psychic crystal 03 - killer cruise (18 page)

“The cuffs stay on.” Will was adamant.

“I paid him to take the paintings aboard ship. I had pre-sold two in Bermuda and was planning to sell the rest in the States, until he came around asking for more money to keep quiet. He went back on our agreement, so, yes, I killed him, and I was going to throw his body overboard until these women came sniffing around the gallery.”

“Where did you get these paintings?”

“I own them. They’ve been in my castle in Hungary for decades. They’re family heirlooms.”

“These paintings were stolen by the Nazis from museums all over Europe,” Kate interrupted. “They’ve been missing since the war.”

“The Nazis stored them in our castle when they occupied our town. When they fled, they left the paintings behind. They became my property.”

“They belong to the world,” Kate disagreed.

“Whenever I needed money, I sold them off, one by one. The private buyers didn’t hesitate to pay our price, nor did they return them to the museums they were stolen from.”

Will was curious. “You lived in a castle?”

Juliette answered. “Yes, he claims to have lived in a castle in Hungary near the Transylvania border. My mother and I lived right outside the castle gates. The last time I saw my mother, she was walking toward the castle and she told me to leave. She said the man who lived there—the count—wanted me. I know now she was sacrificing herself to save me.”

“Is that true?” Jack demanded.

The man looked at his blistering wrists.

“If you’ll remove the handcuffs—”

“Don’t remove them, Will,” Juliette warned. “Vampires are very crafty. His wrists will heal as soon as you remove the cuffs.”

“Juliette, he’s got you fooled,” Will said. “He’s only a man. An evil man. But he’s not a vampire.”

Juliette faced the vampire. “Where is my mother? You promised you’d tell me what happened to her.”

“Answer the lady, or the cuffs stay on.” Will wrinkled his nose at the smell of burning flesh. “You can rot in hell, for all I care. Hell is where you belong.”

Gedeon laughed. “Your mother was a most beautiful woman, like yourself. I desired her, even loved her, but your mother refused my affections. I offered to marry her. But she refused me. So I locked her in the dungeon until she was ready to give herself to me. Marika was a stubborn woman. I starved her, beat her, tortured her, but still she refused. She’s still there, standing in chains, or rather her bones are still there.”

Juliette whimpered, and tears streamed down her cheeks. She covered her face. “And were you planning to do the same to me?”

“I knew you would learn to love me.”

Juliette spat. “I could never love you.”

Kate went to Juliette and held up a painting of a beautiful woman, a gypsy, dressed in red, dancing around a campfire, with a young girl looking on.

“Is that you?”

Juliette touched the painting. “That’s my mother, your grandmother, and the little girl in the picture is me. He must have had her portrait painted. He thought I was Marika. He kept calling me by her name.”

“That painting hung in the castle all these years. I stared at it for hours on end. I loved her. I regretted what happened to your mother.”

Juliette’s eyes flashed. “It didn’t just happen. You made it happen.”

Will stared at the painting. “She was a beautiful woman,” said Will. “Just like you.”

“Jack, is there any way you can check his story? I always wondered whether my mother was still alive and, if she was, why she never tried to find me.”

“Now that we have a record of him, we will find your mother and, if his story is true, give her a proper burial. Gedeon will be locked up for a long time, for murder, art theft, and kidnapping. He won’t ever hurt you again.”

“Bars won’t hold me.” Gedeon laughed. “You think I’m afraid of your prisons?”

The ambulance pulled up to the dock.

Jack touched Kate’s arm. “Go with your mother to the hospital and get her checked out. Will and I will babysit this bastard until the sun comes out, and then we’ll truly see if he’s a vampire. I don’t believe it for a minute. I’m sure the records will show that this man is a relative, perhaps the grandson, of the man who owned the castle during the war.” He turned back to Gedeon.

“One more question,” Jack asked. “Was there really a threat to the European Union banking conference? Did you have anything to do with that?”

“That was just to throw you off so you’d be focused on protecting the conferees and I’d be free to conduct my business,” Gedeon admitted.

“I’m going to tell the captain. They’re delaying the ship. We can tell him it’s okay to go on to their destination. We have our culprit. After we get Juliette checked out, we can fly back to Atlanta and you can drive back to Graysville.”

