Текст книги "Summer Rental"
Автор книги: Mary Kay Andrews
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Текущая страница: 25 (всего у книги 27 страниц)
The karaoke mistress palmed the bill. “No problem,” she said. “One more song, and you guys are on.”
Julia nodded her thanks and went back to the table, nonchalantly glancing in the direction of the bar. To her satisfaction, she saw Ty, deep in conversation with an older, blond woman. He was gesturing angrily at his watch. She was shaking her head, but a moment later, Julia saw Ty head for the front door.
“We’re next,” Julia announced.
But Ellis wasn’t listening. She’d been surreptitiously watching the bar, wondering if Ty would approach the table, maybe try to catch her attention, or even draw her outside to talk. Now though, she saw him scurrying for the front door, and her heart sank. He hadn’t come anywhere near the house all day. As far as Ty was concerned, she thought bitterly, they’d already said their good-byes.
She picked up her neglected drink and knocked back half its watery contents, then turned her attention back to the stage, where a gaggle of drunken chicks were inexpertly grinding away at The Pussycat Dolls’ “Don’t Cha.”
And then the karaoke mistress was calling. “Dorie and friends! All the way from Savannah, Georgia. Come on up here, girls, and show ’em how it’s done!”
Madison crossed her arms defiantly over her chest. But Julia Capelli was having none of it.
“Let’s go,” she said, jerking Madison’s chair backwards. “Showtime!”
Ellis looked at Madison and shrugged. “Come on,” she said. “It’s our last night. Might as well get it over with.”
Dorie herded them all onstage, and they heard the distinctive introductory bass thumps. “Okay,” she said, taking charge. “Julia and I will do the Travolta part. Ellis, you and Madison do Olivia Newton-John.”
And the next moment, the four of them were sashaying across the stage, warbling “Summer Nights” from Grease. And when it came to the part about how summer flings don’t mean a thing, Ellis Sullivan sang that verse with newfound wisdom.
50
“That was awesome!” Dorie cried, throwing her arms around her friends at the end of the song.
“Yeah, we totally rocked it,” Julia agreed, herding the women in the direction of the table. “But you guys, I think the birthday princess needs to go home now, before she turns into a pumpkin.”
“Sounds good to me,” Madison said readily.
They piled into the red van, with Dorie behind the wheel, and were almost home when Julia, trying to sound casual, pulled out her cell phone and groaned.
“Oh, no. My battery’s dead. And I promised Booker I’d call him before midnight. Damn!”
“I’d let you use mine,” Dorie offered, “but I’ve used up all my minutes for the month.”
“Here,” Ellis said, rummaging in her purse. “Just call him on mine.”
“Okay,” Julia said, holding out her hand.
“Well, hell,” Ellis said, sounding puzzled. “It’s not in here.” She dumped the contents of the purse onto her lap, and pawed through the lipsticks, pens, billfold, Kleenex packets, and a notebook of lists.
Julia turned around from the front passenger seat. “Are you sure it’s not there?”
“Positive,” Ellis said. “And my keys are missing too. Dorie,” she cried, “turn around. We’ve got to go back to Caddie’s. I think maybe my phone and keys fell out of my purse back there.”
“What?” Julia said, sounding panicky. It was ten minutes before midnight. “I didn’t see your phone and keys on the table. And I was sitting right beside you all night.”
“They’ve gotta be there,” Ellis insisted. “Dorie, please go back. You guys can stay in the van, I’ll just run inside and check the table and be right back.”
“It can’t be there,” Julia countered. “Right, Dorie?”
“When was the last time you remember seeing your phone?” Dorie asked. “Think back.”
“I don’t know,” Ellis said. “I’ve been running around all day, between the house and the beach, and packing, and cleaning, and starting to load the car.”
“The beach!” Dorie cried. “Oh my God, of course. Ellis, it completely slipped my mind. When I was picking up my chair and towel this afternoon, I noticed your phone and keys on your beach chair. I meant to say something, but I just figured you were planning to go back down there later in the afternoon.”
