A Dead And Stormy Night

by A. R. Winters

  While Emily talked, I looked down at the deck, hoping to find a weapon to defend myself. Granny was calling Reid, but how soon could he get back to the Paradise with the roads washed out?

  Not soon enough.

  “When I got back to the room and Jer told me what happened with Tabitha, I knew someone had to do something,” Emily said. “Hal was off the rails! When he woke up, there was no calming him down. He didn’t want to talk, and he wouldn’t listen to reason. The alcohol had gotten to his brain. He was going to ruin us all. I just went to his room to make him see that.”

  “But you took wine with you,” I said. “And cranberry juice. You knew he didn’t have epinephrine. You had to have known that would kill him.”

  “The wine was his idea,” she said, shrugging. “The cranberry juice was mine. It never even occurred to him to question it. He was just so used to getting his way.”

  “The world is a better place without Harold Jepsen in it. I’m sorry.” Emily raised the oar, aligning it over my head.

  Time’s up.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  My heart beat so hard the sound of it in my ears was louder than any thunder I’d ever heard. I watched as Emily Jepsen raised the oar higher above her head, one thought coming to the forefront of my brain.

  Survive!

  How? Emily was on her feet and I was on my butt. She had a weapon. Even if I could have found a weapon of my own or gotten the oar away from her, my hands hurt too much and were too bloody for me to keep hold of it.

  Most important of all, Emily was carrying a baby. Anything I did to her would inherently do him harm.

  I can’t fight back. Defend. Get away.

  I raised my arms and used them to shield my head as Emily brought the oar down. It slammed into my forearms with a sickening thud, sending a wave of burning pain through them.

  My hands snapped out and wrapped around the oar. Tears stung in my eyes. I couldn’t see Emily or much of anything. Letting out a scream, I leaned back and tugged on the oar with all my might. It slipped out of both our hands. Momentum carried it halfway across the boathouse. Gravity pulled it down into the water—out of our reach.

  “Look what you’ve done!” Emily screeched. She kneeled on the deck and pawed at the water. The oar swirled just a few inches away from her fingers.

  Still gasping in pain, I moved onto my knees. “You don’t have to do this, Emily. Between the blackmail and Harold’s abuse, you have a solid defense for everything. If you stop now, everything will be okay.”

  Emily lunged at me in a rage. Her hands locked around my throat. My back collided with the weathered deck. I reached for her fingers and tried desperately to pull them away. She wouldn’t budge. I curled my hands into claws and sank my nails into her flesh.

  She pulled back with a yelp of pain that quickly returned to a howl of outrage.

  “I won’t let you ruin my family!” Emily wailed.

  She lunged at me again. This time, I ducked out of the way, flattening myself against the deck. Emily stumbled past me and tumbled head-over-feet into the water below us.

  I lay on the deck trying to catch my breath, my eyes locked on the water. Seconds ticked by, and Emily Jepsen still hadn’t surfaced.

  Come on. Come back up.

  I moved onto my knees and leaned over the edge, peering into the water. Emily Jepsen broke through the surface of the water… ten feet away from where she’d fallen in. As I watched, she drifted farther away, inch by inch, until her head floated beneath the wall that separated the boathouse from the open ocean.

  Emily thrashed in the water. Her hands glided across the surface, searching for something to hold on to. Anything to stop herself from floating away.

  There was nothing.

  “Help me!” she screamed.

  Her terrified screams sent a shiver of horror through my body. I couldn’t have ignored them if I wanted to. Without much further thought, I climbed to my feet and kicked off my shoes. I took a deep breath then dove into the water after her.

  The current pulled Emily out faster than I could follow. I knew enough how to breathe and see through the water, but I didn’t dare try it now. I was out of practice, and there was no seeing through the inky blackness that surrounded Emily and me. The best option was to keep my head above water and my eyes on her.

  Just a few more feet. I thought. Come on, Laura!

