Darkling (27 page)

Maybe I'd known all along, but the news didn't shock me. “When I found the shoe I think I knew. But how did the shoe get into the woods?”

“We don't have all the answers yet. Hell, we don't have any. But my guess, and this is just between us, Mimi, is that Margo met Andrew in the woods. Someone else was there, too. Maybe the drug dealers, maybe a buyer. I don't know. But something went very wrong. They probably cut off Andrew's hand to make him talk about something, and after that, they had to kill them both. Then they drove them to the Paradise and ran the car into the bayou.”

I motioned for him to take a seat on the steps. My feet were throbbing, and I had to take the weight off them.

“If you hadn't passed out in the woods, we would never have thought to cross the bayou.”

I didn't say it, but I wondered if it would have been better if the bodies had remained submerged. At least Berta would have her hope. In a sense, I'd taken that from her. Or the nester had. The bastard creature had lured me into the woods, led me to the shoe, knowing I would tell, knowing somehow that the bodies would be found. But why? What did it matter to the creature?

“Mimi?” Mark's hand grasped my arm. “Are you going to faint?”

I pulled myself together. “Take me to the hotel.”

“That's not a good idea. They're going to use divers to bring the bodies out and then a wrecker to pull up the car.”

“I have to go.”

“No. You don't.” Mark was firm. “If it's Margo, she's been in the water for two months. You don't know what that looks like, but I do. You shouldn't put that in your mind. The fish and the crabs.…” He shook his head. “No. As you tell me all the time, your place is here with the children. This is one time I concur. Those kids are going to need you, and so are Mr. and Mrs. Henderson. In fact, the sheriff sent a cruiser to get Mrs. Eubanks and bring her here.”

“What about the Cargills? Andrew's parents.…”

“A deputy is on the way to tell them too.”

“Is there any chance it isn't Margo and Andrew?”

He looked toward the Sound rather than at me. “I'd be lying if I said yes. I think it's them, Mimi. Best prepare yourself.” He stood. “Now I have to get back to the bayou. The sheriff will return with the divers any minute.”

“Will you catch the person who did this?”

He took a long breath. “I'll do my best, Mimi. I promise. I really thought those kids had run off and that they'd come home after a while or at least call their parents. I never thought it would come to this. Not even with the hand.”

“Thank you, Mark.” I hobbled across the porch and into the house.

The house ticked with silence, the old heart-of-pine boards seeming to flex and pop with the cold November day. Donald and Erin were in their rooms. Annie had disappeared. I needed some time alone, so I didn't search for her.

I put on a pot of coffee and hobbled up to my room. Dr. Adams had left a few tablets of fentanyl to help with the pain of my feet. I shook two out of the bottle and brought them back to the kitchen. As the coffee brewed, I crushed them up and put them in a cup, which I then laced with a dollop of brandy and lots of sugar. Berta could get mad at me later, but she shouldn't be waiting for the law to drag up the body of her daughter. Bob would thank me for doing this.

I prepared Bob's coffee and put aside my crutches to carry the tray to their bedroom. Standing outside the door, I heard Berta's sobs and Bob's voice, calm and reasonable, comforting her. Berta had lost a child, but she had the best husband on the planet. I tapped, and when the door opened, I gave Bob the tray. “That's Berta's.” I met his gaze. “Make her drink it if you can.”

The door closed and I hobbled back to the kitchen just as Cora came in the front door. Her hair was wild and her face pale. “My Lord, Mimi, this is just awful.”

I waved her into a chair at the kitchen table, poured us both some coffee, and sat.

“Where are the children?” she asked.

“Upstairs.” From the quiet of the house, it was obvious they weren't. I sprang to my feet and ran upstairs to check. Their bedrooms were empty. They were gone. When I looked out the window, I realized what had happened. Behind my back, Annie had taken them.

I was calmer when I returned to the kitchen. Cora would find my concerns unfounded, and I couldn't level accusations at Annie without proof. “Erin and Donald must be with Annie. The station wagon is gone. I guess she took them to town.”

