Lust, Loathing and a Little Lip Gloss (28 page)

Wherever he had been listening from it had been closer than I had thought.

I lunged for the couch and was able to stuff the recording between the cushions and get back to my seat by the coffee table before he found the right key and threw open the door.

“She’s here!” he exclaimed excitedly.

I kept my seat and looked at him coldly. “I knew it,” I said icily. “She didn’t speak to me at all, did she? You set this up? Tell me, Kane, how the hell did you get that glass to fall off the bookcase?”

“What?” he asked. His head swiveled from side to side as he searched for something that wasn’t there. “I didn’t set this up! I heard her voice! You heard it, too! You spoke with my mother!”

“I spoke to a female voice,” I snapped and got to my feet. “I have no idea who the voice belonged to, but I bet you do.”

“You can’t think I’m behind this!” Kane said desperately. He walked over to the bookcase and, bending down, scooped up a handful of glass.

“What are you doing?” I shouted.

Fresh lines of blood crossed his palm, but Kane ignored his injuries. Instead he looked up at the ceiling, his eyes wild and frenzied.
“Mother!”
he shouted. “I’m here! It’s me!
Please, talk to me!
”

“Are you trying to frighten me?” I asked. I had planned to say that. It was part of the act. The problem was that I no longer felt like I was acting. Kane was really crazy and being in the same room with him was beginning to scare the shit out of me.

“Sophie,” he said, finally bringing his gaze to me, “I need you to believe me. I didn’t have a hand in this. You spoke to my mother. You reached out to her with your gifts and it worked! Now please,
please,
get her to speak to me!”

I took a step forward, my hands clenched into fists. “You want me to believe you?” I asked. “How can I do that, Kane? How do you explain the way you barged in here? I didn’t call you. I haven’t told you anything about what just happened and yet, you seem to know.”

“I…” Kane looked around the room again and for the first time he was the one who looked scared. “I was listening in. You can be mad, that’s okay, and I’ll make it up to you, but please, don’t take her away from me again! You contacted her! You called her to you! Please, Sophie! Call her back for me?”

“Listening in, how?”

Kane swallowed hard. I had wanted to revert him to the role of a child and I had succeeded. He was lost and he wanted his mommy.

“I have this place bugged,” he admitted. “And the footsteps and the doorbell and the lights…that was all me, too. I had an electrician rig the whole house right before you moved in. It’s still my house so I can do that. See, I needed you to believe, to spur you into action…and it worked! I didn’t do the glass that broke, though—so it worked!”

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could he did something totally unexpected. He actually fell to his knees. “It was wrong, I know it was wrong but, God, Sophie, I had to know if she would come to you…if you reached out to her! She always liked you! She said you were creative and smart…Martin’s firstborn.”

“Enough, Kane.”

“No, you have to tell her that I’m worthy of her now. You have to bring her to me.”

I took a step back and then, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something lurking outside the window…a shadow that didn’t seem quite right. But when I turned my head to get a better look, there was nothing there. I was nervous and it was entirely possible that my mind was playing tricks on me. After all, the danger was right here, inside the house.

I turned my attention back to Kane. “You need her?” I asked coolly.

“Yes!”

“Well, I need this house.”

“Fine, it’s yours.”

I walked over to the couch where I had left my cell phone.

“Who are you calling?” he asked.

“Scott,” I said. “I’m going to tell him to bring over the necessary paperwork because your word just isn’t good enough.”

Kane was still on his knees, his eyes wide and unseeing. I took a step backward.

“Sophie,” Scott said, as he picked up the phone. “I knew you couldn’t stay mad. Listen, last night I said some things I didn’t mean and—”

I turned my back to Kane, no longer able to stomach the sight of his bleeding hand. “Bring over the escrow agreement in triplicate,” I said. “I’m at home and Kane’s here, too. He says I respected the house and he’s signing it over to me.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m not.”

“How the hell did you manage that?”

“Just bring the papers over, Scott, and if you have one handy, a witness.”

“The only witness you’ll need is me,” he said. “By the way, I broke up with Venus. I just couldn’t deal, you know what I mean?”

