“More champagne?”
She looked up at the smiling male flight attendant, Mark Telfer, who was standing beside her seat. Good-looking but probably gay. He hadn’t paid her more than polite attention.
“Why not?” She gestured to her empty glass. “It’s very good.”
“The best.” He refilled her glass. “If you’d like anything else, all you have to do is call me. I received a note from Mrs. Avery right before we took off, and she said to make sure that I fulfilled your every wish. She specified the year for the champagne and sent a box of after-dinner chocolates for me to serve you.”
That was good news. Not that she doubted her effect on Nelda was anything but a success. She was always able to gauge her power over people. She lifted her glass. “I’ll keep that in mind. I can see how you’d want to please the boss. How long have you worked for the Averys?”
His brows rose. “Oh, I don’t work for them. This jet is leased to New China Porcelain. We have no direct connection with the Averys.” He shrugged. “Though occasionally we’re hired to do a discreet run for them. But then they always have their own crews and insist that their names are never listed on any record. They just show up at flight time and board the plane. Like you, Ms. Lenslow.”
“Discreet?”
He grinned and winked. “Top secret.”
“How interesting.” Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t you find it curious enough to explore?”
“No, I like my job just fine, and they’re only one client among dozens. Not really important.”
It might be important to Stella. Another weapon to use against Nelda? She would have to keep her eyes open to make sure that she was always one step ahead of her. “Perhaps we could talk about it later.” She smiled. “Do you get to Fiji very often?”
His smile remained, but he looked suddenly wary. “Now and then.” He turned away. “Be sure and buzz if you need anything. I’m at your service.” He hurried back down the aisle.
Definitely gay. She took another sip of champagne. But she might still be able to use him. She would have to think about it and see who he—
“I almost forgot to give this to you.” Mark was standing beside her chair again with an envelope. He glanced at his watch. “But I’m right on time—7:27. Mrs. Avery said it had to be right on the nose. Please tell her that I obeyed instructions.”
“Mrs. Avery?” She looked at the envelope as she took it from him. Heavy, rich, stationery, faintly scented. The same scent she’d smelled when Nelda had been in the motel room that morning. “She sent it to you?”
He nodded. “Together with my personal letter and instructions.” He started back down the aisle. “Nice perfume, isn’t it?”
She stared down at the envelope. She didn’t like this. It gave her an uneasy feeling. She slowly tore open the envelope. Nelda’s handwriting was bold and clear and struck with the force of a hammer blow.
Stella—
Did you really think that I’d let you dominate me? Your arrogance is incredible. Yes, I found you desirable, but as you grow older, you learn to pick and choose what you will allow yourself and how to say no to alluring toys. You wish to follow in my footsteps and perhaps supplant me someday, but you would never have learned that, Stella.
So good-bye, temptation.
Two minutes, Stella. Enjoy them.
Nelda
Stella’s heart jerked in her chest as panic struck.
Two minutes. In two minutes, it would be seven thirty.
What was going to happen at seven thirty?
They … insist their names are never listed on any record.
Like you, Ms. Lenslow.
The airline company has no direct connection with the Averys.
She sent a box of “after-dinner chocolates.”
The mountains below looming dark and hard … and waiting.
“No!” She threw her champagne glass to the floor and jumped to her feet. “No, you bitch. It’s not going to happen.”
She ran to the door of the cockpit. She was aware of the Korean couple staring at her with startled expressions. Mark Telfer, the flight attendant, was running down the aisle toward her as she tried to jerk open the cockpit door.
“You’ve got to land!” she screamed as she pounded on the door. “Let me in. This can’t happen to me.”
“Go back to your seat,” the flight attendant said soothingly. “Have some more champagne. I’ll ask the pilot to come out and talk to you.”
“Too late. You fool, it’s too late. Those damn chocolates. It has to be—”
She screamed.
Because precisely at seven thirty, the Learjet exploded into flaming shards of metal and hurtled into the Rocky Mountains below.
* * *
“I’VE TALKED TO EVERYONE at the hospital who could have any access to special info,” Newell said several hours later as he poured coffee into Beth’s cup. “As far as anyone knows, Pierce has done a flit with his luscious lady.”
“He’s gone?” Beth shook her head in wonder. “I can’t believe it. Those last months at the hospital I’d watch him whenever he was anywhere around me. Before that, the drugs made him only a hazy figure to me. He liked what he did. He liked the power and everyone’s deferring to him. I don’t think he’d walk away from it.”
“I don’t, either,” Joe said. “But where the hell is he?”
“But I was told one other interesting thing when I was checking,” Newell said. “The woman who was impersonating Beth is no longer occupying the room where she was quarantined. Before they left the hospital, Stella Lenslow gave an order, supposedly from Pierce, that the woman be moved back to the ward where she evidently was before Pierce pulled the switch.”
“Why didn’t Pierce give the order?”
Newell shrugged. “He’d already gone to the car. It didn’t ring true to me, either.”
“I don’t like it,” Joe said flatly. “Even if he was going to leave the area, why pull the phony patient and leave the suspicion that Beth was still on the loose?” He was channel flipping through the news channels. “They’ve checked the local airports for his car and didn’t find it. No Pierce. No Stella Lenslow.”
“Maybe not Stella.” Eve came into the kitchen from the living room where she’d been monitoring the other set. “But they’ve just found Harry Pierce. Turn on Fox.”
Joe switched to the station to see a shot of a BMW wrapped around a telephone pole. Police and ambulance trucks surrounded the vehicle. “Pierce? Where is this supposed to be?”
“A northern suburb,” Eve said. “He’s dead.”
“Suspects?”
“They don’t even know if it’s murder. It may take days for the medical examiner to determine it,” Eve said. “No obvious lethal wounds.” She paused. “But also no broken bones that they can determine.”
“Dead,” Beth said dully. “Another one.”
“Be happy,” Newell said. “No, don’t be happy. It would have been better if they’d stuffed him into a prison to rot like he did you.”
“Dammit, I wanted him alive.” Joe got to his feet. “Hell, everyone who could testify to Beth’s sanity is being sent to the morgue.” He headed for the door. “I’m going out there to see if I can find out anything more.”
“Like what?” Eve asked.
“Like where’s Stella Lenslow and does she have any evidence that can help.” His lips tightened. “And if there’s anything in that wreck of a car that could prove what a lying son of a bitch Pierce is to the Santa Barbara Police, even though he had them in his pocket. We need something fast.”