CHAPTER ELEVEN
By the time I bike the five miles to the Estates at Ocean Breeze, I’m hot and sweaty. The guard at the gatehouse has his cell phone to his ear and his feet up. I keep pedaling, navigating my bike through a narrow opening in the gate.
“Hey!” The guard leaps to his feet and shouts after me, “Stop!”
I wave and call out, “You have a nice day, too.”
He takes a step toward me, like he’s thinking about giving chase. Then he puts the phone to his ear again and sits back down. I’ve almost got enough money saved up for a used car, but I won’t get rid of my bike. Sometimes, two wheels are better than four.
A slight wind rustles the newly planted palm trees that line the pristine road. Along with the occasional bursts of red and yellow flowers, the palms lend the community a tropical feel. Each estate is sprawling, probably in the vicinity of six thousand square feet. Maia’s father lives at the end of a cul-de-sac in a house with a pillared entranceway. Two marble lion heads glare down at visitors. Pretty creepy but at least they’re not yard gnomes.
It makes no sense to ring the doorbell when there’s a to-die-for pool in the backyard. On a beautiful day like today, that’s the place to be.
The pool area is a showpiece, with a waterfall cascading into a curvaceous pool and a gleaming patio area studded with palm trees and adorned with fragrant tropical flowers. Maia lazes on a poolside recliner in a black two-piece bathing suit tinier than anything I’ve seen her wear in the past. Oversized black sunglasses cover her eyes, and I get a whiff of coconut-scented suntan lotion. She sips from a cocktail glass with one of those little umbrellas sticking from it.
“Hey, Maia,” I say to announce my presence.
She looks up from her drink. “Jade! What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“You could have called.” She glances toward the French doors that lead into the house. “I’m afraid this isn’t a good time.”
“You’re lounging by the pool!”
“I was about to go inside.” She sets her now-empty glass on the patio table next to her and swings her legs to the side of the recliner.
“It’s important, Maia.”
“So is my appointment.”
“What appointment?”
She hesitates too long.
“You don’t have an appointment,” I accuse. “You just don’t want to talk to me.”
“Do you blame me? When someone says they need to talk to you about something, it’s hardly ever good.” She leans back against her chair and settles in once again. “Well, you can’t say I didn’t try.”
“Didn’t try what?”
“It’s not important.” She has to raise her voice slightly to be heard above the water cascading into the pool. “How did you know where to find me, anyway?”
“I stopped by your house and talked to your mom.”
“She noticed I left?” Maia’s eyebrows make an appearance above her sunglasses. “Well, what are you waiting for? Tell me why you’re here.”
If I start with the rat poison in her closet, it’ll sound like an accusation. Better to lead with the reason I initially sought her out. “To find out why you told the cops Max was at Stuart Bigelow’s hotel when he was killed.”
“You know about that? You’ve got to be kidding me.” She makes a disgusted noise. “Wainwright promised not to reveal his source.”
“Wainwright didn’t say anything. You just did.”
“Very clever, Jade. I won’t ask how you figured it out, because it doesn’t matter.” She pauses and taps her fingers against her bare legs. “Well, I’m waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For you to thank me for not telling the cops you were at the hotel, too.” Maia laughs. “Don’t look so worried, Jade. I saw Max arrive at the hotel before you. Bigelow was already dead when you got there.”
“How do you know that?”
She laughs again, although nothing about this conversation strikes me as funny. “Because your boyfriend Max killed him.”
“He did not.”
The sun disappears behind a cloud. Maia takes off her sunglasses and examines perfectly shaped fingernails painted the same shade of blood-red as her toenails. Since we were together yesterday at the mall, she’s had a mani-pedi. “You sure about that?”
“Yes,” I declare. No matter how many things about him don’t add up, Max is no murderer.
“Party time!” A woman with an infamous face comes through the French doors carrying two glasses filled to the brim with red liquid slush. She closes the door behind her with a hip bump. “Sorry it took me so long to make the strawberry daiquiris, but I couldn’t find the blender and then—”
“Ahem,” Maia interrupts. “We have a visitor.”
