He shook his head. “No.”
She sighed. “It’s already ten? Geez, it feels like we’ve been doing this for hours.”
“We have been doing this for hours.”
She leaned back. “There’s nothing here. There’s nothing that’s going to tell us anything.”
“Doesn’t seem that way.”
“Where’s Tom?”
“He’s off to Florida for the month.”
“Wow, the whole month? For what?”
“Some deep sea fishing thing he does every year.”
“What, there’s no deep sea fishing off the coast of the Carolinas?” Sarcasm dripped off her words.
“I guess he’s going to fish for something that’s not as popular up here. I don’t know. I don’t fish.”
“But you love eating fish, isn’t that ironic?”
“I like any food I don’t have to work for.”
“Lazy modern American.”
He playfully tossed a balled up napkin at her. “Says you.”
She threw it back with impressive velocity. It whizzed past his head and bounced off the old wooden cabinets. “Careful, you might break the house.”
“It is in a woeful state.”
“The rent is cheap.”
“It better be.”
“Cheapest I’ve found.”
“It should be free.”
“You’re just saying that because of the palmetto bugs.”
“I think those are cockroaches.”
“I think they’re the same thing.”
Ashley got up and walked to the fridge to grab the wine. “What happened with your house?”
He stretched his arms above his head. “It’s still for sale.”
“Why don’t you just keep it?”
He shrugged. “I guess I’m afraid I won’t be able to get Cassie’s memory out of it.”
“But she never lived in it.”
“I know, but we bought it together. She picked it out. It was her baby. I don’t know, I guess it just felt weird to stay there.”
“That’s fair.”
“Would you stay in your house now?”
She looked to the ceiling and pursed her lips. “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”
Jake stretched his shoulders. “How’re you doing, by the way?”
“I don’t know. It’s weird.”
“I guess that’s one way to put it.”
“I mean, I don’t know how to feel. Or, maybe I don’t know what I’m feeling.”
“Aren’t you sad? You’ve known Mike for a long time.”
“Eleven years.”
“That’s a long time.”
She took a long swig of wine. “I’m not as sad as I should be.”
“And you feel guilty about that.”
She looked up from her hands and met his eyes. “I’m a horrible person.”
“No—no, you’re not. I understand exactly what you mean. As time has gone on, I’ve felt less sad over Cassie and Paul. But I didn’t want to.”
“Time heals all wounds.”
“I guess. But I didn’t want it to. I wanted to hold onto that pain. I started to crave it, it became me, consumed me. And I felt that if I let it go, then I was letting her go. I mean, I’ve said this ten times to myself, maybe in an effort to understand it.”
Ashley reached across the small table and squeezed his hand. “It’s okay to let her go. It doesn’t mean you loved her any less. And it doesn’t mean you’ll forget her.”
Jake bit back his emotions and looked down at Ashley’s delicate hands. He had a plethora of words in his head, but couldn’t get any of them out, not the ones he really wanted to. So he settled for the easiest ones. “Thanks, Ashley. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you these last few days. I’m really sorry I got you so wrapped up in this.”
“Jake, this is some crazy shit.” She leaned forward and crossed her arms on the table. “There’s a fricken mermaid swimming off the coast of North Carolina. Do you know how insane that is?” She chuffed. “Of course you do, what am I saying?”
“And you thought I was crazy.”
“Of course I did.”
“Don’t worry, so did I.”
Ashley made a face and stuck her nose in the air, sniffing hard. “Do you smell that?”
Jake mimicked her. “I don’t smell anything.”
“I have a very good nose.”
“What do you smell?”
“Gas.”
“Gas, as in gasoline, or propane?”
“Gasoline.”
Jake sniffed again. He didn’t smell it at first, but then he did get a slight whiff of it. But it was nothing more than what might have dripped out of a lawnmower or something. “I can barely smell it.”
Ashley got up. “Trust me, I can smell it.”
Jake followed her to the front door of the small bungalow and peered outside. “Maybe my car sprang a leak. It is old and things are breaking all the time.”
Ashley moved away from the front of the house and down the hallway toward the backyard. “I think it’s coming from the back of the house.”
Jake kept looking out front at his car, but didn’t see anything. He did smell gas though now, more than he did a second ago. Of course, maybe that was just in his head because Ashley had talked about it. Maybe it wasn’t getting any worse at all.
“Whoa!” Ashley exclaimed from the back bedroom.
He hurried toward her. “What?” But after the word came out of his mouth, he smelled it too. “Oh!”
“We gotta get out of here.” She turned quickly and bumped into him.
The explosion hammered at her back and tore into the side of the house.
The concussion of the blast threw Ashley into Jake with impressive force and they both fell in the hallway. Roiling flames painted the ceiling above them, reaching out for fuel to latch onto like busy fingers.
