Tainted (21 page)

“I don't believe it.” Anna and Billy were at her front door, standing in the pouring rain. “What could you two possibly think you're doing here? Go away. Now.”

“I'm not going anywhere, Holly. Anna told me about Jack taking Katy out last night. I can't let this happen.”

“Nothing's happening,” Holly shouted, feeling like that figure in the Munch painting
The Scream
. “Nothing except you two trying to ruin my life and Katy's life and coming pretty close to succeeding. Go away. I mean it. Leave.”

“Holly—it's not just me any more. Henry doesn't trust Jack either. I'm not going to go away. Jack can't do something like that with Katy. How could you let him? Have you lost your mind? Has he brainwashed you?”

I promised him. I promised Jack I wouldn't tell.

“He's covering something up,” Billy continued. “Let us in, Holly. We have to get to the bottom of all this. He's covering up his past. He has some woman he talks to in England who pretends not to know him. Everything about him is fishy.”

“You have to admit, Holl,” Anna joined in, “the fact that Henry doesn't trust him either says something. Besides, I know you kicked me out and everything, but we're getting soaked out here.”

Holly didn't move or speak.

“Look, you're not seeing straight, Holly.” Billy sounded as if he were a prosecutor in a courtroom. “I understand you've fallen for the guy and love can make you crazy, but you have to think about Katy.”

Fury was rising in her, expanding, until her entire body was shaking with rage. They thought Jack was some kind of fraud and child molester. If she kept her promise, they'd continue to think that. If she and Jack and Katy left without saying anything, Billy and Anna and, most importantly, Henry would believe they were right about him.

And they'd also believe that she, Holly, would sacrifice Katy, lead her into a life of abuse—because she had fallen so much in love she couldn't see straight.

I'm sorry, Jack.

“Come in—both of you.” She turned, walked over to where the telephone was, aware that they were following behind her, picked it up and dialed.

“Henry? I need you to come over here right away. . . . Yes, now. It's important. It's crucial. . . . Good.” She hung up. “Sit down,” she said to Billy and Anna as they stood in the middle of the room. “Go sit down.”

“We're all wet . . .”

“Don't worry about the sofa, Anna. You know it's damp anyway.” Holly waved them toward it.

They both sat, facing the television, like naughty school-children, neither one saying a word.

“I'm going upstairs to check that Katy's still sleeping. By the time I come back, Henry will be here. I'll talk to you all then.”

Relieved to see Katy was out for the count, sleeping peacefully, Holly sat down at the foot of her bed, watching her breathe in and out. She was so innocent, so sweet. How could anyone think Jack would hurt her?

I have to tell them. You have to understand, Jack. I can't let them think what they're thinking. I have to go tell them now.

“What's going on?” Henry had just entered the living room when Holly reached the foot of the stairs. His cap and shirt were drenched with rain; he had rushed over without putting a coat on. “What are you two doing here?” he asked Billy and Anna.

“I'll tell you what they're doing here,” Holly said, and he swung around to look at her. “Sit down, Henry. Sit down and I'll tell you all what you're doing and how wrong you are to be doing it.”

Henry went to the chair across from the sofa, beside the television, and sat with a puzzled look.

“This is like some Agatha Christie movie or
Columbo
or something. Everyone gathered in one room—”

“It's not funny, Anna.” Holly remained standing, between the chair and the sofa. “Before you knocked on the door, I was upstairs packing my things. We're leaving Shoreham. Because of you.” She fixed her eyes on Billy. “Because you came and you couldn't let me be happy and you started making phone calls and I don't know how—” she turned to Henry “—he got you involved in such a shabby enterprise, but he obviously did. You had to butt in. You had to ruin my life.” She was looking at all three of them in turn. “Why?” Her voice had tears in it. “Why did you have to ruin everything? Henry?” She turned to him again. “Why did you make those calls? Why?”

He looked so stung, so pained, she felt a twinge of guilt, but it passed quickly.

