Thirty-Four

Simone video called a few weeks later during our farewell party. I had sent her a message letting her know the crew was getting together in the warehouse one last time before it was knocked down to make way for swanky condos. She’d sent her regrets but promised to call during our get-together so she could see the crew and catch up.

“Simsim! How are you?” She moved the camera around to show a deep blue ocean and a sky without clouds. “We’re on Vera’s super-yacht. It’s been so good to get away.”

“We missed you at Richard’s celebration of life,” I said. “You were supposed to give a speech.”

“Oh, those things are such a bore,” she said. “And really, what was there to say about Richard? He was dull, dull, dull. The only exciting thing he did in his life was get eaten by a shark.”

“How long will you be away?” I moved the camera around so everyone could wave hello. We’d brought drinks and snacks, and Anil had set up the whiteboard to teach us all how to invest our money so we didn’t lose it all again.

“I expect we’ll have to stay in international waters for some time,” Simone said. “How long do you think, Vera?” she shouted over the wind before turning back to the camera. “Vera doesn’t know. We’re enjoying our freedom. We’re pretending we’re Thelma and Louise from the movie, but instead of driving over a cliff, we’re sailing the great blue sea.”

“Detective Garcia was looking for you,” I said. “He thinks Richard’s death wasn’t an accident. They’ve determined he hadn’t been drinking.”

“Oh dear.” Simone shook her head. “It’s a shame the shark didn’t eat the rest of him. It would have been so much easier if it had. I told Vera to give him a few drinks, but she got nervous and just wanted to get it done.”

“Simone?” My blood chilled. “Did you…”

“Oh, Simi. Always so innocent.” Simone laughed. “You probably thought Peter’s death was an accident, too.”

The warehouse had fallen silent, everyone listening in horrified fascination to Simone as she flitted around the yacht, pointing the camera in different directions to show us the view.

“Well, no,” I said. “Someone slit his throat. Garcia said the killer was left-handed.”

Chloe raised her right arm and ran her fingers up and down her forearm, reminding me of Simone’s scars. And her words. I had to learn to write with my left hand.

Bile rose in my throat, and I doubled over. “Was that you?”

“Do I have to spell it out for you, darling?” Simone settled in an overstuffed deck chair, finally holding the camera still as she adjusted her enormous sunglasses. “Peter was a bad man. He hurt Vera. When I went to see her that first time and saw her bruises, it made me so angry. Why did we both have to suffer? I resolved then and there to help her, and your celebration of life gave me the most wonderful idea. We would kill Peter and pretend it was a robbery, and since you wanted to rob him anyway, it was the perfect crime. Since Peter had been planning to move their collection to their art island, we thought our pretend thieves would do the same thing and ship the goods away. The boxes were already there, and they’d even marked where to put everything. We looked up a trucking company on the Internet, Simi! You would have been so proud. We decided to send it all to Belize because Vera spun her globe and closed her eyes and that’s where her finger landed. Peter kept cash in his vault, so Vera took some and gave it to me, and I went to the trucking company office in disguise to pay them. It was so exciting. I think our only mistake was when they asked for a name for the shipping documents. I almost gave us away.”

“Christ.” Jack groaned. “William H. Hunt. He was a young Pre-Raphaelite artist who was known as a rebel without a cause.”

“That’s us,” Simone said. “Vera and I are rebels, although we did have a good cause. And now we’re free and very, very well off.”

I heard Vera’s voice and Simone moved out of the frame only to return a moment later. “Vera wants to know if you found an orange scarf when you were locked up in the container? She lost it when we were packing things up.”

“Yes, it was wrapped around some jewelry, but that container was lost at sea.”

“No matter.” She waved a perfectly manicured hand. “Vera has more than enough money to buy dozens of scarves, don’t you, darling?”

Vera appeared on the screen looking brighter and happier and more radiant than I’d ever seen her. “Hi, Simi and friends!”

“Hi, Vera.” I forced a smile as I turned the camera in a circle to catch the shook faces of everyone in the room, still trying to process that our dear friend Simone was a serial killer.

“When did you pack it all?” Jack asked her. “There wasn’t enough time during the party.”

“Oh, we did it the night before,” she said. “Vera put a few of her sleeping pills in Peter’s nightcap so he wouldn’t wake up, and then we spent all night packing and dragging boxes into the escape tunnel. Some of them were so heavy, we didn’t think we’d be able to move them, especially with my bad arm. There was a risk Peter might want to take people down to the museum during the party before the truck came, but between us, we managed to keep his attention focused on all the pretty girls running around.”

“Why didn’t you just ship them out that night?” I continued.

“It wasn’t about the collection,” Simone said. “It was about Peter. He had to die, darling, and the theft gave us the perfect cover. We wanted people to think he was killed as part of the robbery. He put up quite a struggle when I slit his throat. I thought it would be easy, but his skin was quite thick. Vera had a worse time trying to get his finger off.”

“I had to saw and saw and saw.” Vera made a sawing motion with the little pink umbrella from her drink. “The blood was everywhere, but Simone had the good idea to wear rubber gloves, so we didn’t leave fingerprints.”

“I saw it on TV,” Simone said. “I didn’t know where one would buy rubber gloves, but Vera saw some when she was visiting her doctor and she got a pair for each of us when he was out of the room.”

“I stole them,” Vera said, laughing. “I broke the law.”

I considered pointing out that murder was also breaking the law, but I didn’t want her to get overexcited. She was already unhinged.

“Why did you hit Chloe?” I asked her. “You gave her a concussion.”

