Too Far Gone (36 page)

“That's tempting,” Alexa said. “But there's Grace.”

“Grace, Grace, Grace.”

“You murdered her. You are the only one with the access to the money I found at her home. Who else could afford to walk away from it after it had served its purpose as a very clever prop?”

“Fifty thousand is a lot for anybody to walk away from.”

“Not for you. You paid thirty grand for a boat for a lunatic psychopathic swamp dweller.”

“I've never bought a boat in my life.”

“Okay, you bought it through Andy.”

“I barely knew the man.”

“Unko told me about the garden-shed incident.”

“He didn't tell you that!” Casey squealed. “That old bastard. Well, I did tell you about Dr. Fuckerman. Andy Fugate was a very accommodating man, with extremely limited prospects.”

“Other than blackmail.”

“No big deal. I suppose I paid him to look the other way—help me make a few portraits of people I didn't have releases from until he got them for me. He was not kind to the inmates, in ways you wouldn't believe. He was a truly despicable individual.”

“Nurse Fugate didn't recognize Leland in your exhibition?”

“Dorothy never saw any of my work as far as I know. She certainly didn't attend the exhibition in Zurich where I showed that portrait, and she wouldn't have had access to the catalog. Unko wasn't there either. He'd have shit a brick. He treated Leland. So before we go any further, is this an interrogation or a job interview?”

Alexa said, “Just humor me. I just want to know how competent I am. We both know I can't make this case.”

“This is between the two of us and the walls?” Casey said. “Andy was sometimes in town in the summers. More when we were younger. I think Dorothy wasn't fond of having him around, because he was a reminder of something she didn't like thinking about. He was a bastard in more ways than one. I couldn't stand the sight of him.” Casey giggled. “He always wanted to play doctor, and guess who was the patient? He resented his mother since she treated him like a leper. Face it, they both imagined she would marry Unko after Sarah died and they'd win the blue-blood lottery.

“I suppose I tolerated Andy's company because he was virtually unlikable and I was fascinated by that. He was a repulsive know-it-all loser with delusions of importance. It seems sometimes that the world is filled to bursting with unlikable people.”

“And Grace's cash—that was yours. Andy didn't have access to that kind of money.”

“I told you, the fifty thousand could have come from someone else that was in on it.”

“There it is again. I never said it was fifty thousand. Just like I never said I was in Andy's apartment.”

“Next time I talk about it, I'll try to remember all these little traps.”

“How did you get Grace to commit suicide?”

“This is growing tedious, Alexa. I never forced Grace Smythe to do anything, ever. You give me far too much credit—or too little. I'm not responsible for anything that woman did. Including her dalliance with Andy.”

“Did Andy tell you Sibby Danielson was your mother?”

“I think it's more likely that Andy told Grace.”

“Grace was in love with you. She'd have done whatever you wanted. That I had figured out already, from the shrine and how she looked at you. I just didn't know how you used that longing until tonight. We'll say, for the sake of argument, that Andy snooped and found the notebook. Maybe he saw Dorothy making entries and found her hiding place. He approached you, thinking…you'd want to know?”

“Imagining I'd help him blackmail my uncle because Unko murdered my parents would be a better theory,” Casey said. “Andy could never have blackmailed me with information that I don't care to keep secret.”

“Your grandmother had already told you about Sibby. But your uncle figured that out too late.”

“If Andy killed his mother, it was probably because she caught him trying to get his hot little hands on her precious tell-all notebook. He wanted a lot of money—he always believed it could make his insignificant life worth living.”

“We both know that isn't true,” Alexa said, laughing. “You've always had more than enough for a hundred Andy Fugates.”

“Money is a tool. Money is power.”

“Power is a tricky thing, Casey. You have so much of it, and yet you want more. Too much is never enough for you.”

“It's human nature to want more of a very good thing,” Casey said. “Can we cut to this story's ending?”

“Your grandmother figured out that Dr. LePointe sicced Sibby on his older brother so he could have control when she died. You simply wanted to pay him back. It's understandable. And to take away his power—the LePointe billions.”

Laughing melodiously, Casey said, “Can you imagine him being disgraced professionally, with no fat grants to dangle over his contemporaries and with a mere two million or so a year to live on? He won't go hungry, but he'll die knowing that his little pecker brought him low. It's so
trailer park.
Gary would love it.”