  “No! Get away!” Emily must have realized I was swimming after her.

  I reached out to grab Emily. She swung at me with her right hand. I dodged, only for her left to collide with the side of my head.

  For a second, I saw stars. My hand went limp, and Emily slipped out of my grasp, her screams rising in panic once again. I felt the current grab my body and start to carry it on the same path as Emily. Out to sea.

  Laura? You have to wake up, honey.

  The voice was warm and sweet, like a steaming hot cup of Granny’s special blend. And it was just as familiar.

  Come on, honey. Open your eyes.

  I hadn’t heard the voice in years—not since I was a teenager—but I would never forget it. I knew the voice wasn’t really there, but the sound of it in my mind was like a balm. Hearing it, feeling it, made me feel stronger.

  Mom.

  When I opened my eyes, I was still in the ocean. Emily Jepsen was still nearby. Her screams had disappeared, replaced by soft gurgles. She didn’t have much time!

  I dunked my head beneath the surface and swam toward Emily’s back as fast as I could. Her hands were dangerous. If I was going to get us out of this, I had to stay away from them. I reached out and snagged the collar of Emily’s shirt in my hands. With a firm tug, I pulled her back to me and locked my arms around her chest.

  Gotcha!

  By then, Emily had stopped fighting. On land, I would have been thankful for the break. In the ocean at night, in water that was thirteen feet deep? It was downright terrifying.

  My eyes darted across the horizon, desperately searching for the right direction. We needed land. Now.

  Finally, I turned in the right direction and saw the lights from the big house. There were other lights too. They flashed around and around, spilling blue and red onto the night sky. From this distance, the sirens should have been a soundless light show, but I swear I could hear them.

  Reid…

  I swam toward the light from the Paradise and the sirens. Toward safety and home.

  With the last of my strength, I pulled Emily Jepsen onto the shore. My arms felt like noodles, but I rolled her onto her stomach and patted her back. Emily coughed and sputtered. She brought what seemed like a gallon of seawater up out of her lungs.

  But she was alive. Her baby was still alive.

  Emily rolled onto her side and looked at me. She was still struggling to catch her breath. Or maybe she was still grappling with the weight of how suddenly things had turned.

  I was. Even lying there on the beach, I was sure I would be for a long time.

  The lights from the cars got closer, and the sirens sounded clearer.

  I closed my eyes. My body relaxed for the first time in four days.

  “It’s over,” I whispered.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  At some point, I closed my eyes and started to drift off. I lost track of how long Emily Jepsen and I lay in the sand, waiting for her family, or my family, or someone from the Sheriff's department to find us. When I opened my eyes again, Conner Reid and my sister were both standing over me.

  Their lips were moving, but not a single word was getting through.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. It wasn’t cold, but for some reason my body felt numb. “Can’t hear you.”

  Someone wrapped a blanket around me and helped me to my feet. Reid stood on one side of me and Danielle the other. Each took an arm to make sure I didn’t fall. As we walked back toward the house, we passed two EMTs on their way to check Emily Jepsen.

  By the time we got back, my head had cleared enough that I could hear clear
ly again. Reid escorted me to the downstairs sitting room, then stopped, turned and held a hand out for Danielle to stop.

  “This is as far as you go, Mrs. Loper,” he said softly. “If you could just go wait in the dining room with the others—”

  “Not a chance,” Danielle said. “That’s my sister, and this is my house.”

  I half-expected Reid to bristle, but there was more kindness in his voice when he responded than I’d ever heard from him before.

  “Right now, it’s a homicide investigation. Maybe attempted homicide. I have to do what I can to preserve that, for everyone’s sake.”

  Danielle’s eyes met mine. There was a fire there that told me she was ready to fight Reid, the paramedics, even the entire sheriff's department if I needed her to.

  But I was just so tired of fighting.

  I tried to smile at Danielle, but I wasn’t sure I quite managed it.

