“Two months later, Harrison was found in a bathtub. Again, very fancy mansion. Lots of security guards with dogs patrolling the very ritzy neighborhood. Mommy and Daddy were home entertaining their club friends including Robert Barnes-Holden Sr. Whoever killed him was in the house when they were all downstairs. The maid found him the next morning. He was hung upside down over a tub full of water on a pendulum-type device. He was hog-tied, hands and feet tied together behind his back. Again, his mouth was taped shut so he couldn’t yell out. He controlled the pendulum. If he didn’t hold the trigger balanced, his weight dropped his head toward the water. He was looking straight down the entire time.”
“Total mindfuck,” Gavriil said. “Adrik loved those.”
“Eventually, the kid slipped up, and his nose went under. He struggled to right himself, but of course he couldn’t. Every bit of the device was made from pieces from the art gallery the kids’ family owns, right down to the pulleys and screws. Again, security all over that gallery. Paintings there are worth a fortune. Absolutely nothing on camera and no prints anywhere,” Code said. “You have to admire this girl.”
“Was Scarlet looked at for this murder as well?” Steele asked.
“Holden Sr. insisted. He threw his weight all over the place. Went to the press. Demanded the cops do their job. Demanded she be put back in prison. Told everyone she was a killer.” Code placed the photograph carefully on the table in front of him, faceup, so he was looking down at her eyes. “Again, there was an investigation. She had an airtight alibi. Dozens of witnesses. She offered to take a lie detector test and she passed it no problem.”
Any one of them could do that. Absinthe was damn proud of her. More and more he was certain his girl had undergone five years of learning from some of the best, always looking for the right person to instruct her on what she needed. Someone had finally told her about Adrik Orlov and she’d dared to seek him out. Somehow, she’d convinced him to take her on and she’d endured a year of training under him when most students didn’t last six months. She had to have a will of iron.
“Holden Sr. ended up looking like he was a bully picking on this poor innocent girl who had lost her entire family. She cooperated with the police on both investigations. Her attorney showed up and made a point of telling the press that because Holden Sr. had money and her client didn’t, he thought he could railroad her just the way he had done before. That resonated with a lot of people and public opinion turned very quickly against him.”
Absinthe could see that. Scarlet was beautiful, small and at times, with her square-framed glasses and little pencil skirts, could look fragile in her librarian persona. He could imagine that Holden Sr. would appear the blustering bully shouting at her when she spoke so softly. She could play that role so beautifully, looking delicate while he shouted and raised his fist, demanding she go to prison.
“And the third death?” Czar prompted.
Code nodded. “That would Robert Barnes-Holden Jr. Just as Scarlet was getting into her car and leaving to go back to her sleepy little town, she turned and smirked at Holden Sr. At least that was what he told the chief of police. The chief took a report because Holden Sr. insisted, but by that time, all the cops thought he was a little crazy. No one believed a woman could have killed either of those men. They weren’t boys anymore, no matter what Holden tried to say, they were men and they worked out all the time. They would have overpowered her easily. The cops believed a man had to have committed the murders.”
Absinthe wanted to shake Scarlet. She deliberately wanted both Holden Jr. and Sr. to know she was coming after Robert Jr. Adrik had to have taught her better than that.
“Holden Sr. is extremely wealthy, and he’s used to buying his way and his kid’s way out of anything. He owns quite a few properties, but he lives in one that is very extravagant. He likes to show off and bring political friends there. The governor. A senator he knows. A few others he’s backed. He runs in the fast lane. His wife is very decorative, and she was an heiress with a hell of a lot of money,” Code said. “I’m telling you this because their son, Robert Jr, was the golden boy. He was raised to believe he was a prince and could do no wrong. The two other boys were always with him. Literally, they raced cars down the streets when they were old enough to drive. Robert hit an old man and killed him, and his father somehow got him off. He was seventeen when that happened.”