Bouquet of Lies (28 page)

Thirty-five

AROUND TEN IN the morning Randy and Darla headed home. A sick, uneasy feeling gnawed at Darla’s insides. She thought of her nightmare. She thought of her husband at the wheel beside her.

The wedding night had been anything but romantic. Aside from being carried over the threshold, she’d practically balled into a fetal position making it clear he shouldn’t come near.

The wedding day had been tainted by the murder of Edward.

Wedding day tainted.

What a way to categorize a murder. A taint on her wedding. She couldn’t help it though. Caring that her grandfather was dead was too much to ask. She didn’t love him, not even a little bit.

After the murder, the idea of going on a honeymoon had been the last thing she wanted. And she didn’t want Randy to make love to her. The whole idea left her cold. She wasn’t a heroine in one of her books. Life wasn’t rosy or wonderful. It was ugly and she was Darla.
Darla-weakling-dependent-pathetic-crazy-Bouquet.

She shivered. All she wanted was the safety of her own room. The safety of the familiar. She wanted everything to go back the way it was. She could even accept her grandfather’s cruelty, if everything went back. She was used to his ways. She coped for years and survived. What was she supposed to do now that everything was different? How was she supposed to be a wife? She couldn’t picture it. She couldn’t picture the future.

“We’ll be home soon,” Randy said. He tossed her a smile. “I’m glad we talked last night.”

Darla frowned.
Talk. Talk. Talk.
Talk about Lacey. Talk about how horrible she was. How she was after her inheritance. Last night it all made sense. Now, by the light of day, she was undecided again. Lacey had always been her rock.

“Darla.”

She glanced at him. He tossed her another smile.

“You still understand. I care about you more than I can express. If anything happened to you, I don’t think I could bear it.”

Darla didn’t say anything. She felt empty. Her nerves were in overdrive. She heard them buzzing in her head. She turned her eyes to the front.

“Darla?”

She looked at him.

“You seem distant.”

“I’m here,” she murmured and faced front again.

“I’m worried about you. This last murder seems to have taken you away from me, and I want you well. I want you to know
I’m
the one who is there for you. I’m your husband. I’ll care for you.”

“You’re the one,” she said softly.

His voice grew a little more forceful. “I know how you hate doctors and how you hated that hospital your grandfather put you in. But it did help you, didn’t it?”

She didn’t answer the question. Whether it had helped her or not, she didn’t want to go to the hospital. And why was he bringing it up?

“Believe me,” he went on. “I will never put you there unless I
see
that you need it.”

Her muscles contracted.
Unless she needed it?

“So please, Darla. Please show me that you’re strong. Please show me that you’re listening to me. Can you do that?”

Her throat felt dry. She couldn’t speak. Her heart raced.

“Because if you show me that. If you show me you’re listening to me and trying, there will be no need for the hospital.”

No need for the hospital. Her heart calmed, but only a little. Listen to him? All she had to do was listen to him?

And why wouldn’t she listen to him? He loved her. He was her husband. They’d exchanged vows. He even said he would live in the mansion with her. She didn’t have to move to his apartment.

“Darla. Did you hear me?”

She nodded.

“What did I say?”

“There’s no need for the hospital because I’m listening to you.”

His body sagged a little, like he was relieved. “That’s right.” He smiled. “I’m glad you’re listening because there’s more. I’m pretty sure about something. Actually, very sure. Which means there’s proof of what I’ve been telling you.”

Darla frowned.

“Not just what I’ve been telling you, but what this reverend of yours has been telling you. What your mother’s spirit has been telling you.”

She looked at him.

He glanced at her. “Smile for me, will you?”

Darla smiled, but just barely.

“When we get home, we’re going to search Lacey’s bedroom. If she has something to hide, we’ll find it there.”

