Celeste Files: Unlocked (22 page)

Celeste tore her gaze away from the pen. The dizziness worsened. The nausea turned into painful spasms. She pressed a hand to her stomach. “Period cramps,” she lied.

“Let me help you to the couch.”

“No,” Celeste said more harshly than she’d meant. “Thanks, but I—” She cramped up and doubled over. With her vision blurring, she closed her eyes to ward off the dizziness. Her limbs grew limp. She slumped to the floor and desperately tried to catch her breath. When Olivia tugged at her hair, she opened her eyes. Kelly was kneeling in front of her and scooping Olivia away.

“Let’s give Mommy a second,” she said to Olivia, who hugged her kitten and baby doll. “Celeste, do you want me to call John?”

The same tunnel vision occurred that she’d experienced with Tracy. The kitchen became hazy and almost unrecognizable. Kelly’s face distorted. Black wisps of smoke surrounded her head, oozed from her eyes, her nose and mouth. When Kelly reached for her, thick black liquid ate at Kelly’s flesh and dripped from her arms and fingertips. Terrified, Celeste tried to speak, to take Olivia to her side, but she couldn’t make her muscles move. Paralyzed, panicked, she fought to keep the oncoming trace from happening.

Your love and spiritual connection to John should be all the grounding you need.

Maxine’s words echoed in her mind, blocking out the white nose buzzing through her head. Celeste closed her eyes and quickly recalled John’s face, let the memory of his touch and love wash over her and ground her. Confident, hopeful using John to ground her had worked, she opened her eyes again.

The black undulating mass swelled before her. As if she were looking through a monocular, at the center the bizarre image was clear. What surrounded it was nothing but a hazy mirage of fractured glass, stained dark-gray. The mass bloated and bubbled. Fearing it would splash her, infect her with the pure malevolence it emanated, she recoiled.

But as the blackness began to suck the dim light surrounding it, something else emerged. It teased her senses until it crystalized.

Celeste stood in Sandra’s office staring at a wall safe. She gasped and moved out of the way when the mass bulged through the door. It moved forward, staining the floor with black sludge, until it stood before the safe. An arm, coated in a black gelatinous substance, reached out and covered the safe. “Bitch,” it said, the single word echoing throughout the room. The mass moved to the desk. Papers fell to the floor. Drawers were opened and upended. The office door swung open, bouncing off the wall.

Celeste quickly looked.

Sandra.

“Run,” Celeste shouted. “You need to leave. She’s here to kill you.”

As if she hadn’t spoken, Sandra moved past her and pointed an accusing finger at the mass. “Kelly, what are you doing in my office?”

“I need the combination to the safe,” it responded, oozing over the desk and across the room. “Now.”

Sandra frowned and shook her head. “Absolutely not. My attorney has that information. When I’m gone, he’ll give it to you. Until then, what’s in my safe will remain my business.”

“I know what’s in the safe, I just don’t want anyone else to see it.”

“Run, Sandra,” Celeste shouted. “She’s already killed Tracy, and plans to kill you, too.”

Sandra turned to her. “Celeste? You shouldn’t be here.”

She froze, just as the mass covered Sandra, blotting the woman from the room. It suddenly dissolved, then reappeared at the office chair. Only now Sandra sat in the chair, her wrists bound to the armrests, a needle protruding from her upper arm.

“Open the safe, or I’ll kill the spoiled bitch and her brat.” The needle was removed. “You, too.”

Oh, God. Celeste had come full circle. She was at the beginning point of her initial vision of the woman, right before she’d been murdered. “Don’t give Kelly the combination. Tracy’s dead. You can’t trust her. She
will
kill you.”

The rippling mass moved across the room. It liquefied to a puddle on the floor, then rematerialized holding a gun.

Sandra’s eyes widened when the mass raised the gun at her. The faint sound of a baby’s cries whispered through the room. Sandra’s face, as if it was a multiple exposure photograph, split in two. One set of eyes stared at the gun. The other…stared at her. “Where’s your baby?” Sandra’s mouth didn’t move, but her words stirred the air near Celeste’s ears.

The baby’s cries grew stronger.

“Oh, my God. Olivia!”