Jake helped push Ashley to her feet with a well-placed hand to her ass, and then sprang up and headed toward the front door. She twisted the handle and pushed, but the door didn’t open. Jake shoved her out of the way and slammed into it with everything he had, but it didn’t budge. The top part pulled away from the frame but it didn’t move at the bottom. Then with another whoosh of scorching heat and fire, flames consumed the front of the house in earnest.
Looking to his right, he saw the kitchen windows were still clear. He ran and grabbed Ashley’s hand, dragging her through the kitchen. In one motion, he wrapped his arms around her and jumped back-first through the tall glass, landing hard on his back onto the deteriorated concrete sidewalk.
Between his weight, Ashley’s weight, and the hard ground, Jake felt every ounce of breath blast from his body. Ashley rolled off him and sprang to her feet. Jake struggled a few seconds on the ground, trying to get air into his lungs.
Ashley reached down and pulled him up as she scurried away from the house while another explosion ruptured the side of the structure, sending a column of fire and smoke into the night sky.
They got to the street and turned back to face the inferno as sirens bellowed in the distance.
After catching his breath, Jake hurried out the words, “Too close.”
Ashley bent to put her hands on her knees. “That’s the understatement of the year.”
Fire trucks turned the corner as Jake watched all his belongings burn.
Chapter 21
Castro
Castro answered his phone and needed more effort than usual to utter, “Yeah.”
“Is it done?”
He didn’t even want to answer. He’d missed the mark yet again. He’d never in his career had such a hard time with a job. He considered himself a superior killing machine. His work was usually spotless and untraceable…and it was untraceable because it was spotless. But he listened to them and changed his plan, and the results were less than perfect. He cleared his throat twice, took a long pause before he answered. “Not done.”
“What?” The a
nger over the phone was palpable. “I’ve paid you a ton of money to do your job.”
“I know what you’ve paid me for.”
“I don’t think you do, because so far you’ve accidentally killed an innocent man, and missed the mark twice.”
“Hey, we’re on the phone.”
“I don’t care. You’re screwing up and I don’t have time for this.”
“I’ve missed the mark once. The first time was an unforeseen complication.”
“It’s still an excuse for incompetence. I don’t like complications.”
“Neither do I, but sometimes they cannot be avoided. The world is an imperfect place.”
There was a long grunt. “Now what? How are you going rectify the situation?”
Castro fixed the collar of his ugly Hawaiian shirt. “Don’t worry.”
“I am worried. You’ve not exactly instilled me with confidence. Do I have to find someone else?”
Castro cleared his throat. “That will bring more complications. When you start contacting multiple people that do what I do, you increase the chances that someone out there will talk. If someone talks, you’re going to be unhappy, very—very unhappy with the results.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “Fine. Just get it done and make sure it—”
“I know what to do.”
“Then do it.” He hung up the phone.
Castro lit his cigarette and took a long drag. It did bother him that the last detonator didn’t ignite. The house was supposed to have been engulfed in flames long before those two were able to jump through that glass. The only explanation was that the pop detonator was defective. It wasn’t the first time one didn’t light. Fire was not his preferred means as a killing agent. He didn’t mind using it as cleaning agent. Even so, usually the marks were caught enough by surprise that it didn’t matter. He had to hand it to those two; they were quick thinkers. But more than that, they were lucky, and their luck was going to run out. Everyone’s did.
* * *
Jake
Jake kicked at some of the burnt ashes left from his latest personal disaster. The fire department had just rolled away. The police had asked all the pertinent questions, what happened next was out of his hands. They knew it was arson, but knowing and doing anything about it were two different things. The police force on the island was small, and unless this turned into a serial case, chances are they weren’t going to get much more help than the county sheriffs.
Ashley gave him an unexpected, hard hug, which forced an, “Oh!” to escape him.
“I’m sorry, Jake.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, but I’m still sorry.”
“At least my car survived.”
She eased her way out of the hug. “Yeah, but they sprayed so much water on it I wonder if it will ever run again.”
Jake went over to the old Volkswagen and opened the door. When he twisted the key he didn’t expect it to start, but it did. After a few coughs and sputters, the old horse was running perfect. “Hey, she’s a runner.”
Ashley got in. “Good, let’s get out of here. I can’t stand this smell anymore.”
They headed down the road. Jake started laughing.
Ashley looked at him oddly. “What’s so funny?”
“We’re both homeless. We both technically own houses and we’re homeless.”
“That’s not funny.” Then Ashley joined in on his laughter. “Okay, it’s kinda funny.” She ended her tired laugh and said, “Mine is still a crime scene.”
Jake’s laughter sucked away. “When can you go back in?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t want to go back. I’m just going to put it on the market and get rid of it. I’m sure Leo will sell it for me. He’ll probably take over all of Mike’s clients. He’ll be ecstatic to sell it. It’s probably worth twice what we paid for it.”
Jake sighed. “I guess we could go to my house…but it’s empty. There’s no place to sleep and I don’t have a key.”