Leanne Livingston raises her head, and her eyes meet mine. She stops abruptly, red liquid sloshing out of the glasses. Her face blanches to a ghoulish hue, appropriate since I thought she was a ghost the first time I saw her.
My heart jumps into my throat. My brain screams at me to run. Because I can come up with only one reason the Black Widow’s identical twin would be living it up at Ocean Breeze with Maia.
She’s not Maia. She’s Constance Hightower, the Black Widow. The Ringer.
My stomach pitches and rolls. I’ve got no choice but to accept that Max was right all along. Body switching is not only possible, it’s already happened.
“Leanne, this is Jade Greene.” Maia—no, the Black Widow—says. “Jade, this is Leanne, my father’s girlfriend.”
Nice try, but I don’t think so. She told me yesterday that Maia’s father took his girlfriend to the Bahamas. My stay-and-fight instinct wars with the one that yells at me to take flight. If I run now, though, I’ll be doing Maia a disservice. I might never figure out what happened to her.
But if I don’t run, who knows what will happen to me?
The cell phone I keep inside my shorts pocket vibrates. It’s a lucky break that I forgot to turn the ringer back on after I switched it off at Maia’s house. My idea’s a long shot, but it just might work. As unobtrusively as I can, I fiddle with the phone and pray I got the right setting.
“Leanne and I met the night of the bomb scare, Maia.” I speak as loudly as I dare. “I’m surprised she’s here at your father’s house.”
“Like I said, Leanne’s my father’s girlfriend,” the Black Widow says tartly, “I know I told you they were in the Bahamas, Jade, but they came back early. The vacation wasn’t—”
“There’s something you need to know.” It’s Leanne’s turn to interrupt. She puts the strawberry daiquiris down and turns to the Black Widow. Her hands flutter. Her lips tremble. “I wasn’t honest with you about what happened on the pier.” She worries her bottom lip. “I told Jade and that guy she was with about the body switch.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Black Widow says.
“The body switch, Connie. She knows.”
“Well, she does now, Leanne. Honestly. You are terrible at keeping a secret.” The Black Widow’s sigh turns to a laugh when she shifts her attention to me. “What’s the matter, Jade? Cat got your tongue?”
The random thought pops into my mind that Roxy’s cat isn’t really a cat. Just like Maia is no longer Maia.
“You can’t be that surprised,” she continues. “You and Max figured out most of it. Otherwise, that roller coaster accident, well, it wouldn’t have been necessary.”
Think, Jade.
“We need to get the cops out here to sort this out,” I declare. “Right now.”
“Oh, come on, Jade.” The Black Widow doesn’t even sound like Maia anymore. Her voice is harsher, less melodic. “You really think that’s going to happen?”
“You just told me you tried to kill me!”
“I did not. Someone tried to kill you, but it wasn’t me.” She fluffs the back of her hair. “I don’t do the dirty work. Well, not usually. I’m a paying customer, after all.”
“You paid for a new body?”
“Exactly. My lawyer told me there was no way I’d beat the rap for killing my husband in court so I found another way to go free.”
“Who’s behind this?” I fire the question at her. “It can’t only be Roxy.”
“Roxy?” The Black Widow smiles, like that strikes her as funny.
“You should stop talking, Connie,” Leanne cuts in. It looks like there are drops of blood on her white one-piece bathing suit, but I realize it’s actually spilled liquid from the daiquiris. “What if she tells someone?”
“Relax, Leanne. I’ve got no intention of telling her how the switch is done. And it’s not like anyone will believe her if she blabs. Everybody thinks she’s nuts, her and her mother.” The Black Widow gestures to the table. “Can you hand me one of those daiquiris, Leanne?”
Leanne obliges, and the Black Widow delicately licks the rim of the glass. “Ah, this is the life. Your late friend Maia should have appreciated it more.”
Maia’s dead. The truth slams into me like a brick to the head. She had faults, like her love of gossip. But she was basically a good person. And this woman is responsible for her death.