“Go to your baby.” Sandra’s murmured words became urgent, panicked. “Hurry.”

Sandra’s multiple images fractured. Her arm shot out, stretched across the room and shoved Celeste.

Gasping, Celeste opened her eyes. Kelly leaned against the kitchen counter holding Olivia and one of Celeste’s kitchen knives. “Morning, sunshine,” Kelly said, staring at her with curiosity. “How did you know?”

Celeste licked her dry lips, stared at the knife and how dangerously close it was to Olivia’s stomach. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why do you have a knife?”

“Well, I was clearly terrified for my life and Olivia’s. Especially when you shouted, ‘She’s here to kill you.’ At first I thought there was someone in the condo, but then I realized you were…somewhere you shouldn’t have been. How did you do that?”

Celeste’s heart pounded hard. Fear, unlike anything she’d ever known, had every muscle in her body tensed. “Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tears filled her eyes. “Please, put the knife and my daughter down.”

“I don’t think I can do that. I also think you’re lying to me. I honestly came here this morning to find out what the detectives asked you and to vent. But now I can’t leave. I mean, I
can
, I just can’t leave you alive. You obviously know the truth. My question is how?”

Vulnerable, terrified, Celeste prayed Olivia would stop squirming before the knife nicked her. “What truth?”

Kelly shrugged. “That I killed my mother and half-sister.”

“What are you talking about? I never—”

“Don’t lie to me,” Kelly shouted.

Olivia stopped moving and started to cry. “Hush up,” Kelly said, and bounced Olivia on her right hip, likely to quiet her. Celeste knew from experience that never worked, and she just hoped to God Olivia reacted the way she had in the past. Otherwise, she didn’t know how the hell she’d stop Kelly from harming Olivia.

“Talk to me, Celeste. Who else knows? Did you tell the detectives? Does your husband know?”

“No,” Celeste cried. “I swear, I never thought you killed your mom or Tracy. Never once did the thought enter my mind.”

“But you suspected my mother was murdered?”

Olivia bawled. Her chubby face became red and tear-soaked. She tugged at Kelly’s hair and slapped at her face.

“Bad girl,” Kelly scolded Olivia, but continued to bounce her. “Stop that.” She pulled her head away, but couldn’t prevent Olivia from yanking on her hair.

Celeste slowly rose to her feet, eyeing her cell phone, which sat on the kitchen island. “Put my daughter down and get out of my house. If you go now, I won’t call the police.”

“Bullshit. If the situation were reversed, I’d kill you for laying a hand on Avery.”

Kelly had no idea how much Celeste wanted to hurt her. She wanted to smash the woman’s head against the granite countertop for threatening her baby. “I’m not like you. Now put her down.”

“I don’t think so. Unfortunately, there’s only one solution as I see it, and it doesn’t involve me going to the police with a confession. There’s no way I’m going to prison. Since Dale killed himself last night, who would raise Avery?”

“Dale killed himself?”

“Poor guy was so devastated that he got caught cheating, he couldn’t live with the guilt.” Kelly shrugged. “So, he hung himself.”

Celeste shook her head. “You murdered him.”

“No, I
encouraged
him.” Kelly kissed Olivia’s head. “Just like I’m going to encourage you. Now, here’s how we’re going to do this. You’re going to take a knife and slit your wrists. If you don’t, I’ll stab Olivia. Since I do love babies, I promise not to kill yours, as long as you kill yourself. Sound like a plan?”

“Not a good one,” she said, searching the kitchen for a way to save her child.

“Too bad. It looks like I’m calling the shots. Get a knife and start cutting.” Kelly scrunched her right shoulder. “Bad girl,” she yelled at Olivia, who kept wriggling in Kelly’s arm and pulling at the woman’s hair.

Deciding that she’d rather be armed than vulnerable, she cautiously moved toward the knife drawer. Her daughter’s cries had grown hoarse. Celeste’s throat tightened with the urge to cry right along with her. She hated Kelly, hated the fear, the way the woman used Olivia to threaten her. “I’ll do it.” Her breath caught on a sob. She’d die for her child, but had no intention of allowing that to happen today. “Just put Olivia down,” she said, opened the drawer, then pulled out a steak knife.