“I know that I don’t care. Bring the contract. Now.”

I hung up the phone and reluctantly turned back to Kane. He was still on his knees and now he was staring at his hands as if he had just realized the harm he had done to himself. “Call to her?” he said. I think he had meant it to be a command, but it had come out as a question.

“I’m sorry,” I said, almost meaning it at this point. “I’m going to wait until you sign the papers. Even then I’m going to insist that Scott go to a post office and put it in the mail before I do anything else.”

Kane looked confused. “But don’t you want him to take it personally to the courthouse to file it?”

“Of course, but one copy will be sent to Anatoly and it will remain sealed. That way if you try to destroy it there won’t be a problem. There also won’t be a problem if you try to claim that I altered the date and signed it after escrow was set to expire. I’ll have the document in an envelope with a postmark that will prove otherwise.”

“You’ve thought of everything,” Kane observed, the flash of suspicion crossing his features. “Impressive since this has all happened in the last few minutes.”

“I think quickly on my feet,” I said, refusing to let him fluster me.

Kane got up without saying anything.

“You should clean your hand,” I said, gesturing to his injury. “Do you want some Neosporin and maybe a tweezer?”

“I didn’t hear what she said to you right before I came in,” he said softly. “Did she say anything more about me?”

“She said…” I let my voice trail off and then shook my head furiously. “No, I can’t…I misunderstood I’m sure.”

“What?” Kane said, now alarmed. “What did she say?”

My phone rang and I looked down at the screen half expecting to see either Scott’s or Anatoly’s name. Instead it was Marcus. I clicked Ignore and put the phone in my pocket. It made a slight clink as it hit the knife.

Kane gave me an odd look and without saying another word walked over to my little makeshift office and peeked inside. He then started moving room to room. Whether he was looking to see if he could find evidence that I was faking him out or whether he was actually looking for the ghost of the notorious Andrea was anybody’s guess.

My phone buzzed again—this time Marcus had sent me a text. It read:

WTF?! Came 2 cu. Saw Kane go in but heard ur voice in unlocked van. Am in van now, lots of equipt, can hear u. want me 2 call cops?

I immediately replied:

No! Stay where u r!

His response was:

This very crazy. Do u have death wish?

To which I told him to: call cops when I say the words “I need 2 call Andrea.” Not a sec before. And no more txts!

I shoved the phone back in my pocket as I heard Kane’s approach. When he was back in the room he gave me a strange look. “I don’t feel her,” he said.

“Neither do I,” I admitted. “But when I reach out to her again I’m sure she’ll respond. She said you were fated to be together.”

“I heard that part. What else did she say?”

And then there was a knock on the door. It was Scott, with a small stack of papers in his hand. I let him in, greeting him only with a nod. No one said a word as the contract was laid out by the rapidly diminishing candles on the coffee table. Scott wrote an X where he needed Kane to sign and then handed him the pen.

“Once you sign this saying Sophie has met the terms of the escrow there’s no backing out,” Scott said. “The place will be hers.”

Kane held the pen like it was a magic wand that he wasn’t at all sure he wanted to use. “How do I know you won’t back out?” he whispered.

“Either you trust me with this or the whole deal is off,” I snapped. “I lose the house, you lose your last chance to talk to your mom.”

“What are you talking about?” Scott asked.

“What’s it going to be?” I asked, totally ignoring Scott. “Are we going through with this or not?”

Kane hesitated, but only for a moment. Then his pen flashed across the signature line. A short triumphant laugh burst from my lips.

And then Kane handed the pen to me. I took the ink-filled magic wand and added my name to the document. The house was mine! I had refused to give up and now I had won! Scott gave me an approving smile, and it was everything I could do not to give him a huge hug. Hell, at that point I was ready to hug Kane!

“Quickly,” Kane said, his voice hoarse, “get it to a post office. Leave me here with Sophie, we need to…to call someone.”

Scott’s expression changed from approving to worried. “Why don’t I send this out tomorrow,” he suggested. “I have some things I want to talk to Sophie about now.”

“You need to go, Scott,” I said, still fondling the pen. I had originally planned to go to the post office with Scott because I knew being alone with Kane was risky. But now that I knew Marcus was around I felt safer. Safe enough to add a stage two to my plan.

