The Muse (Interracial Mystery Romance) (Dark Art Mystery Series) (21 page)

I hadn’t slept after saying goodnight to Elle. I went to my office with the goal of getting a few things done before finishing the evening.

“Needa will be here in two minutes.” Reece rushed through my door with two coffees in her hand. “Hex refused to come. He said that he was hit with inspiration this morning and must paint immediately. He’s invited models over.”

“More models.” That was all we needed. More people coming here to die.

“They’re only temporary and here for an hour. Hex assured me he would only

photograph them with Elle and then have them leave. How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine. I don’t need the coffee.” I waved away the cup she tried to give me. “I’m going to sleep after this. Anything else from Detective White?”

“Nothing yet. He’s going to be here during the meeting with Needa. He sounded like he had something serious to discuss.”

“That’s fine.”

He knew all about Dayanara, had fingerprinted her just in case he found a weapon or something that would have connected her to the murdered girls. I couldn’t even consider what I would do if Dayanara was the person killing them. It wasn’t impossible, however. She’d killed before. What if things I’d seen in movies were true, that when a person took a life, they became addicted to that power of controlling another’s humanity?

What the hell am I thinking? Dayanara couldn’t do anything like that. This is why I
should’ve gone to sleep hours ago.

Reece grabbed the papers I’d signed and stacked them in her briefcase to take wherever they needed to go. Every few steps she glanced at the many lit candles throughout the space and frowned. After leaving Elle, I’d lit them all. That orange blossom fragrance drenched my office and served as the only thing keeping me awake. Elle’s scent gave me an adrenaline rush with just one inhale. I had no problem getting things done with her smell to push me forward—because the more crap I got off my to-do list, the more time we would spend on our date.

And there would be a date. Fifty books filled with various movie quotes leaned on the wall behind my chair. Reece had grabbed them from bookstores all over Miami. Apparently, nonfiction books for movie lovers were big business. They crowded the bookstores. Whenever I got a few moments to myself, I browsed lines, searching for the most unwatched and unpopular movie in there.

“
Ay Dios mio
! It smells like someone is cooking honey fruit soup in here.” Grandma waved her book in front of her as if fanning away the scent from my office. “What type of candles are these?”

“Orange blossoms.”

“Since when do you like orange blossoms?”

“Since a few days ago. How’s Dayanara?”

“She’s fine.” Grandma sat down and averted her eyes, signaling to me that she knew she was in trouble.

“Why in the hell did you take her out of her room, sneak her outside of the damn castle to the moat, and cover the both of you in blood?”

“Don’t you curse at me.” She pointed her wrinkled finger my way.

“I’m sorry, but let’s return to you breaking all of our rules and then after we finish that conversation, let’s go to the source of your blood.”

“Those were your rules, not mine. I just decided to listen to them for a while.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Grandma—”

“I let you handle this, but now you need to step aside and let my gods handle it. Two women have died.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“And they’re cut up!”

“I’m aware of that also. Wait a minute. How do you know they’re cut up?”

Her expression faltered for a minute and then she quickly looked away. “How would I not? It’s all over the news, I think, and everybody has been whispering about it. The cook is scared. The maids are jumping around every time someone walks by them. We won’t have anybody here to clean this ridiculous castle by the end of the week.”

“Where did you get the blood, Grandma?”

“Why? Do you think I killed those girls and took their blood?” She wagged her book at the candles. “Did these smelly candles mess with your brain?”

“You’re done with taking blood from anybody else. You do it again and I send you back to Cuba.”

“Send me back to Cuba? I go back when I decide.” She jumped up and slammed the book on my desk. My coffee tipped over. Reece, who’d been standing in the corner, rushed over and cleaned the mess up.

And then a continuous line of fast Spanish fled out of Grandma’s mouth. I spoke Spanish decently, but couldn’t write or read it well, to Grandma’s dismay. My step-dad had hated when we used it in the house, so it didn’t occur. By the time Hex was born, we never spoke it unless my relatives came to visit and my step-dad wasn’t in the house. Hex didn’t know much, but I was pretty good at understanding Spanish when people spoke it around me, except when Grandma was truly pissed. Her thick accent glazed each word and made it almost

incomprehensible. However, I understood that; one, she would curse me with something pretty nasty if I ever talked to her like that again; and two, she would never hurt poor little girls who didn’t do anything to anybody.

When she finally finished and calmed down, I knitted my fingers together. “I’ll still need to know where you got the blood from and for you to stop getting it from there.”

“I have a new contact and I won’t stop.”

“Who is your new contact?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“None of your business.”

“Grandma, we agreed that if you’re going to stay with us you’ll let me get you your items. I don’t know who this supplier is or where they are getting the blood. If something came up with this being black market or illegal in any way—”

“I’m a good judge of character.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Detective White stepped in, holding a large manila envelope in his hands. His presence quieted our arguing. It was one thing to have it out in front of Reece, who’d been with me for long enough to be privy to these disputes, but our family didn’t air our business in front of strangers.

“Detective White, this is my grandma, Needa Castillo,” I said. “Come on in, please.”

“I’m leaving.” Grandma inched away from the detective and headed for the door. “You come talk to me when you have more sense and these candles aren’t messing with your head.”

“Grandma, I’m not done talking to you!” I called after her, but her only response was to slam the door after she walked out. Detective White’s attention rested on the closed door as if some clue was in that heated gesture, some final piece left to the puzzle. Reece finished getting up all the coffee, tossed the wet rag in a bag, and left. I sighed and looked up at Detective White.

“Please tell me you have some good news.”

“I have news, but I’m not sure if it’s good.” He glanced at the door again. “In fact, you may want to discuss this without your assistant in the room.”

