“Let her go!” I screamed.
“Porch, Cara. Now!” said Frank, recognizing my voice. “You too, Dan. I want you where I can see you.”
I moved to the porch, my gun drawn and ready. Dan stood by the door, tensed to pounce when Frank and Taylor came out. I didn’t see Bent, and since Frank had only mentioned me and Dan, maybe he didn’t realize we had a third person. That could be the difference between life and death for Taylor. I gripped my gun tightly and tried to ignore the snow swirling all around me. At least here under the porch overhang I wasn’t getting blasted with snow pellets as I had all the way up to the cabins.
“Open the door, Cara,” ordered Frank, “and don’t try anything.”
I opened the door and backed away from it, but I didn’t lower my gun and neither did Dan, who stood behind me and to my left. Frank was standing about six feet into the one-room cabin, holding Taylor in front of him, a gun to her temple. It was too dark to see their faces, but I could see her squirming in his grip until Frank jerked the arm he held around her waist and she stopped moving. “Put down your guns,” he ordered. “Don’t even think about it, Dan.”
I stole a glance at Dan. His face was a mask, but he bent down slowly and placed his gun on the porch. He nodded at me, and reluctantly I put my gun beside his and we backed carefully off the porch. I said a silent prayer of thanks that we still had Bent hidden out there, somewhere, watching and waiting for the right time to move in. Dan and I stood at the foot of the steps and watched while Frank dragged Taylor out of the cabin. She was sobbing with a terror I didn’t think she could fake. Whatever she might have done, it seemed clear she was not Frank’s partner in crime. I breathed a little easier at that, or I would have if the wind weren’t catching every breath almost before I could exhale.
“You’ll never get away with it, Frank.” I marveled at the calm in Dan’s voice. I guess that’s why he’s a cop and I’m a gallery owner. “Let her go before you make things worse for yourself.”
“You want her? Take her.” To my amazement, Frank relinquished his hold on Taylor and she collapsed onto the deck at his feet. Before I could take a step to reach her, she’d half crawled, half fallen down the steps and thrown herself at Dan. Her arms went around his neck, and she hung there, sobbing on his shoulder.
“She’s no good to you now, Dan,” said Frank, lowering his gun.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, having to shout to be heard above the storm. Frank stood there in his shirtsleeves, impervious to the cold, his full attention on Dan.
“She’ll never inherit that estate now. You know that.” Dan still hadn’t moved. One arm was around Taylor and the other hung at his side. He said nothing.
I caught movement out of my eye and turned to look beyond Dan and Taylor. I almost cried with relief when I saw Bent moving toward us, shotgun ready. He was too far away to have a clear shot. Keep him talking, Dan. Just a little bit longer. I hoped Frank hadn’t seen my head turn.
Dan’s hand flew to his belt, and he pulled something out of a small holster. Metal glinted, and I realized he held a collapsible hunting knife. I was relieved to see it, but I didn’t know how he was going to take on Frank, who still had a gun, with a knife. I looked around wildly, but Bent seemed to have faded into the storm.
“Go ahead and kill her,” shouted Frank.
“Frank! What the—”
“Cara, don’t you get it?” Frank shouted back at me. “He’s killed two men to get that money.”
Taylor pulled away from Dan and stood staring at him. “Two men?”
“Jack and Johnny. You killed them both, didn’t you Dan?”
“Johnny?” Taylor turned to look at Frank, but she didn’t move away from Dan. “Johnny was killed by a bear.”
“Frank, what are you talking about?” I demanded. “The coroner called it a bear attack. You can’t fake those kind of injuries.”
“There were other injuries that didn’t fit. The coroner dismissed them, but Jack didn’t, did he, Dan? Jack suspected you right from the start. That’s why he called me.”
“He... what?” Now it was Taylor’s turn to be confused.
Dan grabbed Taylor and gestured at Frank with his knife. “Then shoot us both! Go on, do it. Bent! Where are you?” He spun around, waving the knife wildly. Taylor screamed and fought him, but she couldn’t break his grip.
“No! Stop it, both of you!” I cried.
Frank ignored me. “Give it up, Dan. Even if you get out of Coho Bay, where are you going to go? You have Johnny’s boat, but you don’t have any money. The police will freeze your credit cards before you can make it to Canada.”
“I’ll take my chances. Put your gun down or shoot us. Either way, I’m ending this!” Taylor screamed as Dan pressed the knife to her neck, drawing blood.
I couldn’t stand it. Friend or foe, nobody deserved to die like this. “Please, Frank, let them go! Don’t just stand there and let him kill her.”
“Cara, she’s a killer, every bit as much as he is.” Frank’s voice was harsh. “She suspected he killed Johnny, and she did nothing. She knew he killed Jack, and still she did nothing. Don’t you believe me?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore!”
Frank waivered, then threw his gun away with a grunt of disgust. “Fine. Take her. Get out of here.”
“Not quite.” Dan shouted into the storm. “Bent! Where are you?”
“Right here, Dan.”
I almost sobbed in relief when Bent emerged from the storm. He stood between me and Frank, shotgun in hand, but he didn’t raise it. Dan tightened his hold on Taylor, almost lifting her off the ground. “Tell them!”
