The Promise (47 page)

As I did, I heard a rustling sound of someone moving around down there, a muffled woman’s voice and then I saw the sparks of gunfire. The first shot missed me and I fired back. That’s when the second shot hit me. I stumbled backwards and waited for them to come up. Nothing happened for a few minutes and then you came.

That’s it.”

              “Did you hear any sounds down there?”

              Her face made a painful grimace, “I think one of the people down there is a girl. I thought I heard a female voice screaming. It was muffled.”

              Gallagher now logically theorized that the SUV he saw out front was not Justin Shaw’s. It was the car he had seen the night before in the parking lot. Raven was undoubtedly down there.

Was Malcolm Oden down there, too? He cocked his gun and peered down into the opening trying to hear any sound at all to clue him.

He looked at his watch. “
That damn back up! Someone’s ass was going to be on the grill for this! Where were they? Did Chief Parker fall asleep?”

             
The waiting was interminable. Finally, Elie struggled to speak, “I want us to go down there and take ‘em, but I don’t know if I have the strength, Gallagher, I’m so sorry.”

              He quickly reassured her, “It’s not your fault. Just stay still. I am going to check it out.” He moved over to the opening and carefully looked down briefly squinting into the darkness before quickly backing away.

He realized whoever was down there could see him in the sunlight, but he could not see them. He wasn’t sure how to play this.

Elie was in bad shape. Her color wasn’t good. He saw an old blanket by the storm door and laid it over her.

              She thanked him, “I owe you one, Mike. But, I’m scared. Am I going to die?”

              “No. Just stay quiet. If they come blasting out of that cellar, I am going to empty my clip into them. Stay calm. You’re losing blood. Just lay low and if I need you, you’ll know it!”

              Several minutes went by. No sound.

              Elie was trying to rise to her feet, “Gallagher, we can’t wait forever. Let’s move on them. Let’s get this over with.”

              “You want us to go down there, Elie?”

              She got up on her knees and slowly stood up. “We have worked so hard on this damn case, we need to finish it together. I’ll cover you.”

She slowly moved to the cellar door and positioned herself behind him ready to shoot whoever was down there.

              He nodded reluctantly. He was resigned to what was going to happen next. “Okay Elie, you and me both know my fate as soon as I walk down those stairs…”

              She seemed confused, “We both know your fate?”

              Gallagher smiled wanly, “Yeah. With you behind me, I’ll meet the same ending as Dr. Morgan, Redding Shaw and the man in the Mercedes.”

              Elie was startled. “What are you saying Gallagher?”

              The detective looked at his partner, “Elie, it was you. You’re the one who kidnapped Allison Taylor and killed all those people to cover your tracks.”

              She objected to his accusation. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

              Gallagher shook his head, “Sure you do, Elie. You’re a very smart girl. And, for your own personal reasons, you came to Athens to make the Taylor girl vanish. Please don’t insult my intelligence. Now give me your gun and let’s end this right now.”

              Elie Larsen just looked at him trying to figure out what to say next. No words came.

              “Elie, it’s over. You don’t want to kill me. You want this to stop here.”

              “Mike, I swear to God, you’re wrong. I can’t believe you really think I’m capable of those things.”

              Gallagher stepped towards her to take her gun, “Okay, if I’m wrong, we can discuss this at the station, right?”

              Her face tightened.

She cocked her gun and her eyes turned to steel gray.

She was no longer struggling to stand. Her body jerked upward and she “miraculously” regained her strength as she faced him,

“Stay where you are, Mike. No discussion. I’m sorry you had to be here for this. If you had just come five minutes later, I would have been the one disappearing, not you.”

              He looked at her, “You aren’t shot, are you, Elie?”

              “Of course not, Gallagher, just some blood I borrowed from the lab and strategically placed on myself when I saw your car drive up.”

              He shook his head. “Why, did you kill all those people?”

              Elie showed no emotion as she stared blankly at him. Then, she spoke, “I loved my father. But, he never wanted me. He loved my brother and sister a lot more, evidently. They got all the inheritance and I got nothing. So, I found them and when I did, it wasn’t pleasant.”

              “Malcolm and Verna Oden?”

              “Very good Gallagher, actually, they were Mark and Verna Halverson. My birth name is Elie Lee Halverson. It sickened me when my brother came on to me sexually.

He had no idea who I was that night in the dorm room, that I was his birth sister. Incest is not my thing, so, I suggested we go for a walk in the woods. He liked the romantic idea.

Then, I shot him. Made it look like a suicide.”

