The House Guests

by Emilie Richards

  Amber rose and began to pace along the front of the pool. “Billy got there and found Darryl on the porch, as if nothing had ever happened. Nobody else had witnessed the shooting or the robbery attempt. Darryl thought it was likely nobody would find the clerk until the shift changed in the early morning, and nothing would tie Darryl to his death.”

  She stopped in front of Cassie, arms folded. “And then Billy made his worst mistake. He was so shaken, and furious that Darryl had killed the clerk, he threatened him. He told Darryl he was going to turn him in and tell the sheriff in the next county what he’d seen. He knew his father and uncle would cover up the crime, and he had to report it somewhere else. When he turned away, Darryl shot him in the back. Then he dragged his body toward the woods beside their house.”

  “How do you know this? Billy didn’t live to tell any of it.”

  “Billy was supposed to meet me at the creek where we were going to have our picnic. When he didn’t show up, I walked to his house. I stayed out of sight in the woods, hoping to avoid anybody from his family. I heard the entire argument in enough detail I could piece together what had happened, and then I saw Darryl shoot him and start to drag his body away.”

  “Oh, Amber...” Cassie couldn’t imagine.

  “When I saw Darryl heading in my direction, I ran. He heard me, then I guess he saw me, because he started after me.”

  “He didn’t catch you?”

  She took a deep breath before she answered. “I managed to get away.”

  “You never told anybody what happened? What you saw?”

  “My 4-H advisor, Betsy Garland, was like a mother to me. By then my own mother...” She shook her head. “Mom had moved in with some man from Morgantown, so Dad came back to take care of me. He came home some nights, left me cash for food. But that night he was out of town hauling logs. I knew our house was the first place Darryl would look for me. So I went to Betsy’s. She was horrified, but she believed me. Right from the first word. She knew about Darryl, and she knew about me and Billy. She wanted me to go to the sheriff in the next county and tell him what I’d seen. I wanted to, but I didn’t have proof. Not one bit. Somehow Billy’s uncle would make Darryl’s part in it go away, maybe pin the clerk’s murder on Billy, maybe even Billy’s murder on me. He’d call it a lover’s quarrel. And I was a nobody. My own parents probably wouldn’t stand up for me.”

  “She helped you leave town?”

  “Betsy had friends all over. She called one in Northern Virginia and told her she needed a place for a young woman. That woman found me a job taking care of an older couple in her church. Betsy said I should stay there and think about what to do, that whatever I decided, she’d help. Then maybe with good legal representation, I could come back and safely tell what I knew. In the meantime, everyone thought that Billy and I had run off together to get married. Nobody was looking for us.”

  Amber sat again and leaned against the back of the love seat cushions.

  Cassie faced her. “I’m guessing you didn’t go back.”

  “A month later I realized I was pregnant. Billy was gone, but I was carrying a baby. I knew then that I would have to spend the rest of my days protecting my child from Darryl. It was no longer just about me. I knew what would happen if he found us. That’s what I’ve done.”

  Cassie was still trying to absorb the story. “At the beginning you said the time had come for me to know so I could make a choice. Do you have reason to believe Darryl knows where you are now?”

  She listened wide-eyed as Amber told her about Betsy’s accident and the photo stolen from the Bible. She waited until Amber finished. “So you think he was the one who injured Betsy?”

  “I think it’s likely. If he didn’t know I had a son before, now he does. And Darryl might assume, being the man he is, that my son will make it his mission to find and destroy him someday. So even if he’d more or less given up on finding me after all these years, now he’ll double down. Starting with going after Betsy to keep her from telling anybody what she knows. She’s promised to stay with friends out of town once she’s out of rehab.”

  Cassie slipped her arm over Amber’s shoulder and nudged her closer. “Try to make a guess, Amber. What are the chances this psychopath can track you down? What could he tell from the photo?”

  “Billy and Darryl were only ten months apart, and except for size they could have been twins. Will looks like a Hawken through and through. If he ever finds him, Darryl will know who Will is, even if the photo is more than two years old.”

  “And you?”

  “Darryl knew me as the Goth girl. In the stolen photo my hair was light, but most of it was covered by a ball cap. We were in the North Carolina mountains. I really don’t know what he could figure out from that.”

  “So he knows you’ve changed the way you look, which I’m sure he figured you would do even without the photo, and he knows you and Billy had a son. Has anything happened here in town to make you suspicious he’s closing in?”

  “Not yet. I promise until now, I was as secure as I’ve ever been that Darryl wouldn’t find us here in Florida. I’ve been planning to move on again, but Will’s doing so well in school here. I didn’t want to drag him away.”

  “Just Will? You’re happy here, too.”

  “Don’t make this harder.”

  “You’ve made a family for yourself. With me and Savannah, at Yiayia’s and with Travis. You want to stay, and we want you to.”

  “I’m putting you in danger.”

  “Probably not. You’ve always managed to cover your tracks. Have you done anything you shouldn’t have?”

  “Other than trust Betsy to destroy that photo? No.”