“Dorie!” Ellis said, annoyed. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? Or just pick it up and bring it to me?”
“I’m an idiot,” Dorie wailed. “It was so hot out there today, and then Willa called me on my cell to yell at me some more, and I just forgot.”
“For Pete’s sake,” Ellis grumped. “That means my phone and keys have been out on the beach for hours. Somebody probably already walked off with them.”
“Maybe not,” Madison said helpfully.
“Look,” Julia said, “we’re almost home. You can just hop out of the van as soon as we get back to Ebbtide, and go check. I’m sure they’re still there.”
“Not likely,” Ellis said gloomily.
* * *
Ty’s hair was still wet, but he’d managed to shower and change out of his work clothes in ten minutes flat and walk down the beach from his new cottage to the stretch in front of Ebbtide. Now, at exactly five minutes ’til midnight, he stood on the beach, wondering if coming back here tonight was a mistake.
He glanced up at the spot where the garage, and his apartment, had been only twenty-four hours earlier, and looked quickly away. He’d done the right thing, what needed to be done, but he’d miss the old rattrap.
Somebody had left a folding beach chair in the middle of the spot where the Ebbtide girls had pitched their camp for the past month. A pink-and-orange striped beach towel was tossed across the back of the chair, and as he looked closer, he saw a cell phone and set of keys under the edge of the towel. He picked up the phone, pushed the on button, and seeing the call log, realized it belonged to Ellis.
Ty sat down on the chair to wait.
* * *
He was waiting, sitting quietly in the dark, on the chair by the window—the same window Madison looked out countless times, every morning and night, searching for any sign of trouble. A bead of sweat trickled down his back as he sat in the stifling closet-sized room. He’d considered turning on the rusty air conditioner stuck halfway into the window by the bed, but then decided to do so would alert her that somebody had been in the room.
He glanced down at the LED display of his wristwatch. Nearly midnight. Had she met another man? His eye twitched at the thought of Maryn with somebody else. Then he shook his head. Impossible. He’d seen the red van roll away from the house hours ago with the four women inside. Girls’ night out. Completely harmless.
Not that it mattered. He patted the laptop case on the floor, its sides bulging with the cash he’d easily discovered hidden on the top shelf of the armoire. His cash. He’d earned it. He meant to have it, and he would have it, just as soon as he dealt with Maryn. He’d had time to count it, waiting for her, stacking the bills in rows that completely covered the bed. And it was all there, save for one hundred dollars. That surprised him, that Maryn hadn’t spent the money, hadn’t fled the country as soon as she figured out what she had. Maryn had never struck him as a particularly noble type. She was a hard-edged realist, just like he was. Which was why he’d been attracted to her.
He saw the play of lights on the opposite wall of the darkened room and stood up to look out the window. The red van was bumping down the driveway at a fast clip. It didn’t stop until it was directly in front of the porch. Then the engine switched off, and a petite redhead jumped from the driver’s seat and raced for the front porch. A moment later, the back doors of the van opened, and he watched, his pulse quickening, as Maryn climbed out, stretched, and said something to the lanky blonde who got out the other side of the car. The two of them looked up at the house, and he stepped back, quickly, even knowing that there was no way she could see him up here, in the dark. Still …
Getting up and walking softly to the door, he opened it just far enough to hear the front door opening below. Lights clicked on, and there were more voices. This time he was certain he heard Maryn, and one of the other women, giggling conspiratorially. He closed the door and took up a position just to the side of it.
Minutes passed. He heard steps coming up the stairs. “G’night, y’all,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice called gaily. The steps stopped at the second floor, and he heard a door close, water running, and then the flush of a toilet, the sound of the bathroom door opening, and moments later, another door closing.
