The Cin Fin-Lathen Mysteries 1-3 (49 page)

I took a deep breath as the elevator arrived, and a very
dapper Manfred walked out.  He looked surprised to see me sitting there.  He
blinked several times not trusting his eyes. I waved at him casually.

“So.”  I leaned back looking bored.  “You want to play?”  I
drew out the bloody knife and began to clean my nails with it. It was so grossing
me out, I hoped it was having the same effect on Manfred.

He retreated and backed against the wall of the elevator.

“Impress me,” I dared.

“Are you wondering where the police are?  Tobias already
took them out of play.  Their trap is their funeral.”

I screamed “no” in my head.  I quickly pushed it away as my
hysteria wasn’t going to keep them safe.  Plus, Manfred said
is
and not
was
.
 I sighed, appearing bored and spoke, “Prove it.”

“They are locked between the library and the theater.  I too
have used that shortcut a time or two recently.”  He was calm now and walked to
the front of the elevator.  “I was thinking of a little cyanide.  Take them all
out at once.”

“Cyanide gas?  Oh please, Manfred, done and done.”

“Do you not care?”  He was incredulous. I took in his
manner, and I saw his hands were shaking.

Ah, I thought, you’re losing your confidence, you bastard. 
You are nothing without Tobias there to back you up. I got up and walked over
to the elevator, swinging my hips as if I didn’t have a care in the world.

“Care?  Oh I care.  But I like winning.  Granted you poison
far better than you play that pathetic instrument.  Coming at me with devil’s
trumpet?  Was that your idea or Tobias’s?”

“Mine.  Tobias wanted something more convulsive.”

“Probably strychnine.  Well, thank you for the fabulous
high.  Although, it wasn’t very controlled.  Ah, control.   Do you get your
jollies controlling poor Tobias? Abusing his man crush for you, making him your
slave?”

“Crude, very crude.”

“Ah come on, Manfred.  I thought you liked me.  All those
flowers.”

“That was Tobias.”

“The love letter?”

“Tobias.”

“What’s the matter, you lose your nerve?  Tobias, gee, maybe
I shouldn’t have killed him.”

“Impossible.”

“I’ve killed before.”

“England.”

“Yes. England.  Do you know what a pleasure it is to feel
all that warm blood pumping out over your hands?  Tell me, by the time you
stuck Carl, his blood wasn’t even good enough for a splash was it?”

“You are a sick woman.”  Manfred shuddered.  “I wasted my
time on you.”

I walked closer to him.  “Do you think that your testaments
were good enough for me?”

“I killed Carl because he was a pompous ass, thought he
could waste everybody’s time - everybody’s time, not just yours.”

“I can’t argue with you there.”  I leaned against the side
of the elevator, wrapping my foot around to stop the door from closing.

“I killed Cheryl because she took up precious time.  We did
not have breaks because of her.  I did you a favor.  She copied you, talk about
crushes.  The poor creature, you wouldn’t give her the time of day.”

“Of course not.  I’m the original,” I said arrogantly.

“Miles was supposed to look like an accident.  That he was
too stupid to remember where he put the poison.  Tobias and I had so much fun
watching the cavalry come to the rescue.”

“I ruined a pair of shoes over you two.  But I did stop you
from killing Miles that first time.”

“Yes.”

“So you’re a poor looser.  Is that why you couldn’t let him
live?”

“I do not like to leave things unfinished.”  Manfred brushed
past me out of the elevator.

I followed him.  Was he nervous?  Why were his hands
shaking?  I must be getting to him.  “Why the cop?”

The question stopped his progression.  He turned and smiled
viciously.  “He was in the way, and then all of a sudden I could picture the scene. 
Detective Curtis was convinced Miles was guilty.  I thought we would have a
police lynching.”

“Clever. I would have to give you points there if you didn’t
reuse the poisons.  What did you do to Tony?”

“Valium.  Two to control him and, later after I kill you,
seven to kill him.”

“Come on, why not opium?”

“Not reliable.”

“So let me guess.  Do indulge me a little.  Tony and I are
found in a murder suicide.  Lovers entwined, sharing a bottle of wine,
spotlight instead of candles.  How romantic.  Do tell me, something in the
wine?”  I walked real close to him and tapped his cheek.  “Arsenic again.  How
boring.”

He turned red and his fists clenched.  “Who do you think you
are?  You’re just a little alto clarinet player pretending to be a detective. ”

“True, dressing the part doesn’t make me a detective.  But
I’ve never claimed to be a detective.”

“England...”

“Their assumption, not mine.  I’ve always had other
attributes that are far more valuable than ‘gum shoe.”  I laughed pointing to
my feet.  My “gum shoes” were three hundred dollar stiletto heels covered in
eighty-nine cent duct tape.  “You asked me who do I think I am?  I know who I
am.  How about me asking you?  Who do you think I am?”  I circled around him.

“Cowering little slut.”

