by Nat Burns
Shay stilled suddenly. How long had Pepper been here? “I...I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”
Pepper laughed. “Oh yeah, I been watching and waiting. You know I’m the soul of patience, as you like to say.”
“But...but,” Shay began, staring at the bathroom door. “How could you? I was there.”
Pepper’s voice became angry and Shay quaked inside. “Get a grip, Virginia Faith! No one notices people working in the background. I learned that real quick in prison after getting beaten up a few times and having my teeth knocked out. Stay in the background and wait til the time is right. Good lesson.”
Pepper appeared suddenly and Shay gasped. The transformation was remarkable. The brown eyes, obviously contacts, were gone, the bright blue had returned and the hair, as short as Shay remembered it, no longer shone bright blond but the gray lent a similar lightness to it. It was Pepper. She was heavier and missing a few teeth, with a new, jagged scar above her left eyebrow, but it was unmistakably her.
“I hate you!” Shay blurted without thinking. “You’re a monster! I hate what you did and I hate who you are. Why can’t you just go away and leave me alone?”
Pepper stared at her a long moment, eyes turning steely. With a growl, she pounced on Shay and curled her hand around the front of Shay’s neck. She squeezed, choking the smaller woman.
“You...are...such...a...bitch,” she ground out. “I come all the way down here just because I still, still fucking love you, and you have the nerve to talk to me like that.”
Peaches growled low in her throat, and Shay felt new alarm stir. Oh, God, please be quiet, sweet baby, oh, Jesus, please don’t make her notice you, Shay’s mind shrieked.
Pepper swung her head around and eyed the dog, easing her grip on Shay. Shay took a deep, shuddering breath, filling her burning lungs as Pepper moved clumsily from the bed.
“You, Miss Thang, need to go outside, don’t you?” Her tone was gentle, wheedling, and Peaches responded, seeming to hope sincerely she was wrong in thinking that this woman who’d been caring for her was going to hurt her new mommy. She bowed her front and joyfully wagged her tail, seeking favor.
“Don’t you hurt her,” Shay croaked as loudly as her tortured throat would allow. “I will kill you myself.”
Pepper eyed her doubtfully. “Right,” she said, her voice heavily sarcastic.
“Come on,” Pepper cooed to the dog, striding into the living room and unlocking the front door. Using her foot, she pushed the dog out and slammed the door hard before making her way back to the bedroom.
“Now, where were we?” she said, hands on hips.
When Pepper’s eyes focused on her, Shay realized with horror that her frantic thrashing had loosened her robe and she might as well have been entirely naked. She realized that if Pepper touched her in that way, her psyche would shatter into a million irretrievable shards.
Pepper moved closer and traced one forefinger along Shay’s ankle. Shay jerked the foot away. Undaunted, Pepper persisted, one palm sliding along Shay’s calf, knee and up to her inner thigh. Shay moaned in horror and felt about as close to insanity as a person could be.
“That woman, that tall one? She’s not our type, and I don’t want nothing more to do with her, you hear me? You won’t answer her calls, you won’t let her in, and there’ll be no more of this cheating on me. You know I won’t allow that. I say when and I say how. Understand?”
Pepper’s face was only inches from hers and Shay went away in her mind. She no longer saw Pepper but heard a strange far-away ringing sound that eventually stopped abruptly.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Liza actually jumped when the connection silenced with a harsh screech. Finally dressed and with a stack of copious notes on the seat beside her, she was barreling toward the interstate that would take her to Montgomery, worried that she wouldn’t make the eleven o’clock meeting. Still, she wanted to hear Shay’s voice and make plans for later that evening. Maybe they’d meet the others at CM’s and lift a celebratory toast if her ideas for a Meadows South were well received by the entire board.
Glancing at the phone, she laughed, thinking Shay must have dropped the phone, or, true to form, let Peaches try to answer it, so she hit redial. A jarring tone sounded and a computerized voice came on, told her the client was unavailable and asked her to leave a message. Shay closed the phone and tapped it to her chin. Maybe Shay was talking to Don and didn’t want to be interrupted. Liza sighed. That didn’t feel right. Shay would ask Don to hold, pop on to explain and arrange to call back. Liza knew this because she had done it before.