  Cassie didn’t have to think about what came next. “Isn’t it time to end all this? Let’s go to Nick and tell him what you’ve told me. He’ll be sure you’re protected, and he can look into all those events in the past without alerting Darryl. A man like that must have made a million enemies along the way. Nick can find out who they are—”

  “You don’t know Darryl! He’ll find a way to hurt us, all of us now, including you and everyone else here. He’ll blame me for Billy’s disappearance and maybe even mysteriously discover Billy’s body in the yard of my old house. Or down by the river where we used to meet. It’s probably in one of those places, just waiting. There’s no way to prove Darryl killed anybody, just like there’s no way to prove he was behind Betsy’s hit-and-run.”

  “But this guy’s out there, and he must be hurting other people the way he hurt you. Look what he’s done to your life. Don’t you have to try to stop him?”

  Amber pulled away and faced her. “The way you have to stop Ivy?”

  Cassie had trapped herself. Both of them knew what needed to be done, and both of them had so many reasons not to do it. Starting with their children.

  She heard the garage door lifting and the toot of a horn. Those same children had come home.

  “Don’t you dare pack and leave,” Cassie said, getting up to greet them. “We’ll figure this out together. Promise me.”

  Amber stood, too. “I can’t promise.”

  “But you’ll try?”

  “I don’t want to leave. Is that good enough?”

  “Say you’ll at least talk to Travis if you won’t talk to Nick.”

  “No.” She paused. “But I won’t leave without telling you first.”

  “We’ll be safe. We’ll come up with some way to make sure of it.”

  “Let’s go hug our kids.” Amber started into the house, and Cassie followed. But even Savannah’s hug, even hearing herself called Mom once again when Savannah greeted her, couldn’t erase Amber’s story.

  Or the fear that she hadn’t yet heard the ending.

  44

  ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, HALFWAY down a winding dirt road dotted with rusting mobile homes, vegetable stands an
d a wildflower nursery, Cassie wondered how many wrong turns she’d made. She was meeting Nick at a clearing by the river, and she thought she’d followed his instructions. Just as she was looking for a place to turn around, she spotted cars and an equipment trailer. She parked and walked down to the shore, where four men in red-and-black scuba dry suits were just coming out of the water as others in swim trunks and shirts watched.

  One of the dry suited men was Nick.

  He removed his other gear and mask, then lifted his hand in a wave when he saw her. She waited until he conferred with his colleagues. Then, as she watched, he stripped down and lay everything to one side on a tarp. She was used to divers. She’d grown up around them, but now the mystery of what was worn under a dry suit was answered.

  Shorts and a T-shirt. She told herself she was not disappointed.

  She found a fallen log with no visible insect life and perched there as he and the others cleaned and stored their equipment in the trailer. Finally Nick slipped on sandals and walked over to join her. His hair was barely damp, but his cheeks were flushed and his dark eyes shining. He obviously loved this part of his job.

  “A training exercise?” she asked.

  He hesitated, as if wondering how she would react. “Rescuing a dummy from a sunken car.”

  Cassie was glad there were people like Nick willing to take these risks. “A real car?”

  “Some bozo drove a stolen jalopy into the water last year after a drunken joy ride. The owner gave it to us for training, since that was cheaper than having it hauled out and away. We use it a lot.”

  “What happened to the bozo?”

  “Unfortunately he was the real-life dummy we had to pull out of the car more than an hour after he went down.” He was silent a moment before he offered her a smile. “You doing okay? I couldn’t tell from our phone call.”

  “I don’t want to take you away. You’re busy.”

  “Done for the day.” He looked at his watch, and she thought it must be a good one since he’d worn it into the water. “There’s a little bait shop just up the road.”

  She remembered passing it. “Are we going fishing?”

  “They sell sandwiches and have tables under the trees. I’ll meet you as soon as I wrap up here.”

  By the time he joined her, she’d already bought them both coffee and sandwiches and settled at the cleanest table of three. He thanked her and took the seat across from hers.

  “So did you get there in time to save Mr. Dummy’s life?” she asked.

  “In real life it would depend on how fast we showed up and air pockets in the car. But if we’d seen him go down, maybe. Rescue is the best part of the job when it goes well and the worst when it doesn’t.” He changed the subject. “How’s your job search going?”

  Cassie told him about the offer she’d received that morning from the real estate office. “Fetching coffee and answering phones isn’t beneath me, but I realized the job wasn’t going to lead anywhere. I might go back to school instead if I can afford to.”

  “Would you do that here?”

  “They have classes locally that would help me update my skills. But right now...” She needed to end the small talk. She hoped someday she and Nick could sit somewhere nicer and just spend a whole evening talking about themselves and everything they’d been through. They were friends, old friends, who understood each other from the inside out, but now was not the time.

  “So, what do you need from me?” he asked.

  “Someday when I can put the past behind me, will you let me take you out to dinner? I need to thank you for being such a good friend.”

  “Well, yeah. I’m only doing this for future surf and turf.”

  “Were you this nice in high school?”

  “Maturity works in both our favors.”

  She moved on. “Drink your coffee before it gets any colder, and I’ll tell you what I’ve learned.”