Kelly shook her head. Not much since Olivia had refused to let go of her hair. “Come on. Cut your fucking wrists,” Kelly shouted over Olivia’s cries. “Hurry before I lose my—”

Olivia vomited all over Kelly’s shoulder and neck. Kelly swore and turned her head away.

Celeste lunged and stabbed the knife into Kelly’s left arm. The woman dropped Olivia. Celeste quickly caught her before she hit the kitchen floor, then released her as Kelly attacked. Kelly sliced the knife through the air, missing Celeste.

Celeste kicked Kelly in the knee. When the woman’s leg buckled, Celeste kicked again, connecting with Kelly’s stomach. Hatred, rage and vengeance blurred her vision. She grabbed the coffee pot off the counter and swung it at Kelly’s head. Glass shattered. The knife fell from Kelly’s hand and she dropped to the floor.

Olivia’s cries penetrated the haze of rage. Her heart beating fast, her breath coming in short spurts, she knocked the knife out of Kelly’s reach, then rushed to her baby and scooped her in her arms. She set the steak knife on the kitchen island long enough to call 911, then picked it back up again. Instinct told her to run from the condo, or lock herself and Olivia in the bedroom. But she didn’t want to let Kelly out of her sight, not until she was handcuffed and in police custody.

Minutes ticked by. Olivia had stopped crying and now clung to her neck. Her little body was sweaty and warm, and Celeste couldn’t wait to remove her daughter’s vomit-stained clothes and wipe her down with a cool washcloth.

Kelly shifted. Her eyes fluttered open, and she released a harsh groan. “Celeste, help me.” Blood dripped from the stab wound on her arm as she reached up to touch her head. She winced when her fingers grazed the gash left by the coffee pot. “You have to help me. I can’t go to jail. My baby…Avery needs me. I’m so sorry.” Tears filled her eyes. “You know I would’ve never hurt Olivia. I was scared and—”

“Were you scared when you murdered your own mother?” Celeste asked, and waved the knife. “Or how about when you held Tracy under the water until she drowned?”

“You don’t understand,” she wailed. “I wasn’t lying. I needed the money to leave Dale.”

“Now you’ll need it to hire a good defense attorney.”

Kelly narrowed her eyes and pushed up on her elbow. “Bitch. I should’ve killed—”

Celeste quickly crossed the room, then kicked the woman in the head. Satisfied she was out cold, Celeste kissed Olivia’s sweaty forehead. “I’m sorry you had to see that.” She set the knife on the island, then tapped her daughter’s little nose. “But Mommy wasn’t in the mood to talk to that bad woman anymore.”

Chapter 14

Two days later…

“WHAT DO YOU think?” Celeste asked John, as he parked in front of Maxine’s house.

He killed the ignition. “Beautiful. Too bad it’s haunted.” John stepped out of the car, then opened the rear driver’s side door to take Olivia out of her car seat. “I hope whatever Maxine has in store for us doesn’t have anything to do with a séance or a Ouija board.”

She grinned and grabbed Olivia’s diaper bag. “Would you stop? And please don’t say anything to Maxine about her ghosts.”

“I won’t. But it
is
kind of creepy. Think about it. You’re taking a shower or going to the bathroom, and there could be someone watching you.”

She rolled her eyes and knocked on the front door. “Thanks for planting that thought in my head. Now I won’t be able to use Maxine’s bathroom.”

He chuckled. “Glad I can help,” he said, as Maxine opened the door.

Maxine quickly pulled Celeste in for a big hug. “Oh, darling, I was so worried about you.”

“I’m just glad it’s over.” The moment the police removed Kelly from her condo, the stress and exhaustion that had weighed Celeste down had disappeared. Until Kelly was arrested, Celeste hadn’t realized how much the visions had drained her, as if the black mass she kept seeing had been sucking the life from her.

“Me, too,” John said, drawing Maxine’s attention to him.

The older woman turned and stared at John. “Well, aren’t you handsome.”

John’s cheeks and ears reddened as he looked to the floor. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“None of this ma’am nonsense, call me Maxine,” she said, and took Olivia from his arms. “And you are just too cute for words.” She cuddled Olivia and kissed her cheek.