“Okay. Do me a favor and press the button on the door to lock it. She’ll realize that I want privacy and wait until I open it again.”

He did and then sat down in the seat Grandma had been in earlier. “How long has Reece been working for you?”

I wasn’t expecting that question.

“Around five years. Why? Is she a suspect?”

“I’m afraid she is, and I have even worse news. I believe your grandmother and brother may be suspects, too.”

Defeated, I collapsed back into my chair unable to maintain any semblance of good

posture with so much weight being slung onto my shoulders. “I’m going to need you to explain yourself.”

“How far do you want to be privy to this investigation, Mr. Castillo? My supervisor told me to treat this situation specially and that your family should get the treatment we reserve for. . .

let’s say ones with political and/or powerful connections. The further I go with my investigations the trickier it may be.”

“What are you saying?”

“I have no doubt that one of those people I just named had something to do with it. You won’t like it and I would rather know now what your actions will be if I try to go after them.”

“If you’re hinting at me stopping this investigation because people I care about are involved, then let me answer you right now, and there won’t be any need to return to this again. I want to know who killed those women. The most important thing to me is it to stop the deaths right now. I’m not the type of man who uses his connections to cover deaths or injuries my family may have caused. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why are you looking at my family and assistant instead of the other men who were on this property?”

“Because Dayanara Castillo is directly connected to both murders.”

I froze into a block of ice right before his eyes. “How do you know this?”

“Last night when I was questioning people on the grounds, I happened to see your

assistant arguing with your grandma as she helped her down the stairs. It looked like they were coming from where Mrs. Dayanara Castillo lives.”

“What were they arguing about?”

“It was in Spanish. I’m not sure.” He must’ve noticed my shocked expression. “Is

something wrong, sir?”

“I had no idea Reece could speak Spanish.” It was reasonable to assume anybody in

Miami knew how to speak it. Spanish was practically the first language of the city, but Reece had never informed me of this during the interview, on her resume, or at any point of working with me.

Why didn’t she tell me that, and what could she be fighting with Grandma about?

“I waited for your assistant and grandma to leave, and then ventured up to Dayanara Castillo’s area. A bin of soiled items rested in front of the door, probably to be picked up by a cleaning service, but what struck me as odd was that these items smelled like blood. When I opened the bag, I confirmed that it was so.”

So caught up with Elle, I’d forgotten to tell Detective White about my grandma and

Dayanara’s bloody field trip last night. Maybe that was a good thing.

“I tried to call you, but your phone was off.” Detective White stirred in his seat. The next information didn’t seem like it would be good. In fact, the more he talked the more my body switched into defense mode. “I had the clothes tested.”

“That was a smart decision,” I said. “What did you find from these tests?”

“Human blood saturated both your grandma’s and Dayanara’s clothes. However, on

Dayanara’s clothes, and I assume this is her shirt and pants due to how short your grandma is, the test showed the victim’s blood from last night was near the bottom of her sleeves and around the knees of her pants.”

I sat there speechless. There had always been a tiny hint of worry in my mind that

Dayanara was somehow involved. But I wasn’t ready for the realization to hit me like this.

“There’s more.” The investigator pulled out large photos from the manila envelope in his lap. “When the two girls were killed, not much activity happened with other people on the grounds. But on both nights, those three people I mentioned earlier--your assistant, grandmother, and brother--were active in the area near the garden where the first body was found. Although for the second victim, your brother was on stage. Some of the times were so close I’m certain at least two knew that the first body was there before you spotted it.”

“That can’t be true.” I shook my head. “Why would they let me find it?”

“I’m not sure, sir.” He placed five photographs in front of me. “The coroner stated that the first girl was killed somewhere during the time of three to five in the morning. This is her walking to the pond where I’d told you many people smoked marijuana. As you can see, the time says four thirty in the morning.”

The girl held a flashlight and seemed to be in a hurry to meet someone.

Why would she walk off by herself like that so late at night, if not to meet someone she
trusted? She must’ve known the killer or expected to meet someone else and the wrong person
met her first.

“This is Dayanara Castillo at three in the morning on the same night.” Detective White pointed to the picture on the right. Dayanara walked the grounds like a ghost. Her white gown flowed to the ground and glowed in the moonlight. Her long brown hair rode the wind. Her eyes looked crazed. Her hands held a large knife.

Dear God. Where the hell did she get a knife?

“There were many photos of her roaming the property with the knife, but this was the closest I could find with her near the kill time. The closer we get to five in the morning, the less I can find her within the camera’s view, which tells me she was in that blind spot.” He placed another photo to the front. “I have your assistant running out of the house at five in the morning.

She headed straight to the blind spot. Like Dayanara, she is missing after five in the morning.

When she returns, she’s with a bloodied Dayanara.”

He tapped the photo. On it, Reece guided Dayanara to the back of the house. Crimson liquid stained the entire front of Dayanara’s gown.

I looked at Detective White. “Where’s the knife that Dayanara had earlier?”

“I’m not sure. I only see it in the earlier footage. Once your assistant has her, it’s gone.”

He brought the last two photos to the front. “And then we have these. It seemed that this time around, four to five in the morning was pretty busy for all of them. Your grandmother did her best to remain in the shadows. I almost didn’t catch her. She wore all black and walked around many trees, but right here I spotted her heading toward her garden. Can you make her out?”

“Yes.” My mouth went dry. My fingers trembled.

“She doesn’t show up on the cameras again until six in the morning, where she is fully dressed in new clothes and meeting you at the front steps.”

“I’d just arrived back from a business trip. She always meets me at the steps when I return, but she never told me she’d been up all night walking around the property. In fact, she shoved me toward the kitchen so that she could make my favorite soup. I offered to get her some herbs from the garden, went out there, and that’s when I discovered the first victim.”