Heavenly Stranger

by Tina Wainscott

  “No, I don’t,” she said too quickly. “The truth is I…fell in love with him while reading about him. And I don’t believe he’s dead either. That’s all I know.”

  Brian didn’t believe her, that was evident. He nodded at Tombo and they both headed to the door. “Tell him to give us a call when he’s ready.”

  Maddie held her expression until they were out, and then she leaned against the door with an exhale. “Oof. A sneaky person you’re not.”

  Lila came home at two, took in Maddie, the empty bed, and no doubt, the look on Maddie’s face. “He still isn’t back?” When Maddie shook her head, Lila dropped her purse and keys on the chair and sat down on the edge of the bed. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”

  She shook her head, but she couldn’t deny that’s what the dark cloud hovering over her was implying. “He wouldn’t just…leave me like this.”

  “You don’t really know him. You might think you do, but you don’t.”

  She didn’t even know herself anymore. “I don’t believe he would do this. He was determined to find out what had happened and face the consequences. Would the Chase you knew have run?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it all evening. Chase was…well, you know, is a good man. He was an honest sailor, he was fair with the people who crewed for him, even if he did ride them hard. But he won a lot, too, so they couldn’t complain much. But if he still has even the slightest love of freedom and sailing, he won’t stand being locked up. Especially for something he doesn’t remember doing. I know he didn’t kill Julie on purpose, no matter how bad it looks. But the evidence points to murder. If I was faced with that decision, to turn myself in or run…I would run.” She smoothed her long hair back, raw honesty on her face. “His father has money and connections. He’s going to get Chase another identity. And Chase will probably hitch a ride on some boat leaving for the islands—probably already has—and disappear. He’ll be one of those guys who lives out of his bag, going from boat to boat. He’ll be happy, and he’ll be free.”

  “You really think he’d do that? And leave us to wonder?”

  “I don’t wonder. If he’s gone, that’s where he is. Telling us would complicate things. It’s for the best, Maddie. You’re sweet to believe the best of everyone, but it doesn’t always work that way.”

  “I’m calling Allister,” Maddie said, starting to get up.

  “He won’t tell you anything. He’s a stubborn man, more stubborn than you could ever imagine being. He’s respected in this community, and he wants to keep it that way. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect his and Chase’s reputations. Especially now that the whole Julie thing has faded in the public’s mind.”

  Maddie narrowed her eyes. “Do you know something about this?”

  “No, honestly I don’t. But I watched a seventy-foot Italian sloop sail off into the night and wondered if he was on it.”

  “But my car is gone.”

  “He’ll get it back to you.”

  Maddie sank down onto the bed. “I don’t believe he’d leave without saying goodbye.” Like he did last time.

  “He always did hate good-byes. Maybe he was too ashamed to face us. But I’d rather him be out there on a boat somewhere than in prison. Wouldn’t you?”

  She looked at Lila, her pretty face serious and devoted. But she couldn’t answer.

  “You’re young,” Lila said. “Being idealistic is understandable at your age.”

  “I’m not young. I’m twenty-six.”

  Lila looked surprised. “I thought you were about nineteen. But you’re still an idealist. In the real world, people do what they have to do to survive.”

  The moment the door clicked shut the next morning, Maddie woke to a silent apartment and felt profoundly alone. The silence seemed to throb in the room; then she realized it was only the refrigerator. The smell of coffee drifted through the air, the last remnants of life other than herself. She stared at the bed as though somehow she could have missed him lying there covered in the sheets.

  He’d left. Lila believed it, but Maddie couldn’t. Just like the knowing she felt that Chase hadn’t killed Julie, no matter what his memories told him. Wayne hadn’t led him to her to have it end like this.

  But as hour stretched into two, that hope stretched thin. She wanted to be there when he returned, but the word if crept through her mind.

  “He didn’t leave without saying goodbye,” she told herself, the spoken words somewhat fortifying. But they only lasted so long until they faded away.