He resumed his wait, slumped against the wall, listening to his own even breathing. He heard more footsteps on the stairs, and tensed. His hands were slick with sweat. He dried them on his jeans, stood, moving towards the door, his hand on the pistol shoved into his waistband. The footsteps paused at the second-floor landing. Maybe it was one of the other women, Maryn’s housemates? But then the footsteps resumed, slowly climbing the stairs to the third floor.
It was serendipity, really, that she’d chosen this room, isolated on the top floor of the house. Not a surprise though. Maryn didn’t trust anybody, especially other women. The big surprise was that she’d moved in with these strangers at all. Didn’t matter why she’d choosen this room, all that mattered was that it was perfect for his needs.
The footsteps were coming closer now. And she was humming. What was it? “They just wanna,” she crooned, “they just wanna-uh-uh.” Cyndi Lauper? Maryn? He’d never known her to hum, let alone sing. Was she drunk or high? The footsteps paused in front of the door, and he held his breath as she fumbled to fit the key into the lock.
The door opened slowly. “They just wanna, they just wanna-uh-uh.” She stepped inside, her hand searching for the light switch.
He waited until the light was on, then he stepped forward, throwing his forearm across her throat, dragging her into the room, closing the door quietly behind them.
Her eyes widened in terror, and before she could scream he clamped his hand over her mouth. “Welcome home,” he whispered in her ear.
* * *
Ellis grabbed a flashlight from beneath the kitchen sink and hurried out the door towards the walkway over the dunes. How on earth, she wondered, had she managed to leave her phone and keys at the beach? She could have sworn she’d seen them in her beach bag once she’d gotten back to the house, but the day had been so busy, maybe she’d just imagined it.
She kicked her sandals off at the landing on top of the dunes, and pointing the flashlight at the steps, gingerly climbed down, holding tight to the railing. It seemed especially dark tonight, she thought. Glancing up, she saw that dense banks of purple-edged clouds obscured the moon. The temperature had dropped, and the wind had picked up. Heat lightning crackled over the water, and she heard the low rumble of thunder. She prayed it wouldn’t start raining until after she’d found her phone.
When she reached the beach, she played the flashlight back and forth until she spotted the forgotten beach chair, with her towel still draped over it. And Ty Bazemore seated in it. She inhaled sharply and grabbed the stair rail, her instincts telling her to turn and run back towards the house.
But before she could move, Ty was standing up, and he was looking at her, and, wait … Was he smiling? At her? Anyway, it was too late to run now.
She made herself walk towards him, like it was the most natural thing in the world. But her mind could not form a sentence that wouldn’t sound idiotic. In the end she settled for, “I think I left my phone and keys down here today.”
Ty held up the phone. “You did,” he said. “They were right here on the chair.” But he made no move to give them to her.
“I wasn’t sure you’d really come tonight,” he said. “Hell, I wasn’t sure I’d come. But I’m glad you asked me to. I don’t want things to end like this, Ellis.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, coming to a dead stop inches from the chair. “Asked you to do what?”
“Come on, Ellis,” Ty said, feeling his face grow hot. “This was your idea, not mine. Don’t do this.”
“Ty,” Ellis said. “I really have no idea what you are talking about. What are you doing here? Why did you come out here tonight?”
He reached out and brushed a strand of her hair, tucking it behind her ear. “I came because you texted me and asked me to. I came because you said if I loved you, I would come. I do love you. I’m here. I’ll meet you more than halfway, if you’ll just give me a chance.”
“I texted you?”
He frowned. “What is this? Some kind of sick joke?”
She took her phone from him, checked the log of text messages. It was empty. She held it up for him to see. “I did not text you today. I swear.”
“You did, by God,” Ty said. He pulled his own phone from the pocket of his cargo shorts, pulled up the screen, and showed her. “See! Why would I make up something like that?”
Ellis read the messages, glancing up at Ty, whose face had gone stony. Her own face was beet red.
Suddenly, she knew. “Julia!” she cried. “And Dorie! They did this. They stole my phone while I was asleep on the beach this afternoon, and they sent these texts to you. I woke up, and Julia was fiddling with my beach bag. I thought she was getting my sunblock out, but she must have just been putting the phone back. And then sometime later, she must have stolen it again, and planted it out here.”
