by Jason Allen
“I think you should sit down at least, Mr. Sheffield. You’re really not looking so good.”
“No!” Leo turned toward the closed door with his fist clenched, then leaned closer with tears welling up and spoke much softer. “This has to happen tonight. I need your help. I need you to move him.”
“You can’t be serious,” Corey said, already flashing to the awful image of Henry’s face when he’d leaned over him and then brought the blanket over his head. He backed a step away from his mom’s boss, envisioning clips of himself struggling to lift Henry’s body from the forest floor, the blanket unfurling, Henry’s cold arms out-flung, and then, worst of all, someone seeing him carrying a dead man from the trees. “No,” he said. “That’s crazy. No way.”
“You have to. Please. A detective called a few minutes ago. Your mom answered, and she knows about Henry now, too. The detective already knows he was coming here, because Henry’s mother said so when she reported him missing. I can’t start answering questions if he’s still on the property. And to make things worse, Polly won’t leave him the fuck alone. I saw you chase her into the woods. She led you right to him, didn’t she?”
“Hey, hey—hey there, Mr. Sheffield. Hold up. Stop crying for a second.”
Corey felt his arm rise up with his hand out, but he quickly pulled it back. Through some unexpected reflex he’d nearly placed a hand on Leo’s arm to console him.
“As long as you give Angelique the money tonight,” he said, “like you promised, we won’t tell. I understand that you’re in a bad way right now, but I’m not moving a dead body for you. No fucking way. Sir.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t renege on the cash I promised Angelique. In fact, you can have some of it now. You keeping quiet about what you saw is more than a fair deal for that money. But if you help me with Henry, I’d be willing to give you a whole helluva lot more than a million, enough to set you and your mom up for life. Name your price.”
Corey eyed him for a while, thinking about how much a guy as rich as Leo would be willing to pay in such a desperate position, but then the tape played through to the end and all he could see were his wrists in cuffs and the bars of his cell clanging shut.
“Think about it,” Leo said. “Your mom could quit working here if she wanted, start a whole new life for herself and you and your brother. Consider the big picture for a second. Think about what that kind of money would mean for your family.”
Leo reached out to the painting on the wall, lifted it from its hook and uncovered the wall safe Corey already knew was there. Turning the heavy dial, Leo told him to go into the closet and bring over the dark blue gym bag.
Corey’s thoughts were all jumbled, but he did as he was told and then held the bag open while Leo dropped in banded stacks of hundred-dollar bills, counting them out in pairs until the bag held a hundred grand. Then Leo reached into the safe once more. “Here,” he said, and handed Corey a gold watch. “I want you to have this.”
Corey felt the weight of it in his palm, then noticed ROLEX etched along the bottom of the clock face. Five minutes ago he had roughly ten bucks to his name, and now he stood with a sack full of cash and, as far as he knew, one of the most expensive watches on the planet. He glanced up at the open safe. There must have been another hundred grand inside, easy, along with a ring box, folders fat with papers, a few other fancy watches, and loose pieces of jewelry. But that wasn’t all. A second before Leo swung the heavy safe door closed, Corey nearly choked. He’d seen a box of ammo and the barrel of a handgun peeking from behind the stacks of cash.
Leo turned the dial to relock it and rehung the painting, then placed his hands on Corey’s shoulders and looked him dead in the face. “Please. You have to move Henry off the property—the only caveat being that you put him someplace where he won’t be disturbed again. How much will it take for you to help me with this? I’m begging you. Please.”
Corey held the gun in his mind’s eye like an afterimage, saw it pointed at his head, saw the flash as it fired in super-slow-motion. He wondered just how desperate Leo might become if he didn’t agree to help him. He had the gym bag in hand. More money inside it than he’d ever conceived of holding. He should find Angelique and just take off. No goodbyes or excuses for Gina—she’d be all right now that she’d decided to get that restraining order on Ray. Just leave now, and then call and apologize after they’d made it far away.
“Leo,” he said, feeling he should take Mr. Sheffield down a peg and call him by his first name. “It won’t matter how much you agreed to pay me if someone sees me with Henry’s body. I’d go to jail, probably for the rest of my life.”
“That’s just it, though—no one will see you.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“No, they won’t. You know why? Later tonight there’s going to be a fireworks show that one of the homeowners across the lake has spent a fortune on. As soon as the first burst hits the sky everyone will already be out here at the party on the lake side of the house, and they’ll be staring up for the next half hour until the finale ends. Meanwhile, you’ll have Henry ready at the tree line beforehand and you can take the beginning of the fireworks as your cue to pull your truck across the far lawn with your headlights off. Nobody will be within an acre or two of you, maybe more, and it’s plenty dark out there. Five or ten minutes later, well before the show is over, you’ll be pulling out the gates. Where you take him from there, that’s up to you. You’ll be okay. We both will, as long as you say yes.”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this.”
“You’re my only hope. Say yes, and I’ll be forever in your debt.”
“Why can’t you just do it yourself?”
“People would notice I was missing, and I can’t risk someone coming to look for me.”
