The Muse (Interracial Mystery Romance) (Dark Art Mystery Series) (35 page)

As if hearing my thoughts, Hex lifted the figurine of Patricia. “Patricia slit her wrists after the first time her mentor had sex with her. She was ten. No one believed he’d done it. Her parents, being psychologists, chalked it up to all types of mental illnesses, but the truth. He remained her mentor and continued to touch her inappropriately. By the time she turned of age, she was in love with him. It killed her inside. She was simply using death as an escape.” Hex set the figurine back in the box.

“Her mentor was on the property, right? Did he know what she was going to do?”

“He was here, but he never knew she would kill herself.”

Hex pulled out three more figurines of women I didn’t recognize. “This is Broseli. She was dying of cancer. The doctors gave her less than a month to live. She chose to die her way.

Trudy is right here. Five years ago, she lost her whole family in a plane crash as they were flying to one of her events. I mean everybody--parents, husband, kids, and an aunt. They were on her private plane when it happened. She never got over it.”

“And the last one?”

“I don’t know why she did it. She never told me much about her life. I’d invited her for some of her famous video art collections. You’ll never hear of them. They were all banned in pretty much any country that matters.”

“Why?”

“She killed animals in most and—”

“I don’t want to hear anymore.” I sighed. “Okay. So you have five more mini-dolls in the box. That means five more women are going to kill themselves?”

“Yes. Which is why I don’t want Al knowing about this. He’ll want to stop it.”

“Of course he would. This is wrong.”

“How is it wrong?”

“If someone says they want to kill themselves, you don’t say cool, let’s make it art. How can I help you do it? You try to get them help. You pray for them or—”

“All of that has been done. I’m giving them what they want.”

“No, you’re not. You’re doing this for yourself.”

“No. I’m not.”

“You are.” I pointed at him. “If any art gallery shows this--and that’s a big if--it will be huge. This will go down in history. Art schools will discuss it, whether in a good or bad way, they’ll study it. Psychologists will probably jump on this, and any other social scientists. You and your group will be famous.”

He grinned. “Well, I did think of that. We all did, in fact.”

“This isn’t funny, Hex. You’re letting people kill themselves for art.”

“I don’t see the problem if they want to do it.”

How can I get through to him? How can I stop those other five women from dying?

“You’re acting just like your dad, but in a different way,” I said. “You’re killing women for immortality. Your name will be out there forever in the art world. In the end, that’s all it is.”

“Their names will be there, too.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. People will wonder about the women for probably the first ten or twenty years, but after a while the ones who died will be insignificant to the one who presented it all. The genius artist who got them all together will be known and remembered.”

“No.” He shook his head and put his thumb back in his mouth. “You’re wrong.”

“Who are the other five girls?”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want them to kill themselves. I don’t want the police to exhaust even more of their time to this freaking case when they have real cases out there to solve. I don’t want everyone on this property, especially the women, to walk around scared out of their mind, wondering if a serial killer is standing next to them. And I don’t want Alvarez to continue to overwork himself to save more women. This is wrong.”

“So you’re going to tell Alvarez?”

“How can I not?”

He got in front of the tiny electronic display I’d seen earlier with all the multicolored buttons. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He pressed the red button on the right.

The metal floor under me opened up. I fell through, screaming the whole time. Hex

dropped along with me. The button must have controlled the entire floor. I crashed into the ground. Dirt rose all around me. I coughed as it got into my mouth. Pain licked up my whole body. I didn’t think I broke anything, but I was sure I would be sore for a while. Something crashed above us. I looked up to see the metal floors slam together.

“No!” I rushed up to a standing position and tried to jump up to stop the floors. It was too late of course. Darkness filled the space. I limped around and extended my hands to see if I could touch anything in the dark.

“Elle, are you okay?” Hex asked.

“Where the hell are we? Where are you?”

“Hold on. There’s a light switch around here. Just give me a minute to find it.” A boom sounded, and then another. Finally the light turned on to reveal a thumb-sucking Hex with a few dots of blood dripping from his forehead. The whole area was gray metal around a dirt ground.

“Okay. There is a sliding door here on the right for the main facilities. I have to check my forehead. . .”

He swayed and tripped over his own feet. The back of his head slammed into the wall.

“Oh God!”

I ran to him. “Hex? Are you okay, you crazy bastard?”

“I fell on my head. . . I think. . . I banged it at least. . . Fuck, that hurts.”

I grabbed the sides of his face. “Where are we? How can I get you help?”

“I’m fine.” His eyes rolled to the back of his head before coming back forward. “I just. . .

need a minute to rest.”

“You don’t know that. You might have a concussion or even worst. Is there a phone

down here or a way to get in touch with someone to get help?”

“The door. The silver one over there.” He pointed up to the ceiling and let his head fall back, which told me he was barely with me. “Don’t tell Al. We only have a little bit more time.

Don’t say anything.”

“I won’t say anything. I promise, just stay with me.” I laid him down and raced to the wall, sliding my hands over the cool, smooth surface to see if there was a hidden door like Hex had said. When I got to the second corner, rough edges pressed against my fingertips. The wall clicked. The door opened a few inches. I pulled at the edges, straining with all my might, until it opened completely.

A big room appeared, packed with ten TV screens on the wall, an electronic control

display, two chairs, a shelf with canned goods and boxed items, several stacks of bottled water, as well as a few bottles of wine.

I stepped inside and glanced over my shoulder at Hex. “What is this room?”

“This was just in case. . . Al found out.” Hex rolled over to his side. His chest rose and fell as if he’d been running for miles. “My plan was to run to my private room near the studio and get Al to chase me in there. Then I would press the button, we would all fall in here and remain until everything was over.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I was hoping to never use the plan. . . but it sounded reasonable at the time.”

