The Rich and the Dead Read online

  So, when the Janus Society failed to announce the recipients of its annual donation on January 1, 2015, no one knew what to do or whom to call. It wasn’t until the news of the Star Island massacre broke that people began putting two and two together. By the time that forensic accounting confirmed it, the media had been saying it for days: the Star Island twelve were the members of the Janus Society. And so the murders became the crime of the century.

  I KNOW ENOUGH,” Lila said in answer to Teddy’s question, watching as he walked to the wall of windows overlooking the ocean. He slid open an enormous glass door, filling the air-conditioned room with a damp, ocean-scented breeze.

  “Here’s a question,” Teddy said, changing the subject. “When you’re in pursuit of a criminal, what’s the most important yet most quickly depleted resource you have at your disposal?”

  “Patience,” Lila shot back. “I’m running quite low on it now, as a matter of fact.”

  “What I’m talking about,” Teddy went on, ignoring her, “is time. When you’re solving a case, time is of the essence, isn’t it? The more time passes, the farther the murderers can run, the hazier the memories become.”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “Time goes on and people just want to forget about the past. Especially if it involves something like a mass murder.”

  After a long pause, Teddy sat back down in the chair next to Lila. “Exactly how long did you look for the Star Island killer?”

  “A little over two years.”

  “And why did you stop?”

  “Is there a point to all this?” Lila asked impatiently.

  “There is,” Teddy assured her. “Just tell me why you left the force.”

  “My chief pulled me off the case. But I’m guessing you already knew that.”

  Teddy nodded.

  She continued, “He said I’d burned too many bridges. That I was doing more harm than good. After that, I knew it was time to go. I mean, what’s the point if the bad guys get away with it?”

  Silently, Conrad walked across the room and slid the door shut. The room instantly became ice cold once again.

  “So you gave up?”

  “I didn’t have a choice. I wasn’t getting anywhere. My chief was right. I’d pissed off too many people. No one likes it when a cop comes knocking on their door,” Lila said. “But the rich seemed to take particular offense.”

  “It’s not that we take particular offense,” Teddy said with a smile. “It’s just that we can usually buy people’s silence. It’s one of the few really valuable things that can be bought in this world.”

  Lila let out an exasperated sigh. “You said all you needed was five minutes. So tell me. Why am I here?”

  “I’ve already told you. To catch the Star Island killer, once and for all.”

  “What makes you think this time will be any different?”

  “This time,” Teddy said with a hint of a smile on his lips, “you’re going to solve the murder before it happens.”

  Lila let out a sudden snort of laughter. “And how exactly would I do that?” she asked in a mocking tone.

  “Forget about that for now,” Teddy replied. “Let’s just say it’s a given. What if you could go back to several months before the murders. Do you think you’d be able to catch the killer?”

  For once, Lila was at a loss for words. What was he getting at?

  “Do you?” he asked again, emphatically.

  “Yes,” she blurted out. “Of course I could. Knowing what I know now, I’d be able to find that sick fuck in a matter of seconds.”

  At that, Teddy began to nod his head, a smile lighting up his face. “I knew you were the right person,” he said.

  “The right person?” Lila repeated, still uncertain what he was getting at.

  “What I’m about to tell you may sound unbelievable.” Teddy looked directly into her eyes, holding her gaze. “You’re going to go back in time to find the Star Island killer.”

  “Oh, God.” Lila closed her eyes and pressed her fingers against her temples. For a brief second, she’d let herself hope that Teddy had found some new lead, that he might actually have something for her. She scolded herself for her stupidity.

  “Of course you don’t believe me. I understand.” Teddy stumbled over his words, talking quickly and anxiously. “But if you’ll just let me prove it to you—”

  “Listen,” Lila interrupted. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve had a long night. So if you’ll excuse me.” She stood up from her chair and walked toward the door to the garage.

  “Of course.” Teddy’s expression was unreadable. “Conrad will drive you home.”