“You’re telling me you’d give me whatever I ask? Like a hundred million if I do this?”
Leo paused for no more than a second, then nodded.
“It would take time, but yes. Absolutely. I can afford that.”
“This is fucking insane.”
“Do this for me, Corey, and I swear on my life and on the lives of my kids, I’ll give you and your mother enough money to never have to worry.”
THIRTY-ONE
The musicians had all but set up under the party tent on the lawn, a few of them tuning their instruments while the pianist played a tinkly riff that seemed an improvised response to the lightly falling rain. Heavy clouds had been rolling in and rumbling ever since lunch, accompanied by frequent gusts of wind that matted large swaths of the lawn and rippled patterns along the lake. Some of the guests for the most formal party of the weekend drifted back to shelter through the open tent walls just before a day-worker began unrolling the vinyl sheets and staking them down, while others wandered across the gentle slope toward the lake with raincoats draped over tuxedo jackets and gowns.
Tiffany sat on the porch with a wineglass at her bottom lip, stunned by Angelique’s news.
“I guess I sort of get it. Yeah, he’s kind of cute, Angel, but he’s a small-town guy, though, right? I mean, how well do you even know him?”
“Well enough to know that I want to leave with him.”
“Where are you two planning on going?”
“So far, all we’ve decided is that we want a long road trip before fall semester. He’s smart, you know. All you ever see of him is the work he does here, but he actually has a full ride at a school upstate.”
“He does?”
“Yeah, he just isn’t sure yet if he’ll go this fall because of family stuff.”
“So you’re gonna just hop in his run-down pickup truck and drive, with no idea where you’re going. Sounds kinda nutso, Angel-fish... But then again, what the hell do I know.”
“I promise I’ll call.”
“I can’t change your mind? I wish you’d stay here with me l
ike we planned. What am I going to do here without you? Make fun of my parents’ hideous guests by myself? Go to the beach with my tight-ass banker brothers and their idiot friends? You’re really leaving me here alone all summer with my crazy family?”
Angelique took her friend’s hand and squeezed it. “You’ll be fine,” she said, and just then Clayton’s dog loped past with muddy steps across the porch, distracting her for a second. She let go of Tiffany’s hand and leaned closer from her chair. “As much as I appreciate you and your parents offering to have me here all summer, with everything that’s happened over the past few months with my mom and all, I just need to be somewhere totally new.”
“I get it, this place will be full of awful people all summer. But it still sucks you’re leaving me here.”
“I know, but I’ll be back. And we’ll meet up in the city before school starts. I just have to go now.”
“What-the-fuck-ever.”
“You can stop with the guilt trip now, right? I really like Corey, Tiff. He’s got a good heart, and I trust him. Can you be happy for me?”
Tiffany rolled her eyes and angled her head forward, motioning with her finger in her mouth and making a quick vomit sound. “Fuck’s sake,” she said, grinning and shaking her head. “I’m happy if you’re happy, whore-face. You just better call me from the road, though, like every few hours, so I know you’re not, like, in a Dumpster somewhere.”
“You have my solemn oath, slutty-pie. It shall be done.”
They stared out at the lake and the two swans waddling beside the bulkhead with their heads down, a gust of wind spreading the lake water behind them and raising it like ribs.
Tiffany smiled and placed her hand on Angelique’s shoulder. “So now I suppose we’ll have to find me a big-hearted townie, too. Huh?”
They laughed together until a stinging sensation spread into the corners of Angelique’s jaw and her eyes watered over. Despite Tiff’s faults, she would miss her friend terribly. But their friendship could never be the same after what Mr. Sheffield had done, whether Tiff ever heard about it or not. They’d been friends for as long as she could remember, but even if this insane weekend hadn’t blown so much certainty away, she’d already wondered if this summer might be the last they spent together out here by the lake. During her first two semesters at Brown and Tiff’s at NYU, their friendship involved so much more distance, much more time apart. They’d spoken less, barely met up when they both spent their breaks in the city. In the coming years they’d likely see even less of each other. Tiff had already started an internship in some plush Manhattan art gallery with other trust fund teenagers and twentysomethings who didn’t actually need to work, and for her, staying in the city—aside from summers out here—made total sense. Angelique had no clue where she wanted to go once she and Corey had the money, but with her mother gone and her sister estranged, the idea of living in New York held no appeal. She needed to get far away. She needed to see all the places between here and someplace new.
The sky grumbled over the lake, the rain falling harder when Michael stepped out to the right of their chairs, held the screen door open and clanged a large metal triangle with a large metal spoon to signify that dinner was about to be served. Looking like the cast of a Samuel Beckett play, the hooded guests turned in unison and plodded toward the porch.
The girls stood and hugged, and after holding much tighter and for much longer than her best friend normally would, Tiffany asked if she was okay.
“Fine, darling. I just love you is all.”
“Right back at you, sweet cheeks. But don’t you go getting all blubbery on me. Let’s find us a glass of vino, huh? How about it? It’s a special occasion, right? So you’ll finally have a drink with me?”
