Semiautomatic Marriage

by Leona Karr

  “You can’t get away with something like this.” She spoke as firmly as she could, with her mouth and throat as parched as a desert. She glanced at the closed door between the office and the bedroom.

  “They’re not home. I just got here myself, so we have the house all to ourselves.”

  She knew then that it wasn’t Della and Jasper she’d heard returning to the house, but Buddy. “I’ll scream and the servants will come,” she warned.

  He shrugged. “Then I’ll just have to shoot them, too.” The calm delivery of this statement told her he would do exactly that.

  Checkmate, she thought with a lurch of panic. He had bought her silence more effectively than a gag in her mouth. How could she willingly endanger the lives of others to save herself? She couldn’t, and he must have known it.

  He motioned with the gun. “We’re going to walk down the back hall, nice and easy. There’s a stairway that will take us to the first floor and a side door.”

  She remembered that Adam had taken the servants’ stairs down from this floor on that first day and had circled the house without anyone seeing him. Nothing Adam had said offered her any hope that someone would see Buddy holding a gun to her back as they made their way out of the house in the darkness and down to his boat.

  They moved along the hall, past Lisa’s empty bedroom. Apparently she was out for the evening or the night. Carolyn wondered if she was with Cliff or someone else. Did she have any idea of the masquerade her brother had played?

  When they reached the boat dock, Buddy forced her down a couple of steps into the small cabin cruiser, then shoved her roughly down on a small bed and grabbed a nearby coil of rope. She swallowed back a swell of hysteria as Buddy secured her ankles and wrists with it. He was deaf to her pleas and handled her with frightening detachment.

  When he seemed satisfied she wasn’t going anywhere, he straightened and said with a mocking grin, “Welcome to my home away from home.”

  As if he’d been waiting a long time to have someone appreciate him, he began to brag about how he’d been able to run a black-market scam right under their noses.

  “See these books?” He unlocked a cupboard and waved at stacks of computer books and software. “When everyone thought I was out fishing or loafing, I was learning and studying everything I could about computers and the programs that run on them. I’m what you call a gifted nerd,” he boasted.

  Desperately Carolyn hoped that if she could keep him talking long enough, someone in the house might notice that the lights were on in his boat and come to investigate. “You certainly fooled everyone.”

  “People are stupid,” he answered flatly.

  “You must really be a genius to be able to completely hide what you’re doing.” She fought the tremor in her voice. “How did you manage?”

  “While Mom was at work, I went through all the programs on her home computer that are being used throughout the company.” He gave Carolyn a superior smile. “I decided that, instead of tampering with the programs that track the entire drug production from start to shipping, I’d come in the back door, so to speak, and develop my own.”

  “Back door?” Carolyn echoed, trying to make sense of what he was saying on one level of her mind, while grasping for some way to save herself on another.

  “Horizon has an ‘integrated production tracking system.’ All the information stored in a computer is controlled by the DBMS. Oh, I forgot, you’re not computer literate,” he said impatiently. “DBMS stands for Database Management System, and I needed a password to access this system.” He chuckled. “Mom changes the password all the time, and she has to keep writing it down so she won’t forget—that’s how I know what it is. With this password I’ve been able to log in as the database administrator and make any changes I want.”

  Fear battled her insides as Carolyn struggled to focus on what he was saying. She was sure now he’d been responsible for her grandfather’s death and would eliminate her, too, without a qualm. Keeping him talking was about the only weapon she had to delay whatever he planned to do with her.

  “And you came in the back door how, Buddy?” She tried to maintain a pose of interest.

  “With my own programs to manipulate the data files, I could enter as many hidden orders as I wanted. When the system finished processing these orders, all references to them were deleted. As far as Horizon’s computer records show, they never existed.”

  “You couldn’t have gotten them through the whole system without help. Susan knew about the false orders, didn’t she?”