“You think you’re so smart, but you overlooked something,” I say slowly and clearly. “I found the rat poison in Maia’s closet next to the photo collage of Hunter. You know, the one with the black marker crossing out his face.”
“What is she talking about, Connie?” Leanne asks. “Who is Hunter?”
“Hunter’s the guy who jilted Maia,” I answer. “Before your sister stole Maia’s body, Maia tried to poison him.”
“You really don’t get it, do you? I gave you too much credit for being bright.” The Black Widow wears a self-satisfied smirk. “I poisoned Hunter. Your cowardly little friend Maia would never have had the courage.”
“I don’t understand.” I’m still afraid, but I’m also curious. “Maia had a motive. You don’t.”
“You need to understand I’m not a monster.” The Black Widow takes another sip of her strawberry daiquiri. “I’m... grateful to your friend for the use of her body. The least I could do is punish the guy who did her wrong.”
I’d never heard that version of the story from Maia. “But Maia told everybody she broke up with Hunter.”
“She lied about who dumped who to save face,” the Black Widow says. “Hunter was just like my late husband, running around with other girls, not a faithful bone in his body. Maia should have given him the axe first, but she didn’t.”
“How do you know all that?”
“Come on, Jade. You’re not that stupid. Surely you can figure it out.”
“You have Maia’s diary?”
She makes a scoffing noise. “I have her residual memories. Body switching probably isn’t the best description of the, uh, procedure I had done. Mind switching is more accurate.”
“Connie,” Leanne says, her voice cracking. “I really don’t think you should be telling her any of this.”
“It’s sweet of you to worry about me, Leanne. But it’s not like the cops will come after me. Hunter’s just fine.”
“Stuart Bigelow isn’t fine.” I know I don’t imagine the sudden tension in her body. I’m not sure how, but suddenly I can picture what happened. “You tried to poison him, too.”
It’s not such a wild guess. The Black Widow had to be in the vicinity of the hotel when Bigelow died. Otherwise, she wouldn’t know Max and I had been there. The memory of all the blood in that room assaults me. I’d even thought I stepped in some, but it hadn’t been blood on the carpet. It had been coffee.
“You put the poison in his coffee, didn’t you?” I guess. “Did he taste it? Smell it? Figure out what you were trying to do?”
She glares at me with a hateful expression unlike any I’d seen from Maia.
“Explain something to me.” I continue talking. “If you’re not a monster, why is Bigelow dead?”
“I didn’t put enough poison in his drink to kill him,” the Black Widow scoffs. “I was only trying to get him to back off from his threats to expose me. But when he came after me, of course I defended myself.”
“Expose you? Bigelow knew you took over Maia’s body?”
“Oh, come on. He wasn’t Woodward or Bernstein. But he did figure out I poisoned Hunter.” She’s revealing so much that beads of sweat trickle down my face. My stomach rolls. The Black Widow is already responsible for the deaths of two men. Would she really hesitate to get rid of me?
She drains her drink, stands up and slips an expensive-looking silk cover-up over her bathing suit. Then she picks up the bag at her feet and reaches into it. I’ve seen so many slasher movies I expect her to pull out a knife. Instead, she produces a small, black gun.
“Too many bodies are piling up in Midway Beach.” I will my voice not to shake. Showing fear would not be good. “If you kill me, the cops will find you.”
“Connie, put down the gun!” Leanne wails. “Don’t shoot her!”
“Would you stop that, Leanne,” the Black Widow says on a sigh. “I only took out the gun so she’d give me her phone.”
I’ve been surrounded by so much lying, I don’t quite believe her. The estates are far enough apart that she just might risk firing a shot. I gulp back the panic in my throat and play dumb. “What phone?”
“The phone in your pocket you’ve been using to record our conversation.” The Black Widow aims the gun at my forehead. “Hand it over this instant. Unless you want to find out how far I’ll go to protect what I’ve got going here.”
Anyone who would pursue a body switch doesn’t have limits. Wordlessly I reach into my pocket and hand over the phone.