  Lila kept her eyes glued to the black partition as Teddy’s car carried her back to reality. She kept replaying the scene in her head, the fact that Teddy thought he could actually send her back in time, the way his eyes had lit up with excitement as he described his plan to her. Well, she thought, the history books are full of rich people losing their minds. And now Teddy Hawkins was just one more eccentric billionaire gone over the edge.

  But why was Teddy so fixated on the Star Island case? Maybe he’d lost friends in the massacre. Maybe he was worried for his own safety. Maybe—she cut off her speculation. Who cared anymore? If he wanted to take over the search for the Star Island killer, then good for him. Lila wanted nothing to do with it.

  Let him walk into the labyrinth, she thought. She knew from experience that there was no coming out in one piece.

  CHAPTER 6

  LATER THAT EVENING, Lila was curled up on the threadbare couch in her apartment, staring blankly at the TV. She’d been in a state of agitated numbness all day, ever since her meeting with Teddy. Her thoughts were racing, but the rest of her felt lethargic and exhausted. She blamed Teddy. All the memories she’d tried to erase from her mind had been churned up by him and his ridiculous plan.

  Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door.

  “Not again.” She cursed, securing the tie of her silk robe around her waist as she quickly walked to the door. But no one was there. All she found was a large manila envelope sitting on the concrete landing.

  Lila quickly grabbed the envelope and, shoving aside her slight hesitation (didn’t danger always lurk in strange packages left on doorsteps?), tore it apart. Inside was a Miami Herald and a note that read:

  Lila. You are holding in your hands proof that time travel exists. This is tomorrow’s newspaper. I am writing to you from the future. Now do you believe?

  —Teddy

  “This guy is relentless,” Lila said aloud as she inspected the newspaper. True enough, the date on the paper was tomorrow’s date—July 21, 2018—but after all, Teddy Hawkins was a man with unlimited resources. How hard could it be to manufacture a fake newspaper?

  Then she had a thought. The lottery results. As she flipped through the paper and found the numbers, Lila looked up at the clock. It was 11:15 P.M. Her heart racing, holding the night’s Mega Money lottery numbers in her hand, she turned on the TV, switching channels until she found the one she wanted. A smiling woman in a red dress stood behind a Plexiglas cube full of airborne balls that bounced like kernels in a popcorn popper.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Mega Money lottery drawing for tonight, July twentieth,” said the woman. Her teeth were refrigerator white and her hair was teased into a hysterical meringue. “All right, then. Let’s get to it.”

  One by one, five balls were sucked away from their furious tumbling and shot up a Plexiglas tube. “The numbers for tonight are: twelve . . . five . . . two . . . thirty. And the Mega ball number is . . . thirty-seven.”

  Lila looked down at the paper she was holding. There, in her hands, were the same numbers: 12-5-2-30-37.

  “Impossible,” she whispered.

  Could Teddy have rigged the lottery? Maybe that was how he’d amassed such spectacular wealth, and now he was simply toying with her. Maybe this TV broadcast was closed-circuit, made only for her benefit as
part of an elaborate hoax. Anything seemed more likely than the notion that, all by himself and without any media attention, Teddy Hawkins had built a time machine in his glass mansion by the sea.

  She checked the lottery numbers online, just to make sure all the facts lined up. A mixture of shock and something closer to dread flooded through her when she saw that the numbers were exactly the same.

  THE NEXT MORNING, the pink dawn light slanted into the living room as a mockingbird started to sing out in Lila’s run-down corner of Miami. She still sat on her old couch, her bare feet up on the cluttered coffee table, the newspaper from the future spread across her lap. Sleep had been an impossibility. She’d spent the night reading through the paper, looking for anything—a clue, a mistake, a slipup in the forgery. But all she’d found were more questions.

  Profound fatigue made her body feel almost weightless. Just as her eyes were starting to close at last, there was a loud knock at the door.