“Hardly.”  I laughed at him, standing so close he could feel
my breath on the back of his neck.  “Think, you worm.  How do I know about
poison?”  I turned him around with my hand and the cold edge of the knife.  I
reached over and pulled the glasses off his face.  I backed up and smiled.  “You
chose to mess with the high priestess of Celtic Iron.”  I reached in my pocket
and pulled out the atomizer.  I pumped it a few times and sprayed him from his
face down to his feet.  “Ever hear of wolfbane, aconitum napellus?”

Manfred began to shudder and rubbed wildly at his eyes.  He
kept rubbing them as if to rid himself of the poison.

“Feel the burning?  Maybe you know it as monkshood?”

Manfred’s fear got the better of him, and he started
running.  Unfortunately, in his frenetic state his navigation was poor.  The
big man ran right into the wall.  He fell with a thud.  I walked over and
kicked him real hard to insure that he was unconscious.  Not a peep out of him.
 I reached down and unwound some duct tape from my shoe.  With it I secured his
hands and feet, and, since I was sick of hearing his voice, I taped his mouth
shut.  I walked over and turned off the tape recorder.  I played it back and
found that I had succeeded in recording everything, the whole confession.

“Ahem.”

I turned and was startled to see a winded Harry standing
there smiling.

“Been here long?”

“Long enough.”

“Did you hear all that?”

“Loud and clear high priestess of the Celtic...”

“Iron, Celtic Iron.  Where were you guys?”

“At the library.  Alex and I decided to hang out in the
parking lot after showing Dave the tunnel.  I was surprised to see Tobias
leaving the library.  Alex and I got into the car and followed him to the Queen
Palm.  Before I got there, I stopped the car and turned around, I was puzzled
as to why he was at the library in the first place, and then it came to me.  He
knew about the tunnel!  We raced back to the library.  The doors were locked
and the place dark.  All the guys’ cars were still there.  We tried to call
Dave to find out if he was in position.  No answer, Alex figured that the
tunnel was a no cell zone.  We called dispatch who treated us like pranksters.

“Alex was concerned about you so I gave him the car, and he
headed over to the restaurant while I tried to get in the library.  I couldn’t
budge the doors.  Alex called me and said that when he got to the restaurant he
found your car still there.  He went inside and there was a crowd of people at
the bar.  Evidently, a couple was found drugged and tied up in the cloakroom. 
He ran through the place, and you were nowhere to be found.  By this time I had
run across the street and spied two vehicles parked in the loading area.”

“Manfred’s car and the white van...” I started to fill in.

“I had a copy of the back door keys on me, and that didn’t
get me anywhere as they were all chained on the inside.  I remembered that the
glass doors at the front of the theater didn’t meet, so chaining them would be
near impossible.  I ran around the building and got in a few minutes ago.  I
followed the voices, and here I am.”

“Ta da!” I sang.

“Don’t be childish, you were in danger.”  Harry reddened.

“Come on, you want to say it or how about voilà?” I teased.

“You aren’t making any sense.”  He looked at me and gasped.  “What
did you do to those shoes?  You realize they are Kenneth Cole!”

“Oh, yes, and after this, he and I are going to have a
talk,” I said.  “Where is Dave?”

“I guess still in the tunnel.”

“Maybe we should rescue them.  And hand me the phone, I
better call Alex.”  I held out my hand and called Alex while following Harry.

Harry directed me into the box office area to a janitorial
closet.  Manfred and Tobias had put a microphone stand through the doors on
this side.  He pulled it out and opened the door. 

A very sweaty group of men gazed back at us, one with his
gun drawn.

“Hello, Dave, that for me?” I asked, lowering my voice.  I
heard Harry choke down some laughter.

Dave lowered his gun and glared.  “You mind telling me what
the eff is going on?  We’ve been trapped down here.  The cells don’t work
and...”

“Harry, tell the man,” I said and stepped aside.

Harry explained his end of it to Dave as I took Pete to his
very confused groggy boss.  The other policemen fanned out and collected
evidence and called the EMTs for Tobias who was busy holding his guts in.

I looked down at him.  “No offence.”

He looked up at me.  “None taken.”

~

I handed Dave the tape recorder.  He listened to it once and
looked at me strangely. “ Some actress you are, Ms. Fin-Lathen.”

“Classically trained.”

“Really?”

I shook my head and said, “No.”

We all heard when Alex arrived.  He called “Mom” over and
over again until we were face to face.  He enveloped me in the hardest hug I
have ever gotten from my son.  “Don’t you ever do this to me again!”

“Oh, alright,” I said, prying his arms from me so I could
breath.

The EMTs arrived.  They had their hands full with a still
silent Tobias and with Tony who would need to be watched.  There was a lot of
valium in his system.

Manfred was still out cold.  Ed and Bill got to him after
they loaded a stabilized Tobias into the ambulance.  Ed asked “Wolfbane?”

“Probably water.  Singers use it to moisten their vocal
cords.”

“No kidding.  Water?  Dave said you told him it was
wolfbane.”

“Ed, you’re missing it.  All he had to do was think it was
wolfbane,” I said.

Dave walked over and put his hand out.  I handed over the
atomizer.  He shook his head.  “Come on, Rambo.”

