James Conway - In Cold Blonde

The amount shocked Syd. She’d known there’d been a settlement, but not how much. A million dollars, wow. And that got her thinking… If Nick Wood hadn’t been recorded raping Alice, if he wasn’t personally in danger of going to jail, would he have coughed up a million dollars? Not likely.

So if Nick Wood hadn’t raped Alice, there would have been no payoff so Alice would have gone to the police with her parents and gotten her day in court. She might never have tried to kill herself. She might never have gone to the Institute. She might have had all her childhood dreams come true.

The real bad guy here, the ultimate bad guy, was Nick Wood.

“So now you’ve got a problem,” Syd said. “You have another man to kill.”

Alice looked at her, surprised. “That’s right. My plan was to just kill the four of them, Blake, Adam, Colin and that lawyer. After that, it didn’t matter. I actually wanted to get caught by the police so I could tell my story.” Alice laughed. “I had this crazy thought my story might inspire other women to fight back, stand up for themselves the way I didn’t. Men take advantage of women every day and we just let them! Well, I was sending a message with every bullet, with every amputated prick. And if other women started fighting back, started to make men pay for their cruelty, maybe, just maybe, scumbags like Colin, Adam and Blake would think twice before they rape somebody.”

Okay, thought Syd. That’s a little nuts, but hey, she’s spent the last eleven years in a psychiatric hospital, what do you expect.

And Syd thought she knew the answer to the next question but she asked it anyway. “Why now, Alice? Why wait eleven years?”

“I’ve got cancer. The doctors just gave me a few months to live. They told me to use the time as productively as I could. I don’t think they had my becoming a serial killer in mind, but hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

So she was living a lie, Syd thought. A psychiatric trick gone horribly awry. The question was, should Syd tell her that?

“I am a little ashamed that it took a death sentence for me to take my revenge,” Alice said. “But I was never willing to throw my life away to get back at them. You know, go to jail or get killed trying to get even. As crappy as my life was, at least it was my life. That’s what keeps most victims down isn’t it, the law’s crazy insistence on even punishing the innocent if they want a little payback?”

Syd was about to give her the standard answer about civilization being built on laws and blah blah blah, instead she blurted out, “It didn’t hold me back. I killed my stepfather.”

Alice’s eyes went wide. “You what?”

“He’d been sexually abusing me for years and one night I just… killed him. I never told anyone that before. Never even said it out loud.”

“Why’d you tell me?”

“I don’t know. Because I wanted you to know I understand how you feel, I guess. And my road from there to here hasn’t been easy. I barely made it. Yet, even knowing that, if I had it to do over again, kill him I mean, I would do it in a second.”

“Justice.”

Syd nodded. “Justice.”

Then they sat for a moment, both lost in their own thoughts, the only sound the crashing of waves on the beach.

Then Syd made a decision. She stood up, pulled a key out of her pocket, leaned down and unlocked Alice’s handcuffs. “Nick Wood is in hiding. I’m not sure where he is, but a good place to start may be his house.”

Syd helped Alice to her feet. “You’re letting me go?”

Syd shrugged. “By the time I got here you were gone.” Syd reached into her jacket pocket, handed Alice her scalpel and gun. “I don’t know how much time I can buy you, so act fast.”

“Thank you…” Alice laughed. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Syd. My name is Syd.”

“Thank you, Syd.”

And now it was time to tell her the truth about the cancer, Syd thought. “There’s something you should know Alice…” Syd trailed off as she saw Ryan step into the living room. Alice saw Syd’s reaction and turned to see who was there.

And that’s what Ryan saw, the Lady in Red turning toward him, a gun in her right hand. Years of training kicked in and purely on instinct, Ryan raised his Glock and fired twice even as Syd called, “Ryan, no!”

Both shots hit Alice in the chest. She staggered back and then crumpled to the floor. Syd dropped next to her. Blood pumped from the two chest wounds. “Alice,” Syd cried as she tried to stem the bleeding. But it was too late. Alice placed her hands over Syd’s, looked her new friend in the eye, managed a feeble smile, and died.

Ryan rushed to Syd, knelt down. “Are you all right?”

Syd stared at Ryan, a bit dazed, trying to make sense out of what just happened. “I’m fine. What’re you doing here?”

Ryan looked at her, confused. “You called me, left a message. I called back but you didn’t answer. You sure you’re okay.”

No, thought Syd. But she said, “I’m sure, yeah, I’m fine.”

The sound of distant sirens cut through the night. Syd reacted, surprised. “You called for backup?”

“When I pulled up, I saw your car. You didn’t answer your phone, so yeah. I called Hanrahan, told him to send the cavalry.” His eyes slid off her to the Lady in Red. “Want to tell me what happened before I got here?”

Syd had a decision to make. Trust Ryan or lie. Finally telling someone about her stepfather had felt good. Syd would love to tell Ryan about her stepfather; what he did to her, why she’d felt a bond to the Lady in Red, how she was about to let the Lady in Red go. She wanted to trust Ryan with everything. Tell him about those first terrible years in Hollywood, about Ernesto, the EMT, Eric Templeton, his sister, Andrea. To trust him with everything. Yesterday it would have been a no-brainer, yesterday she trusted him with her life.

But tonight, after seeing him in Anne’s arms, she wasn’t so sure.

Syd said, “I only got here a few minutes ago, saw the body on the living room floor and started searching for the Lady in Red. But I fucked up, Ryan. When I was looking here in the office, she got the drop on me.”

Syd could see doubt in Ryan’s eyes, but she plowed ahead before he could poke at her story. “I was actually talking to her when you showed up, trying to get her to turn herself in. She came here to kill Blake Hunter, but he got the gun away from her, shot her in the shoulder; she fought back with the scalpel, got the gun back and killed him.”

Ryan glanced at the Lady in Red, saw the bloodstain on her shoulder.

“Take a look at what she did to Blake Hunter, Ryan. He’s a mess.”

Ryan hesitated, he knew Syd well enough to know he wasn’t getting the whole story, but he figured no need to rush it, especially since he had a bagful of his own deceit to deal with.

So he stood up, stepped carefully around the bloodstains to examine Blake Hunter. “Jesus fucking Christ,” Ryan muttered. “She filleted him.”

“They must’ve had one hell of a fight,” Syd said. “Check out the master bathroom, there’s blood everywhere.”

Ryan was happy to look at anything but Blake’s butchered face.

“Down the hall to the left,” Syd said, pointing. As soon as Ryan disappeared down the hall, Syd hustled to the DVD player and hit the eject button. The High School Pool Partydisc slid out. She stuck it in her jacket pocket. Next she grabbed the digital tape out of the video camera and tucked it safely away.

In the bathroom Ryan stared at the bloodstained towels, discarded bandage packaging, open medicine cabinets. Something on one of the bottles caught his attention; he put on his surgical gloves, carefully picked up the bottle. A bloody fingerprint was on the label. Then he noticed the same fingerprints on other bottles. The Lady in Red had gone through Blake’s drugs. Looking for what? Then he saw the open bottle of Betadine; she was looking for antiseptic he realized. She wanted to disinfect the gunshot wound.