Authors: Jude Pittman
“Sure. The beach area’s wide open but the Shelton place is next door. They’re good friends of ours and I’ve got a key to their house. If Andrew’s down there, we’ll see his car from the main road and we’ll have a clear view of the place from the Shelton’s front room. Maybe we’ll spot Andrew and either Krystal or his latest companion.”
“I’m sorry, Stella.”
“Hey, don’t be. I’m used to it. Besides, as you’ve probably figured out, I’m no saint myself. I will tell you one thing though. If Andrew’s up to something, I’ll bet it involves somebody else’s wife.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he sure as hell wouldn’t go to all this trouble just to pull the wool over my eyes. Things are way past that stage in our household.”
“Another question. I don’t want to spook you, but we are dealing with a potential kidnapper. Since I flew up here I didn’t bring my gun. You don’t happen to have one here in the house do you?”
Stella’s eyes widened. “You’re not going to shoot him.”
“I’m not planning on shooting anyone. But we don’t know what we’ll find. Do you have a gun?”
“There’s one locked in the desk.” Stella went to a cabinet, removed a key ring, and select walked around the desk, picked up a key ring from the center selected pulled open a file drawer, and I should hope not. We just don’t know what weand she looked at Kelly I’m sorry to drag you into this but if you don’t mind, I’ll feel a hell of a lot better once I’ve reassured myself that everything’s okay out there.
“I don’t mind at all. Besides, what if you’re right? Andrew’s a bastard but if Krystal is out to kill him, the least I can do is try and warn him.”
Taking I-45 South from Houston, they crossed the Galveston Causeway took 61st Street to the beach and followed the seawall until it turned into FM 3005.
“It’s about five miles ahead on the beach,” Stella said.
As they drove, Kelly thought back to the time he’d spent with Krystal, trying to reconcile what he thought he knew about her to what he’d just found out.”
“It’s tough, isn’t it?” Stella seemed to read his thoughts.
“I guess I’m having a hard time realizing I could’ve read someone as wrongly as I did Krystal. Do you really think she’s capable of murder?”
“Yes!” The word came out hard and brittle. “I’m sorry Kelly but there’s a side to Krystal most people never see. When she was small, she’d do mean, spiteful things… like breaking ornaments in my room and stealing my jewelry and throwing it into the trash but as she got older, her pranks got more vicious.
“I used to have a toy poodle I adored and one night she disappeared. I was frantic. I searched for Mitzi for weeks but I never found a trace of her. Several months later, in the spring, the landscapers called me out to the back yard. They’d been digging in one of the flowerbeds and found Mitzi’s remains. I suspected Krystal immediately. She knew how much I loved that dog. But of course I couldn’t prove anything.”
“Didn’t you at least discuss it with Andrew?”
“What for? He would never have believed me. Remember, Krystal’s the heiress. Andrew always took her side against mine. Besides…what was the point? Mitzi was dead. Nothing I did was going to change that. Things were difficult enough right then. Vivian had already started going downhill and she absolutely refused to let the nurses take care of her personal needs, so most of it fell to me.”
“I thought she hated you?”
“She did but I guess over time she’d gotten used to having me around. Toward the end, it got so bad I was the only one who could touch her.”
“That must’ve been tough on you.”
“It was. Anyway, to get back to Krystal… One night after I’d finished settling Vivian in for the night, I went to my room to get dressed. Andrew and I had a dinner engagement and when I went to put on the dress I planned to wear, I discovered a big tear under the arm.
“Krystal was always getting into my closet and taking my clothes without asking and that night, I exploded. Vivian had been difficult all day and I simply couldn’t take anymore. I went into Krystal’s room with the dress under my arm and started screaming at her. She just sat there on the bed and smirked.”
Stella hesitated, obviously embarrassed at her own confession and Kelly patted her shoulder. “Go ahead,” he said. “I’m not making judgments.”
“I don’t know what got into me but something seemed to snap and I lost control. I dropped the dress and leapt onto the bed and the next thing I knew we were pulling hair and screaming.”
Without thinking, Kelly chuckled and Stella flashed him an angry glare.
“Sorry!”
“I suppose it does sound funny but believe me, at the time it wasn’t. Krystal’s younger and stronger than I am and within a few minutes she had me flat on my back with her legs straddling my chest and her hands wrapped around my throat. It was like she’d gone insane. She kept squeezing as hard as she could and just before I blacked out, she put her face right down next to mine and said ‘Now you can go be with your precious Mitzi.’”
“You must’ve been terrified.”
“I was too busy trying to breathe to realize how scared I was. I found out later that the only reason she didn’t finish me off was because Andrew heard all the commotion and came into the bedroom and stopped her.”
“Wasn’t that enough to convince Andrew she had a problem?”
“Of course not. Krystal showed him the dress I’d dropped on the floor and told him I’d attacked her for wearing my dress. I ended up getting a lecture about controlling my temper. There wasn’t any point in arguing about it. What could I prove and what would it accomplish anyhow? I knew for sure after that episode that there was something seriously wrong with Krystal.”
