Five

Several hours went by, and there were only two hours before dawn would be lighting up the sky. Still, this particular area of SoHo was quiet like a small town in the Midwest. Cristal had come all the way from Boston, so she wasn’t about to fail. She sat patiently behind the wheel of her dark blue Audi. Since the Farm, it had been embedded into her—always take your time, study your mark, know their routine, and become familiar with the surroundings.

As she sat, she suddenly noticed Daisy’s male friend exiting the building. She read him. Leaving in the middle of the night the way he did, she imagined he had a girlfriend or wife waiting for him at home. She chuckled.

She watched him climb inside a black BMW 745i and navigate out of the tight parking spot before driving off. Now she could move.

She slid out the car and repeated the same routine as before, climbing up the fire escape, her .9mm in hand, silencer at the end, bullet already in the chamber, and went for the same open window. This time, she had to be extra careful. Maybe Daisy was awake. Either way, she was going to complete her mission.

Cristal effortlessly crept through the window. This time she knew the layout of the apartment. She was trained to have a picture-perfect memory.

This time, she was audacious. No crouching, no moving around in the apartment like a cockroach, knowing Daisy was alone. If confronted, Daisy was no match for her lethal abilities. It would be like a tree going against a hurricane.

Cristal moved toward the bedroom with an unrelenting attitude, her eyes cold slits, her fist clenched around the silver handle of the Beretta. She was ready to show the little bitch the consequences of being greedy. She could hear some movement inside the master bedroom, and a television now turned on low. She noticed the yellow light under the doorway. Cristal lifted her right leg, knee pointed upwards, and thrust it forward, kicking open the bedroom door with a burst of force that startled Daisy.

Immediately, Cristal had the gun trained at her head. “Don’t you fuckin’ move.”

Daisy, still butt naked and seated at the foot of her bed, stared wide-eyed at Cristal clad in black standing in front of her with the barrel of the silencer pointed right between her eyes. Right away, she was overcome with fear. “Please don’t kill me,” she begged loudly.

“I’m not going to kill you.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Daisy was shaking like a leaf on a windy day. She kept her attention fixed on Cristal and the gun. The tears started to show in her eyes.

“Get up!”

Daisy complied, moving slowly, her whole body trembling from fear. “What are you going to do with me? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to act up at the last book signing. I don’t want anything.”

Cristal shouted, “I said shut up!”

She made Daisy move around her well-designed bedroom at gunpoint and forced her into the living room. She instructed her to take a seat at the small writing desk that sat cater-corner in the neat living room. Daisy sank her naked ass into the cushioned chair and curved herself over the desk, her whimpering uncontrollable.

Cristal removed a pen and some paper from the drawer.

“Please . . . whatever you want, I’ll behave. I’m sorry. Just don’t hurt me,” she said, tears trickling down her face.

“I want you to write something for me,” Cristal said.

“Write what?”

“I’ll tell you.”

Daisy could barely hold the pen steady in her hand, which shook like it was in a California earthquake.

Cristal held the gun pointed to the back of her head. Daisy couldn’t help but to nervously glance over her shoulder, wondering what Cristal had planned for her.

Cristal approached closer, placing the tip of the silencer to the back of Daisy’s head and said, “I need you to write this down.”

Daisy placed the pen to the paper and started jotting down every word Cristal spoke.

“I am saddened to inform my fans and the public that I will no longer be able to make any special appearances at book signings, radio interviews, speaking engagements, or interviews. I have decided to leave the country for a long while and go into seclusion. The reasons for this sudden decision I do not care to disclose at the moment, but they are good reasons. I thank everyone for the love and support they’ve shown me and know my work will always carry on.”

Cristal made Daisy sign it as Melissa Chin.

Immediately, Daisy started to cry out hysterically knowing the inevitable was about to happen to her.

With the gun still pointed at the back of Daisy’s head, Cristal said, “Get up!”

“Please! I’m sorry, so sorry. I’ll just disappear. I swear I won’t be a problem to you. Just let me go. I promise, I’ll go back to the Midwest right now.”

Keeping Daisy alive was too much of a risk for Cristal. It was inevitable that the Commission would eventually track her down, most likely torture her for information, and kill her.

“Get dressed.”

