Corpse in the Crystal Ball (30 page)

I’d been blind in so many ways.

“Excuse me, dear? Morty can’t talk, you silly goose,” Granny said. “You’re acting a bit strange. Is something wrong?”

I felt the knife poke into my back harder, and I stifled a cry of pain. I had to think of a way to stop Kevin. If he found out where the money was, he’d have no further use for us and we’d be dead. I took a deep breath and then jabbed my elbow into Kevin’s ribs as hard as I could, catching him off guard. He grunted and stumbled back a step.

“Run, Granny!” I started to run myself, when I felt him grab for my hair. Thank God for short pixie hairdos.

“Well, why on earth would I want to run?” She looked up at me. “Oh my.”

“Oh, yeah. Come on.” I grabbed her arm and propelled her toward the front door, but we were no match for even a lame Kevin.

He caught up to us both and jumped between us and the front door, wielding the knife in front of him.

“Well, I do declare. That is not very gentlemanly like, Kevin.”

“I like you, Granny.” He chuckled. “You’re feisty and you remind me of my own grandmother.” His smile faded and a hard look covered his face. “Trust me when I say I’m no gentleman. You’d do well to cooperate and give me what I want.”

“Some manners are what you need, and maybe a good spanking. Your parents would be very disappointed in you, I’m sure.”

“Wrong again. My parents would be proud that vengeance will finally be mine. Now get into the kitchen, both of you.”

Who the heck was this guy? Granny and I walked back into the kitchen, and after he motioned for us to sit at the table, he used the same duct tape I’d used on Ted Baxter to tie us both up.

“Why did you let me read for you?”

“I didn’t think you were really psychic. I just wanted you to trust me.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Ah, so you didn’t see everything, then.”

“I saw enough.”

“Well, I’m not Kevin Brown the mailman, that’s for sure.”

“I figured as much.” I was stalling, trying to think of a way out of this mess. My cell phone sat on the center of the table with Mitch listed as number two on my speed dial, right after my voice mail. So close yet so far away. I felt utterly helpless.

“All right, I’ll play along. It’s not like you’re going to live to tell about it.” The words he spoke so casually were in
stark contrast with his calm and placid demeanor. No wonder he’d fooled so many people. I almost wished he’d shout or sneer. It would be far less confusing.

“What on earth is your name, young man? And what about this poor Kevin Brown?” Granny asked, looking shocked and bewildered and upset and disappointed all at the same time.

“He’s a mailman I met a few years back. He had no family, a real loner, a man looking for a change. When he was offered a transfer to Divinity, my plan worked out perfectly. I intercepted him en route, killed him, and stole his identity, knowing no one would miss him. The people in Divinity had never met him.”

“Why?” I asked, genuinely curious now.

“Because I knew when Isabel Gonzales got out of prison, she would come here looking for Detective Stone.”

“Okay, so why would you care? Did you love her, too?”

A muscle in his jaw bulged, revealing the first signs of a simmering anger he worked hard to control. Then he smiled slightly and spoke in the calmest of tones, which was somehow far more terrifying. “No. I hated her. She had something that belonged to me and my family.”

“The money?” I puckered my brow. “But I thought she embezzled that money from a small electronics firm, and it folded when she went to jail and the money was never found.”

“That’s right, but the company didn’t fold. We shut it down on purpose because things were getting too hot.”

“We? W-who are you?”

“Nicholas Bruno of the Bruno family. The electronics store was a front for the mob. One of our many operations
in the Big Apple. Shutting the store down was no big deal. Crossing us, however, was a very big deal. My family is extremely loyal. We don’t take betrayal lightly. And they don’t call me the Avenger for nothing.”

“So you’ve spent all these years and all this time waiting and plotting and planning a way to get even with Isabel Gonzales?” My reading had said he was patient. I hadn’t realized just how patient.

“Exactly.”

“No wonder you didn’t date much,” I mumbled.

