“What’s the pill?” Hawkins picked it up and looked at it.
“It’s Percocet. Right out of the bottle on your nightstand.” Gedeon held a knife up so the blade caught the light from the lamp on Hawkins’s nightstand. “The blade is sharp. Goes in clean. You’ll barely feel it at first.”
Hawkins sighed, put the Percocet in his mouth and tossed it back with water from the glass on his nightstand. “Is Laverne dead? Did you wait to kill McGregor so he could do his job?”
“No, Laverne is alive and well. She’ll inherit everything when you’re gone. She’s a good actress. I imagine she’ll garner a great deal of sympathy, being such a young widow. Such a young, wealthy widow. It was a good thing you insisted she inherit everything if you died.”
“That’s just bullshit, and you know it. They’ll suspect she murdered me. She’s been gone for this last week with no explanation.”
“She went to a women’s retreat. All the women there will testify to her being there.” Gedeon watched him closely. “She’s going to come home early when she’s contacted by the police. They’ll find you dead. Your prescription drug habit was kept under wraps. Tight. She wasn’t aware of it. Only a close few knew. Sadly, your Percocet was laced with fentanyl. You should have been more careful, Hawkins.”
For the first time, the smug smirk was wiped from Guy Hawkins’s face. He looked from his nightstand to Gedeon and then touched a hand to his throat, or tried to. His head lolled back on his neck against his pillow.
Gedeon stood up and walked across the room, shoving his knife back into the scabbard at his belt. “Your reputation will suffer just enough in the media to start the rumor mill gossiping, and your widow will defend you. This way to die is far too easy for you, Hawkins. If I had my choice, I would have made it a hard one. You would have paid for every single woman you had killed. As it is, you can die knowing Laverne will have your money. The gossipmongers will chew on your reputation. A really shrewd homicide detective is unraveling the deaths of those women you had murdered by McGregor, all of whom he can tie back to you. McGregor gave up the location of their bodies so the police can recover them. You’ll be dead, but your music legacy will be marred by your image.”
Hawkins couldn’t speak clearly. His words were slurred. Gedeon smiled at him. “Don’t worry about me, Guy. No one saw me come in and they won’t see me slip out. I’ve got an alibi even if they thought they saw me. I won’t leave behind any trace of me. It will look as if you were completely alone in your room. There will be no evidence of the last message between you and McGregor, but I find it nice you would have concerns.”
He waited for Hawkins to stop breathing, confirmed it by taking his pulse and then took his time hiding Hawkins’s prescription drugs all over the suite. He had the prescriptions filled from all different pharmacies from various counties and states. All were opiates. Some were obtained from unknown sources. Once Gedeon had placed evidence of Hawkins’s drug use throughout the suite, he left the music mogul slumped over in his bed, dead, to be found by his staff in the morning.
Slipping out into the night was easy enough. Meiling waited for him, sliding down from the rooftop of the mansion across the way after breaking down a sniper rifle and placing it in her case. He took her hand and walked around the block to their car, avoiding the street cameras and the door cameras that seemed to be on every door nowadays. Laverne and Edge were safe. Hawkins and McGregor were dead, and the women Hawkins would have marked for death would be safe. It was the best they could do. The job was finished and there was satisfaction in that.
18
A VERY small female leopard darted swiftly across the open meadow, where streaks of early morning light illuminated her thick, pale coat with its startling black rosettes. She was a gorgeous female, perfectly proportioned, her body sleek and balanced. When she ran, the muscles beneath her fur rippled and flowed, accentuating her beautifully marked pelt. Even with the meadow being open, the spotted coat of the leopard in the shadows and light managed to camouflage her, so she seemed to be more illusion than reality.
Moments after she disappeared into the trees, a male leopard’s large head pushed out of the brush. He was much more cautious, testing the air before he stepped fully into the open. He was a huge male for his kind. He had to weigh in at over two hundred pounds of solid muscle. When he moved, he was fluid, agile, clearly as flexible and supple as any cat weighing less. His thick fur was marred with scars in a few places, showing he had experience fighting. He walked with confidence, a male in his prime. When he crossed the meadow after the female, he did so staying within streaks of shadows, making it nearly impossible to follow his progress.