Darla swallowed. She stopped looking at Randy. Her nerves buzzed. She was a collection of circuits on the fritz. Was she even sitting in a car? Was she alive? She looked at Randy again and saw his mouth moving, but she didn’t hear anything except for the buzz in her head. She was a blob on the seat. She was so filled with dread she couldn’t take in anymore.

Her head flopped toward the passenger window and she looked in the side mirror. She saw a motorcycle behind them, a couple of cars back. It looked like the one she’d seen on the trip going to Santa Barbara. It looked like Jake’s custom motorcycle with the blue and silver paint.

A lot of bikes were blue and silver. How could she know this was the same bike as before? And how likely was it that Jake would be behind them? It wasn’t likely at all. She continued to watch.

At least it was a thought. A bright, happy thought. And she clung to it. Thinking meant she was in her body somewhere. She wasn’t just a blob on the seat. She was a thinking blob on the seat. She actually smiled, her head turned from Randy, and she watched the motorcycle stay with them. Occasionally it dropped back. But then it would return to only a couple of cars behind. Somehow it made her feel more secure.

Thirty-six

“GOOD. YOUR SISTER isn’t home,” Randy told Darla as he drove into the motor court and saw the Spyder wasn’t there.

Darla cheered at the sight of Henry washing the Lincoln. The familiar. The mundane. Life as usual. Randy must have caught the smile. “We’ll keep him around if you want.”

“That’s up to Lacey,” she said without thinking.

Randy frowned. “Haven’t you been listening to me?” He turned off the motor. It shuddered just as her body did. She felt cold. She had said the wrong thing.

“Back so soon?” Henry began drying the beaded water.

“Darla wasn’t feeling well.”

Henry nodded.

“When you finish with that, you can clean up the Lexus.”

Darla looked at Randy. It was weird to hear him give an order like that to Henry. Henry wasn’t his. Henry was hers and Lacey’s.

Henry smiled. “I’m sorry, sir. This is actually my day off and I’ll be going after this.” He turned his back without waiting for a reply.

“Later, then,” Randy said.

They went in the house and he plopped their bags on the kitchen floor. “I have no idea where to put these. We haven’t talked about which room to take.”

My room, she wanted to say.

But they couldn’t stay there. Her bed was only a double. He wouldn’t like that. He’d want to buy a bigger bed. Only she didn’t want a bigger bed, a different bed. And he would also want to get rid of the décor.

Her skin rippled with anxiety. She needed her room to stay the way it was.

He looked at her. “Are you hungry?”

Darla shook her head.

“Neither am I.” He took a breath. “No time like the present. We should go through Lacey’s bedroom while she’s gone.” He took Darla’s hand. “Come on.” He led her upstairs.

Inside Lacey’s room he pointed to the dresser. “You go through that. I’ll look here.” He moved to the bed.

Darla stayed put.

“Darla. The drawers.” He pointed again.

She moved, opened one, and stared in. Then she looked at him. He had the mattress pushed up, his hands sliding over the box spring. He found nothing, went down on his knees, and looked under the bed. “There’s nothing here.”

Darla closed the drawer without rummaging. “There’s nothing here either.”

“Try another one. Try them all.” He moved to the closet.

Darla opened a drawer and closed it. She opened another and closed it. She opened another and closed it. “There’s nothing,” she said.

He came out of the closet and looked at her. “Are you sure? Because there’s nothing in the closet.”

She stared at him. She felt like a sack of mindless dirt.

“Didn’t your mother . . .” He stopped himself, waited a second and moved to the dresser. He opened a drawer and saw that she hadn’t disturbed it. “Did you look? Really look?”

His hands went through the drawer. He came up empty. His hands went through a second drawer. Then a third. This time he came away with a wig and a mask in his fingers. He showed them to Darla.

“I told you. Look. It’s a wig. A blond wig. And look at this mask. Doesn’t it look like your mother?”

She didn’t answer.

“Darla?”

She nodded.

“Maybe next time I tell you something you’ll believe me.”

He thrust the objects into her hands and she let them fall to the floor.