“Can we even breathe down here?”

“Yes. It’s an old bomb shelter.”

“And these cameras and screens? Are they taping everything above us?” I limped over to the other side of the electronic display. It looked like it had a phone next to it.

“Yes. The feeds are coming from all of my mini cameras in the trees. Sometimes I come down to check on them. There’s a ladder next to the same way we came in, but you were too busy falling to see it.”

I turned and noticed him dragging himself my way. “Can we climb up the ladder?”

“It can be accessed from the studio. I can’t go out that way from already being inside.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Just trust me on this.”

“You have me trapped in an old bomb shelter with cameras waiting to record five future suicides, excuse me if I don’t feel like trusting you right now.” I picked up the phone. It was one of the old phones with the big receiver that people held to their ears.

“That phone doesn’t work.” Hex took his time standing up and then did some sort of odd hop, walking to the first chair before collapsing into it. “I planned for Al and me to be down here until the last person dies. That’s why there’s all this food and water down here. The phone isn’t programmed to work until tomorrow evening.”

“The women are going to commit suicide tonight?”

“Yes. All five.”

“My guards will know that we dropped down here. It’s the most logical conclusion. They watched us go into the room. They’ll search the ceiling and all the walls around it. Plus, with the loud noise they’ll know something opened up.”

“I’m fine with that. Without the code or knowing what buttons to pick, they’ll have to wrench the floor up. It will take hours.” He checked his watch, then leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Gloria and the others will be hiding behind the trees near the garden soon.

When it gets dark, I have the security cameras showing an old feed to the guards. Gloria and them will take the pills, walk out to the garden, and wait to slowly die.”

Chapter 28

~Alvarez

“Then there was this big crashing sound.” Elle’s guard did frantic hand movements as he described what happened. “We ran into the room right as the floor was closing. We could hear her screaming. I tried to keep it open, but I didn’t know how to do it and then it just snapped back together.”

It took everything in me to not strangle the guard and make him pay for whatever Hex had done.
What the fuck, Hex? What the hell have you done?
Three maintenance men hammered and drilled away at the metal floor. I called the police and more handymen to deal with the trap door. Somewhere Elle lay under the floor, scared out of her mind, while my brother, motivated by whatever stupid, idiotic thing that incited him to have the trap door built in the first place, stood with an air of bloated confidence.

I’m going to kill him.

The guard hung his head low. “We tried our best.”

I held up my hand. “I understand. Just go outside and wait for the cops.”

I headed outside of the studio to where Detective White and Grandma studied the mini model of the castle we’d discovered inside Hex’s private room. “Have you come up with anything?”

“I already touched the room and the model. The spirits say Hex and Elle are under the floor, but we already knew that.” Grandma trailed her fingers across the area where her garden lay. “Elle has to be safe with him. Hex didn’t kill these women. Not my grandson. I know what’s in his heart. It’s good things, except when his art takes him over, and then he turns into a madman, but there’s no evil in him. If he did it, then it’s something to do with his art. Something foul inspired him and he went with it.”

“Do you believe that art really had something to do with these murders?” Detective

White kneeled down by the first set of tiny trees with numbers on them. “What type of art did your brother do?”

“He did anything that came to him. Anything that inspired him, he went with it,” I said.

“What was his collection about this summer?”

“He wouldn’t tell me. All I know is that recently he was obsessed with. . .” I paused and stared at the model again. “Video art and interactive installations.”

Fuck. Why hadn’t I realized it the first time I looked at this little model? This is just like
the models applicants submitted when they tried to get Hex’s and my approval to showcase their
work in X-lab.

“This is his model for an installation art piece.” I glanced at the numbered trees. There were twenty that surrounded the garden, separated it from the studio, and also lined the castle.

There are way more around the real castle. So why did he choose to only number twenty
of them?

I looked up. “Detective White, do me a favor and count the trees near the studio right now.”

He did. “Five.”

“Run over to the garden and tell me how many are on the west side of it.”

Detective White scurried away. Being such a short man, he still had a serious speed about him. When he returned, he barely huffed and puffed as he held up five more fingers.

“This model doesn’t show the exact number of trees, but the few he chose to show

exactly match the real ones. There are five in front of the studio in the model and there are five out here.” I pointed to the big ones that Hex loved to climb. “Fuck. Hex climbs these trees all the time. These are the ones he’s always in.”

“He climbs trees?” Detective White raised one eyebrow. “That’s why he’s always

disappearing in the night recordings. I see him leave the studio and disappear off in the trees.

He’s traveling above ground.”

“Yes.”

“But Hex didn’t kill those girls.” Grandma shook her head and picked up one of the

figurines. “My grandson would never do that.”

“But he had something to do with them dying, and it involves this installation art piece.

And if he hid Elle and himself away then it means he didn’t want her to tell me what was going on. And that means that whatever it is, I not only wouldn’t like it, but I had a chance to stop it.”

“So more girls are going to die just like my visions?” Grandma sighed.

“Yes.” I gestured for one of grandma’s guards to come over to me. “See if you can get any of the men to climb these trees. I thought all this time he would just climb up and sing, but I was wrong. He’s doing something up there or there would be no reason why he’s numbering these trees. In fact, run inside the castle and have the staff bring out some ladders and volunteers to check these trees out.”

It took close to twenty minutes to get enough volunteers to stand by each tree numbered on the model and go up. Most said they didn’t see anything. It was Detective White who took the longest in his tree, snapping pictures with his phone, touching the bark, branches, and leaves, until finally he whistled and pulled something away. We all gathered around the ladder in anticipation of what he found.

“Your brother has cameras in the trees.” Detective White held a circular ball in his hand as he climbed down. It was barely the size of a tangerine. “There is a tiny camera in here. He’s taping everywhere near the garden.”