However, Scott had no such sense of security. He took a step closer to me. “I really think I should stay,” he said in a low voice.

“The post office,” I repeated. “Kane’s right. And remember to send one copy to Anatoly. As for me, well, I need to call Andrea.” I took extra care to enunciate the last three words so Marcus could hear his cue clearly.

“Kane’s
mom
Andrea? But she’s—”

“Go, Scott. Call when the contract’s in a secure mailbox.” I then turned my eyes to Kane.

After another moment of hesitation, Scott left.

And again I was alone with Kane. He stood above the candles, allowing the flame to cast a frightening pattern of light across his face. “I won’t try to contact her until Scott tells me that the contract’s in the mail,” I said.

“I know. Now tell me what she said as I ran to get here. What was it that you think you misunderstood?”

I inched a little closer to the door. The police would be on their way now. I only had a few minutes to get him to confess to the worst of it. “She says she knows what happened to Oscar. She knows what you did.”

A manic smile lit up Kane’s face. “She knows? Did it make her happy?”

Again I hesitated. “You thought what you did…would make her happy?”

“Yes! Oscar destroyed her life! He threw her out on the streets and left her to take care of me all by herself! She wanted him dead. He had no right to live here in
her
house while I mourned her!”

Kane was confessing to murder and it was being recorded. Kane knew that…and yet I had a feeling that Kane didn’t know anything at the moment.

“How did you do it?” I asked. “Everyone thought Oscar had a heart attack.”

“He did,” Kane said, his eyes once again traveling the room. “I switched his heart medication for a placebo. Then I started gaslighting him the way I did to you. When I finally changed the furniture to match the old photographs I knew I had him. I switched the medication back so the police would find the right thing and then I just waited for Oscar to come home. He did and, well…” Kane shrugged his shoulders in lieu of finishing.

“You killed your own father.”

“I did,” he said. “Maybe you should think about that as you decide whether or not to keep your promise. I want to talk to my mother now, Sophie.”

“Did you kill Enrico?” I asked.

Kane cocked his head to the side. “Why would I do that?”

“I don’t think I really understand why you do anything.”

He smiled wistfully and began to pace the room. “My mother was unpredictable, too. I got it from her.”

“Do you know why you killed Enrico?” I tried again. “Was it just for fun? Did he know something, maybe something about Venus? Did you kill him to protect her secret?”

Kane started laughing. If chaos had a sound I was hearing it now. “I would never do anything for her…or should I say him? The pronoun issue is confusing in these cases.”

“How did you find out about her surgery?” I asked.

“Who cares how I found out, the only thing that matters is that I did. I needed something on her. She wouldn’t let Scott call you and I needed him to contact you because I knew…” He stopped and took an advancing step toward me. “I knew you would reach her. I knew she would speak to you.”

He was no longer talking about Venus, but I wasn’t ready to let the subject go. “Did she help you kill your dad, Kane?”

“She helped me move the furniture, that’s all. For a while there she was doing everything I asked in order to protect her secret. I even got her to hand over that cameo she paid so much money for. Forgive the mixed metaphor, but I think finding that brooch on his bed was the straw that broke Oscar’s heart. Of course, when she found out that Oscar died she put everything together. She knew I had worked to bring about his death. She stopped doing what she was told and threatened to reveal my secrets if I tried to reveal hers. It was a stalemate. She even had the nerve to ask for her brooch back. But,” he said with a wicked grin, “I gave it to you instead. Pinned it right on your pillow. Sorry that bitch took it away from you. It wasn’t very nice of her.”

He took another step forward. “Call her now, Sophie.”

I inched a little closer toward the door. “I know that I NEED TO CALL ANDREA,” I said, praying to God that Marcus had remembered the code, “but I won’t do it until Scott calls. I told you that. In fact, maybe we should just call her tomorrow when you’re in a better place…mentally that is.”

“You don’t want to stall, Sophie. Not with me.”

“Okay, so now you
are
threatening me, right?” I asked. I glanced at the door. I’d have thought that the police would have come in by now.