5. Sweet Revenge

by Fern Michaels

  Alexis, with Rosemary wobbling every which way on her back, sprinted forward. Kathryn had gone ahead of her and was already opening the back door of the car.

  Maggie Spritzer felt like her eyeballs were going to pop out of her head. She hit the speed dial on her cell phone and waited for Ted to pick up. “You aren’t going to believe this, Ted. Two women walked into Hershey’s house, bold as anything, snatched Hershey and dumped her in the car. She’s dressed in some kind of frou-frou outfit. I saw her bare ass. Yeah, I did. And, she was wearing ballet shoes. Keep the line open. I gotta get my car and try to follow them. Where’s Flanders?”

  “She’s on the move. I’m with her. Don’t lose those women, Maggie.”

  “Like I’d do that on purpose. My guess is they’re all going to the same place, so if one or the other of us loses our quarry, we’ll know.”

  Maggie goosed her Honda and tore down the road in hot pursuit.

  Jack Emery’s stomach heaved when he saw the first car enter the cemetery. He wished he was home in his warm bed. He adjusted the night-vision goggles and his jaw dropped almost to his knees when he saw the truck driver and the black woman get out of the car. Together, the two of them half-carried and half-dragged Rosemary Hershey across the sodden grass toward an open grave. His stomach heaved again at the women’s intentions. From his position, he could hear their conversations perfectly. He waited.

  “She’s coming around, Kathryn. Quick, we have to slide her down into the grave. Damn, I didn’t think Charles was going to be able to do this. Fifteen-feet deep. Big enough for three coffins, two big ones, one little one. He’s a man of many talents. Think about it, Kathryn, what’s he going to do tomorrow, call up the cemetery and say he changed his mind? They’ll think he’s nuts. Where’s Isabelle?” Alexis asked, her voice full of panic.

  “I don’t know. Come on. Grab hold of that rope so we can lower her down. We don’t want her breaking any bones. We’re screwing with her mind, not her body.”

  Jack watched as the two women struggled to push Rosemary Hershey up the mound of dirt and then lower their quarry into the deep grave. Hershey’s arms started to flail as she dug her feet into the wet earth. It took all of the women’s strength to push her over the side and still hold on to the rope.

  “How’s it going?” Isabelle whispered as she appeared out of the darkness.

  “Damn, girl, you scared ten years off my life.” Alexis’s voice verged on hysterical. “She’s down there. We lowered her with the rope. You missed the best part. She’s dressed in a purple tutu and ballet shoes. She kept mumbling about dancing for Bobby. I’m thinking it’s something kinky. You can hardly hear her scream from here. You want to say something to her? You know, maybe something meaningful or…or something. This is just way too creepy for me.” Alexis stopped her frantic babbling just long enough to take a deep breath.

  “Well, hell yes, I have something to say to that lying piece of crap.” Isabelle crawled to the top of the mound of dirt and leaned over the gaping hole. “Yoohoo, Rosemary, it’s Isabelle. We’re going to bury you alive unless you tell the truth about what happened when you killed those people. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. We have a bag full of rattlesnakes up here. Start talking, lady, or the next thing you hear is going to be a rattle.”

  “You bitch! Damn you to hell. I knew it was you the whole time. You were behind those blueprints. You’re the one who has been sending me that stuff in the mail. Get me out of here. Isabelle, get me out of here! Bobby will make you pay for this. Pull me up. Please. You win, OK. Please, get me out of here. My God, I could die down here.”

  “Nah. Stay there. Do you know whose grave this is? I bet you don’t care, either, but I’m going to tell you anyway. Mrs. Myers wants her son, her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter buried in the same plot. The one you’re standing in. You’ll be on the bottom. A foursome. How cozy. Tell us the truth. It’s starting to rain, Rosemary. If it rains hard, the grave will fill up and you’ll drown. Tell us about the wine you drank that day at lunch. Tell us you were driving and how fast you were going. Admit you ran the stop sign. Admit you stole my designs. Admit all of it and we’ll pull you up.”

  “Wait, wait!” Alexis said. She ran back to the car to return with the purple parasol. She opened it and tossed it downward. She shrugged at the looks of disbelief on Kathryn’s and Isabelle’s faces. “It goes with the outfit.”

