“Divorce decrees don’t just vanish from court records, Cara. I pulled a copy of the license myself when Jack first told me about her being married.” He looked at Taylor. “He was going to ruin everything for you, wasn’t he? Frank killed him to save your worthless—”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Taylor looked like she was going to be ill.
“Jack hated you. He was going to make sure you never got a dime out of Johnny’s estate. I don’t think this pretty little scene between you and Jack ever happened. I think you sent Frank out there to kill him. Hell, maybe you went with him and helped get rid of the body. All we have is your word for where you were that night, and we all know what your word is worth.”
“He’s lying. Isn’t he lying, Cara? Tell me he’s lying to cover up for killing Frank.”
I shook my head. “I found the blood at the mill.”
“No, no. It can’t be true,” said Taylor, panic in every syllable. “If Frank is alive, he must’ve killed Jack.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you,” said Dan.
Taylor lowered the shotgun. Dan sprung forward to grab it from her, but she was beyond caring. She folded into a heap on the floor, rocking back and forth, holding her head in her hands. To my astonishment, Mel stopped crying and went to gather Taylor into her arms. “I thought he was dead,” sobbed Taylor.
“I know, honey,” said Mel. “I did too. We all did.”
Dan said what I was thinking. “What the hell is going on?”
There was movement in the corner of the room, and I turned to see Bent walk out of the storage room. I screamed. Thankfully Dan caught me, or I would have joined Mel and Taylor on the floor.
“I’m sorry to scare you like that, Cara.” Bent gave me a bear hug that did wonders for my emotions but nothing for my nerves. “Nice to know you’d miss me.”
“I wondered where you were hiding,” said Dan. “Is somebody going to tell me what’s going on around here?”
“You knew Bent was alive?” asked Mel.
“Ms. Lennon said she shot him with Cara’s gun. If she had that gun, why trade it for a shotgun?”
“My fault,” said Mel. “I thought a shotgun would be more intimidating.”
“I knew it! I did have my gun after Taylor left. You guys scared the pants off me!”
“I’m sorry, Cara, but we didn’t have any way of letting you in on it without Dan knowing.”
“So how come he saw through you and I’m the one who fell for it?”
“Because you take everything at face value,” said Dan. “Why would you want to fool me?”
“Because I told them you killed Frank!” sobbed Taylor.
“And you believed her?”
“Well, as far as we knew, somebody killed him and Taylor tells a pretty convincing story,” said Bent. “You knew about the mill, Cara. Why didn’t you tell us?”
Before I could answer, Dan did. “I swore her to secrecy. At least I see she kept her promise.”
“I always keep my promises!”
“And now I know that. What I don’t know is what you all hoped to accomplish with this little farce.”
“We thought if we could shake you up, you might make a mistake and let something slip that would prove you either killed Frank or you were covering up for Jack killing Frank.”
“That was your brilliant plan?”
“I didn’t say it was brilliant,” admitted Bent. “Taylor was waiting for us when we got home, and she told us everything. We didn’t have a lot of time.”
Dan looked down at where Taylor sat, rocking back and forth, her eyes glassy. “Snap out of it! Tell me where he is.”
“Do you think she’s faking that reaction?”
“She’s a world-class liar, Cara.”
“I’m not lying!” Taylor blinked a few times, then scrambled to her feet and took my hands in hers. “You’ve got to believe me, Cara. I never saw Frank after he went off with Jack. I swear I thought he was dead.”
“Why didn’t you say something to me after you thought he was dead?”
“Because I still couldn’t prove we’d ever been divorced. Honestly, Cara. I would have told you everything once my attorney found that decree. Before he left with Jack that night, Frank told me he was going to tell him who he was and that he was going to stand up in court and swear we’d been divorced long before Johnny and I got married. I swear I thought that Jack killed him to keep him from doing that.”
“You said Frank was holding it over your head that you never got the divorce.”
“He wanted the money, Cara. He needed me to inherit Johnny’s estate if he was going to get his hands on it. I never dreamed he’d kill Jack. If I’d known, I swear I would have gone to the police.”