“I’m not leaving without my Juliette.” Will took Juliette’s hand and raised it to her lips. “I plan to make our marriage official as soon as we get back home, if she’ll have me.”

Juliette rushed into Will’s arms.

“That looks like a yes to me,” Kate said, brushing off Juliette’s assurances that she was okay and didn’t need to go to a hospital.

“Juliette, if not for you, do it for me,” Will said. Juliette finally acquiesced, and Will helped her into the ambulance. Jack asked Captain Smith to go with them to take Juliette’s statement, while he waited with Will.

“I need to bring the suspect into the station,” the captain objected. He had dispatched another police unit, which had just arrived on the scene.

“Give us until morning, and then he’s all yours,” Jack said.

“My man will wait here on the boat with you, then.”

“That’s fine,” Jack agreed.

Jack started making calls to Interpol and the Hungarian police.

Hours passed. The “vampire” had fainted. He couldn’t stand the pain.

Jack’s cell phone rang. Jack, yawning and rubbing his eyes, answered it.

“I see. Yes, I understand.” He spoke with the party on the other end for about fifteen minutes. Will looked up, his head bobbing from lack of sleep.

The sun was about to rise over the ocean. The rosy pinks and blue hues of the dawn were magnificent, but the men didn’t pay much attention.

Jack said to Will, “I just got off the phone with the Hungarian police. They did find the body of a woman, about the age Juliette’s mother was when Juliette says she left Hungary. She was hanging, or what’s left of her was hanging, in chains in a dungeon below the castle. They will do DNA testing to identify the body, or rather, the bones. Then, if it is truly Juliette’s mother, we can have her sent to Atlanta for burial. Even more bizarre, she was dressed in a wedding gown. It was tattered, moth-eaten, practically in shreds. As decayed as the woman wearing it. And the bastard just left her there to rot. There were records, a diary,” Jack added. “He’s sending it to me in Atlanta, but there were frequent mentions of a woman named Marika. She had a daughter, Ilona. Ilona must be Juliette.”

Will nodded. “She did mention that name to me on the ship.”

“But something else that was strange. The name of the castle’s owner was Gedeon, but according to the diary he was also the owner during World War II and the first World War and even back in earlier centuries. There was never a record of a son, no heirs, no mention of any family, or anyone but Gedeon. He seems to be a shadowy figure, and I don’t believe in vampires, but this man is apparently the same man that’s lived there in that castle for many centuries.”

“Well the sun is about to rise. I guess we’ll find out.”

Will picked up a bucket of water and threw it in splashes onto Gedeon until he regained consciousness. He looked up fearfully at the sun beginning to peek through the clouds.

“Release me. I answered your questions. If you don’t let me go, I’ll burn to death.”

Will looked at Jack, and they both looked at Gedeon, still lashed to the steering wheel by Will’s silver handcuffs.

The sun beat down on the yacht, and Gedeon’s skin began to crackle and smoke.

Jack’s eyes widened. “Do you believe what we’re seeing? We can’t just let him burn to death.”

Gedeon held their gaze and fixed them with a murderous look. He began a relentless chant in an unfamiliar language, pleading and calling on someone above.

Suddenly the sky directly above the vessel was ablaze with a column of heavenly light, not sunlight but brighter, more ethereal.

Jack was stunned, locked in a trance. Will was knocked back on his feet.

When they came to, the only thing left of Gedeon were the silver cuffs, still attached to the steering wheel.

“I think I was struck by lightning,” Jack said, rubbing his jaw. “I couldn’t move. Must have been some kind of freak sunstorm.”

“Whatever it was, it flattened me, too,” Will said. “I didn’t see what happened. Where did he go?”

They tried to question the police officer, who had collapsed on the deck, but though he was still breathing, he was incoherent.

Jack shrugged. “He just disappeared. I don’t know whether that flash was godly or ungodly, whether he was a fallen angel or a devil or whether he was truly a vampire.”

Will couldn’t shed any light on the subject. “Juliette says he was delusional, that he thought she was Marika, her mother. She wasn’t convinced he was a real vampire, but Gedeon was convinced of it, she’s sure. What will we tell Juliette and Kate?”

“That it’s over, that we’re finally going home.”