  “Did you hear something?” Kathryn asked, whirling around.

  “Just her screeching. It’s starting to rain harder. Makes a funny sound when it hits the cobblestones,” Alexis said. She wondered if that was true.

  “Yoohoo, Rosemary, it’s starting to rain harder. Tell us the truth and we’ll pull you out of there. You got your umbrella up? I bet you’re cold down there. You shoulda worn the tights instead of the G-string.” Alexis turned to Isabelle and Kathryn. “She doesn’t sound too scared. She sure has a lot of guts. I’d be out of my mind if I was down there. Where’s the tape recorder?”

  “It’s on top of the mound. It’s protected. It’s half in and half out of one of those plastic baggies,” Kathryn said.

  The three women climbed to the top of the mound again. “OK, Rosemary, this is your last chance. Either you tell the truth or we start shoveling. You’ll be covered in mud within minutes. Here comes the first snake. You’ll probably die in ten minutes or so. I’m waiting.”

  Isabelle reached into a plastic bag and withdrew a plastic wind-up snake whose tail gave off a buzzing sound. All thanks to Charles’s shopping spree on the Internet, where anything and everything could be purchased for a price.

  “Shut up! Just shut up!” Rosemary screamed. “The jury found in my favor. Get over it. Do you want to be a murderer?” She screamed again. “I demand you get me out of here right now! Right this minute. I’m freezing. Oh, God! Get that damn thing out of here. Now! I’m afraid of snakes.” Isabelle tossed down a second snake. Rosemary’s screams could be heard all over the cemetery.

  “I don’t much care. No one is ever going to find you. We’ll cover you up with a layer of this dirt and the Myers family will be right on top of you. The burial is set for tomorrow morning. Nine o’clock. Now spit it out or I’ll jump down there and beat it out of you,” Isabelle shouted. “You’re trying my patience. I have four more snakes. They don’t care who they bite!”

  “It bit me! It bit me!” Rosemary shrilled.

  The women looked at one another. “Fear is a terrible thing,” Kathryn said. “The thing probably wiggled close to her ankle. Let her sweat it.”

  “She’s tough!” Alexis said in awe.

  “I’m thinking she doesn’t believe us. Maybe it’s time to start shoveling,” Isabelle said. “You’re right, she’s one tough cookie. She isn’t going to give it up. I knew this was all too good to be true. I’m never going to get my revenge.”

  “Shhh. Yes you are. She’s playing with us just like we’re playing with her.”

  While the women discussed the situation, Maggie Spritzer and Ted Robinson huddled behind a triple gravestone that was six feet tall. “They’re going to bury her alive, Ted. They threw rattlesnakes down in that grave. We have to stop this right now! We can make a citizen’s arrest. We can call the police. We have them red-handed. For God’s sake, do or say something!”

  Jack Emery turned up the voice sensor on the small antenna hiding in his ear. Did he just hear Ted and Maggie? Shit! He stuck his head out from behind the angel’s wing and strained to see into the night. He was glad now that he’d stuck the taser gun in his pants pocket at the last second. He heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Ted say, “Not yet.”

  Jack turned back to the women and would have fainted if a gust of heavy wind hadn’t knocked him sideways. All he heard was, “The damn rope split. Now what are we going to do? How are we going to get her out of there?”

  Isabelle panicked. “She hasn’t confessed yet. We need to get her on tape. Otherwise this has all been for nothing.”

&nbs
p; “Hey, Rosemary,” Kathryn called down into the open grave. “The rope just broke. There’s no way to get you out of there. It’s starting to rain harder and I can see that little parasol is already in shreds. Tell us what we want to know and I’ll lower Isabelle down to pull you up. I’m going to count to five. Spit it out or we’re leaving.”

  “Oh, my God!” Alexis bleated. “That dirt is sliding down there at the end. We have to do something. It’ll bury her!”