  She did the next best thing: she called Mom. Just the sound of her voice broke Maddie down, but she forced a smile and said, “Hi, it’s Maddie.”

  “Are you still in Miami? Are you all right? You don’t sound all right.”

  “I’m fine.” But her voice gave her away again, cracking on the last word.

  “Where’s Chase?”

  “I…don’t know.”

  “That’s it, we’re coming down.”

  “No, I don’t want you to do that.”

  Mom got the huffy tone in her voice. “Well, we’re coming anyway.”

  “I just called to say hi, see how everyone was doing.”

  “You called because you need us. You’re just too stubborn to admit it.”

  She curled up on the chair, hugging her knees with one arm. “I wanted to hear your voice, that’s all. To know you all are okay.”

  “Colleen and Bobby are still separated, I’ve got gnomes all over the house, Q cries all the time, but no one can bring themselves to tell him what’s going on, and your father and I, well, we’re hanging in there because we have to.”

  “Because that’s what you’ve always done.”

  “And we’ll keep doing it. We’ve got to keep this family together. That includes you.”

  “I just need a little more time here, to sort things out.” Her voice was sliding toward tears, even though she kept swallowing hard to keep them at bay.

  “You’re crying! Let us come to you. I don’t want you driving all the way back here by yourself. We’ll fly into Miami and drive back together.”

  The tears started coming fast now. “I can’t. Not yet.”

  “Baby, tell me what’s going on this instant.”

  “I’m Maddie, Mom. I’m not Baby…” And to prove the point, she started out-and-out crying. Oh, brother.

  “Baby, let us make everything all right again.”

  It was tempting to give in and let them take care of everything. Like she always had. Families stuck together, that’s what Mom always said.

  “Tell us where you are. Don’t you know Miami’s a haven of crime?”

  They took care of each other. They kept her from sinking completely into despair, kept her from facing Wayne’s death, kept her from healing from it. Kept her from taking chances and making things right for herself. She gathered her ragged breath and shoved the tears from her eyes with her fist.

  “I gotta go,” she whispered. “I love you.” She hung up before she blurted out for them to come save her.

  She pushed herself out of the chair and took a deep breath. No way was she leaving Miami without finding out what happened to Chase. And she knew exactly where to start.

  CHAPTER 20

  “You can’t keep me hostage here,” Chase said, pacing in front of the barred window.

  Allister sat in the brocade chair in the corner of the room. “It’ll only be for another day or so.”

  “And then what? Force me to take somebody else’s identity so you can sweep me under the rug?”

  Allister walked over to Chase. “You think I want to send you away?” Chase could see the agony on his face and hated that he’d put it there. “Aren’t you the least appreciative of what I’m doing for you? It’s for your own good. I couldn’t have you out there getting caught. You’re my son. I love you. I’ve done everything I could for you. Let you sail when you should have been working at the company I’ve sacrificed to build. Sponsored your sailboat so you could enter t
he big races. Now I’m giving you the chance for a new life. Yet, you turn your back on me. I’d hoped you changed since losing your memory. That at least you’d be reasonable.”

  “And hide from my responsibilities? Is that what you taught me?”

  Allister was thoughtful for a moment, running a cigarette beneath his nose. “Yes, I’m afraid I have. You got into trouble, and I bailed you out. But now’s not the time to get moral on me, son. Save yourself the shame and criminal treatment. If you can’t tolerate sparing yourself, think of your family and the company. I don’t want anything to endanger the government contracts I’ve cultivated over the years, the ones that keep us prosperous.”

  “So, you’re encouraging me to be a coward and run.”

  “For all of us. You think I want you to disappear again? You know how hard it was to think I’d lost my younger son?”

  “Doesn’t it bother you that I killed someone?”

  Allister’s expression darkened, and he looked out the window. “It was an accident, a terrible accident. And Chase died because of it.”

