“Jinx,” Serena said, “what’s going on?”
Jinx turned around and faced her. “I did it,” she said softly.
“Did it?” Serena repeated, still worried about Jinx’s state of mind. “Look, I’m telling you, whatever you did at Kyle’s house isn’t going to matter.”
Jinx smiled painfully, shaking her head.
“Serena, I’ve been doing it all. I fixed the lights, I unhooked the ladder, and I poisoned the candy myself.”
Serena stood dead still, incredulous. “Jinx … why?”
“Why? Well, I was in love, you see. But I never hated you. Everything I ever said … I meant. I like you. I’m sorry … it’s just that … oh, well, I didn’t like Jane. Jane was … horrible. You don’t know all the things she did. You don’t know how she used people.”
“Jinx,” Serena said slowly, “I don’t believe this. You were trying to kill me?”
“Amazing, isn’t it? I didn’t think it would work. But hell, if it didn’t … well, again, Jane was no great loss. I might not have managed any injury at all. I was taking a terrible chance. Then … well, you didn’t die, and you saw the note in Jane’s room, though I didn’t write that one. But you insisted we find out what happened … so I had to lure you into danger. Into fear. I sent you the roses. I fixed the ladder. Then I had to appear innocent myself, so I ordered candy and poisoned the one piece, and I have to say, I put on the performance of a lifetime. The things we do for love! I even wedged the safety slide on that sarcophagus. Then for fear. I went to school with Liam’s girlfriend, Sharon. I liked her a lot. But I had a breakdown, a time-out, before my senior year. I was afraid she might remember that—and just how incredibly good I was at stagecraft and film design. And it was horrible, but recently, I began to see that I had been blinded, that I had been so wrong. … There are so many awful, horrible people out there. But you’re not one of them. And now … well, it’s over, and I’m scared—”
“Jinx, yes, this is scary,” Serena said. Her mouth was dead dry. She had been just standing there, staring blankly at Jinx, her mouth open. Had Liam heard all this?
They needed more, she thought, reason breaking through the stunned ice in her mind.
“Jinx,” she said, “you were influenced by the person you were in love with. You did terrible things. But we’ll work it out.”
“Serena, you know it can’t be worked out. And I’m scared now … because I’m scared of how I’m going to die. I’m going to die anyway, don’t you see? So it’s easiest to do it my way.”
“Jinx—” Serena began and started toward her. It never occurred to her to be afraid of Jinx then; she was tiny, barely ninety pounds.
But suddenly Jinx picked up something from the table. A gun.
“Is that a prop piece?” Serena asked, trying to stay sane and calm. She could scream; Liam would be there in an instant. She spoke loud to make sure he knew that Jinx had a gun.
Jinx was seriously agitated, but she smiled. “No, it’s real.”
“Jinx, if you’re so fond of me, why would you—”
“I’m not going to shoot you,” Jinx said. “I’m going to shoot myself. I just wanted you to know that I was sorry, really sorry.” She moved the muzzle of the gun toward her head. “And afraid. And you have to—”
Her voice broke off.
Serena realized that the door had opened quietly. Liam had come in, hands up in the air, showing that he was unarmed. “Jinx, put that down. There’s no reason for you to kill yourself,” he said calmly, striding across the room toward her. “We can get help. We know that you weren’t in it alone. Talk to us. We’ll help you, honest to God.”
Jinx didn’t release the gun, but huge tears formed in her eyes. “I should have known you were there. You love her, and you’re not like the others.”
“Jinx, please give me the gun.”
“I wanted it all, too. I studied so hard. I couldn’t seem to break in … except at Valentine Valley. And then …”
“Jinx.” Liam took another step toward her. “Jinx, you’ve been living a nightmare. You need to talk to someone, really talk to someone, and believe me, that will make it better. We can straighten it all out.”
Serena was so involved in what Liam was saying to Jinx, softly, soothingly, that she didn’t hear the arrival of others at the door.
