Dark Illusion: A Psychological Thriller Novel (22 page)

“S
o you’re
saying that Vicky was the one who provoked your friends into hurting Kelly?“
Sharon stared at Gloria, completely surprised.

Gloria felt revulsion when
Detective Davis referred to that group of Neanderthals as her friends. Even
after all these years, it still bothered her.

“Yes. I would never do something
so heinous,“ she proclaimed.

Sharon felt like the puzzle she’d
been working so hard to assemble had revealed an entirely different picture
than the one she’d imagined. Now she had to try and rearrange the pieces once
again.

“But I thought that Kelly and
Vicky were friends . . .“

“Does that seem to you like
something a
friend
would do?“

Absolutely not . . .

“How did they end up staying
friends after everything that had happened?“ Sharon asked.

“Simple,“ Gloria answered. “Vicky
blamed the whole thing on me.“

“What are you talking about?“

Gloria took a deep breath. “When
the police finally arrived at the house of mirrors, they found Vicky sobbing
miserably over Kelly’s unconscious body, while trying to stop the massive
hemorrhaging from the cuts on her skin. Vicky waited with Kelly until the
paramedics got there. She claimed she’d found Kelly unconscious, and that she
didn’t know who had done this to her. On the other hand, she told Kelly’s
parents that Jerry and his friends were responsible and made sure my connection
to them was clear. She convinced them not to press charges, so Jerry and his
friends wouldn’t have any excuse to hurt Kelly again, but the real reason was
to erase her own connection to the whole incident.

“When I tried to visit Kelly,
Vicky was waiting there and stopped me from seeing her. She yelled at me,
saying that she knew I was the reason Jerry and his friends had assaulted
Kelly, and that I wasn’t welcome there. I noticed Kelly’s parents watching us
from the side, Miranda Whitesporte wiping her tears. I decided I wouldn’t come
back and cause them anymore grief,“ she explained in a sad voice.

“So you just let everyone think
you did this?“ Sharon didn’t understand how Gloria could have let that
manipulative bitch get away with it.

“Not exactly. Vicky made sure
that Kelly’s parents wouldn’t discuss the details of the case with anyone. She
knew that if the whole town got suspicious, I wouldn’t take it anymore, and
Jerry might come forward and tell the truth.“

“But didn’t it bother you that
Kelly’s parents believed Vicky’s lie?“ Sharon insisted.

“It ate me up inside,“ Gloria
admitted. “But I had a sick mother I needed to take care of, and I couldn’t
take the chance of Kelly’s parents approaching my mother and telling her what
they
thought had happened to their daughter.“ Gloria gave Sharon a meaningful look.
“It would have broken my mother’s heart. Besides, back then Vicky never budged
an inch from the
Whitesportes
, so I could never get a
moment alone with them.“ She pursed her lips and shook her head. “That girl was
nearly as smart as she was cruel.“

“Without a doubt.“ Sharon
replayed in her mind the recent events.

“I had no choice but to stay
away,“ Gloria sighed.

“And Kelly never discovered the
truth?“ Sharon inquired. She found it difficult to think of Kelly Whitesporte
as a victim rather than the cold blooded murderess she had gotten to know.

“Not for nearly two decades. But
about three years ago, the truth finally came out.“

“How?“

“I told her.“

S
haron was
blown away. Every time she thought she got a step closer, she realized the
finish line was even further away.

“What do you mean, you told her?“
Sharon glared at Gloria. “Had you stayed in touch all those years?“

“Not at all. We bumped into each
other at Washington Square Park near NYU.“

“Of all places . . .“ Sharon
wondered aloud.

“You don’t have to tell me. At
first, I thought I was just mixing her up with someone else. It took me a
moment to recognize her, because she looked nothing like herself,“ Gloria
explained. “Actually, Kelly was the one who had spotted me.“

“Are you saying she had undergone
plastic surgery?“

“Absolutely, and more than one.
Actually, she looked a lot like Vicky, who’d also had quite the makeover since
she’d left Winslow.“ Gloria squinted her eyes in an attempt to recall. “Come to
think of it – they looked almost like twins.“

Sharon was yet to transform all
these bits and fragments of information into a discernible image, but she was
most certainly trying.