She grabs it and tosses it into the pool. The phone breaks the pristine surface of the water with a soft splash and disappears into the blue depths. The Black Widow puts the gun back in her bag. She doesn’t seem to notice that her sister is hyperventilating.
“There goes your proof,” the Black Widow says. “If you repeat anything I said, Jade, I’ll deny it.”
Finally, coming around the side of the house, I see evidence that my gamble has paid off. Officer Wainwright, for once without his partner, strides toward us with ground-eating steps. Maia’s back is to him. Because of the waterfall in the pool, she doesn’t hear him coming.
“You can’t keep me here!” I’m impressed with the volume of my shout. “I don’t care how much you threaten me.”
“Threaten you?” the Black Widow asks. “Who’s threatening you?”
“What’s going on here?” Officer Wainwright demands. Both the Black Widow and her sister Leanne turn toward him with twin looks of surprise that are almost comical. “I got a call that Jade was being held against her will.”
“Well, you can see that’s ridiculous, Officer.” The Black Widow is suddenly cool and poised, qualities she probably perfected on the beauty pageant circuit. “Who would say such a thing?”
“Max Harper.” I’d been pretty sure when my cell phone rang that Max was on the other end since he’d been calling non-stop all day. “You were wrong. I wasn’t recording us. But I did have an open line to Max.”
I’d worked into the conversation where I was, who was with me and what was going on. When I declared that we needed the cops to sort things out, I’d been hoping Max would get the message to call them. Thankfully, he had.
“It doesn’t look like you’re being held against your will, Jade,” Wainwright said.
“Check her bag. There’s a gun in there. She said she’d kill me if I told anybody what I found in her closet.”
“I did not!” the Black Widow retorts, her poise cracking. “Leanne, tell the officer I did no such thing!”
“She didn’t threaten anyone, Officer,” Leanne says dutifully.
Wainwright picks up the Black Widow’s bag.
“Wait!” she protests. “You don’t have permission to search my bag.”
“With reasonable suspicion, I don’t need permission.??
? Wainwright rustles through her bag and lifts out the gun, his expression turning dark. His gaze zeroes in on me. “What did you find in her closet, Jade?”
“Rat poison. And photos of Hunter Prescott with his face crossed out.”
“She’s lying!” The Black Widow shouts. “Everybody knows she’s crazy!”
“There’s an easy way to find out if I’m telling the truth,” I tell Wainwright. “Get a search warrant and look in her closet.”
“No!” The Black Widow launches herself at me, her nails poised to rake my face.
Wainwright intercepts her before she can do damage, hooking her around the waist with one muscled arm.
“Let me go!” she screams, struggling wildly. She’s no match for Wainwright. He pulls out a pair of handcuffs and cuffs her hands behind her back.
“You’ll want to get a toxicology report on Stuart Bigelow.” I’m careful to stay out of kicking range of the Black Widow. “That rat poison in her closet, she used it on him before she killed him.”
“You bitch!”
“And here I thought that was you,” I say.
She ignores me and addresses Wainwright. “This is all a big mistake! If there’s anything in my closet, Jade planted it there.”
“We can sort it out down at the station,” Wainwright says. “If Jade’s lying, we’ll find out soon enough when we search that closet and process the fingerprints.”
“Leanne! Do something! Convince him to let me go.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Wainwright says before Leanne can say anything. “Aren’t you Constance Hightower’s twin?”
“She sure is,” I answer for Leanne. “Why don’t you ask her why she’s hanging out with Maia?”
“Don’t tell him anything, Leanne,” the Black Widow orders. She turns to me, fierce hatred shining from her eyes. “I’m not telling you a damn thing, either. You’ll never figure out how we did it.”
I get as close to her as I dare. “Why not tell me? Once the cops find that rat poison, it’s all over for you anyway.”
“If you think you’ll be safer with me behind bars,” she hisses, “you couldn’t be more wrong.”
“Enough with the threats,” Wainwright says and starts to lead her to his squad car.
“Watch your back, Jade,” the Black Widow yells over her shoulder. “I’m not your only enemy. The others are still out there.”