Murder in Vail (20 page)

Chapter Fifty-nine

Gwen’s message light was blinking when she got back to her room after dinner. Glen had called and left a message begging her to reconsider and thanking her for finding him a lawyer. He sounded happy with the one she selected.

Gwen couldn’t push the delete button fast enough.
Hopefully, that’s his one call and he doesn’t get any more,
she thought angrily. She wanted him out of her life, permanently. She couldn’t wait to go skiing tomorrow to try to forget all the problems he’d caused her.

When the wake-up call came at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, she bounced out of bed and put on the long underwear, the fleece shirt and jacket, and the new ski pants she’d bought the night before. Then she picked up her turquoise jacket and headed for the lobby.

Three stories upstairs in the hotel, Lance pulled on his ski cap and wrapped a warm scarf around his neck. Yvette was sitting at the small table next to the window, sipping a cup of coffee.

Lance leaned down to give his wife a kiss goodbye. “Have fun shopping today, cupcake.”

“I hope you have fun skiing, Lancie. Be careful!”

“Don’t worry. I’m going to take it easy,” he said. He stroked her hair. “I’ll miss you today.”

Then he picked up his ski jacket and walked across the room to the door.

“Lancie,” Yvette called after him.

“What, cupcake?”

“Have I told you lately that I love you?”

Lance stopped in his tracks. He turned to look at her, surprised.

“No, actually, you haven’t.”

“Well, I do. Very much. You’ve been so brave taking care of me through all of this. I couldn’t ask for a better husband.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You know how much I love you, don’t you, Yvette.”

“I know. And I don’t tell you enough.” She blew him a kiss across the room.

He pretended to catch it and blew one back to her. He smiled at her and went out the door. Walking down the hall, he had an extra bounce in his step.

When Lance got to the lobby, he checked at the front desk about the Chevy Suburban he had rented for the day before meeting Stephen, Gwen, and his mother in the hotel restaurant for a quick breakfast. Afterwards, they hopped into the big black SUV that was waiting for them at the front door of the hotel. Lance took the wheel and headed east toward the Highline Express ski lift. Stopping at a ski rental shop along the way that Lance had researched online, they found skis, poles, boots, and goggles that met their standards. It took less than forty-five minutes.

“Great job, Lance,” Sally complimented him. “It’s not like having our own equipment, but I’m really happy with what we were able to rent.”

 
When they reached the Highline ski lift, they bought all-day tickets and headed for the high-speed lift that would carry them to the top of the mountain in about eight minutes. The four of them fit perfectly into the quad seat.

Their feet dangling in the air, laughing as they climbed higher and higher above the snow-tipped fir trees, they all seemed to leave their troubles behind. The thirty-three degree weather and cloudless blue sky made Sally feel happy to be alive.

When they reached the top, only a few other skiers were there. They chose a trail with less difficulty to try first. Not surprisingly, Gwen was off like a flash, leaving the other three behind. Sally was a slightly better skier than both of her sons, but Stephen was so athletic that the two of them had almost equal skills. Lance was slow and methodical, not a risk taker, but he rarely fell. On their first trip down the mountain, Sally and Stephen stopped periodically to wait for him.

When they reached the bottom they were breathless and exhilarated. Gwen was waiting for them, her face red with the flush of the cold and anxious to hop on the lift for another ride.

“Let me catch my breath first, please,” Lance begged.

“You looked great coming down that last hill, Mom. Your form is perfect,” Gwen complimented her. “You need to give me some tips.”

“I would if I could ever catch up with you.” Sally laughed. “Next time, we’ll do a lesson. Today, let’s just have fun.”

Leaning on his ski poles in the snow, Stephen could have been a model in any ski magazine. “How’d you do, Stephen?” Gwen asked.

“Fine. I almost lost it a couple of times, but I survived.”

“Stephen did great. He improves every time he goes out there. By the end of the day, he’ll be better than all of us,” Sally said.

“Ready, bro?” Stephen asked, extending a hand to Lance, who was sitting in the snow.

Lance pulled himself up. “Ready as I’ll ever be. I’m going to be so sore tomorrow!”

“Ok, gang,” Gwen said, leading the way to the lift. “We’re moving up in difficulty this time.”

The next run they tackled wasn’t as long, but it had a lot of challenging moguls. Gwen slowed down a bit, trying to figure out better ways to maneuver over the undulating hills. She was surprised when Stephen caught up and passed her. The race was on. She gave it all she had and inched past him in a dash for the finish.

“You should know better than to try to beat your elders, little brother,” Gwen laughed.

“I came a lot closer than I thought I would,” he said, out of breath.

Sally arrived a few minutes later, and it was nearly five minutes before Lance joined them.

“Did you fall?” Stephen asked.

“No,” Lance answered. “Just taking my time and enjoying the scenery. And those moguls are tough.”