Deciding to wait and see if she’d call back, Liza focused on the road ahead. The humidity was up so she’d switched on the air as soon as she got on the road. It wouldn’t do for her to arrive at the board meeting puddled in sweat and windblown. She chuckled to herself. It wouldn’t be the first time. She was a little nervous about seeing Gina again but felt confident that time would heal old wounds.
She waited a full five minutes by the dashboard clock. She tried the number and again it went right to voice mail. Liza felt a nibble of uncertainty. This was unusual; Shay had never ignored her calls. Ever. An uneasy feeling began to creep over her. She pondered it, chewing it into tastelessness with her mind, ideas attacking like persistent flies at a picnic. What was it?
She drove on, unable to pinpoint the cause of her unease.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Pepper ground the broken cell phone under the heel of her athletic shoe and studied Shay. The redhead had closed her eyes and didn’t appear to be breathing. Pepper walked close and prodded the bottom of her foot. She didn’t move. Pepper circled the bed, admiring the long lean lines of Shay’s half-naked torso. She saw bruises along Shay’s outer thigh and wondered what the tall blond had done to her. What kind of games had they played? Shay loved it rough. She would never change. Whistling a merry tune, Pepper reentered the bathroom and began neatening the mess she’d made while cutting her hair. She could hear the damned dog barking outside and knew she’d have to deal with that soon.
Strangely enough, it was Uncle Stamos who came to Shay. His face bobbed into her mind, his fuzzy red hair as disordered as ever. He was dressed in torn, faded jeans and his Rolling Stones T-shirt had a rip through the red tongue part of the logo. Shay could see his pale chest through the gaping hole.
“Shay,” he said calmly, eying her with washed-out blue eyes. “You’re in a pickle.”
“What should I do?” Shay asked worriedly. She felt a little dizzy because of the way she and Stamos were slowly revolving around one another.
“What do you want to do?” he asked, raising one thin, heavily freckled hand above his head in a type of wriggling dance.
Shay sighed and jutted one hip, forced into dancing with him in this strange halfway place. “I really want to be with El,” she murmured.
He looked at her steadily, then winked. “Well, that answers that then, doesn’t it?”
He disappeared.
“El,” Shay said aloud, her mouth dry and swollen. “Liza.”
She opened her eyes and discovered nothing had changed. She could hear Pepper in the next room, going through the cabinets and muttering to herself.
With new determination, trying to pull clear of the clouds of fear enervating her, Shay slowly worked her wrist against the restraint on her right arm. There had to be a way to work it loose. Think, Shay, she told herself angrily as she worked against the scarf. You’re no dummy. Her eyes roamed the room looking for a Plan B.
“You might as well give it up,” Pepper said. She stood in the doorway drying her hands on Shay’s favorite decorative towel. Her eyes were bright and, to Shay, evil. The woman would eventually, someday, kill her.
Think, Shay, think. Remember something, anything.
“My hands are asleep,” she said in her best little girl voice.
Pepper came close, immediately contrite. “Oh, I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to make
them so tight.”
She leaned in, untied the left one and looped it more loosely around Shay’s wrist. Shay saw her chance and took it. She heaved her body to the right, slipping her left hand free and reaching for the right scarf. Magically, due to the angle of her twisting motion, her right hand pulled free and she ran toward the door, her white robe flapping like albino manta ray wings. Pepper, though momentarily caught off guard, quickly recovered and, with a shouted curse, took off after Shay.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Liza was unhappy. The harder she tried not to focus on her worry about Shay, the more intense the worry became. She called repeatedly, hitting redial, hearing the mechanical voice mail robot and then immediately dialing again. Something was definitely wrong. There was no way she could blithely head off to Montgomery and focus on the meeting. Not until she heard Shay’s voice. Making up her mind, she pulled over, out of the stream of traffic, and tried three more times, actually leaving messages until the phone told her the voice mailbox was full.
