Deadlier than the Male

by Sharon Sala

  Suddenly there was a loud thud in another part of the house, followed by silence.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  Mack shrugged. “I’ll check later. If it’s a mess, I don’t want to know.”

  Haley glanced over her shoulder. “I’ll be glad to leave this town. All week, I kept thinking I was being followed. Too much paranoia for me.”

  Mack laughed. “You are so full of it. However, you will be glad to know that I have three extra bedrooms in my house. I’m sure one of them has a big enough bed for you, since mine is so small.”

  Haley frowned. “We don’t need an extra bedroom. We just need a bigger bed in yours.”

  Mack laughed. “I lied. My bed is plenty big. I just wanted to mess with you.”

  Haley eyed the light dancing in his eyes. “I always heard you can never trust blue-eyed devils.”

  “You can trust me, blue eyes and all. I have references, I swear.”

  Before Haley could answer, her phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID. “I need to take this. We’ll discuss your references later.”

  She walked out into the hall, talking as she went.

  Mack couldn’t quit smiling. She might be unemployed, but from the sound of her conversation, she was still concerned about the patients she was leaving behind.

  He started a last walk-through of the house, mentally ticking off the jobs that had needed to be done before the house was put on the market. He’d just started in the back bedrooms when Haley caught up with him.

  “Hey, there you are! Where’s the nearest place I can fax some information?”

  Mack frowned. “Probably the bank…oh, no! Wait. There’s a print shop that went in about four years ago. It’s behind the old Duvall Furniture Store building. You know…the one with the gargoyles.”

  “Oh, yes. Okay. I won’t be long, but I need to send some detailed instructions to the therapist who’s taking over one of my patients.”

  “Take your time,” Mack said. “I’m just doing a walk-through of the house.”

  “No working without me,” Haley said, pointing to his arm.

  “I promise.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s already half past twelve. I’m starving. We’ll go grab some lunch at Martha’s Diner after you get back, okay?”

  Haley nodded, blew him a kiss and then headed back the way she’d come.

  Mack heard her footsteps as she ran through the house, then the slamming of the door. A few seconds later, he heard her car start, then a few seconds after that, she peeled out.

  “Only Haley could lay rubber backing down a driveway,” he muttered, then shook his head and continued moving through the rooms.

  About fifteen minutes later, he’d gotten all the way through the house and was in the kitchen when he heard the front door open.

  “I’m in the kitchen,” he yelled. He listened as footsteps moved hesitantly closer. Thinking Haley might not have heard him, he called again. “I’m in here!”

  A few seconds later, he heard footsteps at the door. He turned, the smile for her already on his face, and then he stopped, shocked by the woman standing in the doorway.

  “Lena! I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you knock,” he said.

  Lena Shore was standing in his mother’s kitchen holding a plate of brownies. He didn’t know whether to duck and run or ask her to sit down.

  “I guess I didn’t knock loudly enough,” she said, waving the brownies for an explanation. “Where’s Haley? I wanted to talk to the both of you together.”

  “She had an errand to run. She should be back anytime,” Mack said, and then waved toward the kitchen table. “Please. Have a seat.”

  Lena sat the plate of brownies on the table and then removed her coat before sitting down.

  “Those look amazing,” Mack said. “Are those for us?”

  Lena looked a little nervous, but smiled. “I thought Haley would be here, but yes, I brought them for the both of you.” Then she straightened her shoulders and leveled her gaze directly at him. “I heard you were injured. Are you healing well?”

  “Yes. Just a freak accident. Renovations are like that. Can I get you something to drink? There’s juice, and I think there’s still some coffee left from the last pot I made.”

  “No, no, I’m fine,” Lena said, and then glanced over her shoulder. “Do you think she’ll be long?”

  Mack knew she was uncomfortable, and truthfully, so was he. But if this was the first step toward some kind of a reconciliation between Haley and her mom, he didn’t want to mess it up.

