Wicked Obsessions (32 page)

Chapter 19

Teri didn't laugh. She didn't breathe. She couldn't. All the air in the room had been sucked away by Selena's demented humor. But she had to know for sure. "You were the blonde Kidder told me about? You were
there?"
Selena nodded, but her smile began to fade as the seconds ticked by and Teri still wasn't laughing. "Selena..." Teri had to swallow hard before she could ask, "Who else was there?"

Selena's happy expression became confused. "No one else was there. I promised to get rid of him for you, and I did. Everything would have been fine if it hadn't been for that snoopy old detective."

Teri's knees came up to her chest and her whole body froze with horror. She ordered herself not to scream as she wanted to so badly. She had seen the clues. They
weren't
coincidences, after all. But what Selena was saying was completely unbelievable. And she knew in the next instant that it was completely true.

Selena had murdered both men and actually believed she had done it for her.
To protect her.
Selena wasn't simply a vulnerable child in a woman's body. She wasn't merely a jealous friend.

She was insane.

Teri lowered her face to her knees as the trembling set in. Was she next? Is that why Selena was here? Cautiously she raised her head and saw Selena frowning at her. Teri's fear spurred her to beg, "Please don't hurt me, Selena. We're best friends, remember?"

Selena's confusion came back, and she sat down on the edge of the bed. "Oh, Teri, you still don't understand, do you? I would never, ever hurt you. I have to protect you and keep you safe. That's why I'm here." She patted Teri's leg, but withdrew her hand when Teri flinched away. "I don't know how much time we have, but I'm sure we can take a few more minutes for you to pack some things. And, of course, we'll take your canvases and paints so you'll have plenty to do." She got up off the bed and tugged the sheet away from Teri. "Come on, sleepyhead. We'd better get moving."

Teri stared at Selena, trying to curb her panic enough to think. Apparently, she wasn't in immediate danger of being killed, but Selena wanted to take her somewhere, and that didn't sound much better at the moment. Somehow she had to summon the police, but how could she distract Selena long enough to use the phone?

Slowly she rose from the bed, trying to make her brain work faster than her body. Selena outweighed her by at least fifty pounds. She could never hope to overpower her, and yet, she couldn't just go off who-knew-where with this madwoman without a fight. Perhaps once they got outside she could run for help. Her gaze strayed to the nightstand drawer across the room, and she remembered what was in there. Did she dare try for Rico's gun? She wasn't sure she had that much courage. Struggling to keep the anxiety out of her voice, she managed to say, "If we're going somewhere, I'd better get dressed." Selena's smile told her that she believed Teri would cooperate. "Where are we going?"

"I have a house in Ulster County. Upstate New York is very pretty in the summertime, and not nearly as hot as the city. Hurry up, now. We may not have much time."

Teri opened a dresser drawer and took out underwear. If she thought about survival instead of what Selena had done to Rico and Detective Kidder, she found she could function almost normally. "Why are we in such a hurry?" Selena stopped her pacing, and Teri watched her withdraw into herself. Selena's head dipped, her shoulders slumped, and she hugged her body protectively.

"I didn't mean to be bad," she said in the little-girl voice, which became more whiny with each word. "Everything went wrong, and now Juliette's mad at me. I didn't have a good plan, didn't change the way I look. People saw me. But I couldn't help it. I had to protect you from him!"

Teri clutched the clothes she'd been gathering. She had the most wretched feeling that Selena was not referring to Rico or Kidder. "Who are you talking about?"

Selena seemed to age a little as she defended herself. "I had to do it. Don't you see? He was going to hurt you and stop us from being friends. I had to make him go away before he could do that."

Teri dropped the clothes on the floor and whispered, "Drew?" A little louder she demanded, "Have you done something to Drew, Selena?"

The girl stood there looking sheepish. "I think he's dead. But I couldn't be sure. The people came and I had to run—"

"No-o-o!"
Teri wailed as she flew across the room, yanked open the nightstand drawer, and grabbed the gun. Her hands were shaking so badly she wasn't certain she could pull the trigger if she had to. But she aimed it in Selena's direction and hoped that would be enough. "Stay back, Selena. I'm going to call the police now, and we're going to wait for them to get here."

"You don't want to do that," Selena said in her flat voice as she straightened her body to its full height. "I'd have to tell them everything. How we planned Rico's disappearance together. How you held tobacco to your eyes to make yourself cry at his funeral. How Kidder was right about you and Drew being lovers, and that's why the detective had to die."

"But none of that is—" She was about to say "true," but she immediately understood how Selena was twisting the truth to make it believable. Who would the police believe if it was her word against Selena's? Was she at fault for not seeing Selena as a vicious killer? Was she partly to blame for the murders? Maybe if she had told Kidder of the coincidences, at least he and Drew might still be alive.

Oh, God, Drew, I'm so sorry.
She swiped at the moisture filling her eyes just as Selena stepped toward her.
"No!
Stay back. I don't care
what
you tell the police. I'm calling them." She moved to the side of the nightstand, balanced the heavy gun in her right hand, and groped for the telephone next to the bed.

"You'd better not do that," Selena warned again. "The evidence points to you being the guilty party." Abruptly she giggled. "Oh, I made a joke!"

Teri's left hand returned to help hold up the gun. "What evidence, Selena?"

She giggled again. "Rico's hands. Get it? They're
pointing
at you! I hid them somewhere very close to you. The police would know you were involved as soon as I told them where to find the missing hands."