  He gave her his boyish grin. “Very good, Carolyn. If someone were to run a report while bogus orders were being processed, there would be a paper record that might alert someone to my scheme. That’s where Susan came in. She had to make sure that didn’t happen. She was very good. Printers jammed, ran out of toner, ran out of paper, or they lost their network connection. Everyone accepted all the printer troubles and missing reports as being normal. And since the reports just had to be rerun, it wasn’t seen as a problem. Susan was a good gal.”

  “And she killed herself because she couldn’t go on with the deception.”

  “Susan was a perfect accomplice—until she got a touch of conscience. Trying to burn the latest batch of orders was pure stupidity. Now, I have to close down sooner than I planned.”

  “How did you get her to agree in the first place?” Even as Carolyn voiced the question, she knew the answer. He’d been her lover. Buddy had played on the unattractive young woman’s emotions and used her for his own gain. His callousness was chilling. “You’re the father of her unborn child, aren’t you?”

  “An unexpected complication,” he admitted with a shrug. “You wouldn’t expect a smart girl like Susan to get herself in a jam like that, would you?”

  Carolyn couldn’t disguise her disgust as she glared at him. “How can you live with yourself?”

  “Easy. I’ve got enough money to live the good life in any country that suits my fancy.”

  “Who else is involved in this despicable scam of yours?”

  His expression hardened as he avoided a direct answer. “Just a few more loose ends to take care of.”

  Her heart seemed to lurch to a stop. The way he looked at her, she knew that she was one of those loose ends.

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  “Carolyn, honey, you’re going to take a little sea voyage. I’ve got a nice boat coming in for a rendezvous to pick up some merchandise. I’ll pay the captain to take you out to sea and drop you overboard. No body. No evidence.” He grinned as if pleased at how clever he was.

  Chuckling, he left her in the cabin and started the engine. He eased the small cruiser away from the dock and soon it disappeared into the night.

  Chapter Sixteen

  In the morning, Adam called Carolyn from the D.C. airport to tell her he was coming in earlier than expected. When she didn’t answer the private phone in their study, he decided she must be somewhere else in the house—or she’d ignored his warning and gone somewhere. He was tempted to call Horizon and see if she was there, but decided he’d have it out with her in a few hours when he was back in Seattle.

  He called her again after he’d landed, but still no answer. Where was she? He dialed the house number and talked to Morna.

  “I haven’t seen her this morning,” the housekeeper replied crisply. “But then, she never tells me what to expect. Sometimes it’s breakfast, no lunch and maybe dinner for the two of you. How am I supposed to give orders to the cook?” she complained.

  “We’ll have to work that out,” Adam answered, holding back his impatience. “Will you check and see if Carolyn is still in our suite? I’ll hold.”

  She surely wouldn’t be sleeping through the noon hour, he thought, especially if she missed breakfast. Unless she was sick? He waited anxiously for Morna to come back on the line.

  “She’s not there,” the housekeeper told him after what seemed like an eternity. “She must have left
the house early, even before Della and Jasper.”

  Adam swore as he hung up. Now he was sure she’d ignored his warnings to stay away from Horizon until he got back. She must have decided to do some investigating on her own.

  He dialed her office number, but she didn’t answer, and then he called Della. She informed him that she hadn’t seen Carolyn since the night before when they left the house to attend a lecture.

  “Was her car in the garage when you left this morning?”

  Della thought for a moment. “Yes, I believe it was. Okay, if Carolyn’s not at the house, someone must have picked her up for a day’s outing. One of her old friends, perhaps.” Her tone suggested slyly that it could have been a man.

  “Maybe Carolyn went shopping with Lisa in her car,” Adam said.

  “I doubt it,” Della answered curtly. “My daughter has chosen to spend her time elsewhere these days.”

  Adam hurriedly engaged a taxi, and on the way to the mansion, he tried to figure out why Carolyn wouldn’t have taken her new car if she was going out with someone like Rosie. It didn’t make sense. Where had she gone? And who with? Maybe she’d left a note, he thought hopefully.