“And why would they pull a juvenile stunt like that?” Ty demanded. “They’re your friends. Why would they punk you like that? Or me?”
Ellis wanted to die. She wanted to sink into the sand and disappear from the humiliation.
“Because,” she said, biting back tears, “my idiot, deranged, meddling friends have this stupid idea that we belong together. They feel sorry for me, because they know I’m a loser, that I have no life outside my job. They know you’re the first man I’ve been with in eleven years, and they probably have this stupid idea that we’re in love.…”
“Hey,” Ty said softly, catching her hand in his. “That’s not so stupid.”
She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. “It’s not stupid for them to send you fake texts from my phone to lure you down here?”
He chuckled. “That part was totally stupid. But it worked, didn’t it? Here I am. And here you are.”
She sniffed loudly. “Because they stole my phone and my car keys. I thought I’d left them back at Caddie’s, but Julia forbid Dorie to drive back there so I could look. Dorie had this lame-ass story about how she’d seen them down here when she was leaving the beach this afternoon. I should have known. She’s the world’s worst liar.”
“They wanted you here at midnight,” Ty pointed out. “Because they knew that I’d damn sure be here, especially after that last text of yours.”
Ellis blinked back a fresh set of tears. “Which one was that?”
He put his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “The one that said ‘If you love me, you’ll come.’ I do. I did. So what should we do now?”
It started to rain. Fat, seemingly random drops full of August heat. Ellis rested her cheek against Ty’s chest. Right here, in this moment, safe in the arms of a man who would do anything to make her happy. She had the answer. And all she had to do, she realized, was let him love her. Let go and let love happen. She felt the sand swirling around their ankles, the wind tearing at their clothes, the rain, coming down harder now, and above it all, she heard the crash of the surf.
She leaned her head back to look up at him, and his hair was already plastered to his head. “I think we better run for it,” she said.
Ty grabbed her hand, and the two of them raced up the steps over the dunes. Ellis stopped at the top of the stairs to catch her breath, and her eyes drifted past the boardwalk, to Ebbtide, a shadowy gray hulk. The lights were on in the top-floor bedroom, Madison’s room, and silhouetted there, she realized, were two figures. And one was a man.
“Ty,” she said, pointing. “Up at the house. That’s Madison’s room. There’s a man in there with her.”
“Good for her,” Ty said, tugging at her hand, pulling her towards the house.
“No,” she said, stopping dead in her tracks. “It’s got to be Adam. The man she worked with in New Jersey. She was expecting him a couple of days ago, but he never showed. We all thought there was something fishy about him, but Madison insisted he’s harmless.”
“I still don’t see a problem,” Ty said. “Look, can we have this discussion inside?”
“How did he get in the house? We lock the place up tight every time we leave. Madison locks her bedroom door, even if she’s just going to the bathroom. Ty, he knows she has all that money. A hundred thousand dollars. She told him. He must have broken in while we were gone tonight.”
51
“You still haven’t asked me why I came down here,” Don said, leaning back in the chair to enjoy the sight of the usually cool and composed Maryn fighting the panic he knew she must be feeling. Her face was pale and beaded with sweat.
“I know why you’re here,” she said, jerking her head in the direction of the briefcase. “You came to get your money back. It’s all there. So take it and get out, why don’t you?”
“What?” he said in mock disbelief. “My adoring wife doesn’t enjoy spending time with her adoring husband?”
“Adoring?” Maryn hooted. “You never adored me. You adored owning me, bossing me around, showing me off to your friends. But I was just a thing to you. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“And you didn’t adore spending my money, living in the home I gave you, flashing that big diamond engagement ring, honeymooning in Bermuda?”
“Believe it or not, Don,” Maryn said, grimacing, “I fell in love with you. The nice things were … nice, but for a while there—until I figured out who you were, and what you’d made me—I did love you.”
