Part 31 (2/2)
My long-time friend, the girl I had grown up with, had become a woman who could spend most of her adult life living a lie about her child and her lover, and then lose control and kill someone. Another lie, another person I didn't really know. The TV was loud again.
She was peering anxiously at me. ”What are you thinking about?”
”Remember the night we sat on the side street and you told me how Ben had attacked you in your car in the vacant lot? You were so believable.”
”The essence of what I said about him and me was true. I didn't plan to kill Jenny. I just saw Ben's life being destroyed.”
”And yours. And Robert's.”
”All right, I felt threatened. Everything I had worked so hard for could have been destroyed by this uncaring b.i.t.c.h. I didn't have a movie star for a mother, Diana. I had to create my own life the way I wanted it, with no help from anybody.”
”If you let people cut in front of you in line, you'll never get ahead.”
”What?”
”That's what you said to me when we first met. We were waiting to get in to see one of my mother's movies. You're the one who reminded me of it when I was holding frozen peas to your bruised face thinking a man had beat you up.”
”Killing Jenny was an accident.”
”Was Zackary Logan an accident?”
”I didn't kill him. I swear to G.o.d. He called me and said he wanted to meet me at Bella Casa. But I didn't go.”
”Why should I believe you?”
”No reason, except it's true.”
”What about Ryan Johns?”
”Robert told me that Parson was a madman. That whoever killed his daughter would face an awful death. He told me he had Leo Heath working on the case, and I remembered him from Bella Casa. I panicked. I a.s.sumed Heath knew what had been going on at the house. So I thought if I sent him and Parson the video of Ryan... .”
”He'd be the perfect scapegoat. Except Ryan turned around and gave Parson your name. That bit of irony must've stung.”
”It did.”
”How did Ben find out you were his mother?”
”After you called to tell me to leave my house, that I might be in danger, I phoned Ben. If I was going to die, I wanted him to know the truth. And that I killed Jenny for him.”
”You left him with the burden of all that?”
Ignoring my question, she asked ”What are you going to do?”
Disgusted, I stood and walked to the door. ”You can save yourself. I won't stop you. But I'm keeping the memory card.”
”You can't.” She got her feet. ”You can't leave me like this. You know what Parson will do to me. Even if I did mean to kill Jenny, it was to help everyone involved.”
”And now you want the card to bargain with Parson. And you don't care if he uses it to continue his daughter's blackmail, even if he hurts everyone you were supposedly trying to help. Christ, Celia. It's over.”
We stared at each other. Then the TV in the next room suddenly turned up to full volume, filling the tense silence between us. As we glanced toward the booming noise of the chattering Spanish women, the breathless soft sounds of pop, pop, pop splintered the common wall. I lost sight of Celia as I dove for the floor. My gun flew from my hand. The muted gunfire continued. The TV turned off, and the room was quiet. Neither of us moved.
Seconds later, the motel room door crashed open, and a man stepped over me. My hair had fallen across my face, and I was lying on my right arm. I opened my eyes just enough to see Rubio take the camera from the bed. Rubio ... I had forgotten about the son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h. Then I saw Celia on the floor, blood pumping from her chest. He knelt down next to her.
”Gotcha,” he said, like a hunter to a deer.
Then Rubio was beside me. He pushed the hair from my face and we looked at each other. My throat went dry.
He flashed his thick white teeth at me and aimed the gun between my eyes. ”Gotcha.”
But another gun went off. His grin froze, then vanished, and he fell heavily to the side. I lifted my head to see what had happened. Celia was on her knees, the Glock in her hand. She smiled at me the same way she had when we were young. Then she dropped the gun and collapsed. The room tilted. I laid my head back down.
”What the f.u.c.k?” It was Bruno's voice.
I felt him standing behind me. Tensing, I lay still.
”Parson's not going to like this,” Gerald rushed into the room, stopping near Rubio.
I tried not to breathe. I opened my eyes just enough to see him peering inside the camera Rubio had dropped.
Gerald frowned. ”There's no memory card. Maybe the actress has it.”
My need to survive kicked in, my mind began to work. These two men were my one little area of power. Without trying to show any movement, I edged my right hand up between my b.r.e.a.s.t.s and pulled the card out, holding it in my palm.
”Is she alive?” Bruno kicked my thigh with his foot.
My body recoiled.
”Yeah, she's alive.” Now standing in front of me, Bruno grabbed me under my arms. I let myself go limp and heavy as he dragged me up the front of his body to my feet.
His sweat reeked. I went into my madwoman act, except I wasn't acting. I screamed. I punched and kicked. Moving my right hand down his chest, I slipped the memory card into the handkerchief pocket of his suit jacket and shrieked louder.
”Shut up!” Gerald yelled from behind me.
Then something hard slammed into the back of my skull. I fell to my knees.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE.
I opened my eyes. Slumped in a worn maroon-velvet seat, I raised my head, breathing in the odor of dust, mildew, and forlorn emptiness. Putting my hand to my head, I felt a lump. Nausea swept through me as I leaned forward, gripping the back of the seat in front of me, and peering at a movie screen. A velvet curtain draped the proscenium. Light fixtures sculpted like bent arms with hands holding dimly lighted torches lined the walls. I looked up at the ceiling, blinking it into focus. The Hollywood version of the Sistine Chapel mural had been painted on it. The angels, movie-star s.e.xy, had faded and chipped into decay. Gerald and Bruno sat still on either side of me as if we were at a private screening waiting for the movie to begin. I was in Parson's theater.
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