Deadly Gift

by Heather Graham

  How?

  Marni and Amanda got Tom down the five steps to the cabin below, then came back for Clara.

  Then Sean, then Kat.

  Then they paused, breathless. Marni laughed. “Wow. They’re heavy. Even Kat.”

  “Only one more to go,” Amanda said. “But…one second. I just have to breathe.”

  “Poor baby, poor precious baby. But it’s almost over. And no matter what anyone thinks, they’ll never be able to prove anything,” Marni said. “Come here.”

  Caer watched the two embrace and share a kiss. “You were such a convincing bitch in that house,” Marni said with a giggle.

  “It wasn’t hard. You got to marry the cute young guy. I had to marry the corpse and act as if I was turned on all the time. That would make anyone bitchy.” She laughed. “Over! This could really be over.”

  “Could be? It is,” Marni assured her.

  “Cal’s body will be found.”

  “I killed him with gloves on, with one of Clara’s big broiler pans. They can’t trace it to me. I went into that grocery store in the same disguise I wore when I killed Eddie. No one will ever get anything useful off that security tape. They’ll never figure out what made Sean so sick, and what do you think they’ll learn from Eddie’s body? Nothing, that’s what. He’ll be chewed to bits by now, and when they find that cop I had to kill when I stumbled on him, he’ll be just as chewed up as poor old Eddie Ray. Come on, Amanda! We’ve earned this. We’ve worked for it ever since we met Eddie years ago, in that bar in the Village, bragging about the great discovery he was going to make. Now, whether we ever find that stupid treasure or not, we’ll be rich. We can do anything, go anywhere, because we’re all that’s left of the O’Riley empire. Even that old biddy, Bridey, went and died, saving us the trouble of killing her. Amanda, we deserve the money, and we deserve happiness together. Lord knows, we both paid for it, married to an idiot and a corpse. Grab the Irish bitch. I want to get us out of here. Go through her things first, because she’s been snooping around the most, with that damn Zach Flynn. Kat was too busy hating you to figure anything out, and if Sean had really known something, you would have wheedled it out of him already.”

  Marni started up the engine. Caer cursed herself for not having dragged herself onto the dock, but she hadn’t been able to move, and she’d also been afraid to leave the others.

  Amanda bent down to grip her by the arms and started to drag her. Hers would be a bruising descent down the steps to the cabin.

  Caer opened her eyes fully and gripped Amanda right back.

  Amanda screamed.

  19

  Zach’s mind was racing as he drove back to Newport as quickly as he could.

  Eliminate the possibilities. Then, no matter how improbable, the possible became the plausible.

  Morrissey appeared to be upright and honest. Zach had felt a decent vibe about the man from the time they had first met. He was a rare breed, a self-sacrificing individual, maybe determined to pay back the world for the life of luxury he might have enjoyed. Fact or instinct?

  Gut feeling.

  Tom and Clara. Hell, he’d known them both for years. Since he’d been a kid, since he’d known Sean.

  Was it possible that they were killers? One of them was almost always at the house. They’d both been there for the party when Amanda and Sean had been about to leave for Ireland, the party where, if his theory was correct, Sean had been fed the mushroom that made him so sick. But what about earlier in the day, when Eddie had disappeared? They would both have been there at the house, preparing.

  Was there a way one of them could have crept away from the house? Tom, yes, Clara, no. Could Tom have killed Eddie and Clara have poisoned Sean? Yes, possibly.

  No hard facts there, only instinct again.

  Gut instinct.

  Which told him that scenario was possible but unlikely.

  What was possible and also likely?

  Amanda. Kat hated Amanda and was convinced the woman wanted her father dead.

  Cal and Marni. Cal could easily have put on that disguise.

  So could have any of them, but…

  Cal was young and strong. He would have been able to tackle both Eddie and Gary, and throw a knife with enough force and accuracy to have hit Jorey, if Caer hadn’t gotten in the way.

  Providence and Newport were no more than thirty miles apart, though traffic could turn the drive into an hour or more at the height of tourist season. But this was winter, and well before rush hour, and Zach made it to the house in good time. He was feeling confident, because information was coming in now, clues were beginning to add up. The truth was going to surface, because it was true: eventually, even the most careful killer got careless.