“I did it out of concern for you, sweetie. I—”

“Concern for me?” She shook her head. “I don't think so. You did it because you don't trust me, you don't have any faith in my judgment. You all think I'm some little naive, pathetic girl who would fall for any man who paid the slightest attention to me, don't you? Tell me—when exactly did I become so gullible, so incapable of looking after myself, not to mention Katy? You think I'd put Katy at risk because of a man? How could you think that about me?”

“I don't think that, sweetie. Of course I don't. I was concerned about Jack's behavior, not yours, I—”

“Stop it. I can't take this any more.” She held up her hand. “You have no idea what you're talking about. You all distrust Jack. You all think there's something wrong with him. What's wrong with him is
you
. You're interfering in things you have no idea about.”

“Which are what things exactly, Holly?” Billy leaned forward.

“Jack got into trouble after his parents died, OK?” She said this directly to Billy. “He got involved with the wrong people. He got involved with the gangland scene in London. They did bad things, but Jack knew they were wrong and he ended up testifying against them in court. And because of that, he had to be given a new identity. He came over here and he started a whole new life. But if anyone discovers who he is, the people who he used to be with, they'll find him. And they'll kill him, Billy. OK? They'll kill him for testifying against them.”

“Shut up! Like the Mafia?”

“No, not
like
the Mafia, Anna.
Actually
the Mafia, OK? Do you understand? So that's why he has no friends from the past, that's why he isn't some lawyer or corporate banker or whatever you'd think was acceptable.” She was aiming her words at Billy again. “You should know what it's like to make a mistake and want to move on from it, to start again. But you won't let him do that, will you, Billy? You had to check up on him and be devious. And now we have to leave. We can't stay here. Which means you're not going to see Katy, Billy. And it's all your own fault.”

“Holly, wait a second—”

Billy stopped mid-sentence and everyone's heads swiveled at the sound of the front door opening. Jack appeared. Looking like someone who had walked into his surprise party. At first, seeing the bewilderment and disbelief on his face, Holly feared he might turn around and go back out, drive away from Shoreham forever. But he came into the living room, strode straight up to her.

“So—what is everyone doing here?” he asked her. “You haven't—”

“I had to, Jack. I had to—”

“You didn't. Tell me you didn't.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Holly? Please. You know how important this is. You promised me.”

“I couldn't let them think like that about you. I just couldn't. I couldn't let them get away with being so wrong about you.”

Jack spun away from her, dragged his hands down his face as if he were raking it.

“Fuck.” He shook his head, stared at the floor.

No one moved or spoke.

“Sorry, guys,” Anna finally spoke. “But I don't get it. And don't all look at me as if I've dropped a bomb or something because I've broken the silence. I don't get why it's such a big deal, why you'd have to leave Shoreham, Holly. What I mean is, OK, Jack, so you're what? In some kind of witness-protection program? And now Billy and Henry and I know about it too. But it's not as if we're going to tell anyone. Why would we? Billy doesn't want to lose the chance of seeing Katy if you left, Henry doesn't want you to go, obviously, and there's nothing in it for me to blab either. I mean, come on. Why do you have to go?”

“You wouldn't be able to resist telling someone, Anna. I know you. It's too good a story.”

“Holly.” She got up, came to where Holly was and stood right in front of her. “You've said a lot of things to me today, things I hope you don't mean. Maybe you were right, maybe I was jealous of you and Jack. And maybe I did treat you like a sidekick when we were at school. But you know, your parents—and Henry too for that matter, and no offense, Henry, but it's true—treated me like an airhead. They patronized me, not in a terrible way, but still, I knew what they were thinking. I wasn't good at school, I wasn't as smart as you—I bet they couldn't figure out why you would be friends with me. But we were friends, Holl. And I am still your friend. And I wouldn't trade you in for a good story. That's not fair. If we're all about setting the record straight about people today, include me in. I'm not as shallow as you think I am.”