Jinx did. In panic, she aimed toward the door.
Bill Hutchens appeared with a uniformed officer. “Drop the weapon!” he ordered.
Jinx’s face went white. She raised the gun higher, her finger tightening on the trigger.
“Jinx!” Liam said, diving for her gun.
“No!” Jinx cried.
Serena screamed at the sudden sound of gunfire. Liam had caught Jinx’s arm, and her shot, aimed straight at Bill Hutchens, went thudding into the wall.
Bill’s shot, aimed at Jinx, went straight into her chest. Serena screamed as she fell.
“Get an ambulance!” Liam cried, falling down by Jinx’s side.
The uniformed cop spoke into his radio. Liam feverishly applied pressure to Jinx’s chest, trying to stanch the gushing blood.
Bill was on his way to her side. Serena dropped down next to her as well. Her eyes were open, glazed. Her mouth was moving.
“Shush, now. We’re getting help,” Serena told her, tears spilling from her eyes. She was still stunned by what she had learned. Jinx, tiny, shy Jinx, was a coldblooded murderess who had made several attempts on Serena’s life. It was shocking. Serena didn’t feel anger, or relief, just a terrible pain in her heart, because it had seemed that Jinx had been in so much anguish, and they hadn’t seen it—none of them had.
“Serena …”
Serena moved closer to her.
“Paper, ref …”
“Don’t try to talk, Jinx. Help is coming.”
She looked at Jinx, wanting her to respond, but the girl had gone still.
“She can’t talk anymore, Serena,” Liam said quietly. “She’s dead.”
Chapter 24
JINX’S DEATH UNNERVED EVEN Joe Penny. He suspended taping while the police went through their paperwork, interviewing cast and crew members once again and anyone who might have been involved with Jinx.
They had long, serious discussions with Jay Braden, since he admitted escorting Jinx a number of places and trying to draw her out of her shell. He said he had worried about her because she had seemed unnerved about everything going on, and he had liked her. He had learned about just how much she knew about all aspects of film and tape, and had tried to encourage her to go further, to get out, to play a few of the Hollywood games and move forward with her career.
Jay seemed earnest.
Serena was so upset herself at first that she didn’t realize how badly the death had affected Liam. He was quiet and brooding during the long night that immediately followed Jinx’s death; he and Serena wound up being at the police station until very late. When they returned to his house, he stayed up by the fire in the living room. Serena stayed near him. She fell asleep while he remained awake, brooding. He was still there, staring at the fire hours later when the snap of a log woke Serena.
“Liam?” she said softly.
He looked at her at last.
“I know that she killed Jane and that she threatened your life, and if she had come near to taking it, I could have probably strangled her myself. But she was … sick. I could have gotten that gun from her. I’ve worked hostage negotiations and attempted suicides. I know I could have talked her down. But I called Hutchens down once I heard her talking. I should have seen this a long time ago. Jinx had access to your private life. She had phone numbers, names. She knew your family, knew what you liked. It was easy for her to get far too close to you. Hell, her house isn’t far from yours. It was easy for her to threaten you, to call your house … even to slip into your yard. To watch you.”
“She kept saying something about being in love.”
“Yeah. So that leads back to Jay …. What
was she trying to tell you in those last few seconds?” he asked.
Serena shook her head. “She said the word ‘paper.’ And something else … I don’t know what.”
“Was she in love with Jay Braden?” Liam asked.
“She never said.”
“If she was that in love with Jay,” Liam said, “I don’t think he knew it. I just wish that I hadn’t called the police.”
“She might have killed Bill Hutchens,” Serena reminded him.
He nodded. “I could have talked her down,” he repeated.
“You need some sleep,” she told him.
“Yeah, I guess.”
The next day, the phone didn’t stop ringing.
Jinx had left nothing. She had spent all her money on her collection of theater memorabilia. When the M.E. finished with her remains, their disposal came up for question.
