She sees her next kill from a distance. A shining beacon of golden hair that glows in the sunlight. Jewel’s always detested the colour – how others rave about ‘strawberry’ blondes. There was a black-and-white movie once made called that. The Strawberry Blonde. Rita Hayworth starred in it, and the posters showed her with red hair, not the almost-blonde, not-quite-red colour strawberry is.
It is rare as a natural colour, Jewel knows that. But so many women choose to dye it in.
Perhaps this one erred more on the blonde and less on the red in truth. But finding that exact match was impossible. Jewel could only find close or near unless she came face to face with the original wearer and that only happened on one occasion. It was a bit of a shock being that close to her after so long. She hadn’t recognized Jewel, which was a relief because then her cover would have been blown. Jewel was certain that she had not thought of her for a long time.
She hates her even now.
Fae they’d called her back then, later she’d become Neva. But Jewel had heard about the rename. It had happened after she’d been banished from the house. After she’d failed to prove she was the best. Then Jewel had been returned to Mother and her training had intensified as a punishment for that fiasco. Even now, she doesn’t understand why Mother had tried her out in the house. Maybe she had wanted to test her prodigy against someone she considered the best.
But for now, Jewel has escaped the clutches of the château and Mother. Money has given her that autonomy. Like Neva had done before her, Jewel has saved her payments, living frugally as she accumulated her own wealth. Money was power. Money was independence.
Mother had wanted it all for herself, of course. She sent Jewel after the Syrian heir, Tehrin. He was another mark in a list of many that Jewel had played and stolen from for the sake of building the Almunazama’s funds. Mother had spent years growing the conglomerate, hoping it would rival Beech’s Network and ultimately take over his assets. That was all until Beech’s death brought about the epiphany that Mother could take over the Network itself, merging the Almunazama with it to create an ultimate and unstoppable force.
Jewel had been working as an insider for Mother’s enemies. She’d whored for her but she was smart and observant: she’d learned a lot about their dealings as well as Mother’s. She’d taken it all on board. Hiding behind her calm veneer. Wearing the mask that Mother trusted. Until the time came for her to skip away. New identity. New life. Swiss bank full of the cash she’d skimmed off the top of the various thefts – bolstered up by the four million she’d obtained from Tehrin. It had been easy. And she deserved the money more than Mother did. She’d earned it.
But Mother hasn’t come after her. So far. This is a surprise. Perhaps Mother thinks she is still working for her under cover. Or perhaps she just doesn’t care. Whatever the reason, Jewel sees her new freedom as confirmation of the lies that Mother tells to all of her children. She doesn’t love us. We aren’t individuals. We are her personal army. Jewel is just one soldier among many. Not even worth chasing down when she goes AWOL. It’s all so disappointing.
Jewel brings her mind back to the latest victim. She’s a teacher at a primary school. Newly married. She reminds Jewel of an actress she once saw in a film – or a TV series. She can’t remember which because it’s not important. But she was pretty and perky and slender just like this one. Cassandra Clementine has that quality. Even her name sounds like it belongs to a film star. She’s way too beautiful to spend all day with annoying children. No, she needs to become something else. An icon. A saint.
A corpse.
Jewel watches Cassandra from a car across the road from the woman’s house. The husband left some time ago. Now, Cassandra comes out. She’s carrying a rucksack and a lunch box. She climbs into her car and drives away.
Jewel doesn’t follow. She already knows where Cassandra works. She gets out of her car and crosses the road.
On this street, several of the neighbours have cameras directed down their driveways. Jewel knows where all of them land. She’s already hacked them through their various Wi-Fi networks. Security, for those who understand how it works, is one of the simplest things to disable especially when your target has no idea it can be done. And most ordinary people have no clue about these sorts of things beyond believing they are safe once the systems are installed.
She walks up Cassandra’s drive, knowing that she isn’t being observed.
She enters the house with a clone key. She’d copied it from Cassandra during an open day at the primary school. Jewel had been there, pretending to look around with a view to sending her daughter. No one had questioned the fact that a 26-year-old had a child of 4. Half the mothers there were younger than her.
