“It’s not as bad as it looks.”
“Did Holmes see you?”
“Yep. He saw us both.”
Lizzy stood stock-still. Heat rose from her toes to her neck.
“It was my fault,” Kitally said as she entered the room behind Lizzy. “I should have let Hayley handle things, but I got worried and screwed everything up.”
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter why or how,” Lizzy said. “We’re shutting this so-called operation down.”
“Not yet,” Kitally said. “There’s still a good chance they caught Holmes with the porn that we planted inside his house and he’ll be locked up. In fact, he could be behind bars right now as far as we know.”
“Don’t either of you get it?”
Kitally and Hayley waited for Lizzy to tell them.
“You weren’t ready,” Lizzy said to Kitally, angrily stabbing the air for emphasis. “I knew you weren’t ready, but I let you talk me into moving forward. And look what happened. He saw both of your faces. It’s over.”
“You’re overreacting,” Hayley said. “Holmes can’t prove we were ever in his house. He has no idea who we are, and I bet you he doesn’t have a clue as to why we were there to begin with.”
“Tell that to Detective Chase. He’s got his eyes on you,” she said to Hayley. “He’s got a file this thick.” She used her fingers to show her exactly how big the file was. “He’s got pictures and witnesses who say they saw you in the area where a dead man was found in his apartment—a man who supposedly put a bag over his head and committed suicide.”
Hayley sighed and went back to whatever she was doing before.
Kitally shot Lizzy a confused look. “What does that have to do with Hayley?”
“That girl,” Lizzy said, ignoring Kitally and pointing in the direction she’d last seen Salma. “She’s gotta go.”
“What happened to helping others whenever possible?” Kitally wanted to know.
“Do you see those words carved on my fucking forehead?”
“Wow,” Kitally said. “I get that you’ve got some major issues to deal with, but you don’t have to be such a bitch.”
Lizzy took a breath, tried to calm herself. “I’m going to my room to grab a few things and then I’ll be out for most of the day.”
“What about Shady Oaks Nursing Home?” Kitally asked.
“What about it?”
“You told me over the phone yesterday that you needed to talk to me about checking the place out.”
“Yeah, well, figure it out. The file is on the desk in the office,” she said as she walked off.
“I’ve never seen her so pissed off,” Kitally said after Lizzy walked away.
Hayley shrugged. “She’ll get over it.”
“Should I leave?” Salma asked.
“No,” Kitally and Hayley both said at once.
Tammy Walters and her four-year-old son lived in a one-bedroom apartment off Forty-Second Street. Long, unkempt dry grass and broken-down fencing surrounded the outside of the building, but the inside of the apartment was clean and neat, if sparsely furnished.
Tammy sat on a sofa, and Lizzy sat in an overstuffed chair facing her. “What can you tell me about your sister Miriam?”
“Do you mean what kind of person is she? Her hobbies, her goals?”
“Sure,” Lizzy said. “Anything that might tell me what she’s like.”
Tammy thought about it for a moment. “Miriam is my best friend. Although we have the same birth parents, you wouldn’t know it once you looked at the two of us together. Miriam is tall and slender but with curves—you know what I mean?”
Lizzy nodded.
“But me—well, take a look at me—I’ve got a lot of meat on these bones and being five feet, three inches, nobody ever accused me of being tall.”
She laughed, but Lizzy could see that her heart wasn’t in it. Although she talked as if her sister was still alive, the probability of that being the case was growing slimmer every day.
“Not only is Miriam beautiful,” Tammy said, “she was always the brightest student in school.” She sighed. “I’d be lying if I said I was never jealous of Miriam, because I was. And if her own sister is sometimes jealous, think how many girls in high school were. I used to joke and call my sister ‘poor beautiful Miriam.’ ”
Tammy’s son brought over a toy, and, without missing a beat, she connected a plastic robot arm and leg and then handed it back to him. “There you go,” she said. “Momma loves you.” The kid ran back to his pile of toys in the middle of the apartment.
“Do you know how Miriam met Wayne Bennett?” Lizzy asked.
“Yeah. I do.” She pointed to her chest. “It was me.” She fiddled with her tight black curls. “After I heard that a girl I knew was handpicked by Wayne Bennett to be in his program, I called his office. I was outraged that my sister wasn’t chosen, and that’s when I found out that Miriam had never even applied.” She shook her head. “Why didn’t I just leave well enough alone?”
“We would all make different decisions and choices if we could see into the future.”
“Yeah, well, how many people make choices that put a loved one’s life in danger?”
Lizzy lifted a shoulder and left it at that.
“Anyhow, I talked Miriam into applying, and, of course, she got into the program. If she wasn’t so damned beautiful, Wayne Bennett probably never would have paid her any mind. But as it was, he took an immediate interest in my sister and that was that.”
“Did she complain about him?” Lizzy asked.
“No. It was way worse than that. Poor beautiful Miriam fell in love with Wayne Bennett.”
“Really?”
“Yep. It took Miriam about twenty-four hours to fall for the guy. As if she knows what love is, right? She’s eighteen. He’s way too old for her. I just figured it was a harmless infatuation. Think about it,” Tammy said, leaning forward, her voice lowering. “Tall, handsome, distinguished, smart, and compassionate. A well-respected man looked up to in the community, a man who wasn’t satisfied with making millions of dollars but who claimed to have a burning need to help others.” Tammy moaned in disgust. “If my sister had made a list describing her perfect mate, Wayne Bennett would have fallen at the top of the list.”
They both watched Tammy’s son run around the apartment making airplane noises, his wooden airplane rising to the floor and then back to the sky, around and around. The kid stopped in front of Lizzy, his airplane held frozen in holding mode. “Are you gonna find Aunt Miriam?”
“I don’t know,” Lizzy said. “I sure hope so.”
The little boy took off again. When he was out of earshot, Lizzy said, “In your opinion, is it possible Miriam and Mr. Bennett formed an intimate relationship?”
“Not only is it possible—it happened. Our father is an asshole, so Miriam moved in with me. She’s been living here with my boy and me for a while now. After she met Mr. Bennett, I would get daily updates. If he so much as looked at her, I heard about it. The first time he took her to dinner, I thought her head would explode from excitement alone.”
“Did she know he was married?”
“She’s a smart girl, remember? Of course she did.”
“So she must have known it wouldn’t last forever.”
“She was book smart, I guess, not exactly relationship smart. Like a lot of mistresses out there, Miriam thought she was special.”
“So what do you think happened? Do you think he told her it was over and she left town?”
“Nope. Not even close. I’ve heard rumors that Miriam had met someone else, a younger guy, so, in my opinion, I think one of two things happened. Miriam either threatened to tell the world about their relationship if he didn’t leave his wife, or she told him about this other guy and Bennett didn’t like it.”
Tammy sighed and then wiped away a tear. “She can’t be dead. She just can’t be. He must be keeping her against her will somewhere, like maybe in his mountain cabin. I heard he had a vacation home in Lake Tahoe. All rich people have one of those—don’t they?”