The Other Lady Vanishes (Burning Cove #2)(98)

“What about the others? Ormsby, Leggett, Gill. Even Paxton is dead now. They went down like dominoes. In the end the entire drug ring was destroyed. That was not a coincidence, was it? You wanted revenge on all of them. You succeeded in destroying them.”

“I admit I owe you and Jake Truett for Paxton’s death. I had other plans for him but you took care of that problem for me. As for Ormsby, Gill, and Leggett, it wasn’t hard to convince Paxton that he didn’t need any of them. He was so sure that I wasn’t very bright. He was also convinced that the Daydream had left my nerves in a very fragile state. I let him think that I needed him in order to survive the stress of Hollywood.”

“He believed you.”

“Yes.

“Paxton was convinced that he was controlling you,” Adelaide said. “He never realized that you were manipulating him.”

“He was only too happy to get rid of the others. He had his own grand plans for Daydream.”

“I know what happened to Ormsby,” Adelaide said. “Tell me about Thelma Leggett.”

“Leggett called me after she went into hiding. She told me that she had my Rushbrook records. She said she would release them to the press if I didn’t pay blackmail. I agreed. She ordered me to leave the first payment in an amusement park in a small town on the coast.” Vera gave an elegant shrug. “I sent Paxton, instead.”

“You knew he would probably kill her.”

“Yes, of course. I also knew that he would grab the stash of blackmail materials, including my records. But I knew he would keep quiet because he had as much to lose as I did if those records hit the headlines.”

“I assume it was also Paxton who talked Gill into drugging Conrad Massey and sending him to that pier to murder Jake,” Adelaide said. “Massey was supposed to shoot Jake and then use the gun on himself.”

“That was the plan. But I knew it would probably go badly for Massey and Gill.”

“Because the drug is inherently unpredictable?”

Vera smiled. “And because I had a hunch that Jake Truett was too smart to get himself killed at a late-night rendezvous with a drug-crazed man.”

“You were right,” Adelaide said. “But why did Paxton want to murder Conrad Massey?”

“Massey didn’t know much about Daydream but he knew enough to be dangerous. He could be counted on to keep quiet as long as he had control of your inheritance. But it had become clear that he had lost you to Truett, and that meant he would soon lose your money. That made Paxton very nervous. He became frantic when he found out that Massey had survived the meeting with Truett. He knew that if Massey pointed the cops at Gill, Gill would, in turn, point them at Dr. Paxton, diet doctor to the stars.”

“So Paxton got rid of Gill that same night.”

“And then he joined me at the Paradise,” Vera said. “He wanted to establish an alibi in case he needed one. After he left the Paradise I went back to my villa. I assumed Paxton had gone back to the Burning Cove Hotel. But I got an uneasy feeling early this morning. I telephoned his villa at the hotel. When there was no answer, I suspected that he was up to something. I was worried that he had gone after you again.”

“What did you do?”

“I tried calling you here. When neither you nor Truett answered, I did the only thing I could think of—I telephoned the Paradise Club. Luther Pell was not there but whoever answered the phone said he would get a message to him.”

“That explains why Luther telephoned the Rushbrook police early this morning,” Adelaide said.

“I know it probably doesn’t matter to you, but I never wanted you to get killed. I didn’t know that Paxton intended to murder you the same night he killed Ormsby at Rushbrook. I didn’t realize at first that you were the reason Paxton and Zolanda and Thelma Leggett had all made the sudden decision to travel to Burning Cove. But I realized that the location offered a perfect opportunity for me to set my plans in motion. You may not believe it, but I didn’t even know that you were Patient B, let alone that you had escaped Rushbrook—not until the morning after Zolanda jumped off that roof.”

“You didn’t know that Paxton planned to kidnap me or kill me that same night?”

“No,” Vera said. “Not until the next day. Up to that point I had been obsessed with my revenge. It was all I could think about. But the day after Zolanda went off that roof, I overheard some of Paxton’s phone call to Gill. That was when I realized exactly who you were. By then it was obvious that Jake Truett was more than he seemed—he was friends with Luther Pell, after all. It was also clear that Truett was going to keep a close eye on you. I hoped he could keep you safe.”

“You knew there had to be some reason why a man like Jake Truett would take a personal interest in a tearoom waitress.”

Vera smiled a cool smile. “Truett is not the only one with hidden depths. You are a very brave, very resourceful woman, Adelaide. You have no idea how much I admire you for pulling off that escape from Rushbrook. I understand why Mr. Truett is so interested in you.”

“If you admire me so much, why are you holding that gun on me?”

“Because I am well aware that you have no reason to trust me or help me. Where is my patient file?”

“It’s there on the table.”

Vera did not lower the gun, but she moved to the table and used her free hand to riffle through the contents of the file. She froze when she saw the photos.