Malice Times Read online

  “My diamonds seem to have disappeared.”

  “Really? I knew it.”

  “What do you mean?” Regan asked.

  “It was Watkins. I saw him. He and Graber are working together.”

  “You think Watkins and Graber were double-crossing me?”

  “Of course they were.”

  “Graber is dead, Josh,” Regan said.

  “Is he?” Joshua asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Watkins must have double-crossed him, too. He has to have the diamonds. Who else could have them?”

  “I don’t know,” Regan said.

  “I’ll torture the diamonds out of Watkins, Uncle Paul, and then I’ll kill him.”

  “Torture won’t work on Tom.” Regan’s mind was thinking furiously. “Not yet at least. I want those diamonds, Josh.”

  “Watkins has them.”

  “If he does, I want you to find out and prove it to me. But no killing. Not until I have those diamonds. You keep an eye on him. If he tries to leave Malice Grove before July 4th of next year, kill him.”

  “Yes, Uncle Paul.”

  “Put Bruce back on the phone,” Regan said.

  He didn’t really believe Watkins had them. If he did, why call him? Why not make a beeline for the border, any border? But if Drake had them, why was he still there. Why hadn’t he disappeared? One of them had them and was playing a very dangerous game of chicken.

  Joshua handed the phone back to Drake.

  “So, Bruce, this is the way it is going to be. I don’t know who has those diamonds. But you are going to keep an eye on Watkins. And he is going to be keeping an eye on you. If either one of you tries to leave Malice Grove before I have those diamonds, you both have orders to kill the other. Am I clear?”

  “Perfectly,” Bruce said.

  “I want you to make your presence felt in that little town,” Regan said. “I have an idea of how to make sure that Watkins is able to stay in Malice Grove without drawing suspicion. But you need to do something to not draw suspicion to yourself. No one is to know about these diamonds. Your presence must be explained.”

  “My presence?” Drake asked. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

  “Figure it out on your own. You’re a smart guy Bruce. Work your way into the fabric of that place. Give yourself a reason for being there. These people are just little guppies. You are a high roller from Las Vegas. Let’s find those diamonds and live happily ever after.”

  “I don’t particularly care about the diamonds, Paul, you know that. I got what I wanted. Why would I steal those diamonds from you?”

  “You want those diamonds, Bruce. Don’t lie to me. Trust is starting to fade. I can be a very malicious man. You know that. So, let’s try to be honest with each other. You care about those diamonds as much as I care about them. It is all that you have left of your father’s business. Your cut just increased. Maybe with what you already have and your cut from these diamonds, you can get The Golden Seagull back.”

  Visions of sugar plums danced in Bruce’s head. The Golden Seagull his again. A smile crept across his face. “I’ll get those diamonds for you. I promise.”

  Regan hung up the phone.

  44

  We stood in Celia Archer's garden. A pang of excitement entered my heart when Regina answered the phone. It was the Fourth of July. The morning air was cool and crisp. Dew clung to the flowers like children cling to their mother’s leg.

  “Hey Regina,” I said.

  “Hey, Joe. How are you doing? I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

  “I’m in your father’s garden.”

  “Do you want us to come over? It’ll take us about a half an hour to get to town.”

  “No,” I said. “You couldn’t get here even if you tried.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “I guess it hasn’t made the news yet,” I said.

  “What news? We’re watching Wimbledon.”

  “And they didn’t break in with any breaking news,” I said.

  “Of course not. We’re watching Wimbledon on HBO.”

  “Oh. Well, Malice Grove is a big fireball.”

  “You set Malice Grove on fire?”

  “I didn’t set it on fire. Well, I may not have done a whole lot to stop it.”

  “What are you doing in my father’s garden?” she asked.

  “Looking for buried treasure,” I said. “I have some good news for you. Rae is alive.”

  “I know that,” she said.

  “Well, it would have been nice for you to tell me.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  “I spent the entirety of yesterday getting drunk and thinking of meaningful ways to end my life because I thought she was on that boat.”