  She told him what Amber had found and then about her trip to New York. She ended with the discovery of Mark’s addiction.

  “Opioids changed the world,” he said, showing no surprise. “I’m sorry. I’ve seen more lives destroyed than there are hours to tell you about them. You’re sure what you learned is true?”

  Her cup was empty, but she wrapped her hands around it anyway. “It’s like I was handed a key and suddenly everything opened up. Before I left, I confronted Ivy, the nurse Mark paid off to the tune of thirty thousand dollars. Maybe for drugs? Maybe to keep her from telling me or his colleagues what was going on? I don’t know which. Probably both. Ivy’s the one who sent me the letters you have.”

  “Did you consider just turning her in and letting the guys with badges and guns do the questioning?”

  “I needed to be sure. I went to her apartment and confronted her. The good news is that she’s been fired. At least she lost her access to the supply closet.”

  “And you think that will stop her from doing the same thing somewhere else?”

  “No, but she wasn’t alone in enabling him. The doctors in Mark’s practice let him resign without notifying the medical board. They really don’t want anything to blow back on them.”

  Nick unwrapped his sandwich. “Did you call me just to let me know the upshot? Or is there more?”

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  He finished half the sandwich before he spoke again. “So do you think your husband was paying for that apartment? Is that where all your family’s money went?”

  She liked the way he hadn’t called it “Mark’s” money. “Family” went right to the heart of everything, because Mark’s actions had affected all of them. “I wouldn’t be surprised if more of our money went to Ivy, but I don’t think she was the whole deal. The apartment? I’d guess Mark wasn’t her first rodeo. She’s probably been cashing in on the opioid epidemic for a while.”

  “And will continue. Why not?”

  “I’d like to stop her.”

  Nick nodded but didn’t say anything.

  She was glad he was letting her feel her way through this. “I’d like to turn her in, but I want to do it without dragging Mark’s name into it. Maybe report her anonymously? Get the ball rolling and then bow out.”

  “Why?”

  That seemed obvious. “I don’t want Savannah to know her father was addicted, that almost every cent we saved for retirement is gone. She doesn’t need anything else weighing her down.”

  “Nothing heavier than secrets.”

  Cassie didn’t know what to say. Nick finished his sandwich and then sat back with the rest of his coffee. “If you really want to know, I can probably tell you what an anonymous call will accomplish. Eventually somebody in authority might do a cursory check, if nothing else more important is happening—and something always is. But let’s pretend somebody from the narcotics unit spends some time looking into the tip. Maybe they even drop by the hospital where Ivy worked. They ask around. Nobody wants to go on record, and Ivy’s not employed there anymore. So everyone shrugs. And that’s it. Because you haven’t given them real evidence and leads. ‘Ivy’s been a bad girl’ just isn’t enough to help them move forward. They go back to their big drug busts, their tried-and-true informers, and somebody files your tip where it will never be seen again. You give them nothing to go on, you get nothing in return.”

  “Then there’s no point?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said there’s probably very little point in doing it the way you’re thinking. There’s a much better point in giving the NYPD and the medical board everything you know, including the names of the doctors in your husband’s practice and the way they chose not to report what they didn’t want to face. Will it result in arrests or citations?” He answered his own question with a lift of his shoulders. “It depends on how good or how busy the investigators are. But there’s a much better chance that in the end, Ivy won�
�t be hawking drugs to addicted patients or other medical personnel once the investigation concludes. And with really good luck, she’ll face charges. I don’t know what a medical board in New York might do to your husband’s colleagues, but you can bet that at minimum, a few reputations will be damaged.”

  “I never wanted to be a crusader.”

  “I don’t think anybody wakes up one morning and decides that crusading is what they want to do for a living, Cassie. They just decide they can’t shut their eyes to whatever is all around them.”

  “I have a lot to think about, don’t I?”

  He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “Only you know what you can do. You’re the one to measure the consequences for everybody involved. Whatever you do, I won’t think less of you.”

  She turned her hand palm up and threaded her fingers through his, just for a moment. It helped.

  * * *

  Amber and Will left early for the Kouzina. As she was following Will out the door, Amber spotted Cassie and turned back.

  “I forgot to tell you, but I worked on the records while you were gone. I found something confusing, but it can wait. Just set some time aside tomorrow afternoon to help me figure it out. And you got something from the IRS. Probably Mark’s tax returns.”

  “Planning to be back late?”

  “I think we’ll stay for the Saturday feast if Will wants to. Why don’t you and Savannah join us?”

  Cassie had less festive plans. “Thanks, we’ll see.”

  Savannah had dragged herself back home after catching up with Helia and Minh, and now Cassie peeked in the den and found her sleeping off the time change in front of the television. When it was almost nine o’clock, she pulled leftovers from the fridge and warmed up some shrimp in the microwave before she woke her.

  A few minutes later and midyawn Savannah flopped down at the table. “I’m surprised Will left any.” She had brushed her hair and coiled it on top of her head with rhinestone hairpins. She looked fresh and pretty, more innocent than she would be at the end of their conversation.