Gwen peered at them expectantly. “Ready for the next one? I just checked the trails out and found a good one. This one is supposed to be even more challenging. Not many moguls, but narrower and lots of trees. ”

Lance shook his head. “I’m going to take a breather. I’ll sit this run out.”

“Ok. What about you two?” Gwen asked Sally and Stephen.

“Lead the way,” Stephen responded.

Sally nodded. “I’m just getting warmed up.”

Chapter Sixty

When they reached the top of the mountain and jumped off the ski lift, the number of skiers had thinned out dramatically. They were the only ones skiing this trail. No wonder. It looked about half as wide as the other trails. It would be a challenge, Sally knew, but that’s what made skiing fun.

They pushed off together, but soon spread out with Gwen in the lead, of course, Stephen not far behind her, and Sally bringing up the rear. Both her children disappeared, far ahead of her on the winding trail.

When Sally went around the next bend, she was surprised and concerned to see that Stephen had taken a fall dangerously close to the tree line. She quickly skied over and turned her skis inward, skidding to a stop.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m not sure. I think I may have sprained my ankle.”

“Oh no. I hope not. That would be difficult, being way up here.”

“Can you help me stand up?”

“Sure.” Sally leaned over and wrapped her arms around her son’s chest to lift him. The next thing she knew he pulled her down, and they were rolling together into the trees.

“Stephen! What in the world are you doing?”

When they stopped rolling, Stephen was sitting on top of her, holding her arms down.

He smiled his most charming smile. “Do I have to spell it out, Mother?”

“Stephen, get off of me. Let me up.”

“Sorry, Mom,” he said, giving her a look of fake sympathy. “I can’t do that. You know, you have been incredibly difficult to kill. I can’t botch it up again this time. You’re going to have a terrible skiing accident and run into one of these trees.”

Sally couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Not Stephen. Overcome with panic, she tried to keep her wits about her and stay calm.

“But Stephen, why?”

“Seriously, Mother? I can’t believe you’re even asking me that question. I asked you, Lance asked you, we all asked you to please share a little more of the wealth with us. We’re young. We have needs.”

He glared down at her. She had never seen that look on his face before.

“But no. You wouldn’t part with any more of it. It isn’t even really your money, you know. It was Dad’s. He earned it. It’s as much ours as it is yours. He would have wanted us to have it, not some charity that will probably just squander it. We’re your flesh and blood, Dad’s flesh and blood.”

“You got twenty-five million dollars!” Sally nearly screamed at him. “How much money do you need, Stephen?”

“That money’s gone. I have my whole life ahead of me. I’m not going to live like some pauper.”

“You spent it all on drugs. Those drugs warped your brain. That’s what happened.”

“Well, yes. Most of it did go to drugs. And I am having a hard time picturing the rest of my life without drugs. But Mother, what you don’t understand, is that the drugs didn’t change me. I was drawn to the drugs because of who I am.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Sally asked, wriggling to get free of his grip, to no avail.

“You should have stopped after two, Mom. Your third child, well, he’s not like other people. And it’s not always easy being different.”

Sally didn’t understand. What was he talking about?

“What do you mean? You know you were always my favorite child. I tried to hide it, but everyone knew. You’ve always been so sweet, so loving.”

That sneer was back on his face. The one she had never seen before.

“Of course, I was. I always told you exactly what you wanted to hear. That’s what people like me do. Everyone loves somebody who does that. Especially parents. Then you can get anything out of them that you want. It’s easy, but it takes its toll.”

His voice became more intense. “You know, Mother, my whole life I have always been used to doing exactly what I wanted to do and getting exactly what I wanted to get. So, obviously, I have been very disappointed with these recent decisions of yours. Very disappointed. You can’t just suddenly change the game.”

Sally couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Where was her sweet, sensitive, son? This couldn’t be the same person. Yes, he had always been a charmer, but she never dreamed none of it was sincere.

“Did you plan all this before you came up here, or did you decide after I told you about the donation at dinner?”

“You have to understand, Mom, that I care about you about as much as I’m capable of caring about any other person. So don’t take it personally. Animals have always been much more appealing to me than people, but as people go, you’re one of my favorites. So, to answer your question, no, it wasn’t planned. It was your little announcement at dinner that lit the fire under me, so to speak.”

“Stephen, you know I love you more than anyone else in the world does.”

He pushed her down again, harder, and said bitterly “Yes, well I suppose you do
now
. You took care of that with your clever little room switch with Rachel. She’s the only person who ever loved me for me. For the real me. She’s the only person I’ve ever met who was more manipulative than I was. I admired the hell out of her for that. And because of you, she’s dead. I killed my own wife. There was no going back after that. I thought about burning the house down and everybody in it. I might have if the police hadn’t shown up when they did.”