Angelique deflected her question by saying she just realized she hadn’t eaten all day, and placed a hand on her stomach to emphasize how ready she was for dinner. They walked through the living room and into the hall, where Tiffany intended to pull a bottle from one of the wine chillers, but then they both paused beside the nearest bathroom door, which was open a crack.
Someone sounded like they were battling a demon in there, in pain and praying wholeheartedly from their gut, either suffering from food poisoning or regretting having drunk way too much. Tiffany tapped lightly on the door, nudging it open, and as she did Angelique got a full view of Corey’s mother there on her knees—her hair matted on one side, her hands gripping the toilet seat, drool dangling from her chin—an expression of abject defeat as she turned and saw the two girls watching her.
THIRTY-TWO
After dinner, the party hit full swing. Once again, tiny white lights had been strewn around the porch rails and mini chandeliers hung at intervals above the heads of a few dozen guests with martinis and wine and champagne glasses in hand. Despite the darkening shelf of clouds over the lake, everyone had settled in with their cocktails, more animated than ever due to the rising energy of the storm. They, along with Sheila and the Sheffield sons, socialized in their formal wear along the porch and within the party tent’s thick water-resistant walls, sheltered from the wind and rain, all of them still blissfully oblivious that Leo’s dead lover lay a few acres from them in the woods.
Corey had been surveying the scene for a while now, psyching himself up to sneak off and make his way over to the opposite side of the property. He hadn’t seen his mother since Angelique told him what she and Tiffany witnessed when they pushed open the bathroom door. He worried about her. Gina’s drinking had always concerned him, but so much more lately, especially since her trip to the hospital this week. There wasn’t much he could do for her now, though, except to follow through with Leo’s request. It would be a thousand times easier to help pull Gina from her downward spiral once he had all that money. He thought back to Leo begging him to move Henry, and how Leo kept pressing him until he’d finally blurted out, “Alright, fine. If you’re seriously going to give me a hundred million bucks, I’ll do it.” Stunned by how genuine Leo seemed when he agreed, he’d left the bedroom a minute later in a daze, amazed that the sorry fuck hadn’t even hesitated, and instead had thanked him. But would Leo really hold to his promise? Should he have gotten that in writing? Would he give a fortune to the kid who’d nearly killed him a few nights ago? With the cops closing in and a handful of people already aware of Henry, Leo was desperate enough to say anything. Still, maybe it was worth the risk. Gina needed to go to rehab, a good one, an expensive one, and once he held up his end of the deal and moved Henry, whatever other money changed hands, Leo would pay for it—the best rehab they could find.
The sun had nearly set, though most of the fire colors at the horizon lay obscured by the rain clouds laced in gray and black and indigo. The edges of the lawn had already been swallowed by shadows. Soon night would fall completely. Not much longer now before all the acres outside the party lights and tiki torches would be dark enough for Corey to get started.
He walked backward off the porch steps and discreetly slipped out of sight past the corner of the house, spun on the wet lawn and hustled through the rain to the garden, where he found Angelique waiting for him, crouched inside the archway. The rain tapered to a drizzle while they hugged and fatter drops of water dripped on his neck from the flowery arch overhead. She said over his shoulder, “I wish we could just go right now.”
Hoping to protect her, he’d kept her in the dark about his part with Leo and Henry. He’d also kept her from questioning his upcoming absence by saying that’s when he’d get the rest of the million himself. “I just have to take care of a couple other things before the handoff,” he said, longing to get the whole thing over with. “But I promise, we’ll leave soon. Meet me at the gates right after the fireworks end.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Could you do me a favor, though? Check and see if my mom’s still around? Her car’s still here, but I haven’t seen her for a while.”
“The last I saw her after we found her in the bathroom, Tiff’s mom was with her and it didn’t look like things were all too friendly. I’ll look for her, though.”
“Thanks,” he said, releasing his arms. “A couple hours from now, I promise, we’ll be done with this place forever.”
She took a step back, half turned and grinned. “I was thinking about where we could go.”
“Oh yeah? Where?”
“We should drive to Bryce Canyon.”
“Okay, where’s that?”
“It’s a national park in Utah, and it looks amazing. All these spires that are different colors, sort of like caves turned inside out, and some of the reddest sand and boulders you’ve ever seen. I’ve wanted to go there since my mom first showed me pictures when I was little. We’d planned to go together during my spring break this year—but she was already gone by then.”
Corey felt the weight of her statement and breathed deeply before answering. “That’s where we’ll go, then.”
Angelique held eye contact while she continued her slow backpedal toward the house. “Thanks,” she said. “Even though I wish I could have gone with her, it’ll mean a lot to me to finally be there.” About halfway to the door she smiled and ran her hand beneath each of her eyes, calling back to him as she jogged to the door, “Tonight, let’s drive all night.”
Once she was inside, Corey pulled out his phone and dialed his brother’s number. Glancing up at the balcony, he wasn’t surprised to find Leo approaching the railing, staring down at him. They locked eyes, and though nothing was said, everything was understood. Time for him to earn his fortune. Time to start walking toward that darkness way out there.