  He let himself into the house and bounded up the stairs. When he reached their suite of rooms, he was struck by several disquieting discoveries.

  No note. He could see that Carolyn hadn’t spent the night there. The bed was turned down, but it hadn’t been slept in. Her nightgown and robe were hanging on a hook in the bathroom. A book lay open on the couch, and when he’d called her the evening before she’d been reading.

  A vice tightened in his chest. Experience had taught him not to give way to his emotions. Nothing was gained by falling apart when a clear head was needed. As he walked slowly through each room, he forced himself to examine the situation rationally.

  No sign of any struggle.

  Opening the drawer where she kept her purse, he saw it was still there. As far as he could tell none of her coats or jackets were missing from the closet. What would cause her to leave with someone in such a hurry that she would have left these behind?

  A telephone call?

  An emergency?

  He raced downstairs to the kitchen and questioned Seika, Lotuse and their father. Adam was aware that servants often knew more about what went on in a household than anyone else. They all shook their heads. None of them had seen her since dinner the night before. Adam left the house, circled the grounds looking for Mack and found him pruning the rose garden.

  “Haven’t seen her today,” the gardener said, wiping his sweaty forehead. “Yesterday she was enjoying the greenhouse and grounds. Nice lady. Got a good feel for plants, too. It’s nice to have someone around who appreciates nature’s beauty.” He lowered his voice. “Not like the rest of the women in the house.”

  Adam was on his way back to the house when he saw Buddy’s white cruiser pulling into the dock. As Adam approached the boat, Buddy greeted him with a wave and showed off a string of fish he had in his hand.

  “Got some beauties here. You ought to join me sometime, Adam. Nothing like a good morning’s catch to set the world right.”

  “Have you seen Carolyn today?” Adam asked.

  “Nope.” He shook his curly head. “But I pulled out about four o’clock this morning. Too early for most people.”

  “What about Lisa? Have you seen her today?”

  “Naw. She didn’t come home. I think she’s shacking up with some guy. Mom’s pretty steamed about it, too.”

  Adam didn’t want to get sidetracked into a discussion of his sister’s behavior. “When was the last time you saw Carolyn?”

  “At dinner,” Buddy answered readily. “She said she was tired and was going to turn in early. I did get the impression, though, that she had something on her mind to do today.”

  Or last night? Adam added silently. But what?

  When night fell and still no sign of her, Adam called the police and reported her missing. He used his influence to get the authorities on the case. They searched the grounds, looking for footprints, but there was no sign of an intruder.

  Had she been kidnapped? As the night wore on, Adam’s attention began to center on the two suspects who might need money badly enough to try to extort money for Carolyn’s safety.

  Cliff was first on the list. Nick was second.

  Adam drove to Cliff’s apartment and woke up Cliff and Lisa. He grilled them about Carolyn’s disappearance and was satisfied that their alibis held up.

  Nick’s place was located in Port Townsend, and Adam had to take a ferry to get there. The homes were old, and Nick’s looked as if it had weathered many a storm. A faint light showed in one of the front windows, and the steps creaked as Adam mounted them to the front door. He was about to knock on the scarred wooden door when he realized it was ajar.

  “Nick,” he called as he poked his head into a small hallway with an opening on each side. “Nick, it’s Adam. You here?”

  He waited, no answer. A gut feeling made him draw his gun. If Nick had Carolyn a prisoner in the house, he’d need it. He listened for any betraying sound. But there was nothing. No squeaking floorboards, no muffled footsteps. Nothing.

  As he moved cautiously to the living room doorway, he saw why. Nick lay in a pool of blood. Shot through the heart. Carolyn! Was she involved in some way?

  With his gun poised and ready to shoot, he made his way through the small house, but found nothing to indicate she’d been there. Nor did he find anything to identify who had entered Nick’s house and killed him. If the demand had been for a gambling debt, Nick had paid in full—with his life.

