Foreign Facades

Chapter 1

Chapter 1Gweneth Nicole

“Taylor, you’ve got to calm down, I can hardly understand a word you’re saying.”

Gweneth Worthington logged off her computer in irritation. Nothing annoyed her more than when a convention was booked, even if it did earn her a bonus. And now this, her more or less neurotic, more or less sister-in-law on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She should have never picked up the call.

“You’ve got to do something, Gwen. It’s your damn partner that dragged my Mason into this. He would never desert his family, and on a weeknight yet. I just know she’s gotten him back into gambling. Do something!” Taylor sounded on the verge of hysteria.

“What makes you think he didn’t just run to Target?”

“I’m telling you, Gwen, something’s up, and Madison is involved. Don’t you at least want to make sure she’s not getting into trouble?”

The again hung unspoken between them, and Gwen cringed.

“All right, tell me what you know.”

And now here she was, on her way to some address Taylor had found under a pile of papers on Mason’s desk, probably on some wild goose chase, because Taylor had gotten it into her head that Madison lured her brother to a poker game and he was going to lose all their money. And it was somehow all Gwen’s fault, as usual. Wasn’t everything?

Sure enough, Maddie’s car was parked in front of a rundown shack in a part of town neither of them would normally be caught dead in. Adjacent houses were boarded up, decorated liberally with graffiti, and those that appeared to still be occupied had trash littering front lawns sorely in need of being cut. Gwen remained in her car, waiting out a scrawny stray dog that was investigating an overturned trash can. That looks like a bullet hole in the side of the can. She looked around nervously. And the sun’s going down, too. Maddie better not be too drunk to drive this time. There won’t be much left of her Fiat if she leaves it here overnight.

When the dog finally moved on down the street, Gwen cautiously emerged from her Honda Accord, made sure to lock the door—as if that would do any good—and checked all around her as she headed toward the door of the nearest house with lights on. Why on earth are they at a poker game in this neighborhood? Even if Maddie doesn’t use the best judgment, Mason has better sense. What were the two of them thinking?

Gwen climbed the disintegrating steps to the porch, avoiding pieces of broken pottery scattered about. What was she supposed to do, knock politely? Her very proper parents hadn’t prepared her for an occasion such as this. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t prepared for anything in her life with Madison.

“Goddammit!”

Gwen recoiled and almost fell off the porch, but she wasn’t going to be put off this time just because the game apparently wasn’t going well for someone. It was high time Madison got caught in one of her many lies. Gwen only hoped she’d won back enough money to help pay the rent.

“It’s five grand you owe me, not thirty-five hundred. I’m not giving you another extension, damn it! You’ve had long enough already.”

“Now, Denny, you know we’re good for it. My sister needs those perks. What else is she supposed to do?”

“I don’t give two shits what you or your goddamn sister need. I’m telling you I need that f*****g money! I’ll give you ten seconds to pay me what you owe me or…”

Gwen’s pulse throbbed in her temples. Five grand! What had Maddie gotten herself into this time? She tried the knob and was surprised when the door swung open. To her right stood a tall, skinny dude with a gun trained on Mason. He shifted his attention toward Gwen.

Bang!

The bullet that entered the guy’s chest sent him reeling backward.

“Gwen? What the—?”

Maddie held a gun pointed toward where the man had been standing, the man now on the floor, crimson blood pooling beneath him, slowly spreading toward Gwen. Her gaze was riveted to the blank stare on the face turned in her direction, and she felt bile rise in her throat as the room grew darker.

* * * *

“Oh, Maddie, I just had the most horrible dream.” Lifting her head, Gwen opened her eyes to blink away the sensation of vibration. Only it didn’t work. Her bed still vibrated. No, not her bed. What the…? Gwen’s vision cleared and she recognized the ice scraper she’d thrown into the backseat of her car just that morning.

“s**t. It wasn’t a dream, was it?” She sat up. Madison was driving. “What the hell is going on? Did you just—”

“Shut up and let me think, will you?” Madison’s voice was unrecognizable.

She didn’t just see her partner of three years shoot and kill a man. She couldn’t have. Maddie was a lot of things, but a killer? No. There has to be a logical explanation.

“Who is—was—that guy? What were you doing with him? Where are you taking us?”

The car rolled into an abandoned gas station and came to a stop next to a rusted pump. Maddie’s Fiat pulled up next to them, Mason at the wheel.

“We’ll have a nice little chat later. Right now we have to figure out how to get rid of Denny’s body before it stinks up your trunk.”

“My trunk?” Gwen was starting to feel lightheaded again.

“Well, you didn’t think he was going to fit in my little Fiat, did you?” Maddie’s voice was detached. “Besides, I just had it detailed.”

Gwen shivered. Who was that woman sitting in the driver’s seat, her expression cold and distant?

A shadowy face appeared at the window and Gwen gasped before realizing it was Mason. He pulled open the passenger door and got in. Mason and Madison exchanged glances before both of them turned to look at Gwen. There was silence for a moment before Gwen started to laugh.

