Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 05 - Till Death Do Us Part (34 page)

“Yes, she did but somewhere along the way I learned to live life and not hide from it.”

“That’s great,” Jordan reached over and patted Savanah on the arm.

“So what are your favorite places, Julie?” Savanah asked.

“My favorites were Japan, Australia, and I know it’s silly, but I love Mexico.”

“Arrgggg! That place is too dirty for me,” Savanah said, “And heaven forbid you get sick there, the germs in that place will kill you. The whole country is a death trap.”

“I just stay away from the water and I’ve never been sick,” Julie told us.

“I haven’t been to a lot of places, but I think I’d like to see the countries in Europe. I’ve never been out of the United States,” I said. Maybe Tom and I could go there on a vacation. It would be nice to experience something new with him. I wondered how many laps he had paced around my condo waiting for us to come back. I can see him walking and running his fingers through his hair and worrying. I glanced at my watch. It was almost 6:30. It was time to go home.

“Can we get the bill?” I suggested as the waitress came around to fill my drink again.

“Sure, you ladies want to share a dessert?” she asked.

“Yes,” Jordan insisted. “I’ve been on a diet for a month to get into my little black dress, so I get to have dessert tonight. It won’t have time to attach itself to my hips.”

We all laughed and shared a big chocolate dessert that reminded me of the chocolate melting cake of the cruise.

Savanah paid the bill saying that I had given her a big bonus, much more than the ten percent in the contract and she felt bad taking it. I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t me who gave her the bonus, but since I didn’t know who paid the bill, I just smiled.
Tom said he didn’t, so maybe Kenny? I glanced at the beautiful blue antique bracelet on my wrist. It was lovely.

After we all went to the bathroom for the long ride home, we walked out to the car. We took the same seats, Julie and Jordan in the back, except I drove and Savanah rode shotgun.

“My phone is about to die, Liza, and my charger is in the trunk in a case. Can you pop the trunk? It’s the button on the key,” Savanah asked before she closed the door.

“Of course. It will give me an opportunity to call Tom.” I pushed the button and the trunk popped open.

“Great,” Savanah got out and went to the back of the car.

I opened the center console and took out my phone. It was dark and wouldn’t turn on. Savanah must have accidentally shut it off rather than just silencing it. I pushed the button for it to turn back on. I sure liked Savanah. It was amazing how much she had changed since high school; I really hadn’t changed that much at all. She used to be afraid of flying and then she flew all over the world with her husband, she used to be afraid to go out in the sun and now Cairo is one of her favorite places to go. Savanah was once carried a few extra pounds and
replaced them with muscle. It was as though she was two different people, she had completely remade herself. She loved drama, seeing the world, knew something about the Ukraine, she hated Mexico – thinking it was dirty, germy and a death trap.

Why is it that sometimes things just fall into place, just a few seconds too late?

Savanah came back around and pulled open the passenger side door. She had some kind of mask on her face.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Goodnight, Liza,” she said.

“
Savanah?” I tried to say but my words slurred.

“It really is Sasha,” she answered.

And the world went black.

Chapter 35

I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but I realized two things very quickly. First, I was still alive, so that was good. Second, my hands and feet were bound and I was lying in a fetal position on a mattress. It was pitch black and I couldn’t hear any sound. Had Emily, no, Sasha, just dumped me here and left or had she handed me over to Angelo? After all, she was a professional hit woman, hit person, what was the correct term?

Stupid things to think about, but I was tied up like an animal – what else was there to do?

The door to the room opened and I was blinded by the rush of light. I tried to pull my hand free and then remembered about the bindings, so I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Are you awake, Liza?” Emily asked. I just couldn’t think of her as Sasha, I went on a couple’s massage with this woman, shared drinks, and had gone to shows with her. To me, Sasha was the killer. Emily had been my friend.

“Yes,” I told her.

“I thought you’d never wake up, you’ve been out for over an hour.”

“Emily, I know this might be a stupid question, but why am I still alive?”

Emily laughed. “That’s a really good question and one I’m not sure I can give you an answer to.”

“Give it a try, would you?”

“There are too many options. I picked up a contract on you a few months ago, so I could kill you and show proof of death and collect $250,000 or I could hand you over to some people who are willing to pay me $250,000 for you so they can have leverage over your dad, or I can use you as leverage and kill your dad and collect the $250,000 that’s still on his head.”

I didn’t like any of those options, so I changed the subject. “Weren’t you in prison a few months ago?”

“No, I left that place six months ago.”

“I figured that since the woman who is supposed to be you got shanked, and when they gave her your blood type, she almost died.”

Emily laughed. “That’s going to piss Janet off. She was happy there. I paid for plastic surgery to remove the scars on her face from a fire so she could take my place.”

“How’d you switch with her? Aren’t all your visits monitored and through glass?”

“It’s amazing what sex and money can buy. I paid off a guard to give me thirty minutes with my woman lover. We switched places. I walked out, and Janet got three meals a day and a bed out of the elements. It really was a win-win for her.

“How about you let me go, and I pay you $300,000?” I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring, too.