“Oh, God, Anna. I'm sorry.” All of her righteous anger disappeared and Holly stepped toward Anna and hugged her. “I didn't mean to accuse you of being shallow, I really didn't. It's been a crazy day. I'm so sorry for taking it out on you.”

“Oh, come on. This is very touching, but it's not the point.” Billy stood up, began to pace around the room. He stopped behind Henry's chair. “First of all, how do we know we can believe this story, Jack? You could have made this whole thing up. Gangs and the Mafia. Come off it.”

“Why would I make it up?” Jack looked up from the floor he'd been fixated on. “And
how
could I make it up, even if there were a reason I wanted to? I know you called the school I was supposed to have gone to, Henry. I know you both called the woman who is in charge of my new identity because she called me to tell me you had. How would I know you'd called that school unless the school had informed her—which they have to do in cases like mine?

“And there
are
gangs in London, Billy. It's not all Wimbledon and strawberries and garden parties in Buckingham Palace. The Mafia does exist in London. And I was part of it all. I'm ashamed of it. I'm ashamed I went off the rails like that, but I have to pay for it every day of my life. I have to look over my shoulder the whole time. But I thought I could still have a life. I made a new life with Holly and Katy. I want to live that new life. Is that a crime?”

Holly went to him, put her arm around him.

“He deserves a new life, he deserves the same new life and happiness he has given me and Katy.”

“Are you saying they're still after you, after this amount of time? That they'd really follow you to America if they found out you were here?” Billy pressed.

“I know of a case,” Henry spoke up, “where a Mafia informer was about to testify and he was in the courthouse, on the fourth floor, waiting to go down to the courtroom, and he had a guard, but the guard must have been paid off, because he left the room and when he did, a hit man went in and threw him out the window. It happened in New York, when I was living there. You're never safe from those people. They make it their business to ensure you're never safe.”

Billy looked chastened, but only for a second.

“None of this is the point, though, is it? The point is, you took Katy out for a drive at what? Two o'clock in the morning. And you can't explain that away with anything to do with the Mafia, Jack. You did something entirely inappropriate.”

“That word again.” Jack sighed. “Inappropriate. She was awake. We went on an adventure. She loved it. If it's inappropriate for her to have fun, I'm guilty as charged.”

“She must have been sitting on your lap to drive. It
is
inappropriate. You're not her father.”

“I am so tired.” Holly could feel Jack's whole body sag as he spoke. “I'm too tired to play games with you, Billy. I told Holly and I told Henry—I had a sister who died when she was very young, when she was Katy's age. Amanda. One time she and I woke up in the middle of the night and got dressed and went to sit in our parents' car and pretended to take a trip to France. Stupid make-believe, but she loved it. We used to have so much fun together. Was that inappropriate? Maybe I shouldn't play Ping-Pong with Katy either. Maybe I need to be accompanied if I walk with her down the beach just in case I do anything inappropriate. Look, I'm sure some American shrink would say I'm recreating Amanda in Katy or whatever, and if everyone thinks that's wrong, fine. I won't do anything like that ever again. But at no point did I ever do anything inappropriate with Katy.”

“Of course he didn't.” Holly shook her head. “Does that answer all your doubts, all your distrust and horrible suspicions? Are you all satisfied now?”

“I still want to know what all this leaving business is about,” Anna said. “I mean, you don't have to leave now, do you? We can all go back to normal and promise to keep our mouths shut, can't we? Right?”

What Anna said made sense; Holly dared to hope Jack would see it that way too.

“Jack?” She looked up at him. “Can we stay?”

“Maybe. But all this digging around has to stop. Are you going to stop, Billy?”

“What choice do I have?” Billy's tone was petulant. “Anna's right. It's not in my interest for you to leave town.”

“I said this morning that I knew I'd regret making those calls, Jack.” Henry took a deep breath. “And I do. I only hope you can forgive me.”

“It's not a problem, Henry.”

“What did the Mafia guys do? I mean, what did they do that you had to testify against them?”

“I'd really prefer not to discuss it, Anna.”