90_Minutes_to_Live (18 page)

“Oh. Does she want the ring back?” she clutched her hand protectively to her chest.

“No.” Kevin put his arm around her. “I think she was just surprised, that’s all. She gave me her number. I’ll call her tomorrow when she’s calmer, to get the whole story.”

On Monday, it was back to work for Kevin. Justine felt slightly nervous but aside from the encounter with the woman at the farmer’s market, everything had been going smoothly; no more voices, no more pain and no presence of some unseen ghost. She shuddered a bit, thinking about it. However, she much preferred the idea the house was haunted over the realization she was mentally ill. Ghosts she could handle but struggling with her own demons? That seemed much more terrifying. Unfortunately, she was now convinced it was
her
all along. Maybe the trauma from losing the baby had taken her illness to some whole new level?

Still, she was determined to start over. They deserved a good life. Antsy with those thoughts, she decided to tackle the overgrown rose bushes along the side of the house. Justine stood in front of them, surveying the mess. The roses had been left to grow wild, their stems crisscrossing along the house to form a dense hedge. She was just about to grab the shears and get to work when a flash of red caught her eye.

She walked over to the end of the hedge and shook her head in disbelief. A rose? At this time of year? She was reminded of the woman who used to live there before her. Rose Palmer. Justine smiled. She wondered if Rose’s lover had planted the garden for her. Had they been happily married? Did they have children? Justine fingered her ring. They certainly had good taste in jewelry.

Sighing, she reached over to pick the rose. The wind picked up a little and a shivering chill went down her spine. And then she stiffened.

Justine.

Scarcely breathing, she stood still, straining to listen. But she heard nothing but the wind whistling through the trees. She felt angry at herself. When was she going to be able to relax and enjoy her new life? She reached out for the rose again and just as she coiled her fingers around the stem, she felt a heavy hand on hers. A body pressed up against her from behind and she felt hot breath on the back of her neck.

It’s just my imagination
, she tensed.
It’s all in my head.

An unseen arm slipped around her waist and she was held tightly against the presence behind her. “Leave me alone,” she said aloud, panic in her voice.

A slut like you doesn’t deserve such a pretty flower.

Justine cried out as she felt her thumb being twisted. There was a thorn just below her hand and she saw what was about to happen. “Please,” she begged, shaking with fear, like a frail autumn leaf. She helplessly watched her thumb stretch out, over the thorn. It was forced downward slowly. She winced as the tip pierced her skin and then screamed as her flesh was penetrated. She felt it cut through her finger until the tip was pressing against the underside of her thumbnail.

Then suddenly, the pressure was gone and the presence holding her prisoner, had vanished. She stood sobbing, with her thumb stuck to the rose stem, not knowing what to do. Her mind was whirling with thoughts, but none of them made sense. She couldn’t possibly have done that to herself, she had felt a
man
standing behind her, with his arm holding her tightly to him, as his hand pushed her thumb down onto the thorn. Yet she hadn’t seen anyone.

Carefully, she pulled her thumb away from the stem. The pain was throbbing through her hand, shooting up her arm.
I’m crazy
, she thought.
I am stark raving mad.
She was numb with shock and fear.
I’m going to go into the house, make some mint tea and call Kevin to come home.
If she could just put one foot in front of the other and engage in something as normal as making tea, then maybe everything would be all right. She just needed to get through the next hour or so, until Kevin came home.

*   *   *

He sat at his desk at school, phone in hand. He glanced down at the sheet of paper from the woman at the market and dialed the number she’d written. It was only a few rings until someone picked up.

“Hello?” a woman answered.

“Hi, um, this is Kevin Archer. We met briefly at the farmer’s market on Sunday,” he paused, unsure of how to continue. “You were upset about my fiancé’s ring….”

The woman inhaled sharply. “Oh, yes,” she was quiet for a moment and then she went on. “I’m sorry to have reacted so hysterically.”

Kevin fidgeted with the phone cord. “Oh, you don’t have to apologize. I’m sure it was a shock seeing your sister’s ring on my girlfriend’s finger.”

“It was indeed.”

“Listen, um, I’m sorry, what is your name?”

“Jane.”

“Listen Jane, if you want money or some kind of compensation for the ring, I’d be happy to arrange something with you. Justine loves the ring and I know she wouldn’t want to part with it.”

“She might if she knew what it was made of.”

“Excuse me?” Kevin was confused. Was the diamond not real?

“This might make more sense if we start at the beginning. First, you should know David was madly in love with my sister. She couldn’t help but be taken in by his romance. He doted on her day and night. The whole family was smitten with him. He treated my sister like a queen and he thought she was as perfect as her name. For a while, his gestures seemed sweet. He planted rose gardens for her and placed rose accents throughout the house. Surely, you have noticed them.”

“I have. Justine pointed them out to me actually. She thought they were romantic.”

Jane sighed. “They started off that way. But by the time they were married, his fixation with my sister had grown obsessive. Have you heard of Life Gems?”

“Life Gems? Um, no, I haven’t.”

“It’s a company that takes a lock of hair and turns it into a diamond.”

Kevin laughed. “What? That’s crazy.”

“No, it’s true. They make diamonds out of cremated remains as well.”

Kevin grimaced. “That’s kind of creepy.”

“Yes, that’s what I thought. When Rose told me David had a diamond made for her out of a lock of his hair, I didn’t even know what to say. I mean, the ring was beautiful but it seemed a bit over-the-top that she would be wearing his DNA on her finger for the rest of her life. A little much, don’t you think?”

“You’re telling me that the ring on Justine’s finger is made out of this guy’s hair? God, that’s disturbing.”

Jane laughed bitterly. “If you think that’s disturbing, wait until you hear the rest.”