Cora sighed. “That's good.” She drank the coffee as if it would sustain her.

“Bob is with Berta in the bedroom. She's determined to go to the hotel, to be there when they bring up.…”

“That's not a good idea.” Cora ran a hand through her wild hair. I'd never seen her so frazzled. “Do they know what happened?”

“Mark thinks they were murdered. Some run-in involving drugs.” I shrugged, unable to breach the wall that separated me from my emotions. It was self-preservation, but I felt as if my head were stuffed with wet cotton.

“Drugs? That's.…” Cora was at a loss. “This is going to break Berta.”

“You have to get Annie out of here.” I blurted the words against all of my good intentions. It wasn't the way I wanted to talk to Cora about Annie, but I had to make her understand. Annie was at the bottom of Margo's death, and she was free to take Donald or Erin wherever she chose.

“What are you talking about?” She got up and poured herself another cup of coffee. The cup clattered against the saucer as she held it.

“She has to go, Cora. She's up to no good.
She's
going to break this family apart.”

Cora sank into a chair. “Annie's just a child, Mimi. Your jealousy—”

“She isn't a child. She a very experienced young woman. The night of the scavenger hunt, didn't you notice that she was coming on to Bob? At the grill, at the bonfire. Back here at the house. She seduced—”

“Stop it!” Cora grasped my wrist in a punishing grip. She was old, but she was strong. “Stop that talk right now.” She shook my arm. “Where do you come up with the things you say?”

I snatched my arm free. “I saw them. Everyone else was too busy to pay attention, but I saw them.”

“What I saw that night was you, out of control. You frightened Donald half to death, and you injured yourself so severely you required medical attention.” Her pale blue gaze held mine and dared me to say more. “Now you get hold of yourself, Mimi. You have everything a young woman could want—a wonderful job, living with a great family in a beautiful house. Do you really want to risk this because you're jealous of another child?”

“She isn't a child.”

My tone must have frightened her, because the anger in her face gave way to something else. “What do you mean?”

“There's more to Annie than she lets on. You know that. The story of finding her on the streets of Mobile, that's not true, is it?” I thought I saw fear flicker in her eyes.

“Are you sick, Mimi?” She reached a hand toward my forehead. “Your feet! The infection has made you delirious.”

I ducked to avoid her touch. “I'm not sick and I'm not stupid. Where did Annie really come from?”

Cora pushed her chair back and stood. “Mimi, you're irrational.”

“Let me tell you what's irrational.” I was beyond control. “She fucked Bob. That's what's going on under this roof with precious Annie.”

Cora fell back as if I'd slapped her. She started to speak but stopped herself.

“I saw them. The night of the scavenger hunt. In Annie's bedroom when they thought I was in bed. They brought me back here, remember?”

“That's an awful accusation.” She spoke as if her mouth was deadened by Novocain. The words came out, but they didn't match the shape of her lips.

“What's awful is that it isn't just an accusation. It's a fact. Annie wants Bob, and she will use any opportunity to seduce him, even Margo's death. You get her out of this house.”

“Get a grip on yourself before it's too late.” Cora looked beyond me and then stood and walked out of the kitchen to check to see if anyone else had heard me. “You can't be saying this kind of thing out loud.”

“Why not?”

She grasped my shoulders. “Trust me, Mimi. You cannot do this.”

“But—”

She shook me lightly. “No buts. Never say such a thing again.” Her hand touched my lips, stopping my protest. “I will take care of this. But you cannot do this to Berta right now. Do you hear me? She's lost her firstborn. She cannot hear even a whisper of talk that Bob has betrayed her.”

“Even if he has?”

“I will handle this.”

“How?”

She pushed me toward the sink. “Wash the dishes. Try to be as helpful and kind as you can be. I'll do what has to be done.”

Her answer didn't satisfy me. “What do you mean?”

“It means that you stay out of it now. Keep your mouth shut. If you start this with Berta, it could send her into an institution. She isn't strong enough for accusations of Bob's betrayal. If she collapses mentally, the family will leave Belle Fleur, Mimi. Think about that. If Berta requires hospitalization, the family would no doubt return to California.”

