Claire Gulliver #06 - Carnage Goes Coastal (27 page)

MiMi, David and Claire all stared at him unblinking.

He stood up. “I didn’t know. It wasn’t me. I didn’t have anything to do with this. You’ve got it all wrong.”

Claire shrugged. “Perhaps, but you are the only one to have something to gain if Karen and the baby just disappeared. Your career would collapse around you if this information got out. How would you explain your stand on the ‘Right to Life’ issue if the word got out that you tried to force your mistress to abort her pregnancy?”

Scott looked at her with horror on his face. “Is that what this is all about? Are you going to the media with this story? They’ll crucify me. They won’t care whether or not I had anything to do with sending the assassins after Karen. My career will be over.”

“What this is all about, Scott,” Claire said in a strong voice, “is making sure Karen, and the boy, are safe. And you are obviously the key to accomplishing that goal. So this is how we’re planning to ensure their safety.”

She had Scott’s complete attention.

“Karen has assembled a package of all this information I just relayed to you, including DNA samples from her and the boy. She has mailed them to four different people with instructions that on her death, they are to be given to the police and the media.”

Claire took a big breath before concluding. “You had better pray she doesn’t meet up with a drunken driver on the roads one of these days because if anything happens to Karen, your whole career is going down the tubes.”

Scott’s face was ashen. His hands were shaking when he took the paper Claire handed him which listed all the incidents Claire had discussed with him. He walked out of the room as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. If he hadn’t been such a cad, Claire might have felt sorry for him.

Scott slipped his hand around Phoebe’s arm pulling gently, but insistently, on it. “We’re leaving,” he whispered in her ear as he guided her away from the group of people she was talking to.

“Scott, where in the world have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I wanted to introduce you to a couple of major contributors I met....”

Scott didn’t seem to hear her. He was intent on moving through the crowd toward the door. The car was already waiting for them and as soon as they were inside the driver took off.

“Scott, what’s going on? What’s wrong? Where are we going?” Phoebe’s voice was getting shriller with each question. She was annoyed he had disappeared for so much of the evening and she was getting angrier at his strange behavior.

“Give it a rest. I’ll explain everything later, Phoebe.” His voice was harsh. He didn’t even try to sound polite. His behavior was so startling Phoebe didn’t say another word although her mind was working very fast as she tried to figure out what could have happened at that party that so upset Scott.

She was surprised, but relieved, when their car pulled up in front of the townhouse her father had leased to be near them when they moved to Washington D. C. She followed Scott into the house.

“Is Stanford in?” Scott asked politely. But when the maid attempted to announce them, he waved her off impatiently. “We’ll let him know we’re here, thank you.” He grabbed Phoebe’s arm again and marched her quickly down the hall to the library Stanford used as his office.

Stanford was surprised by the interruption, but he rose from his seat and came around his desk to welcome them. “Phoebe, Scott, how nice to see you. Come in and sit down. Can I pour you a drink?”

“No, this isn’t a social visit, Stanford.”

Scott had dropped his hold on Phoebe’s arm when they entered the library, and marched up to stand only a few inches from Stanford, putting his face uncomfortably close to Stanford’s own. “I’m here to talk about some very disturbing information I got about Karen Rallins, Stanford. Remember her?”

“No, I can’t say I do.” Stanford drew back and slipped back around his big desk to sit down in his chair again, giving himself a little more space.

Scott bent over the desk, his arms planted on each side, his head thrust forward aggressively. “Karen Rallins was that woman I had an affair with in New York. The one you told me to get rid of.”

He could see the recognition in Stanford’s eyes. “Yes, I see you’re starting to remember. She’s the one who ended up pregnant with my child. The woman I told you didn’t have the abortion I instructed her to have. The abortion I had paid for her to have.

“Remember now, Stanford? And do you remember you told me not to worry about it. You’d make sure she didn’t cause us trouble?”

He stood back watching as Stanford slowly nodded his head. “I remember,” he said weakly, his eyes shooting past Scott’s shoulder to where Phoebe stood just inside the door.