*   *   *

Justine stood in front of the stove looking at the pot of water on the burner. They really needed to get a proper kettle. She had been staring at the pot for five minutes, her mind a tumbleweed of thoughts. Bubbles boiling to the surface brought Justine out of her daze for a minute.
So much for a watched pot never boiling
, she thought.

As she reached for the handle, she felt a hand clamp around her arm again.
Oh my God
, she reeled.
this can’t be happening!
Nausea hit her stomach and goosebumps popped up along her skin. Her arm was yanked till her hand was directly above the pot, the steam scalding her skin. Before she even had time to react, her hand suddenly plunged into the boiling liquid. After only a few seconds, layers of skin began to peel away. The searing, fiery pain was like nothing she had ever experienced and it took over every fiber of her body.

The guttural screams coming out of Justine’s mouth sounded like a wounded animal’s. Thirty seconds of total agony passed before Justine’s arm was released and she was able to pull her hand out of the water. Those seconds were the longest of her life. She’d screamed her throat raw and had vomited from the pain. The damage was severe. Her skin blistered and peeled—it hung in translucent strips, the absent skin exposing veins and tendons that looked like thin, slimy snakes on the back of her deformed hand.

Sickened and blinded from the torture, Justine managed to run out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She halted, shaking, at the top of the landing to steady herself - her legs almost gave out. Her cell phone was on the bedroom dresser. She could only focus on getting to that phone and calling for help.

*   *   *

Kevin’s mouth hung open in disbelief. “Your sister was what?”

“Rose was murdered,” Jane said for the second time. “I’m sorry. I’m jumping too far ahead again. Look, I really want you to know none of us saw it coming. David may have been jealous but we thought he loved her so much. We didn’t think that the jealousy would drive him mad.”

“David murdered Rose? That’s so awful,” Kevin could never imagine harming Justine, in any way.

“One day, Rose showed up at my house in tears and with a goose-egg sized knot on her forehead. She said it was an argument with David, he accused her of sleeping around. Then he lost his temper completely and pushed her down the stairs. Then she confessed that wasn’t the first time he hurt her. She told me he had also burned her with boiling water, forced her thumb onto the rosebush thorns. And, he sliced her with a razor.”

Kevin gasped. “Wait, he sliced her with a razor?” he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

“Yes,” Jane said, emotion creeping into her voice. “She even showed me the scar on her inner thigh.”

“Jane, thank you so much for telling me about what happened to Rose. I really think I need to get home to Justine.”

“Wait, there’s more!” Jane sounded frantic. “Please, you should know what happened.”

Kevin looked anxiously at the clock. Justine had already been alone in the house for two hours. “Okay, but please hurry.”

“I’ll make it quick,” Jane agreed. “Rose stayed with me for a few days. I’m not sure what made her go back to the house alone. She had been talking about confronting him but I thought she would have had the good sense to take someone with her. I think she was still in shock and wasn’t fully aware of what she was doing. Anyway, when I got home from work and discovered Rose was no longer at my place, I drove straight to her house.” Jane’s voice broke, “But I was too late - I found my sister…stabbed to death.”

“I’m so sorry,” Kevin said, his eyes tearing up. “It is a horrible thing to lose a loved one. Jane, I am so sorry to hang up on you like this but I really do need to go. Just tell me one last thing. What happened to David?”

“David was also dead by the time I got there. He had hung himself in the attic.”

*   *   *

Her world was spinning but Justine knew she had to get to her phone. Despite feeling like she was inside a dreidel, she managed to step off the landing and into the hallway. About to take another step, she was suddenly grabbed and thrown roughly against the wall.

You’ve been sleeping around, haven’t you?
A voice hissed in her ear.
I have seen the way men look at you, like they’ve been inside your pants.

A hand tightened around her throat, choking her, blurring her vision. Her throat was released but she didn’t have a chance to catch her breath before she felt herself picked up and hurtled through the air. She fell down the stairs like a life-sized Slinky—head over heels until she landed at the bottom, her forehead slamming into the wall.

She lay in a heap, not wanting to, nor able to move; helpless. She wondered if this was how her baby felt, when his breath was sucked out of him by some unknown force. She could do nothing but lay there and let the events unfold.

She didn’t have to wait long. Within moments,
someone
grabbed a fistful of her hair and dragged her across the floor into the kitchen. She was jerked to her feet and pulled toward the kitchen counter. Justine thought,
And now I know what it’s like to be a marionette.

Once again, she was prisoner in the iron-grip of a cruel embrace. A block of knives faced her on the counter like a firing squad and she knew what was next. She felt her arm clutched firmly, forced toward the knives. The glint from the diamond on her ring caught her eye and suddenly…
she knew
. She could sense that
whatever
held her captive—it was connected to the ring.

She was too emotionally numb to care however. Her head was throbbing, her whole body was bruised, aching and the pain from her right hand was agony. Locked in that deadly embrace and with her scalded hand useless, she couldn’t have taken the ring off if she tried. She had given up all hope, and then heard Kevin calling her name.

*   *   *

When he opened the front door, the first thing he saw was a trail of blood leading from the bottom of the stairs to the kitchen. The blood was smeared on the floor, as if someone had been dragged. He closed his eyes for a moment, knowing it had been Justine. He cried out her name and ran into the kitchen.

He stopped in his tracks when he saw her crumpled over the counter, her body mangled and bloody, her arm raised high with a knife clutched in her hand.

“Justine!” he cried, running to her.

His entrance was enough to break the spell for just a moment and she let the knife fall to the floor. Then he was by her side, grabbing her hand and yanking the ring off her finger. Justine was released the second the ring was gone and she immediately had control of her body again. She collapsed into Kevin’s arms, sobbing.