Serena insisted she would make the arrangements. Jinx had wanted to rise with the stars. She would be buried in the famous old cemetery where Jane Dunne had been laid to rest, and Serena would pay the costs. Joe offered to pitch in; he had, after all, been Jinx’s employer. Serena declined, telling Joe that it was something she needed to do.
Serena arranged for a simple Christian ceremony, and three days after she’d been shot, Jinx was given her service and brought to the cemetery.
There were more reporters present than ever, it seemed. They managed to escape them, Jennifer’s mother opening her house to the cast and crew of the soap as a place to go to be together and escape the crowds. Olsen and Hutchens were invited as well. Hutchens seemed as sick as Liam about having to kill Jinx, but he’d had little choice when she’d been firing at him. He had been given leave and was seeing the department therapist after what had happened.
The cast talked; they were sad, but they were relieved. Jinx had been crazy; she had admitted to doing everything. She had done horrible things. And now, poor creature, she was dead as well.
Joe asked to speak to them all, tapping a glass to gain their attention. “I had been thinking earlier that I was quite a failure—”
There was a murmur of protest.
“No, no, listen. I thought that my capabilities as a manager and a judge of people were so poor that I should down all my efforts. But then I look around here, and I see all of you. And I know that I have one of the finest ensembles of people ever put together. Talented, professional, caring. I’d like to keep Valentine Valley together.”
Applause greeted his speech. He smiled with relief.
Hank Newton, the Valentine Valley patriarch, stood up.
“I think I should explain to you, too, why Joe was insisting that we’d have to have murder and mayhem on the set for Valentine’s Day. I was the one who was going to be killed. I had wanted to retire. But … I think I’ve changed my mind.”
Applause sounded again.
“Hey, what the heck! We’ll rewrite again!” Allona said. “We’ll bring a mummy back to life—and then murder it!”
Laughter sounded then. And soon after, they were milling among each other again, talking about Jinx, as was natural at a funeral. She had done terrible things.
Most of them had done something terrible, too: They had failed to notice her.
Abby’s backyard looked out over the canyons. Serena had come out for a moment’s quiet when Liam approached her. She felt him behind her, though he didn’t touch her.
“Well … it’s really over now,” she said softly. “Jinx is dead and buried.” She turned to look at him. “You don’t have to watch out for me anymore. Your job is done.”
“No, it isn’t,” he told her.
“Joe isn’t paying you anymore.”
“I’m still on the job. I still believe Jinx was working with someone. I don’t think that it was her idea to try to kill you.”
“So … we’re going to stay together for now.”
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t quite what Serena had wanted. It would do. For then.
They stood out by the canyon, watching the sunset. When darkness fell, they returned to the house. Both being such close friends of Jennifer and Conar, they stayed until the others had left. Eventually, they stopped talking about death and Valentine Valley. The diving trip came up again. “Are you going to come?” Conar asked Serena.
“I haven’t been invited,” she said.
Liam looked at her. “You’re invited. If your busy schedule will allow.”
“I can make my busy schedule allow.”
He seemed pleased.
That night, when they returned home, they received wonderful news. Sharon was conscious. She had asked that the hospital call Liam. She had read the papers, but she was anxious to see both Liam and Serena.
When they reached her, Sharon was sitting up in her hospital bed. Her hair was brushed, and someone had helped her with makeup. She looked beautiful. Serena waited while Liam went in and kissed her and told her sincerely how grateful he was that she was going to be okay.
“I might have prevented it all,” she said, looking toward the door where Serena was still standing. “I—I called. I’d been thinking about Jinx. But you answered the phone and … I was a ninny. And here I am, so sorry about everything …”
“My God!” Serena said. “Don’t be sorry! You couldn’t have known how far she had gone!”
She had walked into the room. Sharon smiled at her. “We both might have died. I’m very grateful that neither of us did.”