“Of course! This is another one of your practical jokes. Oh, it’s a good one, Mason, I’ll give you that. You really got me. Thank God!” She waited for them to break into raucous laughter, for more cars to pull up beside them, their friends jumping out to tease her about her gullibility. But nothing.

“We have to tell her, Maddie.”

“Fuck.” Madison lit a cigarette.

“Oh, Maddie, not in the car.”

“Seriously?”

“We should start at the beginning.” Mason’s expression was gentle.

“Well, make it quick, will you? This is not exactly the safest spot in the world, you know.” Madison took a big drag of her cigarette and blew the smoke out the window.

“Gwen, you know how badly Madison was injured when she fell off that scaffold—”

“I never even got to finish the damned mural. They got somebody else to take over and he utterly ruined it.” Another drag.

“Madison, be quiet.”

Gwen frowned. “Of course I know. I mean, it was before we met, but Maddie told me about it. I know she’s lucky to be able to walk at all after breaking her back. What does this have to do with anything?” She turned toward Gwen. “Do you still owe the hospital money? Wait, that doesn’t make any sense. Bill collectors don’t meet with you in bad neighborhoods.”

“Well, if you’d let him finish…But do we really have to take this trip down memory lane while there’s a body decomposing in Gwen’s trunk?”

Gwen groaned and pressed her fingers to her temples.

“Right. We need figure out a game plan. Do you have any ideas, Maddie, since you’re the reason we’re in this mess?”

“That’s right, blame me. It’s not my fault you weren’t able to come up with the money this time.”

“And it’s not my fault you needed the money. You should’ve gone to see that pain management doctor I recommended. Then we might not be in this mess.”

“Doctors aren’t worth crap, especially when it comes to controlling pain. You know I’ve tried everything. Don’t you remember what it was like for me?”

Mason looked defeated. “I can’t get those days out of my head. Watching you suffer that way just about killed me.”

“Well, it was no walk in the park for me either, you know!”

“Would somebody mind telling me what all this has to do with the…body—I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation—in my car? How the hell did it get in there, anyway?”

“Not that you were any help unconscious, but we finally managed to get both of you out of there before the cops came. Fortunately, nobody in that neighborhood seemed curious about a gunshot. Good thing it was dark. A couple of well-dressed honkies dragging a body out might have attracted some attention.”

“What were you doing there in the first place? Taylor called me all freaked out, saying you’d taken Mason to a poker game again. She was livid. You know she doesn’t like him gambling.” Gwen laughed. “That’s ironic, isn’t it? It’s okay, Taylor. He wasn’t gambling. He and Madison were just killing a guy. And to think you were worried!”

“I’m glad you find this so amusing. You realize the gang is going to be looking for all of us, and as if that wasn’t enough, now I have to find a new dealer.”

“I’m sure card dealers are not that hard to come by. Wait. What do you mean, looking for us?”

“Not a card dealer. Jesus Christ, for someone who grew up in Chicago, you’re pretty damn clueless.” Madison stubbed out her cigarette.

“Are you telling me…”

“He’s a drug dealer, Gwen. From a very powerful gang. His homies aren’t going to take this lying down.”

“Drugs?”

Madison took Gwendolyn’s face in her hands. “News flash! You’re involved with an addict, Sweetcakes. Not an ordinary drunk. Not a gambler. No, a bona fide user of street drugs. Biscuits, Blue Heaven, Captain Cody…My drug of choice is Hillbilly Heroin, or what you’d call Percocet. And let me tell you, they don’t come cheap.”

“You’re addicted to pain killers!” Gwen was stunned. How had she not seen the signs?

“No s**t, Sherlock.”

“Mason, you’re in on this? You knew about it, and you never told me?”

“You didn’t see her, Gwen. She was in the hospital for weeks after the accident. Then months of agonizing physical therapy. She’s lucky she can still walk.”

“You forgot to mention how lucky I am that I no longer pee and poop all over myself. That was another fun time. But I worked hard, damn it!”

Mason patted her on the shoulder. “I know you did. I was there, remember?” Gwen didn’t doubt that Maddie’s twin brother stood by her every step of the way, just as he was doing now. “I hate that they haven’t been able to help with the pain.”

“Life sucks and then you die, right? But at least with the drugs I can get by all right. It’s not my fault the ones I need are regulated by the government.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Gwen’s anger turned to sympathy, as it so often did when it came to Maddie. Damn her.

“Would you have moved in with me knowing I was a drug addict? That if I didn’t get my fix, I wanted to jump out the window?” Madison chuckled bitterly. “But with my luck, I’d end up a vegetable, depending on the two of you to take care of me.”

“But street drugs…They’re dangerous, Maddie. You don’t know what you’re getting.”

“I’m not stupid, Gwen. I’ve known my supplier for years. That’s why I can’t believe they got so bent out of shape when I was late with the money this time. Bastards! You can’t trust anybody anymore.”

