffed. “No. Colin and I weren’t serious at the beginning. It was just a fling for both of us. I couldn’t have cared less that he was getting married. Do you want to marry someone after you’ve only known them for about a month? I’m not some psycho-bitch.”

  “But, you continued the affair,” Val said.

  “Yeah, the sex was good. I didn’t fall in love with him until later.”

  Val thought for a moment and then asked, “How did you two meet?”

  “It was at a convention. My boyfriend was off somewhere doing God knows what and I was bored. I met Colin that night at the bar. His fiancé had gone to bed.”

  “That fiancé was Julia?” Val asked.

  “I told you I didn’t know who she was at the time.” The words were venomous.

  “I see. Let me get back to the night Julia died. What did Colin say to you on the phone that night when he called?” Jack said.

  “He said he needed time to cool off, to think before he came home.”

  “Did he tell you he was going back to talk to her?”

  “No. Why the hell would he do that?” Lauren looked disgusted.

  “He wanted to try to get his wife to take him back,” Jack answered, carefully leaving out the part that Colin was only pretending to string Julia along.

  “That’s a lie.”

  “We have a neighbor who saw him go back to the house,” Thomas said.

  “That’s hardly the same as trying to get her to take him back. Did he tell the neighbor that’s what he planned to do?” she said sarcastically.

  “What would you say if I told you the neighbor didn’t tell us that part?” Jack asked.

  “See, you’re making shit up. That’s what you’re doing.”