“So I didn’t worry about it. We just went ahead with our plan. Things seemed to be working like clockwork. Everything was just peachy.” Scott paused letting his words hang in the air.

“Not!” Scott thundered.

Both Stanford and Phoebe jumped at his roar.

“I did not want, nor did I expect, you to take care of this matter by hiring assassins to kill her. HITMEN! Since when is that an appropriate solution for a problem?

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” Scott was yelling now. His face was flushed a dark red. His eyes were bulging with rage.

He straightened up. He seemed to suddenly realize how out of control he had become. He drew in a deep breath, released it and took another. Then he went to the bar and poured himself a large measure of brandy, which he swallowed in one gulp. He coughed a couple of times as the brandy went down. Then he filled his glass once more and sat down in one of the armchairs facing Stanford.

“I didn’t realize you cared about this woman,” Stanford said in a tentative voice.

“I didn’t care about this woman,” Scott retorted in a harsh voice. “She was just a toy, a game to interest me during a dreary period of my work. I still don’t care about her, but that does not mean I wanted her murdered.”

Scott looked at Stanford. “What’s wrong with you? How could I have not known what an unconscionable monster you are?” Scott shook his head, his eyes still trained on Stanford and he commented wearily, “How did I let myself become connected with you and your bizarre values?”

Stanford sighed. “It wasn’t me. Listen to me, Scott. I did not have anything to do with any attempts to assassinate this woman.”

“I don’t believe you! Did you know almost twenty people have already been killed during these failed assassination attempts to kill Karen and the child? And I believed the people who told me about it. They said it could all be traced back to me. Because, I’m the person who would benefit most if she and the child disappeared. I am the key to these murders.

“BUT I DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM!” He roared again, his frustration spilling over.

Stanford’s eyes stared blankly off into the room while he appeared to be thinking.

“Oh, for heaven sake!” Phoebe walked up to her dad’s desk, her voice dripping with scorn. “You two are the biggest wusses ever. Mom told me I’d have to watch you both every minute. She said she didn’t know if either of you were man enough to do what had to be done to make Scott president. She warned me I would have to keep control. I would have to be the strong one for this plan to succeed.

“That woman and her child were in our way. They represent an unacceptable risk to our plan’s success. They had to go!

“I admit it was unfortunate that Wade Hampton and his men did such lousy work. They wreaked carnage and destruction everywhere while they failed time after time to eliminate her. He caused me major problems. Because of his ineptitude the woman went underground. The U.S. Marshals have been hiding her.”

She paused, seeing the dumbfounded looks on the faces of the two men facing her, as she announced with pride, “But I didn’t let that stop me. If you want to succeed in this world you have to be determined. I found and hired Sal Fizzor, a man who really knows his business. He even seems to have some intelligence. He put a person inside that bookstore in California to look for clues. He hired a hacker to embed a worm in an email he sent following the same path Karen’s family was using to contact her. The hacker was so skilled the email managed to get through the relay at Langley and got forwarded to our girl. Then right on schedule, it activated the worm and sent back the address of where it ended up. Fizzor found her. I’ve already wired the money to his account. I’m certain by now he’s already eliminated her once and for all.

“I did that! I’m the one who managed it!”

She glared with contempt at Scott. “And don’t forget you are the one who caused this whole problem. You, who couldn’t remember your marriage vows. You, who think you are God’s gift to women and somehow believe it’s your duty to spread your seed to as many women as possible. You are ultimately responsible for every one of those deaths. And don’t you forget that!”

Scott was staring at her face with horror written on his own. When she paused he managed to insert a few words. “I didn’t finish telling you what I learned tonight. I didn’t tell you, for instance, now that Karen and her parents have discovered who I really am, Karen has put together four separate packages including the information about each assassination attempt, the information about the alias I used when I was with her, and DNA samples from her and the boy. She mailed these packages to four separate people with instructions to turn them over to the police and newspapers if she dies of any cause. So, if your Fizzor has been successful, our plan and campaign is already beginning to unravel. I expect the authorities will be here soon. You, Phoebe, may have already sealed our fate. And I, for one, am not taking the rap for what you’ve done.”