Cassandra was the reception class teacher and she’d been warm and friendly. She’d left her house and car keys casually on the desk in her classroom. Jewel had taken them after Cassandra became distracted by another parent. Then she’d gone to the bathroom and pressed the house key into a ready prepared container of putty. After that, she returned the keys to the reception claiming she’d found them in the toilet.
Inside Cassandra’s house, Jewel disables the alarm system and walks in. It’s a character house, on an old street. Victorian and therefore big. The hallway is tiled in a tradition style that surprises Jewel – Cassandra appears modern in dress and behaviour.
Jewel walks around the house, admiring the character and looking at Cassandra and Ian’s life together. Very cosy. Very normal.
It makes Jewel angry. In fact, it makes her furious but she holds it all inside, determined her rage won’t leak out this time.
She goes upstairs and finds the couple’s bedroom. It is far different from the rest of the house. There’s a swan-style superking bed in the centre. The headboard is plush grey velvet with diamantes and seems decadent compared to the more ordinary furnishing downstairs. There’s a dressing table with a Hollywood-style mirror and two matching mirrored chests of drawers. When Jewel opens the drawers in them, she discovers one contains Cassandra’s lingerie, nightwear and sweats. The other is Ian’s underwear, socks and T-shirts. There’s an antique feel about the furniture, but all of these items are new and high end. It tells Jewel a lot about Cassandra and it matches the lifestyle Jewel thinks the woman should have.
Jewel knows that this stunning, expensive and beautiful room must be the stage where Cassandra will be set.
It will be many hours before Cassandra returns, she always leaves the school early on a Friday, and, like every other Friday, Ian will arrive home late after going for a drink with work colleagues. It all gives Jewel time to prepare the room.
In one of the other bedrooms, Jewel finds a free-standing antique mirror. She brings it into the master bedroom and positions it at the bottom of the bed. The bed is covered with a grey velvet duvet that seems to change colour in the light from the bedroom window and sometimes appears to have purple tones. But Jewel wants to see more colour on the future resting place of Cassandra Clementine. A beautiful death for a beautiful girl. She walks around the house looking for something that might work. Then she glances out of the window and into Cassandra’s back garden. Her eyes fall on the rose beds. Yellow, white, pink and purple roses are in full bloom.
She goes downstairs, opens the back door and slips outside into the garden. She looks at the roses then goes back inside the house for something to put them in. In the kitchen she searches through the drawers until she finds a canvas bag with washing pegs inside. She tips the pegs into the drawer and takes the bag outside. There she systematically pulls the heads off all of the roses.
As she turns back towards the house, she catches sight of an old woman looking into the garden from the upstairs window of the house next door. She goes back inside the house, and places the canvas bag on the kitchen counter top.
After that she goes next door.
When Jewel has dealt with the witness to her presence at Cassandra’s – a detail she barely thinks about because she doesn’t want it to distract her from her plans – she goes back into Cassandra’s house.
She takes the canvas bag upstairs and tears the petals off the rose heads, scattering them in a flow of colour and scent onto the bed.
It looks gorgeous when she’s finished and now, although she hasn’t decided exactly how she will display Cassandra, she is excited for her return. She tries to envisage the final piece of art, all blending in with that last flash of red. It’s going to be magnificent and this time she won’t lose her concentration.
For a moment she recalls Hilary’s death. It was not glorious. It was not well planned. Jewel had lost her cool too soon. She hadn’t even been planning on killing her there and then. It just happened. Afterwards she’d tried to regroup. Tried to turn the mess back into art. She’d done a reasonable job, considering.
Jewel turns her mind back to Cassandra. How will she react when she sees the bed? Will she appreciate that Jewel is giving her a beautiful death? For surely someone as lovely as Cassandra must crave a magnificent end.
When she’s finished, Jewel sits in a chair by the bed, as she’s done in many hotel rooms. She switches on the television and finds a channel showing old movies while she waits. Not long now. Just a few hours. And then, Cassandra will belong to her.