  He pulled into the long drive in front of the house, and stopped. The yard was black with birds.

  It was eerie. No matter how often he told himself that they were just birds, he’d never seen birds do anything like this before.

  He remembered the way Caer had seemed to dread their appearance.

  She claimed she was a banshee. Maybe that was what her group in Ireland called themselves. The Banshees.

  No, she wanted him to believe that she was the real thing. A howling, flying, crying, screaming, mourning, escorting-the-dead kind of banshee.

  Impossible. Banshees did not exist.

  And massive raven migrations did not take place, bringing the creatures to Rhode Island in the midst of winter.

  He slammed his way out of the car, a sense of dread filling his heart as he burst into the house through the kitchen.

  Immediately, he discovered one truth. Cal was not the killer.

  Cal was lying on the kitchen floor, blood streaming from a wound to his head and one of Clara’s heavy, old-fashioned iron frying pans lying nearby. The blood on it made it clear that it had been the weapon that felled the younger man.

  Zach dropped to his knees at Cal’s side and lifted his wrist, looking for a pulse, fearing the worst. The man looked dead.

  But there was a pulse. Faint, but real.

  Zach pulled out his phone, called 911 and asked for an ambulance. As soon as he hung up, he called Morrissey. When he got no answer on the detective’s private line he momentarily doubted himself, but then Cal opened his eyes, the pupils uneven, and mumbled, “Go…she’s crazy, they’re crazy.”

  “Tom and Clara?” he asked incredulously, looking at the frying pan by the man’s head.

  “Marni,” he managed. “Marni and Amanda.”

  “Where are they? Are they on the boat?”

  “It’s rigged. Gonna blow up. She’s crazy. Marni is crazy. I figured it out this morning…caught her and Amanda…whispering…in it together….” He groaned. Speaking was costing him a tremendous effort. “Stop them. Got to stop them.”

  Zach could hear the sirens. What could be done for Cal would be.

  He lit out of the house; he didn’t have time to talk to the cops or the EMTs, but with Cal conscious, he could take care of that.

  Back in the car, Zach raced down the driveway, jerked out onto the street with reckless speed, then tore down the road, cursing every other car he encountered.

  When he reached the wharf, he saw the Sea Maiden. She was about twenty feet out and moving steadily away.

  ‘She’s crazy,’ Cal had said of his wife. Marni and Amanda had been in it together.

  The Sea Maiden was moving slowly, making her way past the channel markers. Whichever woman was steering her would be careful, wouldn’t take a chance of being stopped by the shore patrol.

  Who was the brain behind the crime? he wondered. Marni or Amanda? His money was on Marni, plotting and planning, in the office every day, with access to charts and logs, listening to Eddie’s tales. With Cal as her husband, she had access to Sean, as well. He would even bet that she had introduced Amanda to him.

  He couldn’t just dive into the water and start swimming after them. He would freeze before he reached them. He couldn’t motor up, e
ither. Too obvious. Cursing, he burst into the charter office, and found a wet suit and diving gear, then headed out.

  Even in the state-of-the art wet suit, he thought he was going to solidify before he could catch up to them. Move! he told himself. Moving generated body heat. The flippers he’d chosen were designed for speed, and he shot through the water, following the sound of the motor.

  Just as they reached the last channel marker, after which he knew he would never be able to keep up, Zach surfaced and caught hold of the anchor ring. He was so exhausted from the cold that he was afraid he wouldn’t have the power to drag himself up, but adrenaline could do amazing things. Fear—for the others as well as for himself—was a potent impetus. Straining, he pulled himself up, checking to make sure he wouldn’t be seen before hauling himself to the deck.

  He made it over the rail just as the boat picked up speed and began to streak across the water.

  When Amanda screamed, Marni streaked over like a bolt from the blue, and Caer had a moment of truly appreciating physical pain. Marni hit her, and she saw stars.

  “She’s not out!” Amanda cried, shaking. “I laced that whiskey with plenty of Seconal. Plenty! She should be out cold.”