He snatched them up. “You’re tired. I am, too. We’ll deal with this later. For now, I think it’s best if we put them back where she hid them.” He put them in the drawer. “That way she won’t know we’re on to her. When the time is right, we’ll call the police and let them find everything.”

He took Darla by the arm and marched her into her room. His grip hurt a little. He seemed angry. Why was he angry? Because he realized now that she was a bore?

“The gun,” he said.

What did he want with the gun? Did he expect her to go shooting? Now? She couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

“It’s still where I put it, right?” He opened the drawer, picked it up. “Darla, look at me.”

She was looking at him.

“Darla. This is so important. You have to protect yourself. Do you understand?”

She stared at him.

“I need you to say it.”

She moistened her lips and swallowed.

“Darla.”

“I understand.”

He sighed. He didn’t seem so mad now. “Okay, good. You know how to use this. I’ve showed you lots of time.”

“Lots of times.”

“And you can pull the trigger.”

Darla nodded.

“Are you sure? Because if you can’t, you have to tell me now. We’ll get you some help. We’ll make you stronger. I’ll find a way to keep Lacey away from you. I won’t let her visit you in the hospital.”

Darla’s nerves fired at the word hospital. Why did he keep mentioning that?

“I can shoot.”

“Your sister. You can shoot Lacey?”

“I can shoot Lacey. I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

He seemed satisfied. “That’s what I needed to hear. Because I can’t be with you every second. Do you want to move into your father’s room? It is the nicest.”

Darla shook her head, but he wasn’t looking at her now. He’d disappeared into the hall.

Darla heard a motorcycle roar into the motor court. She looked out the window and saw Jake dismount from his bike. She watched him glance up at her window and then say hello to Henry who was just leaving in a car she didn’t know. Oh, yeah. Daddy left him some money. He bought a new car of his own. She watched Jake run up the stairs.

She collapsed on her bed. She didn’t sleep. She didn’t even think much. Her mind was mud. She heard Randy come down the hall, peek in on her and go on. Oh, right. He wanted her father’s room. After a while he appeared in the doorway again. “Did you call your sister and tell her you’d be back early?”

Darla left her head on the pillow and rocked it from side to side.

“Did you call your reverend? Has she called you?”

Her eyes went to his. The Reverend Irene? She shook her head again.

“Hmm.” He looked at the floor then disappeared.

When Lacey entered through the back door of the mansion she found Randy sitting at the kitchen table eating alone.

Her heart jumped. It was like seeing a giant poisonous spider in the middle of the room and being unable to exterminate.

She took a deep breath. “You’re back?” She feigned surprise and sat down across from him.

“Your sister wasn’t feeling well.”

“Oh? Something she ate? Or something she married?”

He gave Lacey a dirty look. Now that he was officially a member of the family, he wasn’t maintaining his game face.

“She has bouts of agoraphobia. You did realize that when you asked her to be your wife?”

“I love your sister.”

Words like honey, thought Lacey. So easily dripped.
“Well, I have some news that may help her.” She maintained a smile.

“What news would that be?” He smiled back, game face reapplied.

“I think I should tell
her
first.”

“She’s sleeping. And from now on, whatever you have to say to Darla, you say to me before you say it to her.” He took a nonchalant bite of his sandwich.

She gave him her best look of confusion. “Really? Because the last time I looked the Taliban hadn’t made you king of this household.”

“You always were full of the quip.”

“And you, evidently, were always full of shit.”

“I mean it.”

“Let’s just say, request denied. That’s not going to happen. But, just this once, since she is asleep and you’ll find out soon enough, I’ll tell you. Our mother is alive.”

Randy guffawed. “Really?”

“The police picked up a woman who says she’s Crystal Bouquet.”

Randy looked confused. “That can’t be right.”

“Aren’t you the one who all along told Darla you believed?”

“That was for her.”

“Well, this is for her too. And it’s the truth. Check with the police if you like.” Lacey got up from the table and headed for Darla’s room. She paused at the door. “Aren’t you coming?”