  “Well, you should have called me. I could have told you she was on an airplane. I was the one who called her to tell her what happened, so she could get back here. Plus, she called me last night when she saw you and Joshua. She wasn’t sure what to do.”

  “Maybe call the police,” I said.

  “She wasn’t sure if you and Joshua were working together,” Regina said.

  “Working together?” I asked. I turned to Rae. “You thought I was working with Joshua?”

  “Seemed plausible at the time,” Rae said.

  I knew it was unreasonable, but I was angry. ”Put your father on the phone.”

  Archer was suddenly on the line, clearly irritated that I was interrupting Wimbledon. “What are you doing at my house? What’s this about a fire?”

  "Stop talking. Do you recall anything odd in the garden?" I asked.

  "I don’t really take care of the garden,” he said. “I kept it up, because I knew Celia would have been heartbroken if I had let it go. But I really don’t go in it. It has been very hard. Someone comes in and takes care of it for me. It has only been recently that I have been spending some time there remembering her.”

  It didn’t matter. I knew where to start. I walked back towards the shed where the tools would have been kept. I opened the shed and peeked in. I pulled out an old shovel. “The shed at the back of the garden with the old shovel, has it been moved.”

  “No, it hasn’t,” Archer said.

  “This is an old shovel,” I said. The shovel handle had snapped in half and had been taped back together with gray duct tape.

  “It belonged to her father,” Archer said. “She loved that shovel. I remember when I broke it by accident trying to dig up the roots of an old bush, she cried.”

  Brad wouldn’t have gone very far. He had been in a hurry that night. I looked around and then I saw a glint of something out of the corner of my eye. I walked along some stepping stones. On the left was a tall wooden fence and on the right various flowers and stones towards a wall of hedges. I stopped and looked down at a pyramid made of five stones. The five stones were dull and covered in dirt. I grabbed them and cleaned them with some spit between my thumb and index finger. They were uncut diamonds. I put them in my pocket.

  “I’ll talk to you later,” I said and hung up the phone.

  “Are those what I think they are?” Rae asked.

  I started digging without answering. It didn't take long until I hit something soft. I got on my hands and knees and started spreading the dirt off a black duffel bag. I yanked the bag up out of the ground. The bag was heavy. I tried opening the bag, but the zipper was rusted shut. I grabbed the bag and walked back towards the shed. There were no tools that would help me. I spotted another shed closer to the house and lugged the heavy duffel bag over. I opened the shed and found a can of WD-40 spray. I sprayed the zipper and waited a few minutes for the stuff to take effect. I started to pull the zipper open. It was hard, but it started to open slowly, sticking every now and again. I sprayed the immediate area some more every time it stuck. Before long I had the bag open. The bag was full of thousands of uncut diamonds.

  “Oh my God,” Rae said.

  I rummaged through the bag
and found something other than the diamonds. It was a piece of paper. It had yellowed over the year protected only by the bag and some surrounding diamonds. On the paper written in black ink was Joe March and my address. A smile crept across my face at the reunion that would never take place.

  As I was staring down at the paper, I heard a rustling and then the cocking of a gun. I turned around quickly and saw Joshua standing there with a gun in his hand.

  "I'll take that Joe," he said. The sapphire eyes of his father locked on mine.

  “I thought you didn’t care about the diamonds,” I said.

  “He doesn’t,” Elizabeth said from the house. “I do. Everyone worked hard on that job, but no one as hard as me. I worked in that jewelry store under the nose of someone who would kill me with glee for nearly a year, wearing that ridiculous disguise and talking in that idiotic lisp. It took me over an hour every day to get ready for work. We waited and we waited until we had a large cache of uncut stones just ready for the plucking. And then we struck. Graber and Bruce. I had no idea who Graber was. I even flirted with him while we were in that jewelry store alone. He was so big and strong and good looking. We cleaned it out. Graber left with the stones. I locked up and disappeared. Joshua picked up Bruce and we met at the lobby of a different hotel and drove out of town. Graber was to handle all of the diamonds and he was to plant the stones in Gordon’s house and to get the diamonds out of Las Vegas. It was beautiful. A perfect caper. I earned those. Now give me your gun."