  “Those look amazing, and I’m starving.” He had one in his hand and the first bite in his mouth before Lena could speak. “And they taste as good as they look. Thank you,” he said, and sat down at the table across from her and finished the brownie while she watched.

  “I heard you were getting the house ready to sell,” Lena said.

  “Yes. Neither of my sisters wants to live here, and I’m in Frankfort. Rather than rent it out, we thought it best to just sell it. It’s a great house. Someone will enjoy living here. We sure did.”

  Lena smiled, but her mind was scattered. When Mack picked up another brownie and downed it in two bites, she frowned. This wasn’t going quite like she’d planned, but what was done was done. There was no going back. Now if Haley would only get here, everything would surely work out. She picked at an imaginary spot on the polished oak table, then suddenly leaned forward.

  “Did she tell you?”

  Mack frowned as he swallowed the last bite of his second brownie, then dusted off his hands.

  “Tell me what?”

  “About Stewart. About your father.”

  Mack sighed. Damn it. Where in the hell was Haley when he needed her?

  “Look. The past is the past. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?”

  Lena giggled. “She did tell you, didn’t she?” Then she brushed a speck from the front of her dress and tucked a stray piece of hair back behind her ear. “She never could keep her mouth shut. I spent half her life telling her to be truthful and the other half telling her to shut up. She never could manage either one.” She giggled again.

  Mack frowned. Lena’s giggle was weird and inappropriate, and what she was saying wasn’t making much sense.

  “Haley and I are planning to get married. You’re the only parent either one of us has left. I know it would make her happy if you could be there.”

  Lena grabbed her purse, pulled out her compact and lipstick and applied a fresh layer of lipstick over what was already there. But her fingers were trembling and the lipstick smeared. She didn’t even seem to notice.

  “Have another brownie,” she said.

  Mack picked one up and took a bite, partly because he was at a loss as to what the hell was happening to her, and partly because if his mouth was full, he wouldn’t have to talk. But when he was halfway through the third one, the room began to feel too hot.

  “I need to get some air,” he said, and started to get up, but when he did, the floor suddenly tilted toward him. “Whoa!” he said, and sat back down before he fell. “I’m not feeling so good.”

  The last thing he saw was the smirk on Lena’s face.

  Haley couldn’t believe it. Her mother’s car was sitting in Mack’s driveway. She parked on the street and ran up the drive and into the house, calling Mack’s name.

  “We’re in here!” Lena called.

  Haley burst into the kitchen, her heart pounding, her eyes wide with disbelief. When she saw the plate of brownies on the table, she thought she was dreaming. And then she looked at Mack.

  Something was wrong.

  “Mack?”

  He pointed at Lena. “Good brownies. Gonna eat ’nother inna minute.” And then he laid his head down on the table and closed his eyes.

  Haley gasped. If she didn’t know better, she would think Mack was drunk. She turned on her mother. The gleam in Lena’s eyes was almost scary.

  “What did you do?” Haley cried.

&nb
sp; Lena shrugged. “I did nothing. You’re the one who couldn’t keep her mouth shut. You should have minded Mother,” she said in a singsong voice, and then got up and walked out of the kitchen.

  Haley groaned. She grabbed a brownie, broke it in half and then smelled it. All she could smell was chocolate, but there was obviously something else in it. For whatever reason, Lena had intended to drug them. Haley put a finger on Mack’s pulse. It was steady and strong. She hoped to God there wasn’t poison in the brownies. Before she could call for an ambulance, her mother was back, carrying a tin of paint thinner.

  Haley stared in disbelief as Lena began splashing it all over the floors and the walls, talking to herself as she went.

  “Have to stop the gossip. You should have listened to your mother. Can’t trust you. Can’t trust anyone,” Lena muttered.

  Haley screamed. “Mother! For God’s sake, stop!”

  Lena turned and sloshed some of the thinner toward Haley, who jumped back just in time to keep it from getting all over her clothes.