“I don’t rattle easily, Sunny.” Again, he smiled slightly. “You won’t win.”

“If you ask me, you’ve gotten sloppy,” I said, taking a different tactic. He took pride in what he did, that much was obvious.

His calm, arrogant smile slipped a bit. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, but nice try. I’ll give you that much.”

“Don’t I?” I pressed on. “You never did find the money. You tried to kill Isabel with that wire thingy—”

“It’s called a fiber wire.”

“Whatever. The point is, she wasn’t dead when you dumped her body in the river. She managed to get out and leave a message.”

“Which implicated your boyfriend, I might add.” He gave me a look as though he were bored.

“True,” I conceded, then added, “and he’s not my boyfriend, but that doesn’t matter. The point is you were supposed to get the money back before you killed Isabel, am I right?”

He shrugged. “It didn’t matter, and it had to be done. She showed up at your place when I was delivering the mail right
after you got stuck in the swan pond and needed a tow. She didn’t recognize me then. She said she had to talk to you, but I told her you wouldn’t be back for a while. I saw the rental car and knew she was headed out of town, so I followed her. That’s when I saw her meet with Ted Baxter in the park. I spied on them, but she refused to take him back. And then when his half sister Roz Sanderson showed up, Isabel put two and two together, told them both off, and left.”

“So you followed her.”

“Exactly. I couldn’t risk her leaving town on me. She was headed back to your place, but she must have seen me following her and got spooked. She took off toward the woods. We were on the outskirts of town when her car slid off the road. I tried to tell her I was only seeing if she needed help, but recognition dawned on her face. We’d never had direct dealings in the past, but my picture was in the office of my uncle’s electronics store. She started running, called her sister, and dropped her phone. I chased her and finally caught up to her. Such a pity to have to beat that beautiful face,” he said on a calm sigh. “But she still wouldn’t tell me where the money was. So I killed her. I knew I had other leads.”

“Ted and Roz.”

“Very good, princess. We might have made quite the team, after all.”

“I would never be with scum like you,” I snapped, knowing it might get me killed but unable to stop the words from exiting my mouth. The fact that I had even entertained such thoughts made my skin crawl.

He laughed. “That’s not how you acted over being stood up.” He lifted his cast and started sawing through it with the ancient kitchen knife, which wasn’t dull at all.

Darn Granny Gert and her efficient ways.

He peeled the cast off and tossed it aside, rubbing his perfectly normal hand.

My jaw fell open. “There was never any dog mauling. You faked the whole thing.”

“Of course I did. I needed an alibi.”

“And the doctor the next town over who performed your fake surgery?”

“A friend of the family. We’ve got eyes and ears everywhere. How do you think I disposed of Isabel’s car?”

“And Roz? Why did you kill her?”

“It takes a con to know a con. Unlike you, darling, she saw through me immediately. It was either kill her or be killed. She was armed and knew exactly what to do with a weapon.”

“What about Ted?”

“Ted was a nuisance. I needed him out of the way.”

“Why? He definitely wasn’t smart enough to cause you any harm.”

“Smart, no. In the way, yes. He wouldn’t leave Selena alone, and I was running out of options. The only other people who could possibly know about the money were Selena, Detective Gorilla, and you.”

“So you framed Ted, took Mitch out by putting him in the hospital, and planned to go after Selena and me.”

“Mitch’s accident was meant to be fatal, and Selena was meant to be with him. I had already searched his apartment and knew there was nothing there. If either of them had known about the money, I would have found some clues. They were useless. All that was left was you. You have to know by now every shadow you saw, every set of eyes you
felt, every stalker surrounding your place was me.” His eyes held mine captive as a smile tipped his lips. “Thank you for the show, by the way. I like the curtains in your bathroom. You were begging for someone to peep at you.”

I gasped and felt like throwing up. He’d not only spied on me naked, but he was the one who had tried to kill Mitch.

“You’re a monster,” I said in barely more than a whisper.