              Gallagher nodded, “So, he is indeed dead.

              Her mouth twisted into a slight smile, “Indeed.”

“What about Verna?”

              “She found a picture of my father in my private belongings. She must have been snooping around. She figured out who I was.

So, I convinced her to take a little drive with me. I assured her I wanted to make amends with a long lost sister. We drank some wine down by the river.

Since I majored in chemistry it wasn’t hard to sedate her. A little chemical called Nembutal in the old vino. She became drowsy, I sat her down on the riverbank until she fell asleep.

Then I strangled her, popped her on the head and tossed her in the river. It felt good watching her float away out of my life.”

              “Why did you kill the others, Elie?”

              “Well, the guy in the Mercedes worshipped me in Virginia. He was such a dumb ass. He would do anything I said. I told him to come with me to Athens to help me find my brother and sister.

He knew too much. He had to go.

Dr. Morgan wanted to have sex with me and tried to blackmail me like the others.

He manipulated my grades downward and then helped me cheat to get them back up. When I did, he informed me that he would expose me for cribbing my grades unless I posed for him.

That’s how he got the other girls to do what they did.

There is so much pressure there to succeed and he took advantage of the paranoia related to academic success. He tried to take advantage of me. So, I took advantage of my .38 caliber.

That was my gift for the other girls who have to put up with men like that.”

             
Gallagher asked her, “Redding Shaw?”

              “He figured out I was Archer Taylor’s mistress. He saw some plane ticket receipts in the office from one of our trips. He was going to tell Arch that I was in town and that I may have been the one who kidnapped his daughter.

Couldn’t have that now, could I?”

              “So, you were the mistress, not Raven. And, about that kidnapping of Allison Taylor, was he right, Elie? Did you take her?”
             

             
“Hell, yes, I did. She tried to break us up. As long as she was around, I had no chance of being with her dad.”

              “How did you get her into the car that day?”

              “I played on her forgiving nature. I waited for her to come around the library that day. I told her that I was leaving for California and I wanted her to understand how sorry I was that she and I had problems with each other.

I told it was silly for us to fight and asked her to come with me to have a goodbye drink and part amicably since I was leaving the next day.

She hesitated and finally said, ‘I guess so.’ She didn’t have a lot of time. She kept looking at her watch. For a second there, I didn’t think she would get in the car, but, she did.

When she realized I was driving out here to the ranch, she started to panic and demanded to be brought back to the campus. So, I pulled out my gun and forced her to handcuff herself. She kept whining, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

Naïve little brat.”

              Gallagher was incredulous. “You did all this to keep Archer Taylor?”

“I loved Arch. He was my life.

Loved him from the moment I met him in Virginia. We met in the line at a Starbucks. He hit on me. I hit back. He reminded me of the father I should have had. But, it was more than that. We were soulmates. Neither one of us had ever been in love with anyone before.

He was lonely, I was lonely. His marriage was breaking up. So, we started as a fling. It got serious after that. He took me everywhere. For an old guy, he was great in bed.”

              “Did you go to England with him?”

              “Yep, that’s where I met his dippy daughter. She told daddy to end it, so I made sure she got a dose of what intervention was like by changing the insulin on her professor boyfriend’s dosage to sugar water.

She was so clueless.

She injected him with it. That was a work of genius on my part, very creative if you ask me. He went into diabetic shock. Bye bye, professor. It broke her heart to lose him which made me feel good.

I had no idea Raven was involved with him, too. She was heartbroken as much as Allison. I got two for the price of one.”

              “You’re a very sick girl, Elie.”

              “Screw you, Gallagher. How could you possibly understand?

I just wanted a father who loved me. When that failed, I wanted a man to love me. But, thanks to Arch’s jealous daughter, I lost him, too. Look, it’s time for us to end this.

I just have one question, Michael.”

              “What’s that, Elie?” Gallagher said as he thought frantically about a way to avoid any more bloodshed, especially his own.

              “When did you know it was me?”

              “You caught my attention on the night you agreed to meet me over at the Stadium. You said you were on your way before I had even told you the location of the crime scene.

I thought that was odd, or psychic. Or, that you already knew there was a dead man in a Mercedes there.

Then, when I started sneezing violently after Mick dropped at your feet in the car, I saw the mud from your shoes that rubbed off on him. When my wife told me I was allergic to him, I realized as I arrived here that I was allergic all right, but only to horses and hay.

I knew then that you had been out at a ranch. That’s why the residue from your shoes on my lucky leprechaun was causing me grief. I put two and two together about ten minutes ago.”