Teri tasted bile and swallowed several times. The image of Rico's mutilated body lying in the morgue flashed in her mind. She hadn't seen any part of him below his shoulders, but her nightmares had supplied her with gruesome visions of what the truncated arms had looked like.

Captain Hart had told her Rico's fingerprints had been used in Kidder's murder, so she knew the hands had not been disposed of. And now Selena was telling her the grisly evidence was hidden "somewhere close". The idea that she could have accidentally found shriveled body parts in her bedroom made the nausea harder to control. If she hoped to have a chance of convincing the police of the truth, she had to find the hands before she called for help.

"Where are they, Selena? Where did you hide them?" Teri's gaze darted frantically around the room.

Selena clapped her hands and giggled. "I know! We could play hide-and-seek. I never win when I play with Juliette, but I can beat you. You'll
never
find them."

Teri ignored the childish challenge as she opened the nightstand drawer all the way. Keeping the gun and her gaze aimed at Selena, she pulled open one drawer, but thoughts of reaching in and touching dead flesh delayed her search a moment more. Swallowing her revulsion, she blindly pulled one item after another out of the drawer and tossed them on the floor in front of her. Selena's relaxed composure and self-assured smile grated on Teri's raw nerves, but she moved to the dresser, then the armoire, searching each drawer in the same manner, until the entire floor was littered with clothing.

The gun in Teri's hand grew heavier by the minute. Yet Selena, intent on the game she had set up, no longer seemed to notice the threat. She appeared perfectly content to watch Teri ransack her room in a state of raw panic.

"You'll never find them," Selena sing-songed. "I hid them in a very, very hard place."

Teri abruptly stopped her search. Selena was right—she would probably never find the hands, and the attempt was only wasting time. The gun felt as if it had tripled its weight in her outstretched hand. She had to either use it or take her chances with the police. She realized if they could just see and hear Selena as she was now, they would realize she was unbalanced. If they held Teri partially accountable because she hadn't told Kidder everything she knew before he was killed, so be it.

Moving back to the nightstand, she spoke in a maternal tone. "I'm not playing any more games with you, Selena. You need help and I'm going to get it for you." When Selena bowed her head and put her hands behind her back, Teri thought she looked like a child preparing herself for her punishment.

Selena continued to stand still as Teri lifted the telephone receiver, but the moment Teri looked down at the buttons, Selena lunged across the room and clamped her hand over Teri's right wrist.

With all the strength she could muster, Teri was able to angle the weapon toward Selena's stomach. She tried to squeeze her finger against the trigger, but her hand was frozen by Selena's ferocious grip. Selena grabbed Teri's other shoulder and forcibly shook her, but Teri refused to release the gun. She pulled and twisted, trying to break free from the bigger woman. As hard as she could, she kicked Selena's shin, but Selena didn't even cry out.

A second later, Selena wrenched the gun from Teri's hand, then threw her across the room as if she were weightless. Pain exploded in a hundred places in Teri's body as she collided with the dresser and landed on the floor. But it didn't prevent her from seeing that the gun was now pointed at her.

"I don't want to hurt you, Teri. But I will do whatever I have to do to protect you... even from yourself. I'd ask you to promise to behave, but I already know you can't keep your promises any better than any other adult. Now get up and get your clothes on. We've wasted too much time already."

Teri struggled slowly to her feet, noting that nothing seemed to be broken, only bruised.

"Don't think of running from me, either. I can't let you turn us both in. I'd never be able to take care of you in jail. They might not let us room together there. If you run, I'll have to stop you, even if it means shooting you in the leg. I know how to use a gun, you know. I learned in one lesson." She giggled lightly. "You couldn't have shot me, though. I know you too well. You haven't got the ability to hurt any living thing. I saw that right away in your paintings. You create beauty and life, not ugliness and death. And inside you're pure and white, like new snow. That's why I love you so much."

Teri gasped. "How can you say you love me and threaten to shoot me?"

Selena narrowed her eyes. "Juliette thought you would understand, but you don't, do you? My mother never understood, either. Perhaps when I have more time... but we don't
have
more time now. You have five minutes to get your clothes and some personal things together, then we leave."

Teri's mind skipped back to thoughts of running. For that she had to get Selena to relax again. "All right, Selena. I'm sorry I didn't understand. I'll pack now." She took a large suitcase out of the closet, then picked a pair of jeans up off the floor and placed it in the suitcase. It occurred to her that it would be best to leave the room looking ransacked... in case someone,
anyone
came into the house looking for her. It didn't matter what she chose, since she didn't actually intend to go anywhere. She hurriedly emptied several drawers into the case then grabbed an armload of shoes from the closet.

Thinking that if she made the suitcase heavy enough, Selena might be convinced to haul it for her, Teri stuffed the suitcase so full she had to kneel on it to close it. If it slowed Selena down even a second or two, that might be enough for Teri to get away from her, then the darkness might keep Selena from finding her long enough to get help. "All set."

Selena raised an eyebrow. "Without a toothbrush or hairbrush? We won't be able to go shopping for a while, so you'd better get everything you need now."

Teri got out the matching overnight bag and took it into the bathroom. When Selena followed her to the doorway, she made a small show of choosing which toiletries and first aid items to take. As Teri caught sight of her reflection in the mirror, she was amazed to see herself looking perfectly normal, rather than terrified out of her skin—her complexion wasn't a ghostly white, her eyes showed none of the fear raging through her. Yet terrified was exactly what she was. She wondered what she would do if she couldn't get away from Selena and realized that no one would have any idea where to look for her. No one was expecting to hear from her. Only Drew would have noticed her absence, and he was—no, she couldn't think about him now.