Gemma Halliday - Alibi In High Heels

"You two," she said, waving the gun at Mom and Mrs. Rosenblatt. "Into the bathroom."

Mom looked at me. I did a slight shrug. Since she had the gun and we didn't, I didn't think we were really in a place to argue.

Mom slowly moved to the right, inching into the bathroom, her hands up in a surrender motion. Mrs. R followed, waddling awkwardly through the tiny doorway.

"Maddie?" Mom said tentatively.

"I'll be okay," I said with a false assurance I certainly didn't feel. Especially when Charlene shut the door behind them, barricading it with a chair underneath.

"I guess it's just you and me now," she said, a slow smile spreading across her features.

Oh boy.

"I believe you have something that belongs to me," she said advancing on me.

"I do?" Instinctively, I took a step back.

"The camera. Hand it over."

"You know, technically, it doesn't actually belong to you, it belongs to Gisella. Who is dead, but I guess you'd know that because you killed her. But really, I think the camera is the rightful property of her heirs. So, unless you're in her will-"

"Shut up!" She pointed the gun at my nose.

I shut up.

"Felix was right. You do have a big mouth."

Hey! "Felix said that about me?"

She barked out a short laugh. "Of course not. The man worships the ground you walk on."

"He does not," I protested.

"Oh, yes he does. Maddie this, Maddie that, you're all he talks about. It's disgusting."

I paused. "So… he's not working with you?"

He scoffed. "Felix? Please. You think he'd be man enough to follow through with something like this?"

Hey! Felix may be many things, but he wasn't a chicken. But, instead I said, "But the water. He handed it to me."

She grinned. "I asked him to. Said you looked a little flushed. Heaven forbid his Maddie should be dehydrated."

" His Maddie?" My cheeks flooded with heat.

"Oh, don't be flattered. Felix has the brain of a fruit fly."

"Hey!"

She scowled at me.

Oops, I'd said that one out loud.

She narrowed her pale eyes at me. "I have had to deal with that man's bullshit my whole life. I've sat by as he was handed everything that I had to struggle for. Do you know what it's like being the adopted child of the trophy wife? After dear old Dad died, Felix got everything, the title, the land, the money. And what did I get? Nothing. He never had to work a day in his life. All the while I had to grow up dirt poor going to visit my titled relations in the castle that should have been mine. Felix doesn't even like England! Running off to L.A. to live in the land of bimbos and write for that silly paper."

She was getting so worked up an unattractive glob of spittle was forming at the corners of her mouth, reminding me of a rabid dog. I cringed, involuntarily ducking to avoiding being the victim of an over annunciated "P".

"But all that was going to change," she said, her eyes gleaming. "Once I got him to marry me."

"But he's your nephew," I said getting just a little squicked out.

"Adopted. We're not blood relations, remember. As my dear old dad delighted in pointing out at every turn."

"You really think he'll marry a killer?"

"You really think he'll find out?" she asked.

"All the signs that pointed to Felix being the killer… they easily pointed to you as well," I reasoned, stalling for time. I heard Mom and Mrs. R shuffling in the bathroom, a thud falling against the closed door. "It was you that found out about Donatello, wasn't it?"

"You mean Donata ?" She smirked. "Yes. The moment I met her I knew there was something familiar about her. Then Angelica told me she'd been a model in the past. Of course, I looked through my old magazines and what do you know, she had. As a he. Fashion may be an open minded sort of business, but there are limits. And Donata and I both knew that a transsexual agent was pushing them a little too far."

"So you and Gisella hatched a plan."

"I hatched a plan," she corrected me. "Gisella had the brains of a canary. Gisella was all about Gisella. Which worked out fine. She did the strutting and while all eyes were on her, I orchestrated the rest."

"You blackmailed Donata."

She nodded. "That part was easy. Donata was happy to comply with our requests. Especially once Gisella started booking things on her own. Donata made plenty of money off Gisella. She he had no reason to complain."

"And Gisella?"

She shrugged. "Gisella was happy as long as she was kept in furs and heels."

I heard Mom and Mrs. R make another run at the door. The chair beneath the knob wiggled a little. If I could just keep Charlene talking…

"And you two were lovers?" I asked, trying not to glance at the bathroom door.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "What makes you say that?'

"I saw the camera. The videos she took."

For a moment Charlene faltered. "She took video of us?"

I nodded. "You didn't know?"

She shook her head. "So that's your evidence, huh? A torrid lesbian affair?" She snorted. "Hardly as conclusive as the television said."

"But…" I said, watching her reactions. "Enough to make Felix wonder."

She clenched her jaw, the truth of my words sinking it. "Well, you can't very well hand it over to the press now, can you?"

"Uh, it's in my room. Come with me, we'll go get it," I said stalling for time.

"Right. And let the cameras in the hallway catch me with a gun on you? I don't think so, Maddie. No, I'll just wait until we're through here and retrieve it myself, thank you very much."

Crap.

"Speaking of which," she said, pointing the gun at me and taking a step forward.

"Okay, I bluffed," I blurted out.

Charlene stopped advancing. "What?"

"I bluffed. I don't have any video footage."

"Bullshit! The television said you were turning it over after the show."

"Because that's what I told them. It was all a bluff to smoke Charlie out of hiding."

She looked at me. Her face going white. Finally she spit out a word. "Shit."

Very unladylike. Dear old Dad wouldn't approve.

She straight-armed the gun at me. "You mean you don't even have it?! You mean you were lying this whole time?"

"No, there was video footage. I just… erased it. On accident."

Suddenly the rage drained from her face and she threw her head back and laughed.

"You erased it?"

I nodded. "Um, yeah."

"You and Felix really are made for each other. A couple of nitwits."

Mom thudded against the door again, inching the chair forward.

"So, um, what now?" I asked. Not that I really wanted to know. But the longer I kept her talking the less she was shooting.

Charlene took a step forward, going nose to nose with me. I could smell Listerine on her breath.

"Now, I hop a flight back to England, I live like a queen on my proceeds until I can convince my dear nephew to marry me, and live happily ever after. The end," she said.

I took a shallow breath. "And what happens to me?"

She narrowed her eyes. "The end."

I gulped. "And Mom and Mrs. Rosenblatt?"

That wicked grin spread across her features again. "Oh, I'm not going to do anything to them . You're going to do it all. You are, after all, the Couture Killer."

I felt a knot form in my stomach. "What do you mean?'

Charlene took a step back and unzipped one of the suitcases. She pulled out a pair of black stiletto heels. "One for each of them," she said, gesturing toward the bathroom door.

"There's no way anyone would believe that," I said. Even as I doubted the truth of the words. People already believed me to be a killer, this would just be confirmation.

"Oh yes, they will. Especially when they read your suicide note."

"Suicide note?" I asked, my voice going small.