  "Get it yourself,” I said.

  "Toss me your gun, Joe," she said. “Or I kill the girl that was supposed to already be dead.”

  I pulled out my gun and tossed it to her. She picked it up and threw it deep into the garden.

  “I thought you two were dead,” I said.

  “Just stunned. Watkins had been a very busy bee,” Elizabeth said. “When we came to, you were gone.”

  “And you found me here?”

  “Well, to be honest, we weren’t looking for you,” she said. “We were trying to get out of town. The way through the strip is all closed down. The fire is out of control. They aren’t even really trying to fight the fire, just contain it until they evacuate everyone. So we drove up here to get out of town and then there was your Jeep as big as life. Joshua wanted to keep going, but I want those diamonds. We’ve been looking for these diamonds for a very long time. And you come here and only a few short weeks later, here they are. Like a magician conjuring a rabbit out his hat. You could come with us, Joe. Both of you. Two lovers finally reunited. We have both grown rather found of you.”

  “You killed my brother. You shot me just to get a picture of Watkins carrying a duffel bag out Archer’s house.”

  “Regan wouldn’t let me kill him until I proved to him that he had the diamonds,” Joshua said.

  “But Regan knew he left that house with the duffel bag, didn’t he? It must have really sent you for a loop when you told him about the picture and he told you that he already knew.”

  “It was a real kick in the teeth,” Elizabeth said.

  “You tried to kill me for nothing,” I said.

  “I didn’t try to kill you, Joe,” Joshua said. “Honest. I really liked you. I wouldn’t have killed you. You were my friend. Maybe the first real friend I ever had.”

  “My friend,” I said. “You murdered my brother. Stabbed him in the back.”

  “That was unfortunate,” Elizabeth said. “My brother lost his head.”

  “But he came home for some reason,” Joshua said. “Why did he come home?

  He was supposed to be meeting you. I hid. Then, he picked up the phone and he called his father. They talked about him moving home. Your brother was upset. He started to talk about my father. About my father raping him. My father wasn’t a rapist. He certainly didn’t rape him, a man. Not my father. He hung up the phone. I approached him from behind. I grabbed the first thing I could and I smashed him in the back of his lying little head. It exploded into a million pieces and he fell to the floor. But it hadn’t knocked him out. He got up on his hands and knees and looked over his shoulder at me. His face was shocked. I took the knife out of my pocket, rage just swarmed over me and I stabbed him over and over and over again. I wouldn’t kill anyone for a picture.”

  “Then, you called your sister at The Malice Times because you needed a little help. The phone call from my brother’s house to The Malice Times.”

  “Just hand him the diamonds,” Elizabeth said.

  Then out of almost nowhere a small bag of top soil flew from a group of bushes, hitting Joshua in the face. He stumbled backwards and his gun went off harmlessly in the air. Elizabeth turned her head and I leapt at her. Joshua came at me. My father leapt out from behind the bushes, but Joshua was too fast. He knocked my father to the ground with one punch. Rae lunged at Elizabeth and she dropped her gun as she wrestled her to the ground. Joshua rushed me knocking me to the ground. Joshua jumped on top of me and we rolled around. I struck upwards and caught Joshua in the stomach. He rolled off of me.

  Elizabeth kicked Rae off of her and went for her gun on the ground. I kicked the gun under the shed. Elizabeth roared in frustration.

  My father lay on the ground unconscious. The duffel bag sat closed beside him, but not for long. Joshua had recovered and grabbed hold of the bag. I charged Joshua, but Elizabeth grabbed my foot from behind and I stumbled forward.

  Before I could get up Joshua kicked me in the side and I heard a cracking noise. Joshua heard it too because he left me and helped Elizabeth up. I tried to sit up, but a shot of pain went up my side. Rae came to my side.

  "Run," Joshua said and handed Elizabeth the duffel bag.