That news seemed to shock even Phoebe. She stood there visibly thinking while Scott continued to glare at her. She stood there, dressed in a stunning gown of soft shimmering silver. It was obviously another of her very expensive designer frocks. The matching sliver sandals, he knew were Jimmy Choo, her shoe designer of choice these days. Her makeup was subtle, but applied with such expertise it made her face glow. Her matching evening bag hung from a strap on her shoulder. She was a very well put together woman and, as he considered her, he realized he no longer saw her as the beauty he had thought she was when they married. No, he considered her face and realized he now found her repugnant. Her face was a picture of evil. He decided right there he needed to be shed of her. Even the presidency was not reward enough to be tied to her for the rest of his life.

She also appeared to have made up her mind about something. She reached into her small evening bag. His eyes widened with surprise when she pulled out a small gun.

She said very calmly, but in a sarcastic tone, “You never were more than a pretty face, Scott, and you’re certainly replaceable. I have no intention of answering to the authorities for any of this. Sad as it may seem to you, you and Dad will be taking the rap. People will just think of me as a poor victim in this tragedy. In a few years I’ll survive to pick another running mate. Being the innocent survivor of this situation will only strengthen my value to whomever I campaign for.”

Her eyes reflected her determination and Scott realized there was no way out of this. She was too far from him to try to disarm her. He watched as her finger started to squeeze the trigger.

He knew he was about to die. And worse, he would be blamed for all the carnage. But when the shot echoed through the room it came from somewhere to the right of him. Phoebe’s face froze in a mask of surprise. She stood for a second as the blood spread alarmingly fast across the silver of her dress. Her eyes fastened on her father and she cried in a little girl’s voice, “Daddy...?” before she crumbled into a heap on the carpet.

Scott swung to look at an ashen faced Stanford, who sat behind his desk holding a large square gun.

“You killed her?” He couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“I should have done it years ago. You know when you mate with a monster you will beget monsters. Phoebe was her mother’s child, like her in every way. I spent my adult life under that woman’s thumb, doing her bidding, working for every penny she doled out to me. And she never let me forget she was in charge. She was rich and important. I was only hired help. When she died, instead of freeing me, she left me still beholden to Phoebe for every dime I needed. I then became Phoebe’s hired help. I was her father and I had fooled myself into thinking she loved me. That’s what a fool I was!”

He shook his head sadly. “She was going to kill us both and convince the police she was innocent. And she probably would have succeeded.”

“We need to call the police, Stanford,” Scott offered, still in shock. “It was self defense. She was going to kill us. I saw what happened.”

Stanford shook his head sadly, the gun still held in his hand. “No, my boy. I can’t go through all that. I can’t suffer that ultimate indignity.” His smile was sad. “It’s okay, I don’t have much to look forward to according to the doctors. Whatever time I have left will not be long, or easy, or pretty. I was just thinking about telling you both about the diagnosis when you showed up tonight. Now I’m thinking it all happened as it was meant to be.

“Phoebe was my responsibility. I sired her. I raised her. I allowed her mother to train her, and now I’ve destroyed her. It’s all for the best, don’t you think?” he asked sadly, and with no further discussion he put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger once more.

Scott felt like he had been rooted there for a long time before the frantic pounding on the door got his attention.

“Call the police,” he called out, but the pounding didn’t cease. He shook his head and cleared his throat before hollering loudly, “Call the police. There has been a terrible tragedy.”

At eleven a.m. the next morning Claire was being seated on another Vantage jet. This one was heading for Chicago. Her stressful morning had an early start when Martin Ng from the FBI arrived on the Lickman’s doorstep. Martin had been involved in a special law enforcement joint taskforce which had been formed many years ago to try to solve a series of deadly incidences threatening the Lickmans and Claire during Claire’s first visit. Because of Martin’s familiarity with Claire, and the Lickmans, he had now been assigned to the Ellington affair.