“I told you. She’s asleep. I had to give her a sedative.”

Nerves soured Lacey’s stomach. He’d given her a sedative. He was in such a position of power. He could give Darla anything he wanted and she couldn’t stop him. She turned her back and as she walked toward the stairs she heard Randy go out the back door.

She rushed to Darla’s room and from the window saw Jake cleaning his bike. Randy exchanged words with him, then hopped into his car and sped off.

Lacey looked at her sister and sat down on the bed.

“Darla?”

She didn’t stir.

Lacey squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, baby.” She sighed before she scooped her into her arms and scooted against the headboard. She kissed the top of Darla’s head. “I love you so much. How did Randy ever get you to stop believing that?” She kissed her again. “This is a nightmare. One big freakin’ scream fest and I can’t magically shake us awake.”

She stroked Darla’s hair and was quiet for a moment.

“Wake up, baby. Wake up. I need to talk to you.”

Darla didn’t stir.

“You were right from the very start. Mom’s alive. You saw her and you weren’t afraid to say so, but I was. See. You’re the brave one.” She hugged her tighter. “I should have backed you up. If I had, things would be different. But I didn’t and everything’s all screwed up.”

Lacey’s eyes threatened tears. She wiped them. “You’re stuck with me. No matter who’s been saying what, I love you. We’re in this together. We’re sisters.” Lacey smiled. “Actually, more than sisters. But I won’t go into that.”

She began to rock back and forth. “I know you’re asleep, but can you hear me, Darla? Remember when we made up our own song for when Edward was mean to us? For when we were upset?”

Lacey began to sing. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Here is Lacey, here is Dar.” She pressed her cheek against Darla’s head. “Darla didn’t rhyme with star.” She allowed a sigh and sang again. “Up above the world so high. Watching children from the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Here we are. Here we are.”

Lacey adjusted Darla so she could speak directly into her ear. “I don’t want you to worry. I know you have to do what Randy tells you and this time it’s all right. Do you hear me?”

She hugged her, kissed her, and then got up from the bed. She stared at her sister lying placidly on the mattress. “Darla . . .”

No. There was no explaining now. No relying on the subconscious. She had to make things clear when Darla was awake. She had to hope Darla would be lucid enough and give her the time.

Meanwhile she needed to prepare. She didn’t know for certain when Randy would strike. Logically, it seemed it would be soon. With his accomplice out of the picture and Darla under his spell, he didn’t have a reason to wait. But just to make sure, she’d give him a nudge. He was so arrogant, it would never occur to him that she was on to him, but if he thought that she was, or he thought she was going to make trouble, he’d get moving. He’d knock her off as quickly as he could.

First she would set up. Then she would call him.

She eyed the room. It was orderly. Darla kept her paints and drawing materials in the closet. She located the case used for watercolors and sorted through the tubes of Winsor Newton pigments until she found what she wanted. She took a tube of Cadmium Red into the bathroom, grabbed a washcloth and set both on the sink.

She returned to the bedroom, to the gun in the drawer. She checked for bullets inside. Still loaded . . .

Lacey hurried downstairs. Everything was in order. At least as much as it could be. She still had to get through to Darla, but Darla was still asleep.

She looked at the plate Randy had left on the table, put it in the sink, and then heard Kitty mew outside. She opened the door and hurriedly scooped up the cat.

“Did you come to steady me?”

She sat in a chair, placed the cat in her lap, and stroked it. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins, and she felt her heart beating too fast. This might be as calm as she was going to be. Time to set the ball in motion.

She took out her cell phone and called Randy. He answered.

“She’s still asleep!” Lacey complained. “What kind of drug did you give her?”

“She’s fine.”

“I tried to wake her.”

“Why? She needs her rest.”

“Where are you, anyway?”

“None of your business.”

She could tell he was in his car.

“I bet I know.”

“What?”