“You shot Andy because you were planning to kill him anyway, and it was a convenient setup for you. But he didn't die immediately. The briefcase slowed the bullets.”

“A .357 would have been more appropriate than a .380. But there's the size and weight, and my jacket pocket was small.”

“You didn't even shoot at Leland. I guess you figured Leland was too crazy to be believed even if he knew you were involved.”

“Leland strikes me as being the way people were ten thousand years ago. So, did Andy write out a confession before he died, and do you have it put away someplace?”

Alexa smiled as if to confirm Casey's question. It was plausible enough. She wished she'd thought to fake one.

“It doesn't matter. Andy surely must have hated me enough for shooting him to make up something like that. Shooting him in order to save your life, I might add. He probably would have killed you.”

“I know that, Casey.”
And I appreciate that saving me was convenient.

“Can't you forgive me the rest?”

“There's Grace.”

“I hate to speak ill of a suicide. Grace had a thing for me. She was in love with me. I told her I didn't love her, and she couldn't take it. The fifty thousand was a year's severance. If she killed herself because I rejected her or because of her unfortunate involvement in this scheme, it isn't my fault.”

Alexa said nothing.

“You were sexually abused in one or more of those Mississippi foster homes, weren't you, Alexa? I'm not an expert on such things, but I imagine an abused young girl could see a penis as a weapon of control and for inflicting pain and degradation. Do you sleep with men?”

“I mostly sleep alone.”

“Right,” Casey said, picking up the empty martini glass and gazing at it before setting it back down. “Then you must be really frustrated.”

“I don't feel frustrated.”

“I've seen the way you look at me.” She put her hand on Alexa's shoulder, rested it on a bruise. Alexa winced. “I'm sorry. I wouldn't hurt you for anything…on purpose.”

Casey held the fingers motionless for a few seconds, then traced her finger in the perspiration on Alexa's shoulder, down her arm, to her elbow, where there was another bruise. “A mistreated child could have easily grown up to hate men, or at least to distrust them. Such a child might prefer a woman's touch to a man's. It's just—”

“Basic psychology. Touch for touch's sake isn't something I seek out. Andy didn't kill Sibby. Is that so she'd take the blame for Dorothy? Or because you couldn't bear to kill your own mother?”

“Mother? That sad creature was an incubator at best, a vessel to hold William's sperm. I feel pity for her—how she was manipulated. I've never laid eyes on her, nor do I intend to. But my theory is that she was Andy's genetic proof to back up the notebook, and he put her away in case it was necessary.” Casey said, “I want us to be able to be open with each other. I want this suspicion behind us.”

“Why did you have them kidnap Gary, knowing they were going to kill him?”

Casey shrugged. “I'm no longer enjoying our talk. Can we change the subject?”

“I kept Gary from dying. That must have disappointed you.”

“Gary would have given the money to some Indian tribe or charity, just to watch Unko's facial expression. That's Deana's future.”

“I understand. You wanted to punish your uncle too. That's why you sent out photocopies of the diary.”

Casey nodded warily. “My timing didn't take the hurricane into consideration, or the splash would have been far greater.”

Casey put her hand on Alexa's chin and moved forward to kiss her. Alexa stopped her by turning her head, and standing.

“I don't think that's a good idea,” she said.

“You don't think I'm attractive? I think you're very attractive, Alexa. Aren't you starved for attention from someone who adores you and accepts you as you are?”

“You're an extremely attractive woman, Casey. I mean that sincerely. But, despite your take on me, I'm not into women that way, and I don't think you are either.”

“You sure about that?”

“I think you use sex as a tool. And even if I were open to a dalliance, your lovers don't exactly fare too well.”

“Okay, on your terms.” Casey sighed. “When can you start work? A month to tie up your affairs and submit your walking papers should be adequate. That work for you?”

“I'm not sure I could work for you,” Alexa said.

“But you aren't refusing me? Will you at least consider my offer seriously?”

“That, I will do.”

101

The two women showered side by side, under separate showerheads, without talking. When their eyes met, Alexa didn't avert her gaze and neither did Casey. Alexa knew Casey's mind was working as fast as her own, and wondered what she was thinking. Casey had been overconfident, since she had spent years planning this maneuver, which had been almost perfect—or as perfect as perfect gets, what with the nature of variables always being in flux and the complexities of the number of people involved. Casey was the most cunning and brilliant individual Alexa had ever met, and probably the most totally sociopathic, after Alexa's own sister, Antonia.