Daisy walked over to her walk-in closet on the opposite side of the bedroom. She slowly opened the narrow double closet doors and walked into what looked like a whirlwind of clothing placed everywhere. She was living the good life, wearing Prada and Gucci, dining in nice restaurants, chilling in VIP in the hottest clubs, and having the best sex with some of the finest men in New York City.

Daisy stood in the middle of her closet looking befuddled.

“Hurry up and put something on,” Cristal snapped, becoming impatient with her.

Daisy looked at the tons of clothing she’d collected since becoming Melissa Chin. Her tears continued to trickle down her brown cheeks.

Her nakedness was starting to bother Cristal. She stepped into the closet and decided to choose for her, since Daisy was too dumbfounded. With the barrel of the silencer pushing clothing to the side draping of the hangers, she set her eyes on something.

“I like this,” she said. “Put this on.”

Daisy didn’t argue with her. She slid into the short, colorful Gucci dress.

Cristal pulled Daisy out of the closet, and after she put on a pair of shoes, the two were out the front door. Daisy was being kidnapped. The two exited the building with Daisy still begging for her freedom.

Cristal popped the trunk to her Audi and forced Daisy inside.

“Please, I’ll just go away,” Daisy begged once again before the trunk slammed shut.

...

It was just over an hour drive to the designated place in Scarsdale, New York. But with the sprawling sunlight, Cristal didn’t have the cover she needed. She needed to wait until it was dark again, so she gagged Daisy and kept her hidden in the trunk until dusk.

When night fell over the Scarsdale neighborhood, Cristal drove near a secluded area of a sprawling cemetery, up a hill, overlooking the community. It was dark and away from traffic or wandering pedestrians.

The grave was already dug. Now it was just a matter of dumping the body and filling it in. There was a crescent moon above, and between the thick shrubberies and tall trees, Cristal had enough cover to kill Daisy.

She parked close to the grave and forced Daisy out of the trunk at gunpoint. Daisy couldn’t scream due to the cloth wedged into her mouth. Her wrists were bound tightly, her hair disheveled, and her tear-stained face was still searching for some sympathy from Cristal.

She marched Daisy toward the open grave, and when Daisy saw the gruesome fate that lay ahead of her, she pivoted quickly in her high heels and tried to run.

Suddenly the butt of the Beretta came crashing down against the back of her skull, and she collapsed onto her hands and knees.

“Don’t be stupid,” Cristal said.

Daisy squirmed and groaned, the dirty white rag shoved into her mouth gagging her and making her incoherent. Her tears continued to fall, her eyes wide with fear. She obviously didn’t want to die, but she didn’t have a choice.

Cristal forced her to the foot of the open grave.

Daisy was in a full-blown panic. She quivered so much and was so scared, a yellow stream trickled down her inner thigh and made a small puddle where she stood. Her eyes frantically searched for some kind of pardon from her soon-to-be executioner.

Cristal shook her head in disgust. She stepped forward with the gun angled away from Daisy, and removed the gag, allowing her victim to speak her last words. She didn’t know why. It would be the only empathy from her that night.

The second she was able to speak, Daisy started to beg for her life again. “Don’t do this. I can’t die like this. My parents . . . if I die like this, they won’t be able to give me a proper burial. If I’m missing, it will kill them not knowing where I am. I ran away from home when I was fifteen.” She sobbed loudly.

Cristal didn’t give a fuck. It had to be this way. Daisy was Melissa Chin, and she couldn’t afford to have Melissa Chin found dead, and then have it subsequently revealed that she was really a young girl from the Midwest named Daisy McLeod. It would be too messy and too much of a risk.

Besides, Cristal quite enjoyed writing. It was cathartic and helped her deal with her past. Cristal would keep producing books, but this time she wouldn’t be stupid enough to attach a face to it.

Cristal lifted her eyes to lock with Daisy’s. “Sorry it had to be this way.”

Before Daisy could yell for help or defend herself, the .9mm was quickly raised to meet her forehead, and a bullet went slamming into her frontal lobe. The impact lifted Daisy off her feet and sent her flying backwards into the deep grave with a loud thump against the dirt. The body landed sideways.

Cristal aimed at the body and fired three more shots.

Poot! Poot! Poot!

Cristal didn’t need to cover the grave completely, for it had already been pre-dug by gravediggers for a funeral early the next morning. She just needed to cover the body with dirt and conceal it enough so tomorrow, when the casket was lowered into the ground during the burial, no one would ever suspect their loved one was sharing their final resting place with someone else.