  “It’s all right,” Marni said. “It might even save us some time. There’s something about her, anyway. I think she knows something.” She reached down and drew Caer to her feet.

  In seconds, Caer, her head still reeling, felt a knife at her throat.

  “You know where Eddie hid the treasure, don’t you?” Amanda asked.

  “What do you need with the treasure? You’ll be inheriting all the O’Riley money.”

  Amanda shook her head. “I want it all. I earned it.”

  “Save it for later, honey,” Marni said. “We need to get out of here first.”

  She dragged Caer with her to the helm, keeping the knife against her jugular as she forced her down on her knees and took the wheel.

  “You do know where Eddie left the treasure, don’t you?” Marni said.

  “No, actually, I don’t. I do know there’s a clue somewhere on the boat, so you might not want to blow it up,” Caer lied desperately.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Marni demanded harshly.

  “She’ll cut you if you won’t tell,” Amanda taunted. “Stupid Irish bitch. You could have stayed over there, but no. You’re just as greedy as anyone else. You used Sean to come here, and then you went after Zach. You’re trying to find the treasure yourself now.”

  “Shut up, Amanda,” Marni said wearily.

  “Be careful, Marni,” Caer said coolly. “Amanda inherits the fortune, not you.”

  Marni’s hand twitched, and Caer felt a trickle of blood slide along her flesh.

  “Shut up about Amanda and tell me where the treasure is,” Marni said. “Or we’ll just drag sweet little Kat back up here and start ripping her apart. That will make you talk.”

  “You’re going to kill her anyway,” Caer said with a shrug. What the hell was she going to do? She could stall them, but what was the point? There was no hope on the horizon.

  “Aren’t you a smart little potato?” Marni said. “There’s killing, and then there’s killing. I can let her die as she is now, totally unconscious. Or I can wait ’til she comes to and make sure she dies slowly and in agony. Trust me, I know how to kill.”

  “I believe you,” Caer said. “But do me a favor, since you’re going to kill me anyway. Fill me in, tell me how all this happened…. The plans—the sacrifices. I mean, you two are obviously in love, so it must have been hard pretending to care about your husbands.”

  “Not so hard, given the payoff,” Marni told her, amused. “Things just kind of fell in together once we met Eddie. I had to arrange to meet Cal, make him fall in love with me—which wasn’t hard. Men are so easy. Then I played matchmaker, introduced Sean to Amanda. It was easy, really. The hard part was waiting for that idiot Eddie to actually find the treasure. Too bad you didn’t figure it out a bit earlier.”

  “You were good, I have to admit,” Caer said. “You pretending to flirt with Sean to make Amanda jealous, and Amanda, you pretending to hate Marni. And you, Marni, always siding with Kat in any argument. Brilliant. I tip my hat to you both.”

  “That’s enough. What do you know about the treasure? If you don’t start talking now, I will bring Kat up here and dice her into fish food.”

  “‘The clue is left, the clue is right, follow the North Star tonight,’” Caer quoted.

  “What?” Amanda said.

  “Keep going,” Marni said.

  “There’s nothing more. It’s Eddie’s poem, and that’s what it says.”

  “She’s playing us, Marni,” Amanda said.

  “No, I’m not,” Caer assured her.

  Marni stared at her with narrowed eyes.

  “That’s the clue. It’s Eddie’s poem, and his clue to where you can find the treasure.”

  Zach could hear voices from the stern, so he shed and hid his tank, mask and flippers, then slipped down the back steps to the cabin, hoping that neither Amanda nor Marni would be there.

  They weren’t.

  But what greeted his eyes, once they had adjusted to the dim light, caused his heart to skip a beat and then slam like a jackhammer against his ribs.

  Bodies.

  Clara draped over Tom. Sean lying in the center aisle. Kat in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

  Tom was closest, so Zach hunkered down and felt for a pulse at Tom’s throat first, then Clara’s. They were both alive. He stepped around them quickly, relief filling him.

  What drug had the women used? What would put them out so completely? What the hell did it matter, if he couldn’t gain control of the boat? And how was it rigged to explode? He had to know so he could stop it from blowing sky-high.