“You poor kid,” Kelly said. “I could kick myself, you know, for not listening to you earlier but I was too caught up in my own fantasy. I’m not very proud of myself right now.”
“You’re not to blame. Krystal’s very good at winning people over when she wants to, so how could you—a relative stranger—be expected to see her dark side. Andrew’s the one who’s blind. He’s lived with Krystal for years and if he wasn’t such a self-centered, pompous jerk, he’d have realized a long time ago that she had some serious problems.”
Suddenly, as if realizing what she was saying, Stella gasped. “I can’t believe I said that. For all we know Andrew’s life is in danger and here I am calling him a jerk. I’m scared, Kelly. Talking about Krystal has made me remember what she’s capable of. I think maybe we should call the police.”
Kelly shook his head. “And tell them what? She has an alibi for the night of Anna’s murder and even though I’m positive she somehow managed to trick Penny into lying for her, I don’t have any proof.”
“What about the letters you found in her toy box?”
“They won’t mean a thing to the police. They might even suspect you put them there yourself.”
Stella clutched his arm. “You don’t believe that do you, Kelly?”
“No, I don’t.” He shook his head. “I’ve had time to realize how easily Krystal manipulated me into believing what she wanted me to believe. But knowing what she’s done and convincing the police are two different things. Right now, what we need to do is find out what’s really going on with Andrew.”
“There it is,” Stella said, pointing to a blue-and-white beach house perched on tall stilts at the edge of the water. The two-story building, with its peaked roof and wraparound balcony, resembled a modern schooner.
“Nice,” Kelly said.
Stella nodded. “We don’t use it much but I love it out here, especially late in the fall when the tourists are gone.”
“There’s a car parked around the far side. Can you tell if it’s Andrew’s?”
“I’m not sure. It looks like it but we need to get closer.”
“Is that the Shelton place?” he pointed to a bungalow off to their right on the high side of the beach.
“Yes. That’s the one. There’s a driveway about a hundred yards ahead. It’s not marked, so be prepared to turn when I yell.”
Kelly slowed the car and kept his eyes peeled for signs of a track.
“Stop, turn here!” Stella let out a yelp.
Kelly swerved to the right and eased the Jag onto a narrow ridge of hardened sand.
“Pull around to the far side. That way we’ll be hidden from the beach house.”
Kelly nodded, followed the track around the house and pulled up next to a small shed.
“I think the house is empty but I’ll go knock just to be sure.” Stella got out of the car and headed toward a set of wooden steps that led to the back door.
Kelly watched as she climbed the steps and rapped loudly on the door. She waited a few minutes, then took out her key, opened the door and called out. Satisfied, she waved her arm as a signal for Kelly to join her.
“Come through here.” She motioned him through the small, narrow kitchen into a large wide-open room with a panoramic view of the beach.
“That’s just what we need.” Kelly nodded approval when Stella stopped in front of a large telescope.
“We won’t be able to see inside the bungalow because we keep the windows shuttered on this side but once I get into position, I’ll be able to tell if that’s Andrew’s car,” Stella said.
“Good! There doesn’t seem to be any activity around there and only one car. Hopefully, that means Krystal hasn’t arrived yet.”
“It’s Andrew’s all right,” Stella said. “I really think, under the circumstances, it would be better if I went over there alone.”
“I guess that’s a good idea but I’m coming with you…at least as far as the back door.”
“Okay, he won’t be watching the back anyhow if he’s waiting for Krystal. I’ll try to talk to him but don’t expect too much. Even after I explain, he’s not likely to believe me and he’s probably going to be angry.”
“That’s fine. At least he’ll be warned. If nothing else, he’ll probably tell Krystal. Knowing what we suspect might stop her from killing Andrew.”
“Let’s go then. If I put it off any longer, I’ll get cold feet.”
Chapter Twenty
“We’ll go down the beach and come up behind the house. That’s the best way to keep from being seen,” Stella said.
Kelly followed her along the patio and off the back steps to a hard packed path that led from the bungalow down to the beach.
“At least it’s deserted,” he said, when they left the path and made their way toward the beach house.
“This is a fairly private area,” Stella said. “During the summer season we get a few visitors but not many. Too far off the beaten path for most of the tourists.”
“I don’t see any sign of life.”
“Which could mean that Andrew’s busy inside,” Stella said and Kelly noted the edge to her voice.
“You want me to go inside and scout around.”
“No. I’ll go. If he’s in there with someone, I’ll make enough noise to give him time to hide the bimbo and get decent.”
Kelly reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll be right outside the door. If you need me, just yell.”
“I will. Don’t worry.” They reached a plain white door where Stella inserted her key in the lock, turned the knob and stepped inside.
Kelly leaned against the wall and flexed his arms. The tension had his muscles so tight he yearned for a punching bag. Minutes passed and Kelly kept pacing. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he returned to the door and opened it wide enough to stick his head inside.