  Chase had been in this room for a whole day now, after the two brutes who’d tossed him in the trunk escorted him here. His fear had transformed instantly to anger when he saw the house.

  “How long are you going to keep me here?”

  “Until all the paperwork is in order. You’ll soon be Gregory Miles. I hope that by the time everything is set, you’ll have come to your senses about this being the right thing to do. No sense in wasting your life and reputation. Won’t bring her back.”

  “And if I don’t see the wisdom?”

  Allister patted Chase’s shoulder. “You will. You’re my son, even if you don’t remember all the years we’ve spent together. For all that I’ve done, I ask this one thing. In time you’ll come to realize it’s the only solution. Until then we’ll get to know each other again.”

  “Who are the two guys who grabbed me?”

  “My bodyguards. Trained in all the arts, so don’t get any ideas.”

  Chase already knew their force. He was still bruised from his struggles with them. He wanted to pound the wall, to tell him he’d never agree to run like a coward. But he knew it would serve him better to stay silent. “Why do you have bodyguards? You’re in the aerospace industry, not drugs. Or are you?”

  Allister laughed. “No, I’m not into anything illegal. I was mugged a few months ago. When a man has worked as hard as I have, and is at the point in his life where he can enjoy the fruits of his labor, he’s not about to let some senseless act take it away.”

  As angry as he was, Chase was still compelled to ask, “Were you hurt?”

  “Broken rib was the worst of it.” He smiled. “Thank you for asking.”

  Chase didn’t point out that two bodyguards was a bit overkill. Something else concerned him more. “I need to talk to Maddie. She’ll be worried.”

  “I’m going to take care of that now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She called yesterday, asking if I’d seen you. I told her no but later realized it serves me better to tell her the truth. Well, part of it.”

  Chase’s chest felt tight. “That I ran?”

  “She won’t worry about you, which should make you feel better. And she won’t stay around when you’re already hundreds of miles away with no intention of looking back.”

  Chase clenched his fists and turned to the window again. A white yacht was gliding across the smooth water, its windows reflecting the sun. He didn’t want Maddie to think him a coward, but maybe it was better. Then she’d go home. How long could she keep her faith in him when it kept looking worse and worse? His stomach clenched at the thought of losing her.

  It’s for the best, it’s for the best, it’s for the best.

  “All right.”

  A knock sounded on the door, then Eduardo’s voice. “Mr. Augustine, Missus Schaeffer is here.”

  “Eduardo will escort her to her car.” Allister’s expression softened. “I love you, son. You’ll see that I’m right.” He paused before opening the door. “Any message for her?”

  “Tell her…” I love her, I want her, I hate doing this to her. “No message.”

  When the lock clicked back into place, Chase pressed his hands against the warm glass. Did he love her? Want her? He wasn’t even sure what love felt like. All he knew was that every time he thought about her, he felt warm inside. And every time he thought about not seeing her again, he felt as cold as he had in that dream with the icebergs.

  This was all wrong. The way he felt about Maddie, going on the run. His father thought he was doing the right thing in protecting his son. But every time Chase thought about running, he saw Maddie’s face and knew he couldn’t do it. For Maddie he had to do the right thing. Even if she didn’t know about it.

  Allister pressed the keys into Maddie’s hand. “I’m sorry, but he left no message. Know that he’s safe and happy. In the end, it’s for the best.”

  She tried to hide the fact that her insides were caving in. No message, no goodbye. He was gone, just like that. “When did he leave?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “Where…” She let the words die because she knew he wouldn’t tell her.

  The man standing in the shadows behind Allister had somehow lost his neck in his quest for bulk. He was almost hidden by the tall oriental pot, but his presence was undeniable.

  “Eduardo will take you to your car. I know you care about my son, and leaving you was difficult for him as well. I did what I had to do to convince him of what was best. You’ll come to realize too that Chase on the run is better than Chase in prison.”