  He started to rise, so he could station himself on the steps and listen to whatever was going on, but just then Sean’s eyes opened and he tried to speak.

  Zach shook his head and brought a finger to his lips.

  “Caer,” Sean mouthed. “Stalling them.”

  “I know. It’s all right,” Zach repeated.

  All right? A maniac had Caer. Nothing was all right.

  Zach stood and retrieved the gun he had tucked into his waistband under the wet suit.

  Sean was out again, he saw. Just as well. With his gun drawn, he moved to the steps and silently started to climb.

  Simultaneously, Amanda came to the top of the steps, saw him and screamed.

  He rushed her. He had no choice.

  He grabbed her bleached blond hair and pulled her against him as a shield, his gun to her head, as Marni stood, dragging Caer up with her.

  Standoff.

  “Let Caer go,” Zach said.

  Marni laughed unpleasantly. “You must be joking.”

  “Actually, I’m not. Let Caer go or Amanda will be dead before you can flick your wrist.”

  Marni shrugged. “Kill her.”

  “Marni!” Amanda shrieked.

  “I’m going to have the treasure,” Marni said. “If I have it alone, so be it.”

  “No!” Amanda cried. She was shaking in Zach’s arms, betrayed.

  “Stop crying,” Marni snapped at her. “He isn’t going to shoot you. He’s a man. He’s in love. Or lust. Didn’t I teach you all about men? Trust me. He’ll let you go, and he’ll toss his gun overboard, or else I’ll slit his girlfriend’s throat and fillet her like a fish, and let him watch.”

  “Like hell you will!” Caer exploded. “Zach, shoot her.”

  “We can figure this out,” Zach said flatly, buying time, trying to figure out a way to convince Marni to let Caer go.

  He could see it in Marni’s eyes. She wasn’t the kind of crazy that would make her do anything stupid. She was smart-crazy. She had planned this for years.

  “Don’t bother with Amanda,” Caer pleaded. “Shoot Marni.”

  Holding Amanda tightly against him, he felt her shivering bod
y through the wet suit. He aimed the gun at Marni.

  “You won’t take the chance,” Marni taunted.

  “You have to kill her,” Caer said. Her eyes were brilliantly blue and pleading as they met his. “Zach, I’ve told you the truth. You’ve seen the birds. You have to save Sean. There’s a reason. I don’t know what it is, but Sean has to live out his natural lifespan. That’s why I’m here. Please, Zach. You have to believe me, believe what I’ve told you. Everything I’ve told you.”

  He stared at Marni, who only laughed coldly.

  “Shoot her, Zach,” Caer said again. “You have to believe me. Believe in me.”

  “Drop the gun, Zach,” Marni said again, and pressed the knife harder against Caer’s neck. “See? I can make her bleed.”

  And he knew. He couldn’t give up his weapon, not even if his heart was tearing as if the knife shimmering in Marni’s hand was slipping into his own flesh.

  Because there was something…

  Something in Caer’s eyes that spoke of truth and wisdom.

  But she wasn’t a banshee.

  Couldn’t be a banshee…

  Could she?

  The image of another knife flashed into his mind, a kitchen filleting knife, razor sharp, slicing through the air and into Caer’s back.

  She had lived, had only been nicked. She had explained it away as coincidence, the knife hitting the wire of her bra, but…

  Did it matter? There was no choice. They would all die, Sean, Kat, Tom, Clara, not only Caer, if he didn’t stop Marni.

  “Zach, do it!” Caer cried.

  “Don’t do it unless you want to see her bleed,” Marni taunted. “I’ll make her bleed just a little more now, just to prove it to you.”

  His finger twitched, and the gun exploded, the knife slicing into Caer’s throat just as Marni caught the bullet in her forehead, pulling Caer to the deck with her as she fell.

  Amanda began screaming hysterically. Zach thrust her away from him as he hurtled toward Caer, clutching her against his chest, searching frantically for something to stanch the flow of blood at her throat.

  There was a roaring in his ears, and he looked up. The sky had gone black, but not from weather, he realized in shock. It was the birds, hundreds upon hundreds of birds, swooping down toward the deck.