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll just be right there on the couch.”

  I was tired of secrets and lies. How had the Jepsens lived with them for so long?

  Reid left me alone with two uniformed officers. After a while, the paramedics came in. They looked at my hands, cleaned them, bandaged them, and suggested I get a tetanus booster as soon as I could make an appointment with my doctor.

  It seemed like sound advice, but I didn’t even have a doctor in Paraiso yet. Right that second, I was so exhausted I didn’t even know how to find one.

  I don’t know how long I sat there once the paramedics were gone. It could have been a few minutes. It could have been forever, for all I knew. But eventually, Reid came back.

  He’d taken off his tie at some point in the night, leaving him in a white dress shirt with the top button undone. Without saying a word, he grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the couch, setting it down in front of me.

  He sat down and balanced his hands on his knees. “Are you all right?”

  I nodded. “Thirsty.”

  Reid leaned forward and put his hand over mine. “I’ll get you something to drink. Then… can you take me through what happened?”

  “Tonight?”

  “Since the Jepsens got here,” he said.

  I nodded. Reid beckoned one of the officers over and told him to fetch me a glass of sweet tea from the kitchen, but under no circumstance was he to let Granny anywhere near the front rooms.

  We sat in silence while we waited for the officer to come back with my drink. That suited me fine. I didn’t know what to say about anything I’d seen that weekend or anything that had happened that night.

  But I took Reid through all the details anyway. I recounted every detail I could remember for him, from the moment the Jepsen family walked through the doors of the big house to me pulling a kicking and screaming Emily Jepsen back onto the beach.

  Reid wrote everything down in his notebook. After I’d told him everything I remembered, he closed it and tapped the binding on his chin.

  “You did good tonight, Ms. Fisher,” he said. “But I hope you realize what it almost cost.”

  “Your case,” I whispered. By that point I was so exhausted I could have cried. There was no point in trying to keep my voice steady. I was using every ounce of energy I had left to keep myself upright. “I’m sorry about that, Detective.”

  “Not the case, Laura. You. Did you know Emily Jepsen can’t swim?”

  I shook my head. “I think she said it in the boathouse, but I figured she was lying.”

  “Her family confirmed it,” he said. “You jumped into the ocean after a murderer––”

  “An expectant mother and domestic abuse victim,” I corrected. “And I would do it again.”

  “That’s what scares me about you, Laura. You got very lucky tonight that Emily didn’t have an even deadlier weapon. And that you’re a strong swimmer.”

  “Actually, I haven’t been swimming in years,” I whispered. Suddenly my voice felt small. Fragile. I looked down at the glass of tea in my hands.

  “Then I guess we got luckier than I thought.”

  I nodded. The glass got blurry as tears welled in my eyes.

  Reid took my hand. “Hey, there’s no reason to mourn.”

  “Yeah, I know you’re right.” I sniffled.

  Reid moved onto the couch beside me and hooked an arm around my shoulder, pulling me into a gentle––if awkward––hug.

  The contact only made me cry harder. Every time I tried to say as much, a sob tore its way out of my throat instead.

  Reid stayed beside me the entire time.

  “Sorry,” I said, once I had control of myself again. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “Probably the adrenaline crash,” he said. “You’re gonna feel like a wrung-out rag come morning, but you’ll be alive. And that’s a win, Laura.”

  I nodded and wiped my eyes, even though I wasn’t sure I agreed with him. It was a safe bet I would wish I hadn’t been born in the morning. Exercise wasn’t exactly high on my list of hobbies. But had I won anything tonight for anyone? Apart from saving Emily Jepsen from a mistake my snooping almost drove her to, had I saved anyone or anything?

  “What’s going to happen to her?” I asked.

  “Emily?” He shrugged. “I hate to say it, but that family has the kind of money that covers a lot of sins. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if they got her the best defense attorney they can find. I doubt she’ll get off completely, but she might go home in time for her son to start school.”

