“You—you planned out the whole thing!”
A light shone behind Keri’s eyes, transforming those vivid blue eyes into something fiery and sinister. “What can I say, Ben? You take what the gene pool gives you. My mom was cruel and crazy, as I told you, and Kirk was seriously whacked, which you also knew. Is it a big surprise that my blood runs the same way? We Dalcantons, we’re nothing if not consistent. Sexual flexibility and a serious taste for violence, that’s like the family motto. Hell, even Matthews tried to tell you how violent I was when he came to my apartment. But would you listen? No—you were too busy sneaking peeks at my Wonderbra.” She laughed. “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I enjoyed it, Ben. I snuck up behind Joe and clubbed him on the head so he couldn’t resist—I guess that’s when he got the concussion. I ripped his clothes off. Must’ve scattered his wallet and badge in the process. And then I took my little knife and tore his guts out.” She licked her lips hungrily. “I savored each and every stroke of the knife. And I especially liked labeling the creep for what he was. Faithless.”
Andrea couldn’t contain herself. “You shouldn’t have done that!”
“I told you to be quiet!” Keri shouted. The harshness of her voice sent chills down Ben’s spine. “Andrea didn’t like that touch,” she explained, her voice suddenly eerily calm. “Didn’t really fit with the mob-hit motif. And true enough, after that touch, it was inevitable that the cops would come sniffing around my panties. But I couldn’t resist. He was faithless. He deserved it.”
“My God—Matthews was right. He was right all along. He really was working to find some semblance of justice. And I—I—”
“Truth sucks, don’t it?” Keri giggled. “The truly amazing thing is, we put it all together that one night. Granted, we made some mistakes. We shouldn’t have used my knife, and we shouldn’t have used my chains. But time was short; Joe was here before we had a chance to run out for supplies. We had to use what we had at hand.” She paused reflectively. “Those two errors in judgment came back to haunt me, though. Although we successfully distracted the police from Andrea, we attracted them to me. But Andrea is nothing if not loyal. When the police came after me, she promised she’d find a way to get me off. And she did, too.”
“How?”
“Well, first of all, by sending me to you. She knew you were a whiz in the courtroom, that you had a soft heart that would naturally go out to me when I told you about my boo-hoo childhood and hard-knock life. She also suggested that if there was a little romance in the air, you would become particularly attached and unlikely to be suspicious. And boy was she right about that.”
Ben’s face twisted, a mixture of shock and humiliation. “Then … all we did—you were just pretending. Just putting on another show.”
“Sad to say, I was. I’m not proud of it. But it was necessary. Not that I minded or anything,” she added hastily. “You’re a regular guy, Ben. But a little too straight for me.” A large belly laugh erupted from the base of her throat. “Way too straight for me, actually.”
“You incriminated your brother. You made him your fall guy.”
“Well, he deserved it, wouldn’t you say, dear?”
Andrea nodded mutely.
“He’s the one who screwed up our plan in the first place,” Keri explained, and for the first time, a trace of bitterness crept into her voice. “He came in just after we polished off Joe. And he freaked. Totally out-of-his-head freaked. See, everything I said in court about Kirk was basically true. He had serious emotional problems. He had low self-esteem, sexual confusion, a violent temper. Religious obsessions. And he was fond of his sister. Quite fond of his sister.” She paused, running her fingers slowly through the strands of her silky hair. “We were very close. If you know what I mean.”
Ben felt the gorge rising in his stomach. It took all his strength to suppress his urge to be ill.
“So anyway, he comes in at just the wrong moment and sees me and Andrea on top of Joe, both of us drenched in blood. It sent his already fragile mind into a frenzy. He didn’t know what to do. Talked about calling the police.”
“But you stopped him.”
Keri grinned. “He’d been lusting after me all his life, since we were kids. Remember when I told you my daddy and I were close? It was true.” She winked. “Another clue you missed, Sherlock. Anyway, I think Kirk had always been jealous of what Daddy and I had. So when the time came that I needed his help, needed him to do some horrible things he otherwise would never think about doing, I gave him what he’d wanted all those years. His dream come true.”
Ben was unable to speak.
“Mind you, I made it worth Kirk’s while. I gave him a good piece of action, I really did. I mean I could’ve just done it quick and dirty, but I knew he’d been waiting for this a long time, so I tried to make it memorable. And I think I succeeded. I hadn’t been a stripper all that time without learning a few things. After all the bumping and grinding was done, I told him to stop crying and help. And it worked. Kirk kept his mouth shut—even helped us move the body around. It was great. Sent poor Kirk over the edge, though. Kirk had me on some kind of exalted plateau, in his twisted little mind. Some kind of madonna-whore thing, I guess. I don’t know.” She saw Ben’s reaction and smiled. “You’re surprised I know about things like that. You might be amazed at what I know. I’m a bright young babe. Well read. Matthews tried to tell you I was smart, remember? But of course, you didn’t listen to him. I may be from Stroud, Ben, but I’m nobody’s fool. Anyway, after we were done, Kirk bailed. Took all his stuff and ran out of the room. He was totally out of his mind.” She paused. “He’s the one who slashed that woman in your office, you know.”
“What!”
“Oh, yeah. I kept an eye on him, even after he flew the coop. I had to—he was a security risk, right? That’s why I was out so often, late at night. He was doing all kinds of bizarre stuff—mutilating his body, sleeping with prostitutes. He was trying to expiate his guilt, trying to come to terms with what he’d done, to Joe and to me. When he went to your office, sadly enough, I think he was looking for me. The super at my apartment told me he’d been by asking after me; they suggested he try your office, which he did. He’d finally decided to strike back. He thought by killing me, by venting his anger on the source of his pain, he could rid himself of all that guilt. But alas, I wasn’t there and your librarian buddy was. So she took the fall. Later, he realized he’d made a terrible mistake. Which only intensified his despair.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Use some brains, Kincaid. If you’d gotten your hands on Kirk, he would’ve spilled everything. No, after that business with the librarian, I realized he was too dangerous to live.”
“But—but he killed himself. I saw it!”
“Yeah, he killed himself. With my help. I made a late night visit to his hellhole of an apartment. Happily, he’d just been with a prostitute, so he was feeling particularly guilt-ridden. I said exactly the words I knew would push him over the brink. And sure enough, he went down. Fifty stories down.”
“But I saw you! You were torn apart with grief!”
“Quite the little actress, aren’t I?” She laughed. “ ‘Oh, Ben, I love you so. Please hold me.’ ” She laughed again, loud and bitter. “Do you remember exactly when Kirk jumped? It was when Matthews told him I was coming to get him. I was the guilt he could never escape.” She shook her head. “What a fool Kirk was.”
“Your brother loved you!”
“My brother was a headcase ever since my parents died. Before, actually. He was such a simp. He was much better off after they were out of the picture; he just couldn’t see it. Mother’s perverted pranks weren’t even the worst of it. They were always riding us, trying to control us. Butting into my private life. Telling me I was dirty and sinful. So I remedied the situation.”