  Twenty-Three

  Jack moved back into place. Shit! Shit! Shit! He was semi-protected by the wingspread of the carved angel that towered over him. He reached up to touch it, hoping that alone would tell him what to do. If he didn’t move soon, Rosemary Hershey could get buried by a mound of earth toppling down on top of her. If the rope really broke the way the women said it did, they were up the creek without a paddle. If he showed himself, Ted and Maggie would be on him in a heartbeat. He had to think fast and act faster. He wasted a few seconds, listening to the frantic women. When he stuck his head out and around the tombstone he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Someone was dangling over the edge of the open grave. The women had made a human chain in an effort to bring Hershey topside. The rain was coming down in torrents now, which meant they were dealing with pure mud. He could hear the Hershey woman screaming. The other three were cursing, using words he’d never heard before.

  Jack popped back around the other side of the angel to see what Ted and Maggie were doing. Nothing. He whistled. Two heads popped round the six-foot marker. He whistled again. Both reporters crawled forward. That’s when Jack aimed the taser and fired twice. Both reporters crumpled to the ground. Twenty minutes and they’d be up with a vengeance.

  Jack hit the ground running.

  He had to give them credit. If they were panicking, they didn’t let him see it. Anyone else, he thought, would have screamed and run off at the sight of him. He could only imagine what kind of image he presented with the night-vision goggles and the antenna coming out of his ears. He dropped to his stomach and inched his way up the mound of wet mud. Kathryn turned and stared at Jack and then jerked her head in Isabelle’s direction.

  “She can’t hold on to her. The mud is too slippery.”

  The heat sensor was going off again. Jack struggled to look through the rain but couldn’t see anything. Ah, shit! Where the hell was his brain? If Ted and Maggie were here, then so were their shadows.

  Jack ripped at a whistle hanging on a chain around his neck. He blew two sharp blasts as he yanked Isabelle back from the yawning opening in the ground. “Get out of here! Take the south entrance and run like the hounds of hell are at your heels. I’ll get her out of here. The two reporters from the Post are to your left. Go!” The truck driver reached for him like she was going to strangle him. Then Jack said the magic words that made Kathryn and the other two pick up their feet. “Charles sent me. Go!” It was all the trio needed to hear.

  Harry Wong and his merry band of black-clad ninjas appeared out of the rain the moment the women took off at lightning speed. “See you got your ass in a sling again, eh, Emery?”

  “Nice to see you too, Harry. Get her out of there,” Jack said, pointing to the open grave. “I can’t hang around here. Here come the shields. You have my permission to beat the living shit out of them. I hit Ted and Maggie with the taser so they’ll be coming around soon. Scare the living shit out of them too, OK? Can you handle it, buddy?”

  “Piece of cake, Jack. Here, catch!” he said, throwing the tape recorder in the plastic bag toward Jack, who caught it on the fly. “Move your ass, mister, here come the assholes!”

  Jack split, knowing he was leaving the situation in capable hands.

  Kathryn drove the rental car the way she did her rig — at eighty miles an hour. Her face was grim and tight, the gash on her cheek oozing blood, which she swiped at from time to time.

  Isabelle sat in the back seat, a triumphant smile on her face. “We got her! Did you hear her confession? Did you? Damn, that was music to my ears.”

  Kathryn slammed on the brakes and made a U-turn in the middle of the road. “We forgot to take the stuff out of Rosemary’s safe. We have to go back for it.”

  Isabelle was so happy she started to cry. “I was a little busy there at the end with all that mud sliding into the grave, but I did hear her confess. God, I thought I’d never hear those words. But we left the tape recorder by the grave. Charles is going to be so…so angry with us. We were like amateurs tonight. What the hell happened to us back there?”

  “The rain, for one thing. Fifteen feet of piled-up dirt that turned into mud is what happened to us,” Alexis said. “Hey, we got away. That’s the important thing. Trust me, that woman is never, ever, going to be the same.”

  “Someone call Charles. We’re going to need his help in opening Hershey’s safe. You do it, Alexis, and for God’s sake, Isabelle, stop gloating. We still have work to do.”

  “Why do you always have to be so mean, Kathryn? I never claimed to be a professional vigilante. If I remember your mission, you almost fainted and couldn’t respond. No one said a word to you because we all understood what you were going through. It’s not so hard to be nice once in a while.”

