She flung open both doors, took a deep breath, braced herself, and stepped into the darkened theater.
The whispers of old pain and rage that still clung to the walls stirred the small hairs on the nape of her neck. She forced herself to take three more steps into the room and flipped one of the light switches at random.
She stepped through the heavy, velvet curtains into the seating section.
Kimberley trailed after her, fumbling her way through the hangings. When she emerged on the other side, her face was a mask of anger.
Somewhere in the distance a phone rang.
“You can’t face the fact that Preston loved me, can you?” Kimberley said in a low, fierce tone. “Me, not you. He wanted me.”
“She died in here, you know.” Zoe leaned back against one of the seats in the last row and stretched her arms out to the sides. “This is where he murdered her.”
“Murdered who?” Kimberley peered around the shadowy theater. “What are you talking about?”
“Camelia Foote. They all thought she died in a drunken fall in the canyon, but that’s not what happened. She died in this very room. I know that because I can sense the killer’s rage. It’s still locked in the walls.” She looked up. “And in the ceiling and floor, too, I suppose. Still so strong, even after all these years.”
“You’re lying. You can’t feel anything. You’re making it all up as you go along.”
“I wish that was true.” Zoe pushed herself away from the row of seats and strolled slowly toward the marble bar in the corner. “But the unfortunate fact is that I really do feel things sometimes. And what I’m picking up in this room is very similar to what I picked up at the cabin after Preston was killed. A sick, uncontrolled rage. I went back the second time a few months later just to make sure.”
Kimberley watched her nervously. “You really are crazy, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.” She grasped the edge of the velvet curtains that hung next to the bar and pulled it aside. “Maybe not. But I’m pretty sure they met here around midnight.”
Kimberley scowled, trying to follow the shifting currents of the conversation. “Who met here?”
“Camelia and her lover, Jeremy Hill. They had both been drinking heavily all evening. Flirting madly. Maybe they had made love in the gardens earlier. At any rate, Hill was desperate. Probably begged her to leave her rich husband. But Camelia refused.”
“You don’t know any of this. You’re just telling a story. One that I don’t want to hear.”
“Are you sure you can’t hear it in the walls?” Zoe went behind the high, polished marble bar and folded her elbows on the cold stone. “Listen closely, Kimberley. Maybe if you try real hard, you can feel some of what Camelia felt that night because the two of you had something in common.”
“I have nothing in common with that woman. Stop it, right now.”
“You both married for money. You both got everything you thought you wanted in life. Wealth. Social connections. A spectacular home.”
“I don’t want to hear another word about that old murder.”
“Both of you told yourselves that you had everything you desired, but that wasn’t true. You each tried to have your cake and eat it, too. You wanted love and passion, but you did not want to risk your cozy little financial setups to get them. So you and Camelia went looking for love on the side.”
“That’s not true.”
“Neither of you found the real thing. Oh, sure, Camelia managed to find a man who could give her something that looked like passion, but he became obsessed and in the end he killed her.”
“Shut up.” Kimberley sounded calmer now. She reached into her purse. But this time she did not take out some tissues. When her hand reappeared there was a small, silvery gun in it. “Just shut up, do you understand?”
Zoe’s mouth went dry. She hoped the heavy marble bar was thick enough to stop a bullet because it was all that stood between her and Kimberley.
“What sent you over the edge, Kimberley?” she asked in a conversational tone. “Was it seeing how happy Preston and I were together? You wanted to be happy too, didn’t you?”
“I deserve to be happy.”
“You’ve been reading too many self-help books, I’m afraid. But getting back to your little story, I assume that you tried to convince Preston to have an affair with you. Naturally he turned you down. Gently, of course. He was a very gentle man.”
“He did not turn me down.” Kimberley kept the gun trained very steadily on Zoe. “He loved me. We had an affair.”
“No, he did not love you, and you did not have an affair.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“I am sure of it. Very sure. Preston would never have betrayed me.”
“That’s what you want to believe.”
“I know it deep inside. I have no doubt, however, that you threw yourself at him. But when he refused to get involved, you became desperate, didn’t you? You followed him to the cabin that day and tried one last time to convince him to have an affair with you. But he turned you down again. And you couldn’t stand it.”
Something crumpled in Kimberley’s face. “He wouldn’t listen to me. I tried to tell him how much I loved him, and he wouldn’t listen.”
“Of course not. Because he loved me. And you couldn’t stand that, could you? I was the little nobody from nowhere. No family, no social background. No money. Yet Preston loved me, not you.”
“It should have been me. All those flowers he bought, they should have been for me. He should have picked out a special gift for me, not you.”
“This is all about you, isn’t it?”
“I tried to tell him, but he refused to listen. He actually told me to go away. Me. I loved him and he told me to go away.”
“And you did go away, didn’t you? But you returned later.”
“I left the car at the side of the road and walked back through the woods to the cabin and I waited. After a while, Preston came out onto the back porch to get some firewood. I had the gun.”