Ashley laughed again, longer than she should have. It turned into an uncontrollable laugh. It was so infectious that Jake started to laugh for no reason other than the fact she was laughing.
With laughter-drenched words, Jake managed, “Why’re we laughing?”
She replied, barely able to get the words out, “I—don’t—know.”
Finally after the hysteria wound down, Jake said, “Let’s just get a hotel for tonight. I can’t think anymore.”
She let out a long raspy groan. “Agreed.”
As they headed past the huge oceanfront Marriott, Ashley pointed. “There, let’s stay there.”
“That place is out of my budget.”
“It’s on me. I think we deserve it.”
They checked in, and had another good laugh when the clerk at the desk asked them if they had luggage. They didn’t want to get into it, but he looked like he wanted an explanation. He didn’t get one.
They headed through the spacious lobby to the elevators, and up to the eighth floor room. After walking through the suite doors, Ashley immediately stepped out onto the balcony that overlooked the ocean. “Wow, this is amazing. No matter how many times I’ve seen this view, it’s still amazing.”
“How many times have you been up here?”
“Several times. When I was doing real estate, I used to bring the high end clients up here and pay for them to stay a night while they were thinking things over.”
“Why did you give up the real estate game? You were really good at it.”
“Too good.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Well, Mike didn’t like me showing him up. His fragile male ego couldn’t handle it.”
“Is that why he went out on his own?”
“Initially yes. But it still didn’t help because then we were competing for clients.”
“But you were married. What did it matter?”
“My argument exactly. But he was always my money and his money, it was never our money.”
“That’s neurotic.”
“Well, needless to say, I decided it was best to step away and just find something else to do. I had my broker’s license, so I started teaching other agents and eventually the real estate consulting business was born. I didn’t have to compete against Mike, but I could still stay in the game to some extent.”
Jake stepped to her, leaning on the railing. “The sunrise is going to be spectacular from up here.”
“I imagine. Just look at the sky.”
A nearly full moon swayed over the ocean like one of those old garage light bulbs that hung from the ceiling. A shimmering white glow seemed to spill out from the dark all the way to the sand below. “It’s amazing.”
He looked at her. The moonlight on her face made her look even more beautiful than she already was. She must have felt him staring, because she met his eyes.
He blew a breath. “I’m trying really hard not to kiss you right now.”
“I feel like we’ve been here before.”
“Different time, different place, same dilemma.”
“There was a good reason not to kiss me last time.”
“Two good reasons.”
“There isn’t one now.” She reached up and put her hand on his cheek. “There won’t ever be one again.”
Jake could feel his heart clacking like a diesel engine. He didn’t want to resist her perfectly curved lips. He’d had countless dreams of kissing Ashley, dreams that felt so real he’d wake up thinking it had happened, dreams where he chose Ashley over Cassie when given the opportunity, dreams he didn’t want to be dreams, but they always were. They were dreams, until now.
He leaned in and tasted her for the first time. Years of anticipation culminated into the most amazing kiss he’d ever experienced. Every part of him started to tremble until he sank deeper into the kiss and let go. The vibrations that ran through his body settled into something both exciting and natural. He wanted to make love
to her right on that balcony. His hands fished up her shirt, feeling the curve of her back, the tightness of her waist. He wanted to feel all of her, but he pulled his lips away and just hugged her tightly.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. “My God, Jake,” she whispered. “Why did we wait so long to do that?”
“I guess the best things take time.” He didn’t want her to let go. He just wanted to stay embraced forever. It just felt so right to have her in his arms. Their bodies just seemed to fit together so perfectly. It was like they were once part of the same mold that had been broken apart and the two pieces finally reunited.
It seemed like the hug went on forever until Ashley finally slid away from him. “I really need to shower.”
“Me too, I smell like fire.” As he watched her walk toward the bathroom, he never wanted anyone more in his life. Her body just looked so perfect. But this was not the time for such things. He would not even try. Still, part of him wished she’d offer for him to join her in the shower. After about three minutes of the water running, however, he knew that wasn’t going to happen and the moment of passion had siphoned away from his body and mind.
With nothing to occupy his thoughts, he took out his phone and started reading some of the pages they’d found on Dr. Shepard. It seemed like an exercise in futility. They’d combed over hundreds of pages between the two of them and nothing really stood out. The doctor was up to something, there was no doubt in his mind. What could be proven, on the other hand, was another thing entirely.
The words on the page seemed to blend into a giant block of babble. Then the link to an article intrigued him so he followed it, mostly because it was a different color than the rest of the text.
It seemed that Dr. Shepard had taken part in an experimental procedure to help a young boy who had been badly burned in a chemical accident. The article went on to talk about an experimental skin grafting procedure. At first, this didn’t really mean anything to him, but then something about it made his skin crawl.
Ashley must have read something on his face, because when she stepped out of the bathroom, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jake looked up, taking in her toweled form. “Maybe nothing…probably maybe.”
The Mermaid Page 12