“You’re doing a lot of swearing, Ms. Lennon, but it’s gonna take more than that if you want me to believe you,” said Dan.
“Like what?”
“Like telling me where he is.”
“How should I know? I said I haven’t seen him since that night. I thought he was dead.”
“And I’m telling you I can drive a truck through the holes in your story, so drop the lies and tell me where to find him.”
“Everybody calm down and let’s think logically,” said Bent with a quiet air of command. “If Frank killed Jack, he went to a lot of trouble to make us believe that it was he who’d been murdered. What did he gain by doing that?”
“He didn’t buy himself much time,” I said. “Even if I hadn’t stumbled into the mill, the police would have identified the body by DNA.”
“Takes a few months to get those results,” said Dan.
“Seriously?”
“It’s not a TV show, Cara.”
“I know, but months? It’s Alaska. How many murders could they be investigating that our tests should take so long?”
“You’d be surprised, and it’s not just murders. We have the highest suicide rate in the nation, and every one of them gets investigated as a suspicious death.”
“Do you mind?” asked Bent, breaking in.
“Sorry,” I said, feeling my cheeks burn. “You were saying?”
“He buys at least a few weeks by letting the world think he’s dead and Jack’s just gone off hunting. That’s enough time for him to forge a letter to the court withdrawing the challenge to the will.”
“But why would he need to do that?” asked Mel. “With Jack dead, wouldn’t that serve the same purpose?”
“Not a chance,” said Dan. “The marriage license was on file with the probate court, and the judge had ordered Taylor to produce proof that she had been legally divorced and eligible to marry Johnny. Jack’s death wouldn’t have changed that.”
“But if Jack told the court he’d discovered the license was a forgery and he was withdrawing his challenge...” I left the thought hanging in the air.
“The judge might go for that,” agreed Dan. “But that means Frank knew Taylor’s attorney wouldn’t find a divorce decree.”
“Or that he would, and then he’d have no hold over Taylor. Stop the challenge, and you stop the attorney from looking for the decree.”
“Cara, there was never a divorce. If Ms. Lennon knew for certain she’d been divorced, Frank wouldn’t have had a hold on her. If there’d been a divorce, Frank wouldn’t have even come to Coho Bay because he couldn’t have known she wouldn’t have seen a copy of it.”
We both turned to look at Taylor. She tried to meet my eyes, but after a few moments she looked away. I tried not to let my mind go to the inevitable conclusion. There was too much at stake, too much left unanswered, and there was still a killer out there somewhere. Establishing whether Taylor was victim or partner paled in comparison with the urgency of finding Frank.
“Where would he go?” asked Mel, breaking the long, uncomfortable silence. “It’s been too cold for him to have stayed outside. He’d have had to have sought shelter.”
“He hasn’t been back to the cabin, and he sur
e hasn’t been here long enough to have made the kind of friends who would hide him,” observed Bent. “His boat maybe.”
“The boat’s too public,” said Dan. “Too easy for someone to see him.”
“What about Jack’s house?” I suggested. “Nobody would think to look for him there.”
“Not bad, Cara,” said Bent. “It’s at the end of the road. Nobody would have driven by, and there aren’t any neighbors within half a mile who would have noticed him.”
Dan shook his head. “I went through the house after Cara found the scene at the mill, and I’ve been by there probably a dozen times since then. If he’d been there, he isn’t anymore.”
I felt deflated. “Where else could he go?”
“Any vacant rental houses?” asked Bent.
“There was one, but the owners came back from Texas last week. Everything else is occupied except the cabins. Tay, you were out there last night.”
“Don’t look at me. I thought he was dead. If I’d seen him, I’d have had a heart attack. I heard somebody come home in the middle of the night, but I assumed it was one of the renters.”
“That has to be him,” I said, turning to Dan. “The cabins are supposed to be vacant now. Let’s go!” I relinquished my hold on Bent, who walked over to Mel and pulled her to her feet.
