CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

My phone rings, and I stifle a scream. I quickly pull it from my pocket and silence it. I stand still for over a minute, listening intently. When I don’t hear anyone coming, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Then my phone rings again. I look at the number. Sean.

I answer and hiss, “Will you stop that?”

“Will I stop it? Are you delusional? You left me to rot in a jail cell overnight. You should be grateful that Immigration confirmed my right to be in this country, or I’d come after you out of spite.”

“So you’re out of jail?”

“Yes. Over Detective Reyes’s strong objections. She has nothing to hold me on. Actually, she does. We both trespassed, and you bloody admitted to it. I managed to convince her that we were friends of Lisa’s and acted the way any naturally concerned friend would.”

I sigh. “Well, I told her I only just met Lisa, so that explains why she thinks I’m lying.”

He offers a sigh of his own. “Christ, what a clusterfuck. I warned you about this, Mary. I told you not to come with me. If you’d let me handle things my way—”

“You’re right. You’re right, and I’ll apologize later, but I need you to listen right now. I’m at Lisa’s apartment. I just saw—”

“You’re what? Are you serious?”

“Sean, listen to me, please.”

“No! No, I will not listen to you! Are you kidding me? For the love of… you’re mental! You know that, right? You’re bloody mental?”

“That seems to be the consensus,” I reply drily, “now if you will shut the hell up for one moment, I’ll tell you what I saw here.”

“By all means. I’ve already nearly gone to prison for you. Why not again?”

I roll my eyes. I’m not interested in having this fight right now. “Lisa faked her kidnapping, Sean. She was just here with Marcus. They owe debts to a loan shark, just like you speculated. They’re going to steal Victor’s artwork and sell it to a dealer in San Diego. I suspect a criminal one because I found a note that said to meet him in a public place. Then they’re going to pay the loan shark and flee to Costa Rica to escape their other debts.”

“Slow down. You saw Lisa and Marcus at the apartment?”

“Yes. They just left. They’re going to Victor’s place right now.”

It hits me that I’m still in the bathroom of Lisa’s apartment while the two criminals are on their way to make good their escape. I leave and rush to my own car. I don’t care if I’m seen now. If the police follow me to Victor’s place, so much the better.

“Shite,” Sean breathes through the phone. “They’re probably the ones that offed Victor then, too.”

I don’t care for his flippant way of saying it, but he’s not wrong. “Yes. I believe so.”

“And Celeste? We’re sure she’s run away?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t think Evelyn took her somewhere?”

“No. She wouldn’t have been able to hide her.”

“Maybe she threw her over the balcony.”

“We would have found the body then. No, listen. Lisa and Marcus are behind this. I don’t know how they got rid of Victor, but they did. Or Victor ran off on his own, and they saw the opportunity. Either way, they’re going to be free and clear soon, so let’s talk about all of this after we stop them.”

“Wait, we?”

I jump in the car and speed back toward Victor’s place. “Yes. I’m heading there now. Get to me as soon as you can.”

“What? Are you stupid? You can’t go alone!”

“That’s why I told you to meet me there.”

“How? You have the car, you bloody imbecile!”

“So get another one! Or call the police and have them meet me there. Actually yes. Do that.”

“Or, you go somewhere safe and let the bloody police handle it!”

“I can’t. I might not have time.”

"What the hell… Mary, for the love of God, do not confront them on your own! You’ll get yourself hurt!”

“You said you care about me, right?”

“What? You want to talk about this now?”

“If you care about me, then you need to understand something about me. I can not sit back and hope that others will protect the people I care about. I’ve done that before, and I’ve suffered greatly for it. I won’t do it again. You’ve pointed out before that I repeatedly risk my life for others. Well, here I am doing it again.”

“But there’s no need, Mary! Let the police—”

“I can’t trust the damned police!” I shout. “Like you’ve said, they think I’m the murderer! Instead of trying to figure out what actually happened, Reyes dug into my past and decided that because I lost Annie and spent time in a mental hospital thirty years ago that this is somehow my fault. She tried to deport you when all you did was alert them to what we both thought was the disappearance of another innocent person! They’ve had their chance to do the right thing, and they’ve failed. The only way they do their job is if the answer is shoved right under their bloody noses! So that’s what we’re going to do. Call them and get to Victor’s house as soon as you can.”