“When he turned to carry the wood into the cabin, you shot him in the back. And then you put another bullet in his head, just to be sure.”
“He needed to die.”
“Because he had rejected you.”
“Yes. Yes.”
“After you killed Preston, you went into the cabin and tore it apart. It was your insane rage I felt in those walls, not Forrest’s.”
“Don’t you dare call me insane.”
“Camelia’s lover went over the edge, too.” Zoe touched one of the heavy candlesticks. “Lost it big time. He must have been as obsessed as you were, Kimberley.”
“I was not obsessed. Only crazy people are obsessed.”
“I can’t hear you because I’m listening to the silent screams of rage in these walls. Surely you can pick up some of the energy? They say crazy people can do that.”
“I don’t hear anything. I’m not like you.”
“After that last quarrel, I think Jeremy Hill picked up the nearest heavy object.” Zoe closed a hand around each candlestick and hefted them experimentally. They were not much heavier than her tote when it was fully loaded.
Kimberley seemed irritated by the candlesticks. “Put those down.”
“Camelia turned to walk away and that’s when he struck her. From behind. The same way you attacked Preston.”
“Preston deserved it, I tell you.”
“Got news for you, Kimberley, only crazy people talk like that.”
Zoe heaved the candlestick she held in her right hand across the top of the bar, putting everything she had into it.
Kimberley shrieked and jerked back reflexively, scrambling to avoid the long metal object hurtling toward her.
The gun roared.
Zoe ducked behind the bar, clutching the second candlestick. The heavy marble shuddered under the impact of the bullets.
Kimberley fired again.
Zoe moved. Keeping her head beneath the leve
l of the top of the stone counter, she ran for the curtains that veiled the bartender’s entrance.
She plunged through the thick hangings into the tiny lobby and raced out into the hall.
Behind her, she heard Kimberley running toward the entrance.
She whirled and tugged frantically on the heavy, gilded doors. Kimberley burst through the curtain, stark madness in her eyes. The doors swung ponderously closed a split second before she reached them.
Heart pounding, Zoe angled the second long candlestick through both elaborately curved handles, effectively barring Kimberley inside the theater.
Half a second later, the heavy doors trembled. In her fury, Kimberley had thrown herself against them.
Zoe fled down the hall.
She rounded the corner into the living room and collided with Ethan.
“What the hell?” He grabbed her arms. “Are you okay?”
Muffled shots thundered at the other end of the hall.
“Kimberley,” Zoe gasped. “I locked her inside the theater. She’s got a gun. But I don’t think she can get out.”
Ethan eased her aside and went to the arched opening. He looked cautiously around the corner. Another shot boomed.
“Oh, man,” Ethan said. “She sounds really pissed.”
“Actually, she’s really crazy.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
They gathered in Ethan’s office the following morning. It was a large crowd, including as it did Zoe, Arcadia, Bonnie, Singleton, and Harry Stagg. Ethan went across the street to the small café and bought six cups of coffee. What was one more item under miscellaneous expenses?
“I was wrong about Forrest all along,” Zoe said soberly.
Ethan frowned. He had been worried about her today. She had come through the dangerous events last night with flying colors, but this morning she was definitely looking depressed. Now he finally understood why.
“Don’t blame yourself for picking the wrong bad guy.” He sat forward at his desk. “You were right about the fact that Preston was murdered by someone who knew him. The police should have looked deeper than they did.”
“For two years I blamed Forrest, though. No wonder he thought I was a real nutcase. Preston didn’t change his will because he thought Forrest was dangerous in the physical sense. He was just afraid that his cousin wouldn’t do what was best for the company.”
Arcadia, seated on the window ledge, swung one foot in an absent motion. “Ethan is right, you can’t blame yourself for thinking that Forrest was the killer. It was a perfectly logical assumption under the circumstances.”
“I agree,” Bonnie said forcefully. “Logical enough that the cops should have probed the alibies of everyone connected to Preston Cleland much more thoroughly than they did.”
“If they had done their job,” Singleton said, “they would have turned up the interesting fact that the one person who did not have a good alibi for the day of the murder was Kimberley Cleland.”
“No one even considered her, least of all me,” Zoe said.
“Because there was no obvious motive,” Arcadia pointed out. “After all, you knew that Preston was not involved with anyone else, so why would you even consider the possibility that a woman might have murdered him?”
“When you come right down to it,” Stagg said, examining the café logo on his plastic cup as if it contained the key to a great secret, “Forrest has a lot to answer for, even if he didn’t pull the trigger.”
“Damn right, he does,” Ethan said. “If he’d mentioned his theory that Preston was having an affair, the investigation would no doubt have gone in a different direction. One that could have led straight to Kimberley.”
Zoe wrapped both hands around her cup and studied the contents. “That brings up another question. If he suspected that his wife was having an affair with his cousin, why did he look the other way? I can’t see Forrest putting up with a cheating spouse.”
“Maybe he loved her too much to face the truth,” Bonnie suggested.
“Forrest Cleland?” Zoe gave a ladylike snort. “Passionately in love with anything except Cleland Cage? Get real.”