“About that ring,” Don said. He lifted one hip and reached for his pocket.
Maryn flinched. He’s got a gun, she thought. He’s got a gun, and he’s going to shoot me.
Instead, Don brought out the black velvet ring box. He opened it, and thrust it towards Maryn.
“It hurts my feelings that you’re not wearing your engagement ring,” he said. “Put it on, why don’t you? As a token of your affection.”
“Fuck you,” Maryn said, batting his hand and the ring box away. “It hurts my feelings that you’ve been screwing around with Tara Powers. Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Taking her to the same restaurants you took me when we were dating? The same freakin’ motels, afterwards? You’ve got the ring. Give it to your little whore Tara. Let her wear it.”
* * *
Ty and Ellis stood, riveted, watching the shadow man reach out and slap the woman in the top-floor bedroom. “We’ve got to do something,” Ellis said.
“First we’ve got to get out of this rain,” Ty said, and hand-in-hand, they went splashing up the boardwalk towards the back porch. When they were safely under the shelter of the porch roof, Ellis remembered the cell phone she’d stuck in the pocket of her dress only a few minutes earlier.
“I’m calling the cops,” she said. “Dorie and Julia are inside the house. What if he tries to hurt them?”
“Nine-one-one,” a recorded woman’s voice said. “You’ve reached Dare County Emergency Services. This line is to be used exclusively for life-threatening situations. If you are calling to report a nonemergency or inquire about county services, hang up and dial the number listed in your telephone directory. If you have a bona fide emergency, please stay on the line until an operator can assist you.”
A faint hum came on the line.
“I’m on hold!” Ellis said, listening to a series of beeps. “Damn it, I have a real emergency. Come on, come on.”
Ty pulled his own phone from his pocket and started punching numbers. “I’m calling Connor,” he said. “He’s still at the bar, but if he picks up, he’s only ten minutes away.” He waited, listened, and frowned. “It went to voice mail,” he reported. “He probably can’t even hear the damn thing ringing.” He waited a moment. “Con, it’s Ty. Look, we’ve got an intruder at Ebbtide, and I think he’s holding one of these women hostage, in the top-floor bedroom. We’ve tried calling 911, but we’re on hold. If you get this, haul your ass over here, right now.”
“We can’t wait,” Ellis said. “The girls are alone inside the house. I’ve gotta get them out of there.” She started for the kitchen door. “I’m gonna sneak upstairs and let them know what’s going on, and get them out as quietly as I can.”
“Fine,” Ty nodded. “I’ll stay here and watch the back staircase, in case he tries to take Madison out of there. Stay on the line for the cops. And be careful, okay?”
“Okay.” Ellis eased the kitchen door open just far enough to slip inside.
Ellis tiptoed up the stairs, praying her bare feet would avoid the creaking boards, that she’d make it to the second floor undetected.
She heard water running in the bathroom, saw a flash of light from under Julia’s bedroom door. She pushed into the room without knocking, finding Julia pulling a pink sleep camisole over her head.
“Julia!” Ellis whispered. “He’s here.”
“Who?” Julia said, stepping into her yoga pants. “Ty?”
“Not Ty! I mean, yes, Ty’s downstairs, watching the back staircase. It’s that Adam guy. He’s upstairs, in Madison’s room.”
“How do you know?” Julia asked, alarmed.
“We were coming in off the beach because it started raining, and I happened to look up at the window. There are two people in Madison’s room, and one of them is a man. It’s got to be Adam!”
“How the hell…?” Julia exclaimed. “How did he get in here? How’d he find the house?”
“I don’t know, but he did,” Ellis said. “We’ve got to do something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know,” Ellis said. “I’m on hold for 911, and Ty left a message for Connor, asking him to get over here right away. But in the meantime, he’s up there with Madison. We saw him slap her!”
“Where’s Dorie?” Julia asked. “It would be just like her to go tripping upstairs to have one last gabfest with Madison.”