“Let me go!” she sobbed.
“Tell them or I slit your throat! Tell them what you did to Johnny!”
“I didn’t...” She gasped for air.
“You lying sack of—” He threw her to the ground. “Shoot her, Bent!”
“No!” Taylor and I screamed, but I stayed rooted to the ground, watching in horror as Bent pointed his shotgun at her and racked a shot into the chamber.
Taylor raised her hand in a feeble attempt to block the shot. “It was an accident! I swear it! I didn’t mean to kill him.”
If I were the fainting type, I would have fainted then. As it was, my legs lost the strength to hold me, and I sunk into the snow. I felt, more than saw, Frank move over to stand behind me. “She was at the gallery...” I stopped. I didn’t know what to say.
“She wasn’t there all day, were you?” Dan prodded Taylor with his foot. “You slipped away from the gallery and went up to where you knew Johnny would be.”
“I had to. I had to make him see. He wouldn’t listen to me.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, my voice sounding strange even to me.
Taylor looked at me, her face pleading. “Jack knew about Frank. I don’t know how he found out, but he went to Johnny with the marriage license. I told Johnny we were divorced, but he didn’t believe me.”
“I wonder why,” said Frank.
“I thought we were! I swear I did. I filed. I don’t know what happened. When Frank showed up, I got scared.”
“So Frank really is your husband.”
“Ex-husband! I told Johnny that, but he was so mad. He just walked away from me. I went after him. I grabbed his arm to stop him but he... he pulled away... He fell.” She stopped, and there was nothing but the sound of the storm while she gathered her thoughts. “I know I shouldn’t have left him there, but I was scared. I thought I’d killed him. I just ran away.”
“And left him there, bleeding and unconscious in a known bear area,” Frank finished her story.
“I didn’t think! I was so scared I just didn’t think.”
“Except it wasn’t an accident, was it?” Dan kicked her again. “He didn’t just fall, did he? You shoved him over that ledge. We found his body at the bottom of a thirty-foot drop.”
Taylor lay on the cold, wet ground sobbing. “I didn’t
mean it. I didn’t mean it. I just... lashed out. I swear I didn’t mean to kill him.”
“That enough for you?” I looked to see who Dan was talking to. He was looking behind me but to the right. I turned to see Jack, emerging from the storm.
“That’ll do,” he said. I don’t remember anything else.
Chapter 13
I was crating up unsold paintings and sculptures for shipment back to the artists who’d created them. I was late getting the work done, but it had been a crazy two weeks. I heard a knock on the gallery door, and Frank held up a bag and gestured for me to unlock the door. I walked to the entry slowly. I’d been doing everything slowly since that night at the cabins. I wondered if I’d ever feel normal again.
“I thought you were taking off today,” I said, standing back to let him come in.
“I am. I stopped in at the restaurant to say good-bye, and Mel bribed me with lunch if I could get you to eat something.”
“Mel worries too much.”
“She worries about you.”
“She doesn’t need to. I’m fine.”
“I won’t tell you what we said ‘fine’ stood for in the Marines.” He walked ahead of me into the back room and unpacked the bag. Two burgers, beef, since Bent had run out of wild game. I could hardly wait to join Dad and Bent on our first moose hunt of the season. We’d head out as soon as I got the gallery buttoned up for the winter.
I took the burger Frank held out to me and sat down at my desk. I hadn’t realized I was hungry until I smelled the food. “I didn’t know you were in the Marines.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“I guess there’s a lot I never will know with you heading back to Seattle.”
“Maybe.”
I stopped eating. “Maybe?”
“I have a few things to take care of, but I’ve been thinking about moving back here.”
My throat suddenly felt dry. “You have?”
“Jack’s been talking to me about taking over the mill. With Johnny gone, he doesn’t have the heart for the work anymore.”
“I still can’t get over it. From the very first day, he knew Taylor killed Johnny only nobody believed him.”
“Dan did. I did. We just couldn’t prove it. She had you as an alibi. We didn’t know if you were lying to protect her or if she’d slipped out without you knowing she was gone.”
“I’ve wracked my brain. I still don’t remember her being gone that day, but I checked my receipts. It was crazy busy. Why did she come back? Why didn’t she just stay in Seattle after Johnny died?”
“Because she had to take care of Jack. He was challenging the will, and he kept writing to her, telling her he knew she was lying about being divorced. He told her he’d find her first husband and haul him into court to show the judge she was never legally able to marry Johnny.”
“But you are her first husband. You were already here.”
“She didn’t know that Jack knew who I was. When he found me in Seattle, I told him the truth. I divorced Taylor when I realized what a snake I’d married. He said she hadn’t produced the decree, so I got a friend of mine who works for the court to delete it from the system and misfile the hard copy. I came to Coho Bay at Jack’s request. He hoped I could rattle her into leaving Johnny, and if that didn’t work, maybe I could convince Johnny that Taylor and I were still married.”
“Which would have been a lie.”
“And a kindness to Johnny, getting Taylor out of his life.”
“A kindness that ended up costing him his life.”