“That does it,” she told herself grimly. She pulled back onto the interstate but took the next exit and headed back toward Maypearl.
She pressed another speed dial key and got her grandmother on the line.
“Mémé, I think there’s something wrong. Where are you?”
“Dans le salon.Pourquoi?”
“Good. Can you run upstairs and look over toward Shay’s and tell me what you see?”
“Oui, hold.”
Liza heard the clatter of the house phone as it hit the end table, then silence. She tapped her index finger on the steering wheel as she waited.
“A dog, it is out of doors barking,” Rosaries said urgently when she returned. “There is nothing else.”
“Can you see Shay? Is she out there with the dog?”
“Non, and the dog it looks upset. Where is this dog come from?”
“I had Chris bring it over yesterday, a present for Shay,” Liza answered absently. Shay would never have left Peaches outside alone. Not the way she babied that dog.
“Chris? Who is this Chris?” Rosaries asked.
“She’s just a homeless gal who works...” A sudden light flashed and Liza’s stomach plummeted. She suddenly felt sick and thought she might vomit. A series of images flashed through her mind. She saw Chris, she saw the photo of Pepper and she saw the tip of a purple tail peeking from the top of Chris’s jeans as she helped load crates of recycling onto the back of Liza’s truck.
“Aww, fuck,” she whispered.
“Liza, écoutez! You want me to go find Shay?”
“No, Mémé, I’m calling the sheriff. Don’t go over there, it’s dangerous, okay?”
Liza slammed the phone shut and hot tears coursed along her cheeks. How could she have been so damned stupid? Pepper, the conniving bitch, had played all of them. She realized suddenly that she had never seen Christine and Shay in the same room. Chris had mysteriously disappeared the day they worked the dogs, and she’d also been absent at each Thanksgiving dinner at the shelter.
She flipped open the phone, dialed 911 and increased her speed. If anything happened to Shay, it would be her fault. She had led Pepper right to Shay’s door.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Racing into the living room, Shay panicked, uncertain where to go to escape the woman barreling along behind her. As if lit by divine light, she saw that the front door locks hadn’t been engaged; she made a beeline for the door. She grasped the doorknob just as Pepper’s hand entangled in the back of her robe.
The door flew open and Shay whirled, kicking out at Pepper. The older woman anticipated the move and easily sidestepped the kick. Luckily, she had grabbed only a fistful of the belt sewn to the back of the robe. It pulled loose with a loud rip, and Shay fell through the door and onto the floorboards of the porch, hitting squarely on the bruised area hurt when she’d fallen in the grocery store. The pain made her head swim but in survival mode, she began scooting along the porch, splinters digging into her palms and flanks. Pepper grabbed a handful of Shay’s hair and jerked her to her knees.
A sudden stream of angry French sounded, and Shay twisted around to see Liza’s grandmother rapidly approaching, a baseball bat lifted high above her head and Peaches at her side. Shay swung around to look at Pepper and saw a look she would remember for a long time. She wanted to laugh but could not spare the time. Taking advantage of Pepper’s surprise, she pulled loose and, rising, shoved her body against Pepper, knocking the woman off balance. Shay lost some hair in the exchange but considered it a fair trade. Pepper tumbled backward, falling off the elevated porch and landing with a jarring thump on the lawn. Peaches circled her, growling and barking, and Rosaries stood over Pepper threatening her with the bat and shouting at her in French. Shay pulled her robe tightly about herself and sank to the porch steps, a palm pressed to her chest trying to calm her racing heart.
The peace was short-lived however. Pepper, with a snarl, leapt to her feet and took a swing at Rosaries. Gasping in horror, Shay rose to go to the elderly woman’s aid but was gratified to see Rosaries dodge the blow and swing the bat which connected hard on Pepper’s left shoulder. Pepper howled and reacted, going after the old woman, grabbing at her hair with her uninjured right arm and trying to use leverage to take Rosaries down. Shay and Peaches both leapt on Pepper at the same time. Peaches sank her wide jaws into Pepper’s right calf, and Pepper screamed as the bone was pressed. Shay tried to push her off balance and Rosaries, finally freed, reached for the fallen bat as welcome sirens sounded in the distance.