  Adam knelt over Nick’s body, which was still warm. As he emptied the man’s pockets, he was disappointed to find the usual things: keys, wallet with a little money in it, some antacid tablets. He almost missed a crumpled piece of paper that was stuffed in Nick’s shirt pocket. A printed shipping label. The company name on it didn’t match any of those that had been on Horizon’s computers, Adam was sure of it. As he stared at the address, it tugged at a memory. He turned it over in his mind and then he remembered. The address was in the same waterfront area where Carolyn’s grandfather was run over. Had Arthur Stanford discovered something similar, like this shipping label, that took him to that area? Adam’s thoughts raced. Had Carolyn stumbled into something as perilous?

  Adam called 911, reported Nick’s murder, then drove to an area that had streets bordering clusters of marinas, warehouses and waterfront businesses. Peering at indistinct signs, Adam finally determined that he was several blocks from where Arthur was killed. The address on the crumpled shipping label belonged to a dark, three-story building, and boat dock.

  Was Arthur heading here when something made him get out of his car and then he was deliberately run over?

  In Nick’s position as head of the shipping department, he could have diverted orders by covering up the name of a legitimate company and address with a label that sent the shipment to this address. Adam parked a half block from the warehouse and approached the building from the side. As he reached a narrow parking area that led to the wharf and boat dock, Adam recognized the lone car parked there. It was Buddy’s.

  Before he could give meaning to this discovery, he heard muffled noises. Above the sucking and lapping sound of water, he recognized Carolyn’s weak cry somewhere ahead on the shadowy wharf.

  Adam hugged the side of the building as he ran forward and peered around the corner. He saw two shadowy figures come out the back door and he recognized them both.

  CAROLYN WHIMPERED as Buddy roughly pushed her forward, holding one arm behind her back in a painful position. Dizzy from some pills Buddy had forced on her, and stiff from her cramped confinement in a small storage closet, she stumbled.

  Buddy had taunted her that she’d be the first cargo loaded when the foreign ship pulled in. Her hopes had faded that somehow, some way, Adam would find her, and she thought she was hallucinating when she heard his voice.

  �
��Let her go, Buddy,” Adam ordered as he stepped out into the dim light of a high arc light. “Now! Or I’ll shoot.”

  Buddy swung around, clutching Carolyn in front of him like a shield. When he saw it was Adam, he grinned and taunted, “Go ahead. Save me the trouble of shipping her out.”

  “You’re under arrest, Buddy. Now we’ll add kidnapping to your other crimes, like murder.”

  “Oh, so you found poor old Nick,” Buddy said, almost as if he was pleased to take credit for the crime. “Sorry to disappoint you, but there has to be a loser in any game. In this one it’s you!”

  “Behind you!” Carolyn croaked.

  The waterfront thug Buddy had hired to be her jailor jumped Adam and knocked the gun from his hand. The revolver fell into the water.

  Adam had spent hours training in martial arts and now put the training to good use. He landed a knockout blow to his attacker’s chin and instantly dropped the man to the splintered boards of the wharf.

  As Buddy tried to reach for his gun, he lost his grip on Carolyn. Twisting free, she clawed at his face with her fingernails. Swearing, he tried to get free of her. As he knocked her away, Adam threw himself at Buddy with a fierce tackle that sent them both reeling backward.

  Exchanging blows, they rolled, wrestled and moved closer and closer to the edge of the wharf. Suddenly, locked in a deadly grip, they disappeared over the side.

  Carolyn screamed and searched the dark waters lapping the weathered piles. No sign of them. Terrified and sobbing, she struggled to her feet and stumbled up and down the wharf. She peered into the murky depths.

  “Adam! Adam!”

  No answer. Then a sudden movement a short distance down the wharf brought a rush of adrenaline through her. Who had made it out of the water?