They heard the sound of running water coming from down the hall. They tiptoed towards the bathroom. Julia tapped lightly, but there was no answer.
“Dorie,” she whispered. “Open up.”
“I’m not done yet,” Dorie called, her voice echoing on the tile walls. “For God’s sake, if you have to go that bad, use the downstairs bathroom.”
“Let me in, damn it,” Julia whispered hoarsely. “And shut the hell up.”
Dorie opened the door looking peeved. Her hair was gathered in a purple scrunchy on top of her head, and she was wrapped in a damp towel. “What do you want?”
“Shut up!” Julia exclaimed. “You’ll get us all killed.” She grabbed Dorie’s arm and yanked her out of the bathroom, herding her down the hall to her own bedroom. When they were inside the room, with the door locked, Ellis pointed upwards with her index finger.
“He’s here!” she said. “Adam! In Madison’s bedroom. He must have broken into the house while we were at karaoke. Ty and I were coming in off the beach, and we saw him.”
“Call the cops, for God’s sake,” Dorie said.
“I have,” Ellis exclaimed. “I’ve been on hold for, like, forever.”
“Are you really on hold?” Julia asked. “Can they do that, put you on hold for 911?”
“I’m waiting for the next operator,” Ellis said. “What should we do?”
“I know what I’m gonna do,” Dorie said, heading for the door. “I’m gonna go put on some underwear. I can’t handle an emergency naked.”
“Wait for me,” Julia said. “Come on, Ellis. We need to stay together.”
* * *
Don Shackleford crossed his legs and sat back in the chair, regarding Maryn with a sardonic smile.
“You see,” he said, shaking his head. “When you go nosing around in other people’s business, you might find out stuff you regret. You shouldn’t worry about Tara. She was just … convenient.”
“The same way I was convenient when you met me?” Maryn asked. She let her right arm drift casually to the side of the bed, inching it down until her right hand rested loosely on the edge of the box spring.
“Not the same thing at all,” Don said. “I married you, didn’t I?”
“Eventually,” Maryn agreed. “Although you conveniently forgot to mention that you were already married when we met.”
“Separated, technically,” Don said. “But you never asked if I was married, did you?”
“You also conveniently forgot to mention your vasectomy,” Maryn said bitterly. “When were you going to tell me about that, Don?”
He sighed. “You’ve been speaking to Amy, I guess. Such a vindictive bitch. You’d think the fact that I never miss a child-support payment would soften her attitude, wouldn’t you? Anyway, you don’t really want to have a baby, Maryn. You’re too self-involved to be a good mother. And God knows, I’ve been a less than stellar parent to the two brats I did father. No, I won’t be reversing the vasectomy.”
Maryn inched her fingertips between the mattress and the box spring, silently praying that she’d feel the comfort of the cool, blue steel at any moment.
“Look, Don,” she said. “You’ve got your money. That’s what you came down here for, right? Take it and go. I’m not going back to Jersey. As soon as I get settled and get a job, I’ll hire a lawyer and we’ll get a nice quiet divorce. You and Tara can sail happily off into the sunset. Just leave me the hell alone.”
“A divorce?” Don tsk-tsked, mockingly placing a hand over the breast pocket of his crisply pressed, pale yellow dress shirt. “Why would I want a divorce? Why can’t we just happy-ever-after?”
“I’m done,” Maryn said, her fingers searching between the layers of foam and batting. She felt crumbs, and was that a dead fly? Where the hell was the revolver? “I’m not going back. I don’t care what you did back there. The money, whatever went on with Prescott’s? None of my business. I don’t want to know it. I don’t know anything. Not really.”
Don sighed. “Oh, Maryn, I’m really disappointed in you. Never bullshit a bullshitter, okay?”
* * *
Voices wafted from beneath the door of Dorie’s closet.
“The air shaft!” she whispered, pointing to the door. She tiptoed over and opened the closet door while Ellis closed and locked the bedroom door.
They heard Madison’s voice.