  She obeyed and ran through the garden towards the house. The duffel bag weighed her down. I worked my way up to a kneeling position. Joshua came up to me his gun in his hand. I torpedoed him in the stomach with my head violently. The gun fell from his hand and to the ground. I flopped over on the ground in pain. My shoulder screamed at me and my ribs whined. I reached for Joshua’s gun and wrapped my hand around it. Joshua darted into the house. I got up and bolted into the house. I pointed the gun at his retreating figure and fired. He disappeared around a corner unscathed.

  “Stay with my father,” I shouted at Rae.

  I ran as best I could with a cracked rib and made it to the house. They were nowhere to be seen. I ran into Archer's house and went to his desk. Joshua's car was still there and Joshua was standing by it holding the duffel bag, looking around in confusion.

  I pulled the gun from my pants and aimed it at Joshua. I wanted to shoot. It took everything in me not to pull the trigger. "Freeze or I'll shoot."

  Joshua ducked behind the car as quickly as a gazelle.

  "What are you going to do, shoot me?"

  "The thought had crossed my mind," I said. "After all you did kill my brother."

  "He shouldn’t have said those lies about my father.”

  “They weren’t lies, Josh. Why do you think Brad Graber hunted your sicko father down and beat him to death? Just for kicks?”

  “Shut up,” he said. “I had never killed anyone before that.”

  “The first time is hard. It got easier after that, didn’t it? First Brad Graber, then my brother, then Daniel Miles, then Tom Watkins, and then Bruce Drake. You’re getting quite good at it, aren’t you?”

  “Look, I’m sorry about your brother. I’m sorry about this whole stupid thing. It has been a mess from the beginning. I just snapped.”

  He was stalling. "Where's your sister?"

  "I don't know. If you want to kill me, you're going to have to come here and get me."

  He poked his head up above the hood of the car and I shot. The bullet hit the hood and shot past his ear. He ducked his head.

  "Come on, Joe," he said. "I know you want to take me yourself. So come on."

  “You know, Joshua, your dad tried it with me, too. That’s the reason I left Malice Grove. Because my dad didn’t believe me.”

>   “No, he didn’t,” he said sobbing. “Stop saying that.”

  “Your father raped young men. He raped George Gordon. He tried to rape me and he raped my brother. It was how he expressed his anger and rage and inability to control anything in his life. He wasn’t worth getting revenge for.”

  “It wasn’t revenge. It was justice.”

  Elizabeth ran from the side of the house, saw me and ducked back. "What the hell is going on?"

  "Where the hell did you go?" Joshua sobbed.

  "Back to the shed."

  "Why?" he asked. He was just a scared deranged little boy.

  "Because in the scuffle, I lost the keys to the car.”

  "Did you find them?" Joshua asked.

  "No," she said. “The other two were still there.”

  I walked out of the house towards the car. I saw Joshua's head poke up through the driver's window and I shot. He ducked back under just in time. The sound of a starting car came from up the driveway around the corner of the house. My Jeep flew down the driveway, with Elizabeth behind the wheel. I turned on her and shot two bullets. They slammed ineffectually into the side of the Jeep. She sped out of the driveway and braked next to Joshua’s car. She moved over. I saw the car door open and Joshua jumped inside. I searched my pockets. Nothing. I had left my keys in the car.

  I ran back into the house and towards the kitchen where I had seen Archer's car keys. I grabbed them, ran out to the driveway, started his car and sped down the driveway. I turned in the direction that Elizabeth had driven my Jeep and raced down Archer's street. I came to an intersection and saw the rear of my Jeep to the right heading towards the lake. I turned right and gassed it.

  I closed in on them slowly as they headed down towards the lake and the inferno that was Malice Grove. Fate intervened and a car pulled out in front of them in the distance and they had to slam on the brakes. The Jeep smashed into the other car. Glass burst out in a shower and metal ground against metal as the two cars twisted together. A figure jumped from the Jeep and ran off towards the beach.

  A few moments later, I was at the site of the crash and stopped the car. The two cars were interlocked into one mass of metal. I approached the wreckage on foot. Inside the car that had been hit was an older man. His head lolled over to the side. He was covered in blood. His body was twisted in an impossible position. There was no help for him.