“Casey, I want to be totally honest with you. You did some terrible things, and I understand why you did what you did. But I believe in doing the right thing. You are a victim here and you were wronged terribly. You may not face judgment in a court of law, but punishing you that way wouldn't make things right. And you did just punish the guilty, for the most part.”

“Those who sought to harm, who did harm, were themselves harmed.”

“That's right. Let's say, for the moment, that what you have done is done, and it is forever in the past. Frankly, I'm amazed at how accurately you read and manipulated so many individuals. Your insight into people is astounding. You could have become a psychiatrist. With your intelligence and your instincts, you could have cured untold numbers of very ill people.”

“Like my mother?”

“Yes. Maybe. Here's my thinking: You have a vast fortune in your hands, and a potential for decades of doing good and easing suffering.”

“The trusts can work miracles if I apply the resources to that end,” Casey agreed, smiling. “I've thought about that a lot.”

“You could be one of the great benefactors of all time. You have a great talent that transcends art, you create beauty—more than beauty. Your portraits are the most powerful I've ever seen. The sensitivity of your vision is astounding.”

“I'm blushing.”

“I'll try to stay on point. Your attributes, even your manipulative skills, can be an asset. Casey, your potential is boundless. If you can turn over a new leaf, transcend the evil you've done, the pain you've caused, the revenge you've taken. Was the revenge really satisfying?”

“Yes, Alexa, it was satisfying. They deserved it, every one of them.”

“You played evil against evil. But good people were hurt too. Michael Manseur and Kyler Kennedy didn't deserve what they got. Manseur's wife is suffering along with him. A young deputy sheriff was killed. He had a family. He was a good man doing his duty. And Gary loved you.”

“I didn't intend for anybody who was innocent to be harmed. I intend to put all of it right. As right as possible. I can't bring that deputy back, but I'll take care of his family. And I will make it right with Gary. I promise I will.

“Alexa, I want to put this all behind me. While honestly I don't regret doing what I did, I'm done with it. I don't want Deana to ever feel the pain I've felt. I want to change the LePointe legacy, bury forever what this family became, what our fortune did to us. I intend to dedicate myself to showing my daughter what her wealth can mean in the lives of many people. We should see ourselves as caretakers of the fortune, use it to do positive things. William actually did good, despite himself, didn't he? His grants had some positive results. We can expand on that. And Gary will help me.”

“That sounds promising,” Alexa said.

“Let's dress and we'll drink a toast to it and watch the storm waste its time trying to get inside. I feel wonderful. Thank you, Alexa.” She kissed her on the cheek. “And you'll help?”

“I'll watch from afar,” Alexa said. “That's all the help I can give you.”
And I
will
be watching.

102

Alexa dressed slowly, thinking. Was it possible? Could good spring from evil? Casey West could do so much to help so many. There was no limit to what the interest from four billion dollars could do, no end to the possibilities. Casey could play megabenefactor for forty, maybe fifty years. And Deana could follow in her mother's footsteps for another fifty years. A golden age of the LePointes. The idea was as attractive as silk and as intoxicating to Alexa's mind as…heroin. It all seemed possible. As possible as a shattered child becoming as whole as Alexa had. Casey was a shattered child, too, and in that, she and Alexa had common ground. Casey had been a damaged child who had then been nurtured by corrupted and diseased people who had no regard for anyone but themselves. Alexa had been changed by unconditional love and acceptance by wonderful people, which had failed to save her sister, Antonia.

The reality was that Alexa didn't believe for a second it was true. Casey didn't have feelings; she imitated those she sensed and saw in others. Casey was the epitome of corruption made worse by power, and now she had more power than ever. But it would never be enough, and she would use that power to corrupt and harm. She had tempted Alexa with the manipulative insights of Satan. Even if Casey were totally sincere, knowing what she had done, could Alexa really let her go? No. The fact that Casey had done most of her damage to evil people didn't matter.

Alexa also knew instinctively that knowing what she did about Casey's true nature wasn't a major ingredient in a prescription for a long life.

Alexa slipped into her blouse and Casey's jeans, rolling up the legs. She went into the dining room of the pool house and stared out through the sliding glass doors at the increasing fury of the hurricane. Outside, the storm of the century raged; within Alexa Keen no smaller storm had calmed at last.