“What happened to Adam?” she asked. “He’s coming down here, you know. He knows I’m here. And he knows you threatened me. If anything happens to me, he’ll go to the police.”
“Don?” Julia whispered. “She’s talking to Don? The husband?” She turned to Ellis. “I thought you said it was Adam up there with her.”
“It was a guy, that’s all I could tell,” Ellis said, cupping her hand over the cell phone. “We were worried about Adam. How the hell did the husband figure out where she is?”
“Oh, bad news,” Don said. “Adam won’t be able to make it, I’m afraid. But he sends his regrets.”
Maryn felt the hairs on her neck prickle. “I talked to him on the phone. What did you do to him?”
“Me? What about what he did to me? Blackmail is a crime, you know. Did you realize your boyfriend was a filthy little blackmailer?”
“Adam is not my boyfriend,” Maryn said through gritted teeth. “I know somebody as promiscuous as you might not believe it, but I never cheated on you. Not with Adam, or anybody else.”
“So you say. But he was under the impression that you were going to cheat on me. And that you were going to run off with him, just as soon as he got this money.” Don patted the briefcase.
“Adam didn’t know about the money,” Maryn lied. “I deliberately didn’t tell him about it.”
“He knew all about it,” Don corrected her. “It was supposed to be his. Do you mean you hadn’t figured that out?”
“I don’t believe you,” Maryn said, but a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach told her Don was telling the truth.
“It was only supposed to be twenty-five thousand dollars, in the beginning,” Don said. “Adam isn’t nearly as smart as he thinks he is, but he was just smart enough to go poking his nose where it didn’t belong. He came to me with his suspicions, and although I didn’t admit anything, I did agree to a payoff. It was supposed to be twenty-five thousand dollars. He was supposed to keep his mouth shut, but the greedy little bastard just couldn’t do it. He had to keep pushing. And then … well, you know what happened then.”
“Adam called in the auditors?” Maryn asked, confused. “Why would he do that?”
Don shrugged. “He was squeezing me for more money, and I really didn’t believe his threats. I guess he decided to show me who had the upper hand. Rookie move.”
“But why tell me?” Maryn asked.
“He probably thought you’d leave me and run away with him,” Don said, chuckling. “Not that it matters now. I’ve got five million dollars stashed away. And Adam? Well, poor Adam won’t be making any more idle threats.”
* * *
Dorie looked wide-eyed at Ellis, who still had the cell phone pressed to her ear. “Are you still on hold?”
Ellis nodded.
“We’ve got to do something,” Dorie said. She grabbed a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and started dressing. “This guy is a maniac. Do you hear how calm he is? Discussing bribery and embezzlement? And murder? He’ll kill Madison, I know he will. What can we do?”
* * *
“What are you saying?” Maryn asked, horrified. “What have you done to Adam?”
She kept fumbling around with the mattress, trying to keep her expression calm, impassive. Had Don found the pistol and confiscated it? He had to remember he’d given it to her, even showed her how to fire it.
“Adam wanted another hundred thousand dollars after he called the auditors. And you. He said if I didn’t come up with the money, he’d make an anonymous phone call to the state attorney general’s office. They were already sniffing around by then, and so I agreed to the little bastard’s demands. And that,” Don said, patting the briefcase, “is how the hundred thousand dollars came to be in my laptop case.”
“Adam was blackmailing you? I don’t believe it,” Maryn said, stalling, because now, actually, she really could believe Adam was capable of blackmail.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you believe,” Don said. “But since we’re having this chat, you should know that I was going to meet him that morning, the morning you made the unfortunate decision to go snooping around my office.”
“Why? Why would he do that?” Maryn had her hand completely under the mattress, but the pistol definitely was not where she’d put it. Don? No, wouldn’t he have shown her the gun first thing? Slowly, it dawned on her. Julia! She was the only other person who’d been alone in this room. She’d found the money easily enough. Had she found the gun and swiped it? Damn her!