“You know what?” Ethan said softly, “The question of why he chose to ignore the possibility that Kimberley was having an affair with Preston, or anyone else, is a good one.” He looked at Zoe. “What do you say we ask him?”
Forrest met them in the lobby of Las Estrellas resort. He looked weary and grim when he sat down across from them in a quiet section of the spacious room.
“I hope this isn’t going to take long,” he said, glancing at the face of his titanium watch. “I just got back from a long session with the police and in a few minutes I have to call the lawyer I hired for Kim.”
“Gee,” Ethan said. “We sure do apologize for wasting your valuable time. After all, it’s not like we’ve got any right to a few answers. Your wife did try to murder mine last night, but what the heck, not like we’re talking about anything serious here.”
“Save the sarcasm, Truax. What do you two want?”
Zoe looked at him. “We want to know why you chose to look the other way if you thought Kim was having an affair.”
Forrest clearly looked startled. “But I never thought Kim was having an affair with Preston or anyone else. And, in point of fact, she wasn’t.”
“No, but she was obsessed with Preston,” Ethan said.
“Apparently.” Forrest rubbed his temples. “But I was unaware of that. I had my hands full with the negotiations for a new acquisition at the time. I wasn’t spending much time at home.”
“So how did you arrive at the conclusion that Preston was involved with someone?” Ethan asked.
Forrest paused, evidently searching his memory. Then he shrugged. “Kim mentioned it in passing one day shortly before Preston was—” He stopped and came at it again. “Shortly before she killed him. She just said it very casually. Like it was gossip she had picked up at the country club. I don’t know why she would do that if it wasn’t true.”
“Maybe you weren’t paying attention,” Ethan suggested softly.
Anger flared in Forrest’s face. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Zoe shook her head. “Maybe unconsciously Kim dropped some clues hoping that you would pick them up.”
“Why would she want me to think she was involved with Preston?” Forrest demanded. “She must have known that if I believed anything of the kind, I would have filed for divorce on the spot.”
“I’m sure she did know that,” Zoe said quietly. “Which is very likely why she just hinted carefully around the edges. She was crazy, but she wasn’t stupid. A part of her was still sane enough not to want to jeopardize her cushy position as your trophy wife.”
“I still don’t get it,” Forrest said. “Why hint at all?”
“Don’t you see?” Zoe asked. “If you believed that Preston was having an affair with someone, anyone, it would have made her private little fantasy that much more real to her.”
There was a short silence while Forrest absorbed that.
“Hadn’t thought of it that way,” he said at last. “When she mentioned the possibility that Preston was seeing someone on the side, the only thing that occurred to me was that you—”
“Had a motive for murder,” Zoe concluded.
“I’m sorry,” Forrest said evenly. “But I could see what the two of you meant to each other. I was afraid that if you had found out that Preston was cheating on you, you might have gone a little crazy.”
“But you never mentioned that possibility to the cops,” she said.
“No,” he said.
“Because you knew that I could still control my shares from prison?”
Forrest flattened his hands on his thighs. “I know you won’t believe this, but I honestly thought that you would be better off at the hospital. Harper said he was sure he could help you.”
Zoe took some deep breaths. “I will never forgive you for that. Do you have any idea of wha
t it was like there? Harper did not even allow visits from the patients’ friends because he said it interfered with the course of therapy. Not that anyone outside the Cleland family even knew where I was, thanks to you. Everyone I ever knew vanished from my life.”
His jaw tensed. “Maybe if I had been paying more attention to what was going on at home, I would have realized that Kim was the crazy woman, not you. Perhaps I could have stopped her before she went too far.”
Zoe did not know how to respond to that so she kept silent. Ethan did not move in his chair, but she could feel him analyzing the currents that flowed both above and beneath the surface.
“Things have not been going well between Kim and me for the past few months,” Forrest said eventually. “She’s been drinking a lot. There was a scene at the club a few weeks ago. She flew into a rage with no warning. I was planning to talk to my lawyer about a divorce, but I had decided to put it off until after the board meeting. I knew it was going to cost me a bundle to get rid of her, and I needed time to work out a strategy. Looks like things will be even messier now.”
“Probably,” Ethan said without any trace of detectable sympathy.
There was another heavy pause.
After a while, Zoe reached into her crimson tote and pulled out an envelope. She gave it to Forrest.
He accepted it with a frown. “What is this?”
“A proxy made out to you so that you can vote my shares at the annual board meeting. I know you’ll do what’s best for the company.”
His hand clenched around the envelope. “You know I’m going to reject the merger.”
“I know.”
“That means I won’t have the cash to buy you out for another two years, at least. Maybe longer.”
“I sort of figured that. Luckily I’ve got a day job.” Zoe got to her feet and hitched her tote over her shoulder. “Shall we go, Ethan?”
“Sure.” He rose from the chair and took her arm.
Together they walked out of the lobby and into the warm, bright glare of the desert sun. In the distance, the mountains raked the endless blue sky.