“We can’t just go storming up there, Cara,” said Dan. “Frank would be gone before we got to the front door. He must have Johnny’s boat stashed somewhere, and if he makes it to open water, we might never catch up to him.”
“We have to do something. We can’t just sit here. Bent, think of something!”
“Like his plan to get me to confess?” snorted Dan. “No offense, Bent, but we need something better than that.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, turning to Dan. “What about those guys who are supposed to be keeping an eye on things? Let’s get them in on this.”
“They don’t exist.”
“They don’t—What?”
“I made them up.”
“You made them up?” I grabbed his jacket, bunching it in my fists. I wanted to shake or throttle him or maybe both at the same time. “You made them up?”
“I’m a one-man police force. It’s better sometimes if people think I have a little help.”
“I swear, I’m gonna kill the next person who lies to me.” I emphasized each word with a pound of my fists on his chest.
Dan put his hands on mine and gently worked my fists open. “People are rarely what they seem, Cara.”
“I have a suggestion,” said Taylor.
“I’m not listening,” I said. “How do I know you’re not working with Frank? How do I know this whole charade hasn’t been your way of trying to get us on your side?”
“Why would I do that? If I were working with Frank, wouldn’t we have just marched into the courthouse and convinced the judge we were divorced?”
“Maybe you didn’t think he’d take your word for it.”
“Fine. Let’s say Frank killed Jack and wrote that letter. Wouldn’t I just lay low and wait for the estate to settle? Why would I have come to you for help?”
“You said you were afraid of Dan.”
“I was afraid of Dan. Now I’m afraid of Frank. I’m sure not working with him.”
“Bull,” said Dan.
“Do you want to hear my suggestion or not?” Tay asked.
“Oh, by all means.”
“We’ll go to the cabin. You all hide, and I’ll draw Frank out into the open.”
“How are you gonna do that?” asked Bent.
“I’ll think of something. If I can get him talking, maybe he’ll admit I had nothing to do with him killing Jack.”
“That only happens in books, Tay,” I said. “Frank could kill you before we could stop him.”
“He’s not gonna kill his own wife,” said Dan.
“Ex-wife,” said Taylor, balling her hands into fists at her side. “He’s not gonna kill me because without me he hasn’t got a prayer of getting ahold of Johnny’s money.”
“You’d be taking a big chance,” said Bent. “It’s too easy for something to go wrong.”
“Anyone have a better plan?” She looked around the room, but none of us had anything to offer.
Mel reached for her shotgun, but Bent stopped her. “You stay here. You too, Cara.”
“I have to go,” I told him. “I need to see for myself what’s real and what isn’t. Where’s my gun? If Tay didn’t take it—”
“I don’t have it,” she said.
“I do.” Dan pulled my gun from his pocket. “That’s the other reason I knew she was lying.”
“How did you get my gun?”
“Took it when you fell into me.”
“Why?”
“You won’t like my reason.”
“Don’t lie to me, Dan.”
“Every time I talked to you about Ms. Lennon, you defended her. Whatever she did or said, you found a way to excuse it. I wasn’t sure whose side you were on, and I thought it was better safe than sorry.”
“Dan Simmons! That’s my sister you’re talking about!”
“Sorry, Mel. She wanted the truth. Besides, you thought I was guilty. Why are you giving me a hard time for questioning your sister’s motives?”
“He has a point there, Cara.”
“Don’t I get a gun?” asked Taylor.
“No,” said Dan. “Not a chance.”
“What is it going to take to prove to you that I’m telling the truth?”
“Tell you what. If he kills you, I’ll believe you.” By the tone in Dan’s voice, I didn’t think he was joking.
Chapter 12
For the second time that night, I found myself walking the mile to the cabins. Taylor had wanted to take Dan’s truck but she was soundly overridden. The night was so still the sound of the engine would have carried and we would have had to abandon the truck halfway there to keep from being seen. Not that I blamed Taylor. I was thinking longingly of the truck myself as we slogged up the road. The snow that had been in the forecast for days had finally arrived, and it wasn’t the pretty snow that made you want to sit by a fire with a mug of hot chocolate. It was a hard, driving snow, which gets into your face and makes it hard to keep your eyes open enough to see where you’re going. We walked with our heads down and our bodies bent into the face of the wind.