The hall clocked ticked and chimed. I didn't count the number. I forced myself to be calm. “Okay,” I said. “I understand.”

“Do you?” she asked. “You have as much to lose as Annie.”

I nodded.

“Not a word.” She picked up her purse and left.

38

I slipped the keys to Berta's Thunderbird off the hook and headed for town, searching for Annie and the children. Though I drove to all the places we frequented, I found no trace. When I returned to Belle Fleur, the station wagon was parked out front, but a quick search of the house revealed they weren't inside. I could only assume Annie had returned with the children and taken them somewhere on foot. Perhaps to the stables—anywhere away from the pall of doom that hung over Belle Fleur.

She was alone with them—in total control of their safety. And I could do nothing but wait for her to bring them back. My feet prevented me from searching for them on foot.

Berta's soft sobs told me she was in her room. If I pressed my ear against the door, I could hear Bob's consoling murmur. Though he was as grief-stricken as Berta, he had to be strong. Without Bob, the Henderson family would disintegrate, which made Annie's seductions all the more dangerous. Berta was a wonderful mother, but she wasn't strong enough to hold the family together without him.

Neither Bob nor Berta needed to be at the Paradise when Margo was retrieved. I would be there. Somehow, I kept hoping the discovery of a car with two bodies was a mistake, that the Search and Rescue divers had been mistaken, that no Mustang was submerged in tidal silt and the feathery tendrils of aquatic life. I wanted to discover that the cadaver dogs had picked up the decaying scent of a cow or some other livestock or that there were other blond teenagers, other black Mustangs … other boys with an arm that ended at the wrist.

But even as I tried to convince myself, I knew the truth. And while I wouldn't admit it even to myself, I knew what had happened. The nester had edged one fledgling from the nest.

I put on my old boots, the most comfortable shoes I owned, put the crutches in the back of the station wagon, and drove to the Paradise.

The scene came straight from hell. Red lights on the ambulance flashed like the spinning headache that smacked my forehead every few seconds. At least a dozen sheriff's cruisers, doors open and blue lights spiking, mingled with the yellow flashers of the massive wrecker backed up to the bayou.

Using the crutches, I made my way to the water's edge. Several deputies made to push me back, but Mark stopped them. He came over to me.

“You shouldn't be here.”

“So I've been told.” The morning was chill, but not cold. Even so, my teeth chattered, and I was reminded of the first day Annie came to Belle Fleur. She'd certainly changed from a trembling, skinny, unwanted child into a lush and voluptuous little vixen. Now I was the one shaking as if afflicted by an ague. “I've come to identify Margo's body. I don't want Bob to have to do that.”

“You could do that at the morgue, after they've had a chance to clean her up some. Why not spare yourself this horror?”

“I want this behind us.”

He stepped slightly away from me. “How did you end up at Bayou Abondant yesterday? I mean, your feet—” he pointed at them. “You shouldn't have been walking. What were you doing in the woods?”

He'd caught me unprepared. “I wanted to help.”

“But why take the trail you took? How did you know?”

Now was a chance. “I saw Annie going that way yesterday. I wondered where she was going, so I decided to try and figure it out, while everyone else was with the search groups.”

“Annie was with Bob and the others.”

I steeled myself for the lie. “Part of the time, yes. But I saw her. Why else would I hobble around on my damaged feet? I wanted to see what she was up to.”

“Up to?”

“I don't trust her. All of this started since she came into the house. I don't have any proof, only suspicions. I tried to tell Cora, but she won't listen.” I shrugged. “Maybe I'm overreacting. I didn't find anything in the woods. I just fainted.”

His gaze slid from me and I turned back to the water. A rubber-suited diver surfaced and lifted a hand. The winch on the wrecker began to turn, the thick twisted wire cable inching out of the water. Something large stirred beneath the surface.

The sheriff called to Mark, who gave me one last look of pity and walked away. I was glad he was gone. It would be hard enough to see this without having a witness to my reaction. But I would do this so Bob or Berta wouldn't have to.