“But is it, Jack? Is he really gone? Will he come back for Juliette, or take revenge on us?”

“We’ve recovered the stolen paintings, and we know where the two in Bermuda are. The police have taken over the castle in Hungary, and the place is a crime scene, so even if he is still alive or undead or whatever it is that vampires are, he can’t go back there. They’ll have a warrant out for his arrest. They found more than one body in that dungeon. Apparently Gedeon or whoever he is has been plaguing that town since the seventeenth century. He was a major landowner. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of that diary. I imagine it will make fascinating reading. The police are going to fax over some of the more relevant pages. The diaries start in 1625, and he’ll fax me some of the early entries as well as those during the World War II period, to help us settle our art theft case.

“Apparently, the count had a comprehensive listing of all the paintings stored in the castle, including the ones he bought and sold over the years. He kept detailed records of who he sold them to and the compensation he received. That will help the authorities track down and return some of the stolen art. I also asked for copies of the pages around the time when he imprisoned Marika. Maybe I can get some of the answers Juliette needs. But I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to see the actual diary. If the woman they found in the dungeon was her mother, it would be hard for her to read it.”

“She’s a strong woman,” Will pointed out. “I think you underestimate her. I just want to make sure Juliette will be safe.”

“As far as we know, the man, or vampire, or whoever he was, is gone,” Jack said. “Did he burn up? Is he finally dead? Who can tell? It’s a mystery we may never solve.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jack sat on a couch in the waiting room at the hospital in Bermuda, while Will paced.

“Is Kate still in with Juliette? What’s taking so them so long? Why hasn’t the doctor released her?”

Jack flashed a reassuring smile. “I’m sure everything is fine, or we would have heard by now. Why don’t you sit down? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”

Will turned and sat on the couch next to Jack.

“It’s obvious you care a lot for Juliette.”

“I love her, Jack. I know it hasn’t been that long, but these things happen. I’ve been alone for years, and her life hasn’t been easy. I think we could be good for each other. She makes my heart happy.”

“I’m glad, and I think you would be good for each other. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk with you. Have you ever thought about what you’re going to do once we get back to Atlanta? Your job and your life is in Graysville, and I doubt Juliette will ever leave Kate, especially now. You don’t know yet, but Kate and I are having a baby. That is, Kate is having a baby, but the thing is, Juliette is going to be a grandmother.”

Will shook Jack’s hand. “Congratulations. That’s great news.”

“Thanks. We couldn’t be happier. If you have any idea of getting serious with Juliette, I thought you should know what you’re up against.”

“I’m willing to do anything, anything, to see if there’s a chance for us.”

“Then I think you’re going to like my proposition.”

“What kind of proposition?” Will asked, keeping an eye on the hall where Juliette’s room was located.

“The Crystal & Hale agency is growing. As we solve more cases, our agency is becoming more prominent, and we’re getting busier. Right now, there’s only Kate and me, and Juliette, and their psychic talents are a great help, but neither of them have law enforcement expertise. The thing is, I need another investigator. A man I can trust, a man I can count on to help carry the load. I would like that man to be you, Will.”

“You’re offering me a job?”

“I sure could use your help. I know you’d be giving up a lot, leaving Graysville. You’re the big fish in a little pond, and we’re only a small agency now, but we’re beginning to get a national—even an international—reputation, and I think we work well together. We can learn a lot from each other. The work is exciting, nothing run of the mill. I’ll make it worth your while.”

Will didn’t hesitate or take any time to think it over. “Since my wife died and my mama passed, I don’t have any real ties or obligations in Graysville. I love that town, but my term is almost up, and I was just deciding whether or not to run again. I’m not in it for the money, but they just lowered the salaries of all the elected officials in the county. There are plenty of good men who could run and do a great job. He’s young yet, but Luke Slaughter is a fine officer, for instance, and he’s studying to be a lawyer. He’s got brains enough for both of us. Got to make room for the next generation. I could convince him to run. It may be time for me to hang up my hat, so to speak. But I’ve still got a lot of good years left in me. I’ve enjoyed working on this case more than any case I’ve had since I’ve been on the force. And it would give Juliette and me more time together. To get to know each other. For her to decide whether she really wants a future with me. I could make her happy, Jack. I know I could.”