I had a whole shelf full of mysteries at home, so to take my mind off the weather and the confrontation ahead of us, I decided to puzzle things out. I wanted to believe Taylor. She’d been my only friend that lonely year in Seattle. The fact that she was always more likely to act in her best interest than mine made her selfish, but it didn’t make her a murderer. I could understand why she hadn’t told me about her marriage to Frank. She’d never been one to admit her mistakes, and that one had been a doozy. I could even understand why she hadn’t told me after he’d turned up in Coho Bay since by then she’d been married to Johnny and the sudden appearance of a blackmailing ex-husband wasn’t something she would have wanted to broadcast. What I couldn’t excuse was her continuing to lie to me once she thought Frank was dead and Jack or Dan was trying to kill her.
She had been protecting the money. She might not have known about Johnny’s wealth before they got married, but she was ready to risk her life to preserve her chance to inherit now that he was gone. Could I blame her for that? What would I do for a chance at fifteen million dollars? What if she wants us to shoot Frank before he can tell us the truth about her? It was an ugly thought, but my subconscious mind had been batting a thousand where Taylor was concerned, so I didn’t dismiss it as quickly as I might once have done.
I looked over at her. I couldn’t see her face clearly, but her stride was determined, resolute. What she didn’t seem to be was frightened, as she had been back at Mel’s. I was afraid, and I wasn’t even the one planning to march up to a killer’s hideout and knock on the door. Had she been telling the truth? Did she think he wouldn’t kill her be
cause she was his only chance at Johnny’s money, or was Dan right and she was unafraid because she knew her own husband wouldn’t kill her? Was she my friend in trouble or the murderous Taylor from my dreams, planning to lure Frank to his death? I shook my head to get the snow out of my face, but my thoughts continued to swirl.
We left the pavement as we drew closer to the cabins and went the rest of the way cutting through the woods. When we reached the clearing behind Frank’s cabin, we crouched down to regroup. There was no light on, and we could hear nothing over the howl of the wind. Dan motioned for me to circle to the far side of the cabin while he moved off in the opposite direction. Bent stayed where he was, guarding the back. Once she saw we were in place, Taylor stood up and walked straight across the clearing and around the cabin to the front door.
I could only see the outline of her body through the storm, and I could barely hear her. I moved closer, pressing myself against the side of the cabin. If Taylor needed me, I wanted to be in position to act quickly. I heard her knock on the door, but there was no answer. She knocked again, louder this time, and I could clearly hear her voice. “Frank? It’s me, Taylor. Open up.” Still nothing. “Frank, I know you’re here. Open the door. I’m in real trouble.”
I flinched at her words, so like the ones she’d spoken to me at the party. She sounded painfully honest, with a hint of fear and vulnerability, only this time I knew it was a lie. Even if it turned out she were innocent, something told me I would never be able to trust her again. The door opened, and I realized I hadn’t really expected Frank to be there until I heard him tell her to get inside before someone saw her.
I inched my way along the wall to the window, careful to make no noise as I moved. I knew the storm would cover most sounds, but I didn’t want to take chances where Taylor’s safety was concerned. I listened at the window but couldn’t hear anything from inside. Steeling myself to look, I hoped that for once Frank had forgotten to close the blinds. They were open but only slightly. I could only see slivers through the slats in the blinds. It was dark inside, but I could make out two shapes. The smaller seemed to be struggling to break away from the larger. Then I heard Taylor scream, and that was enough for me. I shattered the window with the butt of my gun and made a sound that would have made a warrior proud. I heard another window break and the sound of Dan battering at the door. Frank spun Taylor around and pinned her in front of him. “Back off! All of you! Back off or I’ll blow her head off!”
The Deadly Art of Deception Page 19
