The sound of her voice echoed hollowly in the empty space. They hadn’t lost any time, as she saw most of the furniture had already been moved out. She must have just missed the moving crew.
She headed deeper into the house, past the living room and kitchen and into the fitness area. An indoor pool displayed a perfectly tranquil surface, and she could only imagine how many laps Donna must have swum in the chlorinated water. She wouldn’t mind owning her own private pool someday, actually. Must be fun to take a swim before breakfast every day.
She took a peek inside the gym, where the equipment had been dismantled and moved out. Only a few loose weights lay around on the floor, and instruction posters for the best posture still decorated the walls. There were even a few posters of Donna in her prime, back when she’d starred in Car Rigs. The former actress posed in full star warrior costume, defiantly staring into the camera, a collection of freakishly weird space creatures collected at her feet.
And that’s when she heard a noise. It wasn’t loud. Just a footfall. She looked up in alarm.
“Hello? I just want a quick word.”
She moved toward the back of the private gym and found herself in the sauna space, the wood cabin where Donna had met her end to the right, a few wooden benches placed beneath wooden pegs to her left, several terry bathrobes still dangling from them. She noticed that the door to the sauna was ajar, and wondered if anyone was in there. She took a quick peek but saw that the space was empty. Drawing back, she suddenly heard movement behind her and when she spun around, found herself gazing into the cool blue eyes of Hillary Davies, Donna’s trusty CEO.
“Oh, hi, Hillary,” she said, quickly recovering from the shock. “I was looking for you.”
Hillary smiled. Her head was covered with a scarf and she was wearing coveralls and gloves. “I was just finishing up in here.”
“Tad asked you to handle the move?”
“Yes, he did. He didn’t want a bunch of strangers rooting through Donna’s personal stuff, so he asked me to coordinate the whole shebang. The realtor was in here just now.”
“So Tad is selling the place, huh?”
“Yeah, this place and the other one. He never was much of an East Coast guy anyway. I think he’s secretly glad he can move back to LA with the boys.”
She cleared her throat. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, Hillary.”
The woman raised her eyebrows. “Oh?” She wiped her gloved hand across her nose, leaving a dark smudge.
“You… lost a girl a couple of years ago, isn’t that right?”
Hillary nodded. “Suzy. Yeah, we lost her. And then I lost Henry, too.”
“Henry?”
“My husband. He couldn’t process Suzy’s death so he… took his own life shortly after.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah.” She sniffled, wiping her nose again. “That was a tough time for me. A real tough time.”
“She… died after you tried apitherapy to alleviate the consequences of her rheumatic arthritis, right?”
She nodded, blinking now. “She was only ten, but suffering so much. I never even knew kids could get arthritis. Doctors said there wasn’t much they could do, and she was in so much pain…”
“And then you read about Donna’s apitherapy experiments.”
“I got one bee—only one, mind you—just to have a try. Henry wasn’t too keen, but I persisted.”
“Because Donna advised it.”
“Donna.vip has always been my bible. Long before I started to work for her. Donna knows.”
“But what Donna didn’t know was that bee sting therapy can be very dangerous.”
“Even lethal,” Hillary said, her voice hoarse now. “One sting, that’s all it took.” She looked away, swiping at her eyes. “I placed it on her arm with a pair of tweezers, just the way I was supposed to. Henry was working late, and Suzy had been complaining about the pain again, so I decided to give it a try. Suzy was brave—oh, so brave. She said she didn’t mind a little prick. She was actually more worried about the bee than herself. Said she didn’t want the bee to die, like she read online. The prick was fine. Just a little sting, just like I promised. But then…” She choked. “She had trouble breathing, her throat closing up.”
“Probably because her tongue was swollen.”
“She looked into my eyes and said the bee had made her dizzy. And then her eyes turned up and she was gone. I—I tried to revive her but I—I couldn’t. By the time the ambulance showed up, it was too late. She—she died in my arms. And all from one little bee sting.”
“Anaphylactic shock. One sting is enough.”
“I didn’t know,” said Hillary, shaking her head. “The website… there had been no warning, no instructions on what to do if something went wrong. So…”
“So you blamed Donna Bruce for the death of your girl.”
Hillary merely stared at her, eyes wide, face pale.
“You decided that if you could only get close enough to her, you might find a way to make her pay. And you were in luck. She needed a CEO and you had just the right qualifications. So you worked closely with her, trying to figure out how you could get your revenge.”
“The woman was totally irresponsible,” said Hillary. “She didn’t care. All she cared about was making more money and becoming the biggest name in lifestyle advice. When I told her perhaps we should add a disclaimer to the site—at least to the most controversial claims, she laughed me out of the room. Said if people were dumb enough to buy the junk she was peddling, they got exactly what they deserved. That’s when I knew she was simply evil.”
“So you killed her.”
“Yes,” said Hillary, her clear blue eyes unwavering. “And I made sure she suffered just as much as Suzy did. And as much as Suzy’s mommy and daddy did. I did it for her. And for Henry.”
“I understand, Hillary,” said Odelia. “And I’m sure that a jury will, too, when they hear the whole story.”
The woman frowned. “A jury? What are you talking about?”
“If you come with me now, you can turn yourself in. I’ll be there every step of the way.”
Hillary laughed. “You can’t seriously think I’m going to jail for this.”
“You killed someone, Hillary. You didn’t think you were going to get away with this, did you?”
“Of course I’m getting away with it. I did what was right. I killed the woman who killed my little girl. Donna got exactly what she deserved, and my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.”
“Donna had two children of her own. I’m sure they won’t feel the same way.”
Hillary pressed her lips together. “Donna didn’t care about those two little brats. All she cared about was herself, and the attention she could get as a mother of two. She used those kids. To her they were nothing more than a PR stunt.”
“Let’s just—hey!”
Quick as a flash, Hillary gave her such a powerful shove that she fell backwards, tumbling through the open door into the sauna cabin. And before she could get up, the former CEO had slammed the wooden door shut and bolted it from the outside. A sudden sense of panic rose in her chest like bile. She pounded the door. “Let me out! Let me out right now!”
But Hillary merely regarded her coolly, and then she was gone.
“Hey! Hillary!”
She darted an anxious look at the ceiling, hoping the same fate that had befallen Donna wouldn’t happen to her. She would hate to be stung to death by a couple thousand bees! When no sound came through the ventilator, she sighed with relief. But then she noticed the temperature in the small space was rising and rising fast. God, no. Hillary had turned up the heat—probably cranked it up to the max! And had turned off the fan.
She tried the door but it was bolted shut. She pounded the one tiny window that offered a view of the outside but it was thick glass, unbreakable without the right tools. She quickly searched her pockets but came up empty. Her purse containing her phone was still in the pickup.