“So what were you doing at
Washington Square Park?“ She decided to take it one step at a time.

“I was spending my day off at the
village, walking around one of my favorite areas in the city,“ Gloria smiled
with reminiscence.

“And Kelly?“

“Kelly was a student at NYU. She
was in her second year of med school.“

“
Really
?“ Medicine and
journalism didn't have much in common, Sharon thought. The connection between
Kelly and Vicky started to seem more and more peculiar.

“Yes,“ Gloria confirmed. “She’d
been a bright student when we were in high school.“

“How come she started school so
late?“ Sharon did the math; Kelly was probably in her early thirties when she’d
started med school.

Gloria was silent for a moment.
Sharon recognized a spark of sadness in her eyes.

Gloria took a deep breath. “Kelly
had never recovered after what had happened. I had hoped that moving to New
York would be a fresh start for her, as it had been for me, but years later it
became clear that my hopes had turned out to be far from reality. Even after
turning a new leaf, supposedly, the events of that day had continued to haunt
her.

“When we met that day, Kelly
confided to me she still had nightmares at times, although they had decreased
substantially ever since she’d gone back to school. For years she’d barely left
the house, fearing the outside world. She couldn’t hold down a job or sustain a
social life, let alone fly back to Winslow and see her parents; she was just
terrified of dealing with those dreadful memories.“ Gloria’s voice became
brittle. “Kelly may not have been readmitted to the psychiatric ward, but it
was obvious that she hadn’t lived a normal or happy life.“ Gloria’s eyes
glistened.

“But still, she started med
school and got back on track. That was a good sign, right?“ Sharon tried to
cheer her up.

“Yes, but it was only after
seventeen years of endless torment, which I could have prevented had I been
strong enough to stand up to Vicky.“ Tears glided down her cheek, leaving her
eyes bluer than ever.

“It’s not your fault,“ Sharon
said softly and held Gloria’s hand in a supportive gesture.

“Maybe not entirely, but I will
never stop wondering how things could have been different, if only I had . . .“
her voice trailed away.

“Listen to me.“ Sharon pressed
her hand. “This is not your fault in any way. This was all the act of a girl
with a sick mind and a heart made of stone.“

Gloria looked at Sharon with
sparkling eyes. How true was the saying, “
Don’t judge a book by its cover
,“
Sharon pondered. She never would have imagined the amount of sadness that was
stashed within a woman who, from the outside, looked so happy and majestic.

But Sharon’s philosophical
judgments quickly switched back to the practical line that always characterized
her.

“Wait a second. If Kelly couldn’t
hold on to a job, then how could she afford the tuition?“ Sharon figured the
amount had to be tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Gloria’s face contorted in a way
that completely clashed with her delicate features.

“Vicky paid for everything.“

W
hen Andy
returned to the hospital room, he saw that Gloria and Sharon were so immersed
in conversation that they even failed to notice him. He decided, therefore, it
would be a good idea to get a cup of coffee and give them some privacy. He turned
around and walked away.

“So let me get this straight.
Kelly and Vicky had remained in touch for all those years?“ Sharon was
astonished by yet another new revelation.

“I can’t be sure. During our
conversation she hadn’t mentioned Vicky at all, so I assumed she was no longer
a part of her life. But when I asked her how she could afford to go to NYU, she
muttered that Vicky had loaned her the money.“

Perhaps that was how the two
got back in touch
, Sharon guessed. Miranda had told her that Vicky had left
to New York in search for Kelly.

“She seemed pretty embarrassed
when she told me about it,“ Gloria continued. “It was important for her to
emphasize that it was merely a loan and that she intended to pay Vicky back the
full amount as soon as possible.“

With this much money involved
– it had to be more than just a loan,
Sharon concluded.

“So how did Kelly react when you
told her about Vicky?“ she cut right to the chase.