“You have no idea what I am or what I’m capable of.” He leaned forward, nearly pressing his nose to mine. “If I were you, I would cooperate.”

“And what exactly does that mean?”

“Behave yourself and stay out of my way, or Granny here goes first.”

“You might fool everyone with your nice smile and polite manner, but you’re a bully, young man. That’s what you are, and I don’t like it one bit.” Granny turned her head away from Kevin—I couldn’t think of him as Nicholas the Avenger, or I would lose it for sure—and she refused to look at him.

“You might not like it, but you
will
tell me where the money is. I’m a very patient man, but that doesn’t mean I’ll sit idle while I wait.” He ran the tip of his finger along the side of the knife, his face relaxed and expressionless.

“I already did. Apparently, you weren’t listening. Add that to another one of your flaws. I don’t care what you say. I still think your parents wouldn’t be happy with the way that you’re acting.”

His face hardened a bit as he stood and strolled over to her. “I don’t care what you think,” he said calmly and clearly. “I’m growing bored. I want my money, and I want it now.”

“I’ve been through war and poverty and a daughter who drives me mad. But I refuse to let you hurt my granddaughter. You could have had it all.” She tsked and looked at him pathetically. “Frankly, you don’t deserve her. Your precious money is under the stairs.”

Kevin’s eyes flashed satisfaction, yet they also held a hint of sadness. I supposed after all these years of waiting and biding his time, all in the name of revenge, he’d gone a little mad. He probably didn’t know how to do or be anything else but the Avenger. Once he had left, I scooted my chair closer to Granny’s.

“Granny, we have to escape. Once he finds the money, he won’t have any reason to keep us alive. I did a reading for him. He comes from very bad people. Very bad!”

“I know. That’s why I lied. The money
was
under the stairs, but it’s not now.”

My jaw unhinged. “Granny Gert. You are just full of surprises.”

She winked in a you-ain’t-seen-nothing-yet sort of way, then whistled softly. Morty miraculously appeared, wearing a fitting solid orange-colored bow tie. He acted all angelic and submissive, the little devil. “Be a good boy and help us, Morty dear.”

“Granny, he’s not Lassie. I don’t think—” Again, my mouth fell open as Morty acted like he understood every word. He came when she whistled, and he knew how to go for help? Good Lord, she’d turned him into a dog. What next, get him to roll over and fetch?

I swear Morty rolled his eyes at me in disgust and then darted behind my chair, lickety-split. Within seconds, something sliced through the duct tape binding my hands like a
razor. But wait, Morty didn’t have anything in his mouth except his … gulp … razor-sharp teeth? All I could think was,
Thank goodness he’s on my side
.

Morty reappeared in front of me as though he’d read my thoughts, sporting a look on
his face that said,
Now that’s more like it.
He licked his lips.

Kevin burst through the door, and I jumped. Then I glanced around, but Morty had vanished in thin air.

“It wasn’t under the stairs, Granny,” Kevin said as though disciplining a small child in a calm, disappointed tone. “Trust me, you don’t want to play with me.”

“I’m not playing with you. I’m old,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Now let me think.” She scrunched up her face, stared at the ceiling, and then her eyes brightened. “Oh, now I remember. I hid the money in the safe in Sunny’s bedroom upstairs.”

“Safe? What safe?” I said.

“Oh dear. You really do need to explore more often. It’s behind the picture of Queen Victoria on your wall. I thought you knew.”

“Um, no. I had no idea this house had a safe. But that explains why I had to readjust that picture. It was hanging crooked, and I thought the last thunderstorm we experienced had knocked it askew.”

“Nope. That was just little ole me.”

“Enough,” Kevin interrupted, looking a bit frustrated for the first time. “What’s the combination?”

“Silly boy. There is no combination,” Granny declared.

“Then how, pray tell, do you unlock it?” His jaw moved as though he were grinding his teeth.

“Why, with a key, of course.”