“Sorry you had to see that.” Rebecca hefted a spade and laid it along the top ledge. She set a flashlight next to it.
I squeezed back a bout of guilt. David had tried to warn me about his power-hungry wife. Now he was dead because I hadn’t believed him. The fatalities that could be in some way attributed to me had grown to outrageous proportions.
But I’d have time to wallow in self-pity later. Figuring out how to escape the cistern alive was the immediate issue.
I rubbed my arms in an attempt to thaw my muscles. If I could move, I could reach the hammer. Then I’d have a fighting chance against this lunatic.
Rebecca hoisted herself onto the ledge and sat there. Her legs dangled into the cistern. She rested one hand on the shovel. With the other, she picked up her flashlight and shone it in my face.
I squinted and held up a hand against the light.
“My, my,” she said. “You really do look like Sandra Jones. How ironic.”
She flashed the light at the bottom of the cistern. The exposed diamond cast glimmering beams on the stones of the tomb. I glimpsed the hammer, close to the cistern wall, between my captor and me.
“I see you and Sandra have already met.” Rebecca pointed the light back in my direction. “How did you know she was under there?”
I shrugged. “A hunch, I guess.” No sense giving away my own shaky sanity. It was all my imagination, wasn’t it, brought on by a guilty conscience, finally cleansed?
Rebecca kicked her legs casually against the cistern wall. “Too bad David had to end up pulling a ‘Sandra.’ Guess religion does that to people.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” My body vibrated with cold.
“Sandra was my right-hand woman. You could almost say she made me what I am today. She taught me everything I know about schmoozing the system. And with David’s help manipulating computer records and manufacturing endorsements, I built a dream life for myself. You should see my penthouse in L.A. And if you think that silver Corvette is something, you’d love my new Jaguar.”
“Sounds like you didn’t have much to do with your own success.” I made a show of sitting on my bottom, nonchalantly extending both legs toward the hammer.
“Behind every great woman there are a few dead bodies. It’s the only way past the glass ceiling.” Rebecca let go of the spade and flipped her hair back. “I wish it didn’t have to be that way. But when people know your intimate secrets, they have to be able to keep them for life. That holy roller stuff doesn’t have a place in the real world. You want to suddenly get a social conscience, then you better be ready to die for it.”
Rebecca directed the light across Sandra’s grave. “Anyway, she asked for it. I warned her not to ruin my life. I worked hard to get where I am, and no backbiting wench gets in the way of my plans.” She laid the flashlight across the ledge and gripped the shovel. Her knuckles shone white. “It was her choice. She could have just played along. But she had to try breaking it off. Then she threatened to turn me in.”
With a leap, Rebecca was in the cistern. She crouched low and threatening. The handle of the spade twirled in her hands. Metal flashed in the light.
“If Sandra could have kept her mouth shut a little longer, maybe she could have had a proper funeral, instead of being buried under cement in a hole in the basement.”
Rebecca lifted the shovel over her head and smashed it on the concrete. Sparks flew from the impact.
I screamed and jumped, imagining Sandra’s head directly beneath the blade. My ears rang in advance when I thought about that shovel against my own head. I felt the hammer beneath my shoe. I inched it toward my hands, all while cowering in utter fear.
“Casey was smart. She kept quiet about everything Sandra told her, so she got the nice, quiet death. Martin wasn’t so smart. Not to mention my idiot husband.”
“How did Martin cross you?” I might as well keep her occupied while I planned my attack.
“Greed was Martin’s tragic flaw. He tried to blackmail me. So I simply said I knew where Sandra’s diamonds were. I led him down here, and the rest is history.”
“And you poisoned Casey?”
“It was easy. I injected small doses of arsenic right into her jugs of supposedly pure water. It’s in your water now too. I thought I’d be nice and let you go just as quietly. Too bad you couldn’t mind your own business.”
My fingers touched cold metal. I gripped the hammer in my hand.
With a shriek, Rebecca took a step and swung the spade. I leaped forward and slashed at her shin with the hammer. Her shovel hit the rocks where my head had been, echoing through the basement along with her cries of pain.
Rebecca fell backward. She leaned against the shovel and stood. I twirled, wound up, and threw the hammer at her face. She dodged the weak throw and bad aim with hardly any effort. I reached for the abandoned chisel next to me and clenched it in my hand.
Rebecca came at me. Her shovel looked like a spear aimed at my heart. I rolled to the side. The blade hit the wall, driving the handle into Rebecca’s stomach.
She grunted and came at me again. I spun away at the last second, avoiding her crashing blow.
The cistern grew foggy. The fever took its toll. I didn’t know how long I could avoid the inevitable. It would be so easy just to give up and let her finish things. What did it matter, anyway? No one would even miss me.
On instinct, I jerked to the left. My ears rang from the sound of metal on cement. That one had been close. I dug deep for the strength to keep fighting.
Rebecca lifted the shovel. While it hung in the air, I attacked. Momentum took us both to the ground. I heard a dull thunk as I landed on top of her on the hard concrete. I scrambled to pin her arms beneath my knees, a move I’d learned in prison. I held the chisel over her head, ready to plunge it into her neck if necessary.
But Rebecca never moved. A wet patch formed beneath her head.
I gulped in deep breaths, half crying, half laughing. The cistern grew gray with fog. I slid off Rebecca and onto the concrete floor. I curled into a ball and thanked God I was still alive.
47
I woke in my cot with a pounding headache. Winter sun poured gray into my meager master suite. I must have passed out in the cellar. Apparently someone found me and put me to bed.
I sat up. Throbbing blasted my ears. My cell phone danced on the wood planks as if it had a life of its own. The whole house vibrated. At first I thought the din came from an approaching train. But as the cobwebs cleared, I realized a jackhammer pummeled the concrete one floor below.
I rolled over and covered my head. They were digging up Sandra.
Memories of the night in the cellar engulfed me. I didn’t yet have the strength to look back. Pain knifed through me at even a vague recollection.
The knot in my throat gave way to tears.
I must have cried myself back to sleep. The next time I woke up, I felt refreshed. The reverberation of the jackhammer was gone from both the basement and my mind.
Off in the kitchen, a spoon clanked against a pan. I smiled. My neighbor Dorothy must be fixing me breakfast. My stomach gurgled at the thought of food. I couldn’t wait to get some nutrients into my system. The fever had left me weak and groggy. It would probably be a day or two before I was back to myself.
I sighed. A day or two before I could get back to the business at hand, renovating the Victorian.
I thought about the months of work ahead of me, and waited for that swell of anticipation I always got midway through a project. The feeling never came.
Today something inside me felt different. Did it really matter if I gave the house a total facelift? It was kind of homey just the way it was. Maybe there didn’t have to be a master suite on the first floor with a whirlpool tub and walk-in closet. Maybe the bedrooms and bathroom upstairs were sufficient for some mom, dad, and kids. And as far as a rec room in the basement went, why not let someone who actually planned on living here decide what to do? Maybe a new owner would rather have storage down in the basement. I’d gotten a good start fixing this old place up. Someone else could take it from here. I definitely needed some time off. I needed a place to heal. Not Cancun, but someplace that felt more like home.