  Well, hadn’t she thought that? Hadn’t she asked him to come back with her and pretend he didn’t know about his past? But that had been running with her, not away from her.

  Eduardo came to her side and led her to a black Maserati.

  “He’s in that house somewhere, isn’t he?” she asked once they left the grounds.

  Eduardo trained his gaze on the road. “No, he isn’t.”

  “Was that beefcake in the shadows going to keep me in line if I tried to search the house?”

  That at least got a grin out of him. “Perhaps.” He glanced down at her. “But you, I could take.”

  “So, I guess that blows my plan to subdue you and get Chase’s whereabouts. You do know where he is, don’t you?”

  “Gone,” was all he’d commit to.

  “I thought only drug lords had guys like that lurking around.”

  “Someone tried to mug him. That happens in Miami, you know.” He pulled into an apartment complex with all the majesty of the mansion she’d just left.

  And there her car sat, alone and abandoned. Like herself.

  “Do you think Chase killed that woman?”

  He started to say something, then changed his mind. “No, but it doesn’t matter what I think because the police, they will think he did. That is what counts. Goodbye, Missus Schaeffer.”

  She looked up at the building, presumably where Patrick lived. “Do you think Patrick could have killed her in a jealous rage because he thought Julie was seeing Chase? You saw that rage two days ago.”

  He blinked in surprise at her accusation. “No, I do not think that. Now, go. Go home, Missus Schaeffer.”

  If Chase hadn’t contacted her by tomorrow, she’d go. But she couldn’t let go of this, not yet.

  Maddie had become Julie’s friend. Actually, what she’d become was a pretty good liar. Julie, she’d found out, used to hang out in South Beach before she’d discovered the yachting crowd. Particularly, she loved hanging out at a place called The Dive, where scuba gear adorned the walls, along with pictures of underwater scenery and stuffed fish.

  A man walked by the bar, his thong bathing suit showing off a perfectly tanned butt.

  “Julie would’ve loved that one,” Sally said. “She was a butt girl, know what I mean? Well, you probably do.”

  “Yep, sure do. It’s just
too damned bad she isn’t here to enjoy it.”

  The bar was situated for people watching, along the sidewalk and across the street from the beach. But Maddie wasn’t here to watch people or thongs. She’d started talking to the bartender and got the attention of another woman sitting at the bar. Sally had been a friend of Julie’s. Maddie had introduced herself as someone who’d known Julie through Patrick.

  “Did she come back a lot?” Maddie asked. “She used to talk about partying here.”

  Sally took a swig of her vivid pink drink. “She hadn’t been in touch in two years.” She turned to Maddie. “What kind of friend is that, anyway?”

  “Not a very good one.”

  “Once she started dating those yachties, she got too good for us.”

  “What’d she think, those sailing people were better than you?”

  Sally slumped lower in her seat. “I guess so. She didn’t even like sailing!”

  “She didn’t?”

  “No.” Sally stirred the slush with her little umbrella and searched the sidewalk. “Said she hated going on out sailboats. She dated a guy before Patrick who was into sailing, tried to teach her how to do it. ‘It’s boring,’” she imitated in a whine. “‘He spent all his time climbing all over the boat doing stuff, and you have to move around or shift or duck. I want my man to be paying attention to me, not the boat.’” Sally laughed. “She always did like to be the center of attention.”

  “Yeah, she did.”

  “And you wanna know the worst part?” Sally drained her drink and set it on the battered table with a thud. “You wanna know?”

  “Yeah, I wanna know.”

  “She used to come to this part of town, and she wouldn’t even see me. How ‘bout that?”

  “Really?” Maddie took another sip of her own drink, which had melted to the consistency of Kool-Aid. “Wha? That’s rude. What was she doing?”

  “Don’t know.” Sally’s big green eyes looked loose in their sockets as she scanned the room. “Didn’t you hear me? She never talked to me.”

  “Oh, right.”

  Maybe she’d been seeing someone else. “Was it on Tuesday nights?”