“Vera had asked Peter to meet her in the garage,” Simone said. “I was waiting in the Bugatti. But then Chloe walked in with him, and we had to do something because the truck was coming, and we had to get downstairs to turn off the security system, make the finger markings, and open the door so they could take the boxes.”

“I saw a metal bar on the floor, so I hit her.” Vera made a swinging motion with her pink cocktail umbrella. “One hit and she went down. I was surprised at how little effort it took. She must have a soft head.”

“You could have killed her,” I said, fighting back the nausea.

“I am sorry.” Simone sighed. “We just had to be free. We just couldn’t take it anymore. I hope there were no lasting injuries. How is she doing?”

“She’s fine. No lasting damage. She and Gage are back together.” I panned the phone over Olivia, Chloe, and Gage. “Olivia is here, too. We thought we’d invite her so she didn’t have to sneak in, although I’m regretting it now that you had so much to share.”

“No one is sneaking in here again,” Emma said. “Axel’s guys are all outside.”

“Are you an ‘Ol’ Lady’ now or a ‘Sweet Butt’?” Simone said. “The biker life sounds so exciting.”

I turned the camera so Emma could show off her new outlaw biker leather vest with the Hell’s Fury patch in the center, surrounded by the words “Property of Axel.”

“I’m an ‘Ol’ Lady,’ ” she said proudly. “I bought a Harley-Davidson Nightster with my money, and I’ve been showing Axel’s boys how to eat my dust.”

Axel chuckled and ruffled her hair. “She’s a devil on wheels.”

“I told her to invest the money,” Anil said, “but she didn’t listen. No one listens to me. I made a 20 percent profit on my investment from the last heist, but this time I’ve put most of my money in dividend stock. I need regular cash payments to fund my dream of becoming an actor. I quit my engineering job and I don’t want to waste time waiting tables like all the other struggling actors. There’s a high demand right now for funny South Asian sidekicks, and I want to get in while I can.”

“We always need extras at the studio, where I’m back to filming my animal show,” Cristian offered. “If you’re happy to stir cooking pots, pretend to have seen alien life blobs, or stand still while I cover you in snakes to show kids that they’re not dangerous, you should stop by. I’m finishing up episode three next week, but in case it doesn’t work out, I’ve already started planning my new business manufacturing biodegradable single-use plastic bags out of manure.”

“What about your escort business?” Anil asked. “I have experience now with older women. I took one for the team.”

“He slept with Clare,” I reminded Simone.

“I said ‘older,’ not ‘ancient.’ ” Anil sniffed. “I took one for the team with Milan, not Clare. Milan is twenty-eight. She broke up with Vito to be with me, and she’s the one who told me where Clare hid the diamond. She’s been teaching me how to throw knives and I’ve been teaching her magic. I didn’t invite her because I thought you might hold a grudge.”

“A wise decision.” I turned the phone back to look at Simone. “Did you hear all that?”

“I’m delighted to know everyone is doing so well,” she said. “Vera is still having nightmares after our escapade, but it’s nothing a little sedative can’t handle. It worked well for her when she had a breakdown after Peter’s death, and I had to keep her sedated so she wouldn’t tell Detective Garcia where we’d stashed the finger.”

Anil leaned forward, his face twisted in horrified fascination. “You kept it?”

Simone held up an ice bucket. “It’s a souvenir. Once we reach the middle of international waters, we’ll toss it overboard for the sharks.”

Behind me I heard Emma retch.

“Emma really needs to toughen up,” Simone said. “You can’t have any weak links in your crew, especially if your handsome Garcia comes knocking on your door asking questions about us, although I know you won’t talk.”

Chloe’s eyes widened at the implicit threat. “We won’t?”

“No, darling, because I left you a present.” Simone pulled off her sunglasses and smiled. “When we were packing Peter’s collection, I took the diamond so you could give it to Clare, but I noticed something odd about the way it sparkled. I know my diamonds, and that one was real. I was going to talk to you about it, but in all the excitement I forgot until I saw Chloe lying on the floor in the garage. I knew Anil had given Chloe the fake diamond to switch once she got downstairs, so I had Vera take the real diamond out of my pocket and switch it for the fake one in Chloe’s pocket. I couldn’t do it because I was covered in blood, and Vera did it before she cut off Peter’s finger, so that worked out nicely. Then Vera turned off the security system and we took the fake diamond downstairs and put it in one of the boxes just in case Clare went chasing after it without you. I didn’t trust her at all.”

“So, at the warehouse you knew we were giving Clare a fake diamond?”

“And didn’t I hide it well?” She beamed. “If Jack hadn’t figured it out and been such a gentleman, you might have been able to keep your $9 million. But now you have a diamond worth more than ten times that amount. You should buy a super-yacht and come and join us.”

“You’ve become a regular black widow,” I said. “Peter’s nephew, Peter, Richard…maybe even Clare when Mr. X finds out—”

“And Martha,” she interjected. “Don’t forget about her. But really, that was her fault. She shouldn’t have broken the rules and slept with Richard, especially when she was so vulnerable. It’s so easy when they have food allergies. One little peanut and they’re done. No fuss. No mess. No drama. The world is full of bad people. I’ve just made it a better place.”

I took another look around the room. Everyone was in shock. Even Gage, who I was sure had seen his share of death, had no expression on his face. It wasn’t just what she had done; it was that she seemed to have no remorse. She was just as happy and cheerful as she had been the day we met.

“I don’t know what to say, Simone.”

“Say you’ll have fun, darling. Enjoy your money. Enjoy your life. I’ve sent everyone a Gucci mask souvenir and a roll of Saran wrap. But if Jack doesn’t treat you right, just give me a call.”