Sean is silent for a while. When he speaks again, there is resignation in his tone. “All right. I’ll get them there as fast as I can. Please be safe. Record their conversations. Take pictures. Don’t try to fight them. You’re a fifty-two-year-old woman, and you’re not invincible. I’ve saved your life twice already. I don’t want to have to save your life again.”

I smile sadly. “You may have to care for another woman then.”

“Damn it, Mary.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

I hang up and take a deep breath. I will reach Victor’s house in ten minutes. Lisa and Marcus will still be there. They won’t have had enough time to load their car with Victor’s art.

I look at my phone. Five-thirty. Evelyn will arrive for work twenty minutes after I do. If I’m lucky, she’ll arrive before Lisa and Marcus are finished. If I’m very lucky, Sean and the police will arrive before then.

We can stop them. We might not find Victor or Celeste, but at the very least, we can stop these two hateful people from capitalizing off of their demise.

I feel a wave of sadness when I think of Celeste. She was right about Lisa the whole time. She might not have known what Lisa was planning, but her instincts were correct.

“I’ll stop her,” I whisper. “For your sake, Celeste, I’ll stop her.”

***

I reach the house precisely ten minutes later. There’s a van parked in the driveway with the rear panel doors open and facing the house. Apparently, Lisa and Marcus aren’t worried about being seen by the neighbors. Maybe they’re hoping no one will question why Victor’s belongings are being removed since he’s been missing for days now.

I park the car and quickly make my way inside. The front door is open, but there’s no one in the foyer. I hear footsteps ascending the stairs, however, so I quickly rush behind one of Victor’s statues and turn my body so the stone profile hides me from view.

Lisa's and Marcus's voice carries up the stairs. I pull my cell phone from my pocket, open the camera, and turn the volume down so I can record without them hearing my phone chime.

“How much are you planning to take?” Marcus asks.

“All of it,” Lisa replies Here and in the studio. Not the statues. Those are too heavy.”

“It’ll take forever to load all of that.”

“No, it won’t. There’s only a few dozen upstairs, and none of them are framed. Two more loads from the basement and one upstairs, then we’re gone.”

“What if the maid gets here? Or the nanny?”

Lisa scoffs. “They’re not going to work for free. Victor’s dead. Who’s gonna pay them?”

My breath catches in my throat. So they did kill Victor!

“How do we know Victor’s dead, though?” Marcus replies. “The hitman never got back to me.”

“He told us he’d never get back to us.”

"He never sent me a picture, though, or anything. Don't they have to provide proof of death?"

They exit the front door, so I can’t hear them for a few seconds. I process what I’ve just heard. So a hitman was hired to kill Victor, but there was no proof of death. Could Victor have survived the assault somehow?

He must have. I found the evidence of a camp in the hidden cove. So then where did he go from there? Did he go into hiding? Why would he do that without Celeste?

My speculation is cut off when I hear them returning. “It won’t matter anyway. If we’re in Costa Rica, they can’t get us. It’s not like Victor can send people after us down there.”

Marcus replies to Lisa. “What about the girl? What if she’s told people?”

“Then they’d be here. Relax, Marcus. Seriously, what are the chances Celeste is still alive anyway?”

They start descending the stairs. I hear Lisa add, “Good riddance too. The little bitch hated me.”

“Well, you were planning to kill her father.”

“So? She didn’t know that. She just thought I was trying to marry him or something.”

Their voices fade again. I stop the video and send it to Sean, just in case something happens to me or my phone. I look at the time. Five-forty-five. They said two more loads from the basement and one from the studio. That has them leaving right around six o’clock.

I listen for sirens. Why am I not hearing any? What’s taking the police so long? Maybe I should call them myself. I could dial nine-one-one and let them listen in on the conversation. They could—

“Should we be worried about the nanny?”

That’s Marcus’s voice.

“Why would we worry about the nanny?” Lisa replies wearily. “What’s she gonna do?”

“Well, she was asking you a bunch of questions.”

“She wanted to know why Celeste went psycho-ape on me. I told her the truth. Who the hell knows when you’re talking about insane artists?”

There’s a thump, and Lisa snaps, “Hey! Be careful!”

“Sorry. Look, I just don’t like this, okay? I’ll feel better when we’re in Costa Rica.”

“Well, quit whining, all right? The nanny has no reason to be here anymore. Not with Celeste floating with the fairies somewhere.”

“Hey! What are you two doing here?”

I jump at that voice. At the same time, my heart leaps with joy. Evelyn’s here early!