  “I told Tom Brolin to save our son. I made him give blood, but it didn’t work and he didn’t care. So I made him pay. He’s allergic to bee stings. Did you know that? I did.” Then she giggled. “I turned a whole jar of them loose inside his truck. If Stewart couldn’t live, Tom didn’t deserve to live, either.”

  Haley gasped. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “You killed Mack’s father?”

  “I didn’t do it. The bees did,” Lena said, and then giggled wildly. “My hands are clean. My conscience is clean. Men are never happy with what they have. They’re always wanting more.”

  Haley was sick to her stomach, and as scared as she’d ever been in her life. Not only had someone really been watching her all week, that someone was her own mother.

  “I put up with Judd Shore as long as I could,” Lena said, as she tossed the empty can aside. “People have to learn that I mean what I say.”

  Haley shuddered. “What do you mean…as long as you could? What else did you do? Did you do something to Daddy?”

  Lena smoothed the hair back from her face with both hands, then brushed at the front of her dress.

  “I didn’t touch him,” Lena said, then rolled her eyes and waggled her hands in the air. “I didn’t touch him,” she repeated. “He told me I was a cold, calculating bitch. I told him he was useless, and that the only child he managed to sire was a worthless girl.”

  Haley gasped. “You told Daddy that Stewart wasn’t his? When did you do that?”

  Lena spun, her finger pointed straight at Haley’s chest. “Right before he dropped dead on the living room floor.”

  Haley gasped, then covered her mouth with both hands to keep from screaming.

  Lena tossed her head. “I showed him. He knew he was dying. Then he wanted me to help. But I couldn’t. I was a cold, calculating bitch, remember? He wanted his pills. I told him to get them himself.”

  Haley couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mother’s mouth. She’d killed two men—and no matter what he’d done, her father hadn’t deserved to die that way—and now she was trying to kill them. All of a sudden, Haley realized how close to death she and Mack were.

  She grabbed her cell phone and started to dial 9-1-1 when Lena suddenly screamed and launched herself at Haley. Before Haley knew it, her mother had snatched the phone from her hand and stomped it into pieces.

  “You’re not telling anyone else!” Lena screamed. “You’re not telling! I won’t let you!” She doubled up her fist and hit Haley on the side of the face, knocking her backward onto the floor.

  Haley was struggling to her feet when she saw the lighter in Lena’s hand.

  “No! Mother, don’t! For God’s sake, don’t!” she screamed, but Lena was already running.

  Haley chased her through the living room, frantic to catch her before it was too late.

  But Lena beat her to the door. When she turned, she was laughing and the lighter was lit. She dropped it onto the floor and then slammed the front door between them.

  Haley gasped as the carpet runner exploded into flames. That was when she realized her mother had poured a trail of paint thinner all the way through the living room on her way into the kitchen. Now she only had seconds to get back to Mack and get them both outside before the house was engulfed.

  Haley ran as fast as she’d ever run in her life. She could hear the whoosh as the thinner continued to catch fire, but she couldn’t think about what was behind her. She had to focus on Mack.

  She grabbed him beneath his arms and tried to lift him out of the chair, but he was almost deadweight.

  “Mack! Mack! You have to help me!” she cried, and then raised his head and slapped him in the face.

  The jolt roused Mack enough that she got him to his feet.

  “Run!” she screamed. “We have to run! Now! The house is on fire!”

  Mack could hear Haley screaming, but his mind was so fuzzy that he couldn’t understand why. He tried to move, but his legs felt like lead.

  When he slumped against her again, Haley groaned. The fire was coming through the hall. When it got to the kitchen, it would be over.

  She grabbed Mack’s arm, slung it around her shoulder, then grabbed him tight against her and started running. She got them to the back door and got it open just as the fire entered the kitchen. She was dragging him across the back porch as the kitchen literally exploded. Windows shattered, sending glass flying into the air and flames licking up the sides of the house.

  “Move, Mack! Move! We have to keep moving!” she screamed, and got them both out into the yard before he collapsed at her feet. She was on her knees, gasping for breath, when the first neighbor came running.