  She looked at her watch: 6:18 A.M. There was no question in her mind as to who was doing the knocking. Rising slowly from the couch, Lila walked to the door and unlocked it. She turned back toward her bedroom, calling out over her shoulder, “Hi, Conrad. I just need a minute to get dressed. Then we can go.”

  In a little under an hour, Lila was back at Teddy’s estate. Conrad led her behind the house to the pool.

  “Mr. Hawkins is finishing his morning swim. It shouldn’t be too long a wait.”

  Lila perched on the corner of a chaise longue, watching Teddy’s form cut through the water, lap after lap, as if he was part sea creature. A tiny woman in a crisp white apron and with the kindly face of a Beatrix Potter squirrel brought over a tray burdened with fresh fruit juices, coffee, and an entire boulangerie’s worth of croissants, brioche, and other baked goods.

  To her surprise, Lila realized she was starving and began to greedily pile her plate full of pastries. She was just about to take a large bite of a chocolate croissant when she heard Teddy’s wet footsteps slap slap slap on the warm concrete toward her. The sun was hot enough to evaporate his footprints the second his toes left the ground.

  The early-morning light shone directly in her eyes. Using her hand to shield her gaze, she saw Teddy smirking slightly as he picked up a towel from a beach chair and wrapped it low around his waist. Lila noted, almost clinically, how young and strong his body was. The instant he caught her looking at him, she cut her gaze away.

  “So, do I have your attention?” Teddy sat down at the table, pouring himself a glass of orange juice from a crystal pitcher. Lila didn’t appreciate his air of self-satisfaction.

  “Okay,” she conceded, “I’ll bite. Getting the Miami Herald delivered to my door five hours before it went to press is fairly astonishing, even for someone of your means. So, let me ask you, what kind of scheme are you running?”

  “It’s not a scheme at all. It’s the work of science.”

  “The science of forgery, maybe. I just wish I’d gotten the paper in time to actually buy a lottery ticket. I could’ve made myself a millionaire last night.”

  “Trust me,” Teddy said. “What I’m about to show you is worth a hundred times any lottery winnings.” He stood up and began walking toward a small cabana behind the pool, in the shadow of his grand estate. “Follow me,” he added, beckoning Lila over.

  The inside of the cabana was covered in a kaleidoscope of Moroccan tiles and contained nothing more than a few pieces of weather-beaten wood furniture. Only a large David Hockney swimming pool painting decorated the walls.

  “Have a seat,” Teddy said. “I’ll be a moment.” He went into a changing room, closing the door behind him.

  “Okay, what is it you’re going to show me?” Lila called out.

  “Something that will change your life.” Teddy emerged wearing an all-white hooded hazmat suit.

  “Nice outfit,” Lila said with a laugh.

  Teddy ignored her. “Please step in,” he said, waving her into the small room.

  Lila crossed the floor to step inside the windowless changing room. Teddy threw her a folded hazmat suit sealed in plastic wrap.

  “Put this on,” he instructed.

  “Is this really necessary?”

  “You can’t proceed without one.”

  “As you wish,” Lila shot back.

  Once she’d pulled the paper-like fabric over her jeans and tank top, Teddy closed and bolted the door behind her. The moment the lock was thrown, the cabana was saturated in a bright white fluorescent light.

  Teddy placed his palm on a silver screen on the wall that Lila hadn’t noticed earlier. Red laser beams scanned the contours of his hand, and then the panel emitted three short, high-pitched beeps of acceptance. Without warning, a door in the floor gaped open, revealing a steep staircase that reached deep into the earth and disappeared into a cold, bluish light. The air from below was nearly arctic, raising goose bumps on Lila’s arms.

  Lila felt light-headed, like she’d stepped inside a science fiction movie, leaving the real world and its rules far behind. She watched in a daze as Teddy walked down a couple of the steel steps.

  He paused halfway down and turned to look back up at Lila. His face appeared ghostly in the blue light. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked. When she didn’t answer, he tried again. “Do you trust me?”