Seeing that she might be outfought, Pepper shook off the dog and decided to run. She vaulted across the short fence that marked the boundaries of Shay’s lawn and took off limping through the woods. Peaches raced after her as Rosaries gathered Shay into her arms.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Liza made a scorching, dangerous turn onto Shay’s driveway from the asphalt of Dooley Drive and saw a figure stumbling through the wooded area below Shay’s house. It looked like a small man, but Liza knew it had to be Pepper. Braking in a cloud of dust and gravel, Liza leapt from her truck and took off after her.
Hampered by her tucked-in shirt, she pulled it loose, wishing desperately that she had something on other than tight trousers and dress shoes. It seemed she’d never catch her.
Seeing the color blue blooming through the trees, Liza realized Pepper had parked her blue pickup truck at the base of the forest, well hidden from the house. Anger clenched in Liza’s chest when she heard the engine roar to life. She raced headlong down the hill, her flesh tearing on brambles and her feet twisting on roots. She made it to the truck just in time to swing herself up and onto the pickup bed as Pepper guided the wheels toward the road. Liza reached through the open back windshield and grabbed a handful of Pepper’s shirt.
“You’re not going anywhere!” she cried.
Pepper, not realizing Liza had given chase nor gained the bed of the truck, turned and looked at her, eyes wide with surprise. Liza realized that, with blue eyes and closely cropped hair, she looked nothing like Christine. At that same moment, Peaches made a jump for the open passenger window, scrambling for purchase but finally making it inside. Pepper screamed in terror and wildly stomped the gas pedal. The truck leapt forward, fairly flying across Dooley, then the wide dirt shoulder and finally breaking through the calm surface of Dooley’s Folly.
When the truck hit the water, the impact twisted Liza and she felt a bone in her right arm snap. Howling with pain, she let go of Pepper and pulled the arm close, even as she tumbled backward off the truck and into the water. As the water closed over her head, she moved her broken arm and almost drowned trying to cry out from the pain. Using her left arm, she managed to surface and saw Pepper in the driver’s seat of the rapidly sinking truck. She’d hit her head against the steering wheel and blood coursed in a ghastly stream down her face. She was struggling to open the door, which had been crushed as it scraped a tree on its way through the woods.
Gritting her teeth against the pain, Liza found footing in the shallows around the back of the truck and stepped into the depths again to try to get the dog and Pepper out of the passenger side of the truck before it went down. Gasping from the pain of moving her arm, she inhaled water and coughed the entire way as she made her way to the passenger window.
She couldn’t get the door open against the pressure of the water, especially with only one arm. She hooked her left hand in Peaches’ collar and helped pull her through the window, going under in the process. Resurfacing, she braced her good armpit on the window ledge as the red and blue lights from the screaming police cruisers flashed across her.
“Come on,” she cried, motioning for Pepper to come through the window. “The truck’s going down.”
Pepper sat very still, as though the situation weren’t critical. She turned her bloody face toward Liza, staring at her with cold, hateful blue eyes. Surrounded by the streaming blood, the eyes were downright grisly. Liza looked away but continued to reach for Pepper until she felt the woman slap her helping hand away. Glancing back, she saw that the encroaching pond water had reached up to Pepper’s chin. Pepper didn’t seem to be worried; she simply relaxed further against the backrest, allowing the water to close over her.
When Peaches’ dog-paddling paws grazed Liza’s broken arm, bringing tears to her eyes, she released herself from the truck and pulled the dog to shallower water. She reclined there panting, Peaches licking her face, as she watched the truck go down in a swirling whirlpool.
CHAPTER FIFTY
“She had a bad, bad childhood,” Shay said softly. “Had brothers and a father who were pretty mean to her.”