Emily laughed, but said, “No, you’ve got to die. After all, it is your fault that Niki is lying in a coma at that stupid prison hospital.”

“I didn’t shoot him or operate on him,” I reminded her.

“I know. I already took care of the doctor and nurse who butchered him. That stupid FBI agent wouldn’t have shot Niki, if you hadn’t involved him in my little cleaning house project. In fact, if you hadn’t gone on that cruise, I would have killed all the people in that picture and then I would have faded into the woodwork and you would never have been the wiser.”

“You never wanted the picture?”

“Getting the picture was just one of my backup plans. I wasn’t even sure if it still existed. My other plan was easier. I just needed to kill all the people who were there when the picture was taken and be done with it. If that didn’t work my other plan was to go through yours and your sister’s houses more thoroughly and look for the picture. There never was a contract on you at that time, so I didn’t have a reason to kill you. My, how things have changed in a year.”

“Even if you’re going to kill me, trade me, or leverage me, could I ask a favor?”

“Sure,” Emily said.

“These bindings are cutting off the circulation in my hands and feet and this bed is so soft I’m going to get a backache. How about untying me and letting me move into a chair?”

“I can do that, but if you try anything, I’ll just kill you and collect from the gang-bangers that want you dead. What did you do to get them mad?”

“Shut down one of their drug operations,” I said.

Emily chuckled and then began to laugh until tears ran down her face. “I like you, Liza. In another life, you and I would have been good friends.”

In a way, she was right. We did get along very well on the cruise until she tried to kill me. She always devised multiple plans and always a backup plan to her backup plan. “How’d you come up with the Savanah Wooding plan?”

“It was just one of many. When I was rummaging through your sister’s Facebook account, I found Savanah and I knew that you and Tom weren’t engaged again, but I figured, the way you two were on the cruise, you’d get around to it eventually.”

“Where’s she?”

“Dead.”

“And her receptionist?”

“On a month long honeymoon. I sent her the tickets and a thousand dollar bonus and then I signed the card from Savanah. I figured if you and Tom didn’t decide to get married in the next month, you probably wouldn’t do it. I moved into her office and became Savanah Wooding of the Wooding’s Bridal Consulting business. Then I just waited. Sure enough, a week later, you called. It was serendipity.”

Talking about the business made me remember the shelves in her office. “Are you really that lucky in Vegas?”

Emily used a knife to cut the zip ties on my hands and said, “No that was Savanah. I suck at gambling. I always lose.”

“But you used her trinkets. You put a charm she’d gotten from the Luxor on a necklace and put it on Miranda.” I rubbed my hands trying to get the circulation back into them.

“Sure, that was the original plan. I know the way you like to investigate things. I killed the first one as practice, part of the overall plan, and then dropped the second one right on your bed.”

“Why’d you put my bracelet on Kathy’s wrist?”

“It was your bracelet?” Emily looked puzzled.

“Yes.”

She laughed and said, “I found it under the bed in your room. I figured the last person left it there. I dropped the stupid little figurine of a pirate in the parking lot. When I saw the bracelet under the bed, I figured I’d use that. I didn’t have time to go out and get another trinket, when I saw you walking up the street.”

“And Tanya, you used a clown from the Circus
Circus casino.”

“She wasn’t my original target. I had a woman picked out who worked as a clerk at Safeway around the corner from my office.”

“But you knew Tanya from the prison hospital. She worked there and you met her when you went to visit your husband.”

“Yes, we’d seen each other several times when I went to visit
Niki. I used to stop by after I’d performed in one of the plays and tell Niki about it. Julie saw me in lots of different wigs and makeup. She recognized me immediately when I went early to the Gardens. She was the right height and build and she dyed her hair red since she got out of prison. I guess she was looking to make a fresh start.”

Savanah cut the plastic ties on my feet and helped me sit on the edge of the bed.

“How’d you come up with the plan of the trinkets in the first place?”

“I stole the idea.
Becca, one of the other inmates, was telling me about her lawyer. He was whining about one of his other clients. He said that this woman contacted him, paid him cash and then turned out to want advice on how much time her underage daughters would have to spend in Juvenile Court if they were arrested as drug couriers. He was complaining to anyone who would listen, he complained to three guards that I knew of. Then he tells me her that the woman ends up dead, shot with her own gun and in her hand is a snow globe. Can you believe it? A damn snow globe. Becca dumped his ass and got a new lawyer. She wanted one that would worry more about her than complain about his other clients.”

“Just from that, you decided on the plan.”

“No, a few months later, Veronica, she’s another inmate, gets a new lawyer and he complains about a doctor on his payroll. All these lawyers do is complain to anyone who will listen. Well the doctor pays him cash from some account in the Cayman Island under his mother’s grandmother’s maiden name. It was like his gravy train. This guy gets himself killed and in his hand is a dog statue.”

“What did the lawyer do for the doctor?”

“The guy was a lousy doctor and the lawyer would tell him about people who wanted to sue him. The lawyer would dig up dirt on them and then blackmail them into not suing the doctor. And then three months later, that lawyer gets killed and he has a bicycle key in his hand. I figure there’s another killer out there killing lawyers and their clients, so I just tagged along. I figured if anyone ever started hunting the killer, they’d attach these victims to them, too. And then do you know what happened?”