Chapter Sixty-one

Sally was so stunned she could barely speak. Stunned and heartbroken. This was like the worst nightmare she’d ever had. She just wished she could wake up.

She felt like giving up. Did she really want to live anymore knowing that her favorite child was a killer and wanted her dead? But something in her wouldn’t let her give up. Her instincts told her that her only hope was to keep Stephen talking.

“But the police found Glen’s DNA?” she said. “I don’t understand.”

“Simple, simple. Glen sheds like a sheepdog. All I had to do was pull some strands from his hairbrush and deposit them in the appropriate places. And the pillowcase? Please, child’s play. He deserved it anyway. He was a jerk to my sister.”

Sally continued to try to free herself from his grip and managed to loosen one of her legs that still had the ski on it.

“Now, Mom, enough talk. I’m sorry, I really am. You were a good mother to me when I was growing up. But you should have thought more about my needs as an adult and been more generous. I wish I didn’t have to do this, but you left me no other choice.”

“Stephen, please. I’m your mother. I love you unconditionally.”

He hung his head a little and said softly. “I know, Mom. I’ll miss you.”

“Stephen, please don’t do this. You won’t get away with it. They’ll know someone killed me before I could sign the money away. They’ll figure out it was you and send you to prison for the rest of your life.”

Stephen shrugged, the strange toughness back in his voice. “Maybe, maybe not. I tend to think not. You’re getting kind of old to ski these kinds of trails, Mom. I know you don’t think you are because you think you can do anything, but one wrong turn and you hit a tree. Hello Sonny Bono. And Glen is already down for the count. Me? I got ahead of you on the ski trail and never saw you. ‘Oh no, my poor mother!’”

Desperate, Sally made a final plea. “Wait, Stephen. Don’t do this. We’ll work something out about the money. How much do you need?”

“Oh,
now
you’re willing to part with the money,” he said angrily. “Now that it’s too late. Now that Rachel is dead, and Glen is sitting in jail for killing her. It’s too late now, Mother. Don’t you see that?”

“I won’t tell anyone. You’re my son. I’ll protect you.”

“You know your conscience would get the better of you. You wouldn’t be able to let Glen go to prison for something he didn’t do. Like I said, it’s too late now. It’s time for you to have a horrible skiing accident. Let’s go.”

Stephen started to get off of her and pull her up. Sally glanced to the left and suddenly screamed. “Oh my God, a mountain lion!”

Stephen jerked his head to the side and loosened his grip. With all her strength, Sally rolled herself sideways, reared up her right leg, and kicked him in the head with her ski. He yelped and grabbed his head, falling sideways into the snow.

Sally scrambled to her knees and began to crawl through the snow. When she reached a tree, she wrapped her arms around it and pulled herself up onto her skis.

Realizing he had been duped, Stephen climbed back up onto his skis and started walking as fast as he could through the snow toward her. “Mom, whoever would have thought you were so tricky? I’m impressed.”

Sally pushed her way around the tree and tried to get some traction going under her skis. Slowly, she began to move and was able to start skiing her way through the trees.

“I’m right behind you, Mom. You’re not going to get away.”

Sally didn’t know if she could out-ski him on the open trail or not. She decided her best bet was to stay in the trees—at least for now. But suddenly Stephen was out on the open trail, skiing past her. He slid to a stop about twenty feet in front of her and skied over to the edge of the trees.

“Now, Mom, it’s time to throw in the towel. You are not invincible. I know you like to think you are, but you aren’t. Why can’t you let your son enjoy his life? Isn’t that what parents are supposed to do? Make their children happy?”

Her heart racing, Sally turned and raised her ski poles as if she were going to ski deeper into the woods. Stephen leapt forward to cut her off, but she changed direction at the last moment and was suddenly out on the open trail. She bent her knees and dug her ski poles into the snow, propelling herself forward. By the time Stephen changed direction, he was thirty yards behind her.

Sally was flying down the narrow trail that was becoming tighter and more winding with each curve. She glanced quickly behind her. Stephen was closer now, only about fifteen yards away.

She crouched down into a racing position and tried to pick up speed. But Stephen continued to gain on her, and they were only about halfway down the trail. It was still so far to the bottom. It was only a matter of time until he caught her.

The trail narrowed even more. Straight ahead of her, she saw a thick forest of fir trees. She made a decision and headed directly toward the trees. They were flying down the trail, and Stephen was next to her now, on her left, reaching out his arm to grab hers. He was so intent on catching her, that he didn’t notice the approaching terrain. She headed directly for the trees but, at the last moment, veered sharply to the right, back onto the open trail. Stephen yelled out as he realized what had happened. He kept going forward at full speed—directly into a huge fir tree.

When Sally slowed and circled back around to the spot where he left the trail, she knew her son was dead.