seventy

“Get me out of here, Detective.” Karen pressed back into Bear. “Get me out of here, please.”

“Karen Simms,” Bear said as he stooped and picked up the syringe, “you’re under arrest for the murders of William and Marshal Mendelson and, after this trick, the attempted murder of Angela Tucker.” Bear finished the conventional Miranda rights and pushed her down into one of the chairs across the room.

“Attempted murder?” Karen pointed her chin at Angel. “She won’t be testifying.”

“Sure she will, Karen.” Bear lifted the IV line she had poisoned. The end of the line should have been attached to a needle in Angel’s vein but instead it was affixed to a small plastic bottle hidden in the bed linens. The bottle had already captured the syringe of poison Karen injected.

“Glad you like needles,” Bear said in a dry voice. “The Commonwealth has one for you.”

Angel—Angel in my world—said, “Tuck, I thought Karen was dead.”

“Yes, Angel, me too.” I told her what Bear’s men found at B.C.’s house. I ended with, “Karen found out about William’s treasure and was selling it piece by piece until he caught her. But by then, Raina had traced it and found her, then found William and Keys. William called you to that meeting to ask for help—he needed your contacts at the Smithsonian to sort it all out with the Egyptians before anything happened to him and Keys.”

Karen stared at me as I began to fade. Her eyes darted to Bear, me, and back to Bear. “Detective, it was all Marshal. He was over his head with some loan sharks. He …”

“Bullshit, Karen,” Bear said as Cal walked into the room with another deputy. “You found his treasure and set up that secret account to sell it. You tried to frame Poor Nic and Keys by putting the account under their company name—Nostalgia—except the address went to a PO box that wasn’t Nic’s. Marshal may have helped you, but you did the killing. You killed William to keep him from revealing his secret to Raina before you could sell all his treasure. And then you killed Marshal. Why, did he get cold feet?”

Karen’s eyes were steel. “That stuff was worth millions—more, even. Marshal was a bastard and he killed his father to get the treasure. I just helped with the bank account to sell it. And then he was gonna turn me in for William’s murder, like he was all innocent and shit. Do you believe it? He committed suicide …”

“No, Karen.” Bear eyed her. “You killed William. And you’re going down for Marshal’s murder, too. But hey, that was a neat trick pouring your blood all around your apartment to make us think you were dead. If we hadn’t found the containers at B.C.’s place, we might have never figured it out. I guess being a nursing student paid off.”

Karen cursed and turned away.

Cal said, “And we have B.C. He’s talking so much we can’t keep up. Seems he didn’t like you setting him up with Raina just to get him shot and arrested for murder. You used that .22 to kill William, then you gave it to B.C. for the phony bank heist. You set him up to look like he’d robbed William’s vault and killed him. Then you sent the poor sap to help Raina get Keys to confess. What, did you figure she’d kill him and Keys to cover her tracks and yours at the same time? And why try to kill Poor Nic?”

Karen’s face flushed. “That was meant for Professor Tucker. Bartalotta got in the way—dumb luck, right?” She looked up at Bear and her face dissolved into a cocky, nasty grin. “But I figured, what the hell, Bartalotta will find B.C. to pay him back. Then, there won’t be any witness to rat me out.”

“Angel?” I said, and Karen looked for me but couldn’t find me. “Why kill Angel? She wasn’t involved with all this.”

Karen lifted her chin. “William told her everything. She had to go. She even found Raina at that Washington warehouse—I followed Angela there. I figured that crazy Egyptian bitch would finish her off once and for all. But she didn’t, so …”

“That’s the funny thing, Karen,” Bear said. “Raina may be a crazy bitch, but she never killed anyone. Oh, her family did, but not her. You’re the murderer.”

“She’s no saint, Braddock. It was her fault I had to do it. Angela Tucker would have figured out it was me sooner or later. What was I supposed to do? Just wait around for her to figure me out?”

Bear leaned forward. “So, you followed Angela out of DC and drove her off the road.”

“I had no choice. It was William’s fault for talking to her.” Karen let a sly grin escape the corners of her mouth. “Look, I have a deal …”

“William didn’t tell her anything,” Bear growled. “He never spoke to Angela. She was heading to see him for the first time the morning you killed him. Angela never knew what William wanted.”

She stared for a moment. “But … he told her before, in emails. She had to know.”

“No, he never told her.” I leaned close to her and whispered, “I’m gonna haunt you for the rest of your life. Me and every ghoul I can find—maybe William and Marshal …”

“Come on, Braddock, let’s make a deal.” Karen’s eyes darted around the room looking for me—or others. “I’ll confess everything. I’ll give the money back—”

“Give it back?” Cal took her arm and stood her up. “Willy knew you were stealin’ and he moved the treasure to Keys’s club for safekeepin’ until they could return it. He knew you’d make a move on the rest.”

“Money? You think this was just about money?” Karen’s face chilled to ice again. “My stepdad was a fireman. He saved William when he started the annex on fire years ago. William was down in his secret vault—no one knew it was there back then. My stepfather and another fireman had to hunt around to find him. But then my stepfather got trapped behind the vault gate. He was burnt so bad he never worked again. William was untouched—didn’t have so much as singed hair. My stepfather drank himself to death and mom died trying to make ends meet. William Mendelson and that damn treasure destroyed my family. Sure, I wanted his money; I earned it. And I got them—I got their money and them, too.”

Tommy. Fire. Smoke. Revenge.

Bear looked over at me and then at Karen. His face softened a little. “For your family, I’m sorry, Karen. But you’re still going down for the murders. Now, if—”

“Look, I know things about Franklin Thorne.” She wet her lips and looked from Cal to Bear. “I saw him in the bank at all hours of the night. He was up to something, I’m telling you. He—”

“Thorne’s an international jewel thief, Karen,” Bear said and laughed when her face paled. “He was there to rob William, too. And I suspect he was onto you. In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if your stolen money is long gone from your offshore account. It’s probably in his Swiss bank about now.”

“Thorne … a thief?” Karen shook her head as her eyes raged. “He used me. I led him to it all. That miserable lying bastard!”

“She’s loonier than a clown on steroids,” I said.

Cal pulled her toward the door. “Let’s go, Karen. Your old boyfriend, B.C., made a deal that’ll keep him off death row. Maybe being nuts will save you.”

Cal paraded Karen from the hospital room.

Angel sat beside me on the couch. When her eyes rose to me again, she was crying. “It’s time—I have to choose. It’s so hard, Tuck. It’s so hard.”

“Stay alive, Angel. Stay with Bear and Hercule and your life. I’ll be fine. And I promise, no more snooping around on you. Well, maybe a little.”

She laughed between the tears and took my hand. “I know Hercule would be fine with Bear. And we’ll both be with him … always.”

“No, Angel.”

“Being with you is all I want, Tuck.” She leaned forward and kissed me. “I know what I have to do.” She kissed me a second time, long and hard, then smiled as she slipped away into nothing.

A moment later, her life machines beeped and cried out. Lights flashed everywhere. Footsteps ran up the hall and anxious voices grew louder and louder. When the doctor and nurse burst through the doorway, they went straight to the life machines. The doctor scanned the readouts, checked numbers, and slowly turned off the alarms.

The doctor looked down at Angel. “Dear God.”