“We never dreamed she’d kill him.” Frank’s eyes clouded, and neither of us spoke for a long time. “From that moment on, we knew we had to get her to confess. It was the only way.”
“So Jack bullied her when she came back. He didn’t think that would break her, did he?”
“Jack did a lot of drinking after Johnny died. He didn’t always think too clearly. I told Dan everything after that night at Mel’s. I needed his help to put pressure on Taylor.”
“So Dan went after her romantically? Then it was him I saw her with behind the gallery.”
“Taylor’s a champion at wrapping men around her finger and getting them to do things for her. If we could get her to believe Dan was under her spell, she might let her guard down.”
“Why fake Jack’s death?”
“We had to turn up the pressure. If her lawyer found that divorce decree, the estate would settle, and she’d take the money and run. We had to convince her that Jack was so out of his mind with grief that he’d killed me and would be coming after her.”
“How did you get the state police to go along with the body in the bay story?”
He chuckled. “Dan cashed in every favor he had pulling that one off. Even managed to swear the crab fisherman to secrecy in exchange for tearing up a citation, that’s the one that impressed me. He’s a pretty persuasive guy.”
“And the scene at the mill?”
“We staged it. We assumed Taylor would go out to the mill to confront Jack when I went missing.”
“Only she didn’t. I did.” I pushed away. “You can’t fake those flies. And that smell,” I shuddered.
“I’m sorry, Cara. We had to make it convincing. Fortunately, there isn’t much difference between rancid human blood and rancid . . .”
I put up my hand. “I don’t want to know. What about the lab crew? How many favors did that cost Dan?”
“None. He never called them.”
“Lies. Always back to lies. Taylor thought Dan was in on it with Jack. Why would she believe he’d suddenly fallen for her?”
“Never underestimate that woman’s vanity. Dan had her convinced . . .”
“I still don’t get it. Taylor thought Dan was in on it with Jack.”
“No, Dan had her convinced Jack was on a rampage and that since you kicked her out, you and your family were starting to doubt her. She needed you on her side because you were her alibi for Johnny’s death. She couldn’t take a chance that you’d start going over that day in your head and remember a time when you’d looked for her but she hadn’t been there. Dan and I cooked up the scene at Mel’s, and she took the bait, thinking it was the only way to convince you she was innocent.”
“And her reaction to finding out that it was Jack who was dead, not you?”
“Shows you what we were up against. That had to have freaked her out, but she got over it fast and jumped at the chance to pin everything on me. If she could trick you or Bent into shooting me, I wouldn’t be able to tell people we were never divorced.”
“At least I was right about something. I wondered at the time if she was setting you up.”
“Really? I would have sworn you believed her. We had a heck of a time getting Mel and Bent to go along with us, but we couldn’t let them tell you what the plan was. You’re not a very good liar, and we needed your reactions to be genuine in order to convince Taylor.”
“I guess there’s been a part of me that has been questioning Taylor’s motives ever since she came back. Something about it just felt wrong, and I kept getting the feeling she was lying to me. I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t shake.”
“You’re a trusting soul, Cara. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Speaking of trusting, what was all that crap with Mr. Shoes?”
Frank looked puzzled for a moment, then he smiled. “Sorry. When you welcomed Taylor back with open arms, I wasn’t sure whose side you were on. I wanted to shake you up a bit.”
“But I saw someone down there.”
“That was Dan. I left him in front of city hall when I went up to check on you. When I noticed all you could see was his legs, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to keep you a little off-kilter, in case you were helping Taylor. Even if you weren’t, I knew you’d tell her about it and it would make her think somebody was keeping an eye on her.”
“And later? When I thought someone was at my door?”
He held up his h
ands. “Guilty as charged. By then I was pretty sure you weren’t in on it and I didn’t think it was safe for you to be sharing an apartment with her. I had to scare you in order to get you to go stay with Mel and Bent. I didn’t know until later that she wasn’t even there that night.”
I picked up the trash left behind from lunch and tossed it into the garbage. “Will she go to prison?”
“I hope so. Depends on whether she has a good lawyer.”
“She’s a good liar. She’ll find a way to talk herself out of this.”
“She might. She won’t ever get Johnny’s money, though and without it, she’s stuck with a public defender. Hopefully a crappy one. Time will tell.”
“I talked to Jack yesterday. He wants me to have Johnny’s boat and the house on the island.”
“He told me he was going to offer them to you.”
“I took the boat. Dad’s is in terrible shape, and we need a reliable one in case Mel has to go to the hospital to have the baby.”
“And the house?”
“I asked him to let me use it as an artist’s retreat. I thought every summer I could invite a promising artist to work on the island. Johnny would have liked that.”
“I’m sure he would have.”
I walked back into the gallery and stood in front of Johnny’s paintings. They would stay on the wall for now until Jack decided what he wanted to do with them. Looking up at them, my heart ached for my childhood friend. I, too, shouldered a share of the blame for his death since Taylor would have never come to Coho Bay except to see me. “So are you really going to take over the mill?”
“Think I should?” Frank had come up to stand behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders, and I leaned back against him, appreciating his nearness.
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Deadly Art of Deception Page 20