“It wasn’t easy,“ Gloria
admitted. “Toward the end of our conversation, Kelly had looked at me with
little girl’s eyes and asked me why I’d done it. Her expression didn’t show
anger or accusation, just deep sorrow. I couldn’t take it anymore and disclosed
to her the truth I’d wanted to tell her years ago.“

“How did she take it?“ Sharon asked
gently. She could not imagine what it would have been like to hear such crucial
information nearly two decades later.

“Very strangely.“ Gloria stared
at a distant point, trying to remember. “At first, she was quiet for a few long
moments, just staring at me. She didn’t try to argue or doubt what I was
saying, but it was obvious that she was in a state of complete shock.“

“She didn’t get mad or even cry?“
Sharon couldn’t decipher the meaning of Kelly’s odd reaction.

“No. She just looked troubled and
murmured something about having to go and fix something, that she had a big
assignment due and needed to hurry back to campus.“

Gloria remembered the last thing
Kelly had said to her that day: “
I wish you would have told me sooner.
Perhaps we really could have been friends
.“ Then she had smiled a sad,
remorseful smile and left. Gloria chose to keep this memory to herself. There
was no point sharing her feelings of loss with the rest of the world, because
then they would become more real; and that was the last thing she needed right
now.

“That’s it? She just ignored what
you’d told her and returned to her books?“ Sharon wondered.

“I don’t think so,“ said
Gloria.
  

“What do you mean?“

“When Kelly left, she didn’t head
in the direction of the campus, rather she went the opposite way, toward the
park exit.“

T
he flight back
home was supposed to be heavenly compared to the hell Sharon had been through
on her way over. The murderess she’d been chasing after had finished her duty
on this planet, Gloria McIntyre was alive and well and was supposed to be
discharged from the hospital by the end of the week, and she had finally solved
the case that had been haunting her day and night for the past three years.

But even at thirty thousand feet,
she wasn’t on cloud nine.

Something still bothered her.
Sharon felt that the story of her and Kelly Danes, or Vicky Hermont, or whoever
she was, was not over yet. Why, for God’s sake, hadn’t Kelly admitted that she
was, in fact, Vicky Hermont? Had Vicky actually believed that she was the real
Kelly Whitesporte? And had she killed Kelly in order to live out her fantasy?
To Sharon’s disappointment, Gloria hadn’t known the answers either when she had
asked her those same questions. Besides, the autopsy results regarding the
circumstances of the real Kelly
Whitesporte’s
death
hadn’t come back yet. The coroner stated that the primary cause of death was a
severe skull fracture as a result of blunt force trauma, but it was not yet
clear if it had been sustained as a result of an accident, suicide, or murder.
Sharon leaned toward the third option, but she could not dismiss any of the
possibilities in light of recent discoveries.

Did Kelly’s mother really not
know anything? And what exactly had happened between the two women that had
merged their lives together so tragically? Sharon could not let it go just yet;
she had to find out.

Only fourteen hours to go, and
then she’d be home.

The pursuit of time began once
more.

                                
 * * *

Home sweet home . . .

Sharon was happy to see that the
door leading to her apartment was locked, and for once was glad to linger for a
minute searching for her keys.

When she entered, Sharon turned
on all the lights and scanned the rooms. Suddenly, she realized that the horrifying
ordeal she had experienced in her apartment just a few days ago would not be
forgotten from her mind anytime soon.

Great, now I finally have time
to process the fact that I’ve been traumatized.

Sharon dropped her bags near the
door; she would deal with them later. She took off the clothes she’d been
wearing for nearly twenty-five hours straight and lay down exhausted on the
couch. She snuggled with the woolen blanket that was on top of the pillows, a
souvenir from the many nights she’d fallen asleep between piles of papers, not
being able to carry herself to bed. Then she picked up the phone from the
charger. She had three calls to make that could not wait until morning.

The first call was to let her
mother know that everything was okay. She’d left Sharon about nineteen messages
on her voicemail.

The second call was to NYU. At
this hour there was probably no one there to answer, but at least she could
leave a message and ask them to call her back ASAP. She wanted to take a look
at Kelly’s registration documents. Perhaps she could find something there that
would catch her eyes, which by now were draped with dark circles of fatigue.

The third call was to the Chinese
restaurant down the block. She was starving.