“No.”

“Becca’s original lawyer gets himself killed, too, and he’s got a mini Coke glass in his hand. It’s like God was telling me what my plan should be, so I went with it.”

“I can see where it might seem like that,” I agreed with her. What else could I do? I needed to keep her talking.

She laughed and said, “Let me help you off that bed and into a chair. I’m still going to use some zip ties on your hands but I’ll make sure they’re loose and not cutting into your wrists. It’s easier to do this with you awake.”

Emily helped me stand and moved me to a chair in the corner of the room. It looked like it belonged to a dining room table, maybe an extra that they didn’t have room for in the dining room. After she got me settled, she tugged my hands together and put on another zip tie, then she put the knife on top of the chest of drawers by the bedroom door.

Just then we heard a knock at the front door.

Had Emily already made her decision and the people who wanted leverage against my dad testifying would come to get me?

“Who the hell is that?” Emily growled. “I brought you out here to this little dairy community so nobody would bother us.”

“Pizza and dessert delivery,” a voice said from the other side of the front door.

“I didn’t order any damn pizza,” Emily said to me. “I’ll just get rid of him.”

Emily left the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

“I didn’t order anything,” I heard Emily yell, obviously talking through the door rather than opening it.

“I’ve got a large ham and pineapple pizza, a gallon of vanilla ice cream and liter of chocolate syrup, that’s been paid for and it has this address on the delivery sheet.”

How weird, I thought. That meal was Kenny’s and my favorite in high school.

“I didn’t order it,” Emily repeated.

“I’ll lose my job if I leave it on the porch, so just take it, will you, lady?” The delivery boy whined.

“I don’t care,” Emily told him.

“Fine, I’ll call the cops and tell them you are refusing an order and then they can get you to open the door. I’m not losing this job, it’s my fifth one and my dad says if I lose this one, he’ll send me to military school. Just take the damn pizza and ice cream, lady.”

“Oh, fine.”

I heard the door open.

“Thanks lady. I really appreciate it.”

“Aren’t you a little old for your parents to send to military school?” Emily asked.

“I look older than I am and all my money is held in trust until I am twenty-five. All I have to do is keep this stupid job for another six months and I’m free of it and my parents.”

“Put the pizza and ice cream on the table,” Emily told him.

“Hey, can I use the bathroom? You’re my fifth stop and I really got to go. It’s in here, right?” the delivery boy asked.

The doorknob to the bedroom door, turned and the door opened a few inches. No, don’t let him come in here! If he sees me, Emily would kill him. I didn’t want to be responsible for another death.

“Stop!” Emily shouted.

“It’s just the bathroom,” the delivery boy said and pushed the door open.

He immediately froze when he saw me. His hair was blue and green, but I knew that face.

Then Kenny winked at me and turned toward the living room, saying, “You into some kinky stuff with women, lady? Whatever, I just want to use the bathroom.”

Kenny kept coming into the room and Emily came in behind him, picking up the knife from the chest of drawers as she did.

“You’re stupid, boy,” she told him.

“At least I’m not into S&M with women, lady. Though I guess I might be, but it’s weird that a woman would be with another woman.” Kenny said as he turned back to Emily.

It all happened in a matter of seconds.

Emily lunged at Kenny with the knife and he executed the perfect move I taught him. She lunged, he countered by sucking in his stomach, it threw Emily off and he grabbed the knife with her hand still on it, turned it around and plunged it in and up into her chest, in one smooth quick and efficient move.

I heard him whisper, “Nobody messes with Stretch, bitch.”

Just as she lunged, Tom came into the room with his gun out, yelling for everyone to stop.

Kenny shoved Emily to the floor and came over to me, Tom was at my side at the same moment. I was never so happy to see them both.

“Are you all right, Liza?” Tom asked at the same moment, Kenny asked, “Are you all right, Stretch?”

I smiled to both of them and said, “I’m fine.”

Tom squeezed my hand and said, “Get that zip tie off her while I check on Sasha.”

“You got it,” Kenny told him. He still held Emily’s knife in his hand so he wiped the blood off with his jeans, then slipped it under the tie and cut through the plastic.

I reached up and touched his hair, “Please tell me this color will come out. I don’t want my man of honor to have blue and green hair in my wedding photos.”

Kenny laughed and said, “It’s a spray color and will come out in the shower.”

“She’s dead,” Tom said when he came back over to us. Then he took my hand, pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. When I tried to pull away, he held me tighter. He had been really scared.

I kissed him gently on the cheek and said, “Can we get out of this room, please?”

Tom released his hold on me, glanced at Emily’s dead body and nodded.

Then we walked out of the bedroom and into the living area of the house. There was a small living room, dining area and kitchen. The living room contained a brown leather couch and rocker, television, and green and black granite coffee table and end tables. I took a seat on the couch, Tom sat next to me still holding my hand and Kenny pushed the coffee table out and sat on it so he could face me.