Summer Rental (49 page)

“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?” Ma
ryn 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 a
lready 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!