  Kathryn’s shoulders slumped. “You’re right, Isabelle. I’m sorry. Sometimes I don’t know…It’s hard to be nice. I don’t know why that is. I think I’ve been defensive all my life. I don’t know why that is, either. I’ve never had anyone but Alan depend on me. This is all as new to me as it is to you. I’ll…I’ll try harder to be nice.”

  Isabelle sniffed. “If that’s an apology, I accept.”

  “Damn good thing. We’re here. Since we didn’t lock the door, I guess we just waltz in like we belong here.”

  “I have Charles on an open line, so let’s get with it,” Alexis said. She shoved the phone in her pocket and motioned to the two women to move closer. “Charles said he didn’t send anyone to help us.”

  “Then who the hell was that person back at the cemetery?” Isabelle demanded.

  “Maybe our guardian angel. Whoever he was, he saved the day, or rather, the night. Hey, maybe it was Bobby Harcourt. Did you recognize his voice, Isabelle?” Kathryn asked.

  “If you recall, I was dangling over the grave at the time. No, I didn’t recognize the voice and it was hard to see the man’s face with the watch cap, those things coming out of his ears and those funky-looking goggles. Maybe it was one of those men with the special shields.”

  “No, not them; Charles would have known. We can talk about this later. We have a job to do, so let’s do it and get back to the farm. I still think it was the husband. Rosemary was expecting him,” Kathryn said as she opened the front door. “Since we shredded our latex gloves at the cemetery, we can’t afford to leave any fingerprints. Hershey probably has some panty hose we can use. Alexis, check out the dresser drawers and don’t leave any prints. Isabelle, come with me.” Alexis moved off but not before she tossed the cell phone to Kathryn.

  Kathryn’s hands were feverish as she removed the desk drawer and then the false bottom to reveal the safe. The phone to her ear, she followed Charles’s instructions for a full fifteen minutes, stopping only once to push her hand through one end of Rosemary Hershey’s panty hose.

  “It’s not opening, Charles.”

  “Let me try,” Alexis said as she dropped to her knees. “Let’s go through it again, Charles. Kathryn is all thumbs this evening. Slow. I understand.” Twelve minutes later, the last tumbler fell into place. Alexis sat back on her haunches. “And victory is ours!” she said triumphantly. “Get one of those pillowcases and we’ll put everything in it.”

  “I just heard the front door open,” Isabelle hissed, her eyes full of panic. “Oh, God, it’s Bobby! He’s going to come up here. Hide!”

  “Where?” the wild-eyed women hissed in return. Isabelle ran to the closet, Alexis crouched down behind the recliner in the corner and Kathryn was left to stand behind the open door. She had the good sense
to turn off the desk light before she scurried to the door.

  “Are you here, Rosemary?” Bobby shouted from the hallway. “What the hell is that smell? No games; it’s late and I’m tired. OK, have it your way. I’m leaving.” The light in the office came on. Bobby stood in the doorway taking in the scene — the desk drawer on the floor, the open safe. He made a snorting sound before he turned off the light. The women heard him walk down the stairs and the front door close.

  “Now, that was close,” Kathryn said as she stepped away from the door and out to the hall where she waited for Alexis and Isabelle. “If I’m even halfway correct, I think Mr. Harcourt correctly assumed Rosemary cleaned out her safe, which he probably knew nothing about, and took off. That’s what I would think if I was in his place.”

  “Let’s get out of here. God, I cannot wait to get back to the farm. This has been one hell of a night. I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again. That guy…the one Charles didn’t send…you all believe he pulled her out, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Alexis said.

  “Of course. Why else would he let us get away?” Kathryn said.

  “But what if he didn’t…?”

  “Isabelle, shut up. He got her out. I’m trying to be nice here. Don’t push it. Rosemary is probably in some five-star hotel right now soaking in a hot tub. She’s sipping fine wine and nibbling on chocolate-covered strawberries. Now, wipe down anything you touched and let’s go home.”

  “The tape…”

  “We’re going to let Charles worry about that tape,” Kathryn said. “I’m still trying to be nice here, Isabelle. Keep pushing it and I’m going back to being my old nasty, ugly self.”