  “Call the fire department!” Haley cried.

  “Already did,” the neighbor said.

  “Then call the police and an ambulance. There’s an arsonist on the run.”

  Haley didn’t know the man, but he quickly obliged. She heard him making the calls as she kept dragging Mack farther away from the house. She got him all the way around the side of the house and across the front yard, then down to the end of the driveway. By the time she got him to the street, she was sobbing. She sat down on the curb and cradled Mack’s head in her lap while the world burned up behind them.

  Chief Bullard arrived just behind the ambulance. He ran up as Haley was talking to the paramedics.

  “I’m not sure what was in the brownies she gave him, but it knocked him out. I had to drag him out of the house.” Then she pointed to his arm and started to cry again. “I think I tore some of his stitches loose, but there wasn’t time to—”

  Bullard put a hand on Haley’s shoulder. “Haley?”

  She turned, saw the concern and confusion on his face and started to talk in what must have sounded like crazy ramblings.

  “My mother…she doped the brownies Mack ate. He was unconscious when I got back to the house. She kept talking about not telling her secret and that no one could know. Then she set fire to the house.”

  “Lord have mercy!” Bullard said.

  “That’s not all,” Haley said, and drew a deep, shuddering breath. “She knew Tom Brolin was allergic to bees. She threw a bunch of them into his vehicle and watched him die.”

  “What? Wait! Are you saying she—”

  “And she and my father had a fight. When he started having a heart attack, she wouldn’t get his medicine. She watched him die, begging her for help.”

  “Good Lord! Do you hear what you’re saying? Why on earth would she do that?”

  “Because of Stewart. Because Stewart wasn’t Judd’s son. He was Tom’s…and she kept killing people to keep her secret and hide her shame.”

  Bullard was dumbstruck. “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” Haley said. “She must have gotten in her car and driven away. I don’t think she’s in her right mind,” she added.

  “After all of this, neither do I,” Bullard said, then chang
ed the subject.

  “Are you gonna be okay? Is there anyone I can call?”

  Haley choked on a sob, then almost smiled. “I’m sure in your job that you’ve heard this before, but whatever you do…don’t call my mother.”

  At that point, Bullard had heard enough. He pulled her into his arms and just held her. And when the ambulance drove off with Mack Brolin inside, he loaded Haley into his cruiser and took her to the hospital.

  By the time they arrived, he’d already issued a BOLO for Lena Shore.

  “Go be with Mack,” he told Haley. “If we hear anything, I’ll come find you.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”

  Then she jumped out of the car and started running. She got inside just as they were pumping Mack’s stomach.

  Haley was sitting at Mack’s bedside, watching him sleep, when the door burst open and his sisters ran in. Haley stood abruptly, bracing herself for a fight that never came.

  Jenna started crying as Carla launched herself into Haley’s arms.

  “They told us what you did…that you carried him out of the house all by yourself.” Carla sobbed. “You saved his life again, Haley, and we’re so thankful. So very, very thankful!”

  Haley couldn’t believe it. Obviously they hadn’t heard the whole story.

  “My mother is the one who set the fire,” she said.

  “We know. Chief Bullard told us. He told us everything. Poor Dad. Mom never knew. None of us knew.”

  Haley heard Mack beginning to stir. He’d been waking up off and on for the past hour, and although she’d told him what had happened, she wasn’t sure if he would remember it. She turned and headed for the bed as he began to mumble her name.

  “I’m here,” Haley said. “Your sisters are here, too.”

  Mack frowned, then tried to sit up.

  “Don’t!” Jenna cried. “Lie back down, Mack. It’s okay. Everything is okay. As long as you and Haley are alive, nothing else matters.”

  He frowned groggily. “That’s quite an about-face.”

  Jenna was weeping loudly. “I’m sorry. Please. You have to forgive us. We’re all one another has.”

  Carla chimed in. “We love you, Mack. And we’ll be forever grateful to Haley. She’s saved your life twice. If she’ll forgive us, we want to be a family again.”