“Oh.”  I turned for modesty’s sake and reached for the
knife.  I held it in both hands for mere seconds.  Whether it was the fact that
I didn’t kill anyone this time or that I defended myself against these
psychopaths with it, but I was hesitant to release it into evidence.

“Cin.”  I could tell he was losing his patience.

“Okay, here.”  I handed him the knife, closed and blade
down.  “I need the knife back.”

Ed looked me over.  “Why?”

“It’s a loaner.”

The back of my neck ached.  “This is torture, you sadist!”

“Come on, you just have a few more lines and you have both
articles done.”  Harry stood over me.  “Then we email them to Noelle, and she
edits them.”  He looked over my shoulder.  “No, you have too many loose ends.”

“I can’t read your notes anyway.  Give me the tape
recorder!” 

I pressed play:
“
Too bad.  Those chicks, when they
cross forty are great in bed!”

I pressed stop and looked around me.  Good, Luke was outside
in the mother in-law apartment.  “You big goof.  What did you get me into?”

“It got us in the door.  And I need this project finished to
pass English.  I’m supposed to be your intern.”

“Then you finish it.”  I got up and Harry sat down.

He sat for a while staring at the paper.  “I see your point.
 This is torture.  I know, let’s conclude it with something like… Billy Sands,
the new face of south Florida gardening.”

I started laughing.  “Yes, that will be perfect.”  I looked
at my watch.  “I have to get to practice.”

“Are they really going to do the concert over?” Harry
asked. 

“The ticket holders caused quite a stink.  Half a concert
and they never got to see the dead body.  Email that to Noelle and remind her
we need it back by Wednesday.”  I hugged Harry and went in search of my
ex-husband.

I found him packing his suitcase.  He had been here for two
weeks and was starting a new job.  I tried to look at his being here as a
temporary thing instead of the first ring of hell.  “You still here?”

He turned around.  “Boy, time sure flies when you’re in and
out of depositions.”

“I appreciate you coming along.” 

“So what do you have planned while I’m away?  More murders,
terrorists or a good kidnapping?  Speaking of kids, how long is Harry going to
be here?”

“He and I had to work on those articles for Palm and Garden.
 After he sends them to Noelle, he should be heading back to the beach.”

“Do you think he might want to hang around here and go get
something to eat?  It gets a bit lonely when you’re at practice,” he
complained.

“He would be more receptive if you would stop calling him
‘Horrible Harry,’” I cautioned. 

“He calls me Luke Skywalker.”

I stopped him with a look.  “Hey, wanna help me load my
stuff in the car?”

He nodded, grabbed my alto and followed me out to the car. 
As we passed the den, he told Harry they were going to eat, so hang around.

~

Pulling out of the neighborhood, I turned on the CD player,
and put in the new CD that Alex had given me.  It was by Barely a Bass Player.  “How
am I going to keep him in college when his CD goes platinum?” I sang loud and
off key.  I was so into the music that, before I knew it, I was approaching
Coconut Palm High School.  I was early, so parking was easy.  I grabbed my
stuff and headed inside. 

I got to the door and for the life of me I couldn’t open
it.  I just stood there.  The smokers were outside as usual, and the sound that
escaped every time the door opened was as bad as ever.  Still there was an
emptiness that I was trying to block.   I took a deep breath and walked in. 
The lights were bright, but now that I had these dark contacts my pupils didn’t
hurt so much.  But my ears.  What was that awful sound?  I scanned the room. 
Bernice was waving me over.  I found my chair, put my music on the stand,
dropped my stuff, and reached over and hugged her.

“What is that horrible racket?” I asked.

“The interim conductor is auditioning some new saxophone
players.”  I almost left at that point, but the word “audition” popped back
into my head.

“You said audition.”

“Yes, new band policy is that we audition new players.  If
they aren’t good enough, we don’t have to take them.”

“Halleluiah!”  I began to dance Alex’s dance.  The look
Bernice gave me stopped me pretty quickly.  I sat down and put together my
instrument.  The playlist was on the board, and our interim conductor, borrowed
from the local orchestra, was getting ready to start the practice.  I looked
around the band and saw Billy take Carl’s chair.  He caught me looking at him,
and he winked at me. I better make sure I avoid him on break.  Mark was sitting
solo oboe.  He briefly glanced at the space that Cheryl had left and looked back
at his music.  There were no bassoons to start off
Ballet Parisian
,
but
we were going to be fine.

I thought about Manfred and Tobias and wondered, does music
really sooth the savage beast?  Or can it instead bring out the beast?  Incite
the beast?  Could those little black dots, carefully placed, call out the
demons within us, within me?

How much does music affect our lives?  I would love to have
John Williams underscore my days and Andrew Lloyd Webber my dream-filled
nights.  But who can truly capture the symphony that is my soul?  Dvořák?  Mussorgsky?
 Or is the composer not yet recognized.  Are we our own composers?  And, if so,
could I deal with the newly recognized dark streak I felt as I tormented
Manfred?  Would it be just a passing melody or would it reprise again and
again?

I pushed these thoughts away as the conductor’s baton was
up, and it was time to play.  And as the beautiful healing music flowed through
me, I answered my own questions.

* * *