  “I’m… not sure how to feel about that.”

  He shrugged. “It’s the job. Like you said, she’s a domestic abuse victim. From what you’ve said, they all are in some way. Judges and juries tend to consider that. Doubly so for pregnant mothers. The important thing is, you, your friend Ashley, and your family are in the clear.”

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about that either. His interview with me officially over, Reid went off into the rest of the house. A few minutes later, a team of four officers escorted Emily Jepsen outside. As I watched them lead her away with her hands cuffed behind her back, I couldn’t help but think of the afternoon the family had arrived at the Paradise.

  They’d seemed so happy then, cloaked in their façade.

  Now they can start moving on. Now… they can start healing.

  The uniformed officers who were guarding me stayed near the entryway, but they didn’t need to bother. I’d had more than enough adventure for the week. Maybe even the year.

  I stretched out on the sofa with my back to them and closed my eyes.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Despite their frequent use, or maybe because of Danielle’s dedication to keeping the furnishings updated, the sofa in the downstairs sitting room was surprisingly comfortable. In no time at all, I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

  At some point in the night, someone moved me from my spot on the sofa to the empty guest suite downstairs.

  I was so tired that I didn’t even notice I’d been moved until the next morning when Danielle shook me awake.

  “Good morning, sunshine!” Danielle smiled, but I could see the worry creeping up in her eyes. “You feeling okay?”

  I stared at her for a few seconds, blinking myself into a state of wakefulness. Then I pressed my hands against the mattress and pushed myself up to sit.

  A dull ache throbbed through my body. I flopped back down. “Ugh… Reid said I’ll live, but I might want a second opinion.”

  Danielle rolled her eyes, but some of the concern ebbed away. “I’ll take the coffee off your breakfast plate and get you some aspirin.”

  I threw her the most serious look I could manage while doing an impression of a cheap robot climbing out of bed. “Denying me caffeine after the day I had yesterday would be cruel and unusual punishment.”

  “Which would serve you right for scaring us like that.” Danielle folded her arms across her chest. She was this close to pouting. “You could have told us what was going on, Laura. We had to find out from Granny and As
hley. Do you have any idea how long it took the two of them to piece it together?”

  “Considering those two mainline mysteries and procedurals? All of five minutes.”

  Daniele stifled a laugh and bopped me on the shoulder. Just like that, her mood lifted. She still wasn’t happy I’d hidden so much from her, but I was okay and that was enough to earn her forgiveness this time.

  “Fine. You can have coffee and aspirin with breakfast… after you answer your phone call.”

  “I have a phone call?” That was odd, seeing as everyone on the planet who would think to call was already in the house.

  Danielle nodded and pointed at the bedside phone. “Conner Reid is on hold for you. I told him you might need a minute.”

  “All of a sudden, I feel a little woozy.”

  “Then it’s a good thing you’re already in bed and can’t fall.” Danielle climbed to her feet and grabbed the breakfast tray from the coffee table. She set it at the foot of the bed, grinning all the while. “You’re taking the day off too. No arguments. Enjoy your breakfast.”

  “You’re mean.” I stuck out my tongue, drawing a belly laugh from my sister.

  She went to the condo to grab me aspirin. I picked up the phone, inhaled, and took it off hold.

  “Good morning, this is Laura.”

  “Sounds to me like you’re still alive,” Reid said in a warm, chipper voice. “I told you that would happen.”

  “Let’s call it an occupational hazard.” I couldn’t help but smile. His voice was infectious. “I hate to rush, but was there something you needed?”

  “Nothing at all. I’m just inviting you to dinner.”

  I blinked. “You... are?”

  “It’s not a date,” he said. “Just a friendly thank you, for everything you did.”

  His quick insistence that it wasn’t a date, despite it having all the appearance of one, was actually kind of cute.

  Who was I kidding? It was adorable. Who knew Conner Reid could be adorable?