“Sharon,” Liam asked, “did Jinx tell you about anyone she was seeing?”
Sharon shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not. But she did it all, didn’t she? I thought she admitted to every act?”
“She did,” Serena assured Sharon.
They sat with her until it was almost time to be on the set. When it was time to go, Liam kissed Sharon. Sharon reached out her arms to Serena, and Serena hugged her tightly as well.
When they left, Serena told Liam that he should reconsider. Sharon Miller was beautiful and far more.
Liam didn’t argue.
He looked at her.
“Yeah. She just isn’t you.”
The next day’s filming was great. The entire family appeared. The threat to the family came from a new addition to the cast: an Egyptian furious with Verona’s insistence on stealing artifacts from his country. After Verona and David were dug from the tomb and the family had its huge row, they were all held hostage. And despite the protests of Randy Rock, Dale Donovan, and David DeVille—Jay Braden, Andy Larkin, and Conar Markham—Hank Newton was dragged out by the fanatical patriots holding them all hostage. Originally, they were going to execute him.
Now they were going to beat him, and he was going to escape.
“So who’s going to be murdered to live up to our promos?” Serena asked Allona after the third day’s taping.
“Heck, I don’t know. Maybe we will have to bring in the poor waiter and draw and quarter him in the Arabian desert,” Allona said. “Or maybe they liked my idea about raising a mummy and then killing it over again. I don’t know. We’ll get to it.”
Allona left her. Serena sat at her dressing table alone, trying to remember everything that Jinx had said before she died. Jinx had been in love. She had done it all for love. …
She sat in front of her dressing table. “Paper,” she murmured out loud. “Paper. What paper was she talking about. And ref … ref …”
She drew a scratch pad to herself and started writing. “Ref … referee … refuse … refute. Hm.” She stared idly across the room. “Refer to …” She paused, frowning, staring at the little white cubicle in her dressing room where she could keep cold drinks. “Refrigerator?”
She jumped up, rushing over, throwing it open. Nothing. Bottles of water, juice, soda. She went down on her knees, placing her hand around the sides and then the roof of the little box. To her amazement, she touched something. She twisted around to look upward. A small scrap of charred paper had been taped there.
Shaking, sh
e carefully pulled it free. It was badly charred, damp, barely legible. There were only pieces of words.
But it had been handwritten.
She glanced at her watch. It was nearly six, but Liam, who, still distrustful, had agreed to leave her at the studio because Olsen had called him down to the station, was coming for her at seven. She knew that Liam didn’t think that the danger was over, that they could let up. Olsen, on the other hand, seemed to believe that if anyone had been pushing Jinx, it had been Kyle Amesbury. A man who was dead now as well.
Still, Liam had quit being so continually tense at every turn. And tonight, they were going to eat out. He had said he needed to talk to her, and he had booked a restaurant with quiet booths and low-key music.
She left her dressing room and took the elevator down to the set. Lights were being switched off; they were done for the day. Jim Novac was walking away.
“Jim—hey! Where’s Conar?”
“Gone home.”
“Gone?”
“Yeah, he was looking for you, but someone told him that Liam had already picked you up because no one had seen you for a while.”
“I was in my dressing room.”
“Sorry. Wow. And Conar is kind of pissed off, too.”
“Great,” she murmured.
“Is anyone still here?”
“I’m here, but I’ve got to go. Hey, Jay and Jeff have gone over to the tomb set. Jeff wanted to check something out for tomorrow.”
Serena thanked Jim, then hesitated a few minutes. She didn’t want to be here alone. She went back to her dressing room and tried to call Liam. She didn’t reach him. The sergeant on duty jotted down her message that she needed to see him as soon as possible about the “ref’ and “paper” and that he should pick her up at the Egyptian set rather than at the studio. Then she ran downstairs, hoping to catch Jim.
She saw his car retreating around the corner. She stood on a street corner, flagging madly for a cab. None stopped. She decided to walk.