“What are we going to do now? We need to call the police. It was an accident. Or self-defense. That man had a gun, too. Just tell them you thought he was going to hurt you.”

Mason and Madison looked at her as though she had three heads.

“Um, honey, you don’t go to the police because you accidentally shot your drug dealer. I’d never see the light of day again, and I’m sure they wouldn’t be worried about my pain management issues in prison.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Me? We’re all in this together, my dear. But first, we need to get rid of Denny. Anybody have any ideas?”

Mason looked around, scratching his head. “I passed a lot of abandoned houses on my way here, most overgrown with brush. I highly doubt a body would be discovered right away if we ditched it in one of them. Probably nobody would notice a thing, at least till the smell got really bad.”

Bile rose in Gwen’s throat again. She was inches away from the dead guy in her trunk and Mason and Madison were calmly making plans for getting rid of a human being as though they had a fast-food bag they needed to toss somewhere. She felt her head getting heavy and her skin clammy, and she sank into the seat again. The car pulled away from the gas station, and when she was able to raise her head again, the car was backed into an overgrown driveway next to what must have once been someone’s home.

Faintly illuminated by a flickering streetlight, the house looked like a jigsaw puzzle, missing pieces of siding giving it a checkerboard appearance. What shutters remained hung at odd angles, and painted symbols adorned the boards covering most of the windows. The front door had bars across it. Empty bottles littered the overgrown lawn, and porch steps were barely visible beneath vines that threatened to engulf the cracked concrete.

“Are you coming? We could use some help back here, you know.”

But Gwen stayed where she was, hands clutching the front headrest, trying not to lose her tenuous grip on sanity. Morbid curiosity made her occasionally glance to the rear, but fortunately the trunk lid obscured much of the activity taking place behind her.

After a few minutes came a grunt from Madison, followed by a jarring thump against the car. “That’s going to leave a nasty bruise.” Was Madison actually giggling?

The trunk finally slammed shut and Gwen couldn’t resist looking behind her once again. Mason and Madison each had a leg and were dragging the body along the gravel pathway. The man’s clothing caught on prickly vines as they hauled him toward a door hanging on one hinge.

Thunk, thunk, scrape. Thunk, thunk, scrape. Denny’s head bounced along the ground.

“Hurry, pull it open!” A dog barked nearby. Dear God, yes, please hurry.

Gwen turned back and hunkered down in the seat. Images assailed her and she imagined the dead man lying on the filthy floor, rats scurrying around him, chewing on his lifeless eyes, the last of his blood oozing from the hole left by Madison’s bullet. She swallowed hard, her sweaty hands clutched into fists over her stomach as she rocked back and forth.

“Let’s get out of here.” Gwen felt the car shift as Mason and Madison got back in the car.

“Where are we going? What are we going to do now?” Madison was in the driver’s seat. Gwen leaned forward and clutched Mason’s arm, drawing strength from his warmth. “Where’s Maddie’s car? What’s going to happen when the police find it?”

“I liked it better when you were unconscious.” Maddie lit another cigarette.

“She has a point, Maddie. We can’t just abandon your car like that. It could easily be traced. Better drop me off back where we left it and I’ll join you in a bit.”

Once Mason exited the vehicle and she and Madison were alone, Gwen’s heart started pounding. How did she know Madison wouldn’t turn the gun on her if it suited her? She didn’t know anything anymore. She kept quiet in the backseat. It was another twenty minutes before the car slowed in front of a rundown roadside motel with a flashing Vacancy sign. Madison pulled into the lot. Mason followed only seconds behind them, on foot. She didn’t even want to know how he had managed that. It seemed like the two had planned everything.

“Why are we stopping here? I just want to go home and get in the shower, then try to get some sleep.”

“Home? You don’t lead killers to your own home. But we need some place to talk privately and work out a plan.” Mason came over to the window and Madison handed him a wad of cash. “Don’t worry. They won’t ask for a credit card in a place like this.”

“We’re staying here? For how long? I have to work tomorrow. I’ll need a change of clothes.” Gwen heard herself talking like a perfectly rational person and almost laughed. Here she’d thought the worst thing about this day was when one of the conventioneers made a suggestive remark to her. Madison ignored her as she finished her cigarette.

Mason returned to the car and they got out, following him to a room at the end of one of the buildings. Litter blew across the parking lot, an empty Jim Beam bottle sat beside a broken folding chair next to the door, and a soiled diaper lay beneath the filthy window. Gwen tried to step around the disgusting mess, but groaned when one heel of her favorite Bandolino pumps stretched the residue of someone’s old chewing gum between her foot and the pavement.

“Oh, Maddie.” Gwen shook her head. “I only wish you’d confided in me what you had planned for tonight.”

Madison turned around to face her. “It was hardly planned. What difference would it have made anyway?”

“I would’ve dressed more appropriately.”