  “Not in the least,” Lila replied drily.

  “But you’ll follow me anyway, won’t you?” Teddy looked at her curiously. “Really, I’ve got to say, few things delight me more than a fearless woman.” A boyish grin lit up his face. “Come on. I have a lot to show you and we don’t have much time.”

  A sensible person would have walked away, Lila knew that. But she wasn’t one of those people. And so she grabbed the railing and began, slowly, to descend the staircase.

  CHAPTER 7

  AFTER A COUPLE minutes of fumbling her way down the stairs, Lila saw Teddy come to a stop. She squinted in the dim light as things came into focus and saw that he was standing at a gigantic door set in a thick stone wall. He placed his hand on its illuminated panel until his handprint was recognized with a series of beeps. Teddy then spun the five-pronged spindle wheel at the door’s center and turned back toward Lila. “Do you promise to tell no one about what you see here today?”

  Lila nodded.

  Teddy pulled the heavy door open, and Lila drew in a sharp breath at what lay inside.

  Every inch of the floor, walls, and ceiling was covered in thin gold foil, with the exception of a twelve-foot-high, fifteen-foot-wide jade geodesic dome in the middle of the room. An oily smell hung in the air.

  “Is this real?” Lila asked, her brain struggling to absorb the strange scene.

  “As real as you and me.” Teddy swept his hands close to the surface of the polished jade dome. The gold foil made everything in the room seem like it was glowing.

  “As a child I always fantasized about traveling through time,” he said quietly.

  “How did you do it?” Lila was a trained interrogator. She wanted to believe Teddy, but if he was lying, she’d catch him in it. “The newspaper, I mean.”

  “Oh, that? Very simple. I met with you yesterday morning. You got the paper last night. This morning, the newspaper was delivered at six thirty. Then I came down here, put it in the machine, and sent it back in time.”

  “So, you beamed the paper to my front door?”

  “I wish. I haven’t developed the technology for that level of precision yet. I had a courier pick the paper up from where it landed and deliver it to your door.”

  “So when did you call the courier?”

  Teddy shook his head. “I can tell you’re dwelling on specifics. But I understand that this is tough to swallow, so I’ll be as clear as possible. I knew I had to prove to you that I could send you back in time. That’s when I thought of the newspaper idea. It seemed the easiest way. I knew I had to wait until today to send the paper back in time. But I called the courier yesterday evening to have them pick it up.”
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  “So, last night you called a courier to pick up an envelope that you didn’t send until today?” Lila asked. Her brain felt fizzy as she tried to wrap her mind around this contorted chronology.

  “I understand that it seems impossible.”

  “You’re right. It does.” Lila fell silent as she walked around the dome. She reached out to touch the gleaming surface.

  “Stop! Don’t touch it!” Teddy shouted, his voice startling her. “Please be careful,” he added in a softer tone. “This is an extremely controlled environment. Just one smudge on this surface could alter the machine in ways I can’t predict.”

  Lila raised her hands to the sky, feeling like a criminal caught in the act.

  “Perhaps it would be better if we went somewhere else to talk.” Teddy looked around. “Conrad?”

  Lila turned to see a panel of gold foil lowering, revealing a window. Conrad sat behind the glass in a long room lined in wall-to-wall computer screens. He was hunched over a formidable panel of flashing lights and switches.

  “Yes, sir?” Conrad’s voice came out over an invisible speaker.

  “Open the control room door,” Teddy commanded, and part of the wall immediately slid open.

  Lila and Teddy joined Conrad in the control room, which looked out over the jade dome. Her head still reeling, Lila sat in a black leather office chair behind a dozen computer screens. Teddy wordlessly took the seat next to her. They both stared straight ahead at the gleaming dome.

  “I’m sure you have questions for me,” Teddy finally said.

  “You bet your ass I do.” Lila drummed her fingers anxiously on the control panel. “First off, how does it work?”

  “How familiar are you with theoretical particle physics and quantum field theory?”