Neighbors

by Danielle Steel

  The children settled rapidly into a routine, and it was Wednesday before Tyla was coherent enough to recognize Meredith and talk to her, which was difficult, since her jaw was wired shut.

  “You’re staying with me,” Meredith told her, and Tyla tried to smile and didn’t argue with her.

  “Kids okay?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Meredith said. The rest of what she wanted to say would have to wait until Tyla was feeling better.

  Meredith told Ava, Arthur, and Peter what had happened and they were horrified, and deeply sympathetic to Tyla. “I hope he goes to prison,” Ava said with feeling. And that weekend, they all went to visit her. She came home to Meredith’s house the following week. She had to take it easy until the concussion was better. And she had to drink her meals through a straw, until her jaw healed. Meredith tended to her as though she was her mother, and little by little Tyla got better, and Will and Daphne calmed down.

  Meredith had encouraged Tyla to seek legal counsel herself, although the state was pressing charges. The lawyer she consulted presented a request in family court, attaching one of Andrew’s bank accounts for temporary support for Tyla and the children until the disposal of the case. The judge in family court granted it immediately. And the lawyer Meredith had found for her suggested starting a civil suit for permanent support if Andrew was convicted and he suggested suing him for the house. He assumed that Tyla would divorce him, whatever happened next.

  * * *

  —

  “Christ,” Debbie said to Jack on the day Tyla came home from the hospital, “now we’re running a nursing home. First an earthquake shelter for the neighborhood, now this. She can only drink liquids and they have to be nourishing. And the two brats from hell are back.”

  “Don’t let Meredith hear you,” he warned her. “This is a chance to show her how much you care for her and her friends.”

  “Do I have to?” Debbie looked at him pleadingly. She had never liked children.

  “Yes, you do, unless we want to go to jail with Andrew.” They’d been skimming money off the top of all her house accounts and stealing objects of value and as much cash as they could get away with for fifteen years. Debbie might choose to forget it, but Jack never did. And he had no intention of going back to prison, ever again. Debbie was playing with fire with her attitude, and he knew it. They were going to have to win her confidence again, remind her how much they cared about her, and hope she got bored with her new friends soon, so he and Debbie could get back to business as usual.

  Chapter 10

  Tyla’s convalescence from Andrew’s last attack on her took longer than she had expected. The concussion gave her a headache if she read or watched TV, tried to read emails or looked at a computer screen. She wanted to play with her children, but they exhausted her. The broken arm was an inconvenience, and she hated having her jaw wired shut. The only plus in the whole experience was that she whispered to Meredith when they took off the bandages and she looked in the mirror, “Wow, I love my new nose!”

  “I’m happy to hear it,” Meredith said, rolling her eyes. “Next time you want a nose job, let’s just call a plastic surgeon and schedule it, shall we?” There was no question in anyone’s mind that she had escaped within an inch of her life, and if there was a next time, Tyla might not be as lucky, if you could call it that.

  She told Meredith several times that it had happened because he drank too much that night. He wasn’t normally as violent.

  “ ‘As violent’? What does that mean? A little less violent is acceptable? Tyla, you have to be done with him. He’s too dangerous. You need to file for divorce. You can’t play games with him anymore. What if he hurts one of the children?”

  “He won’t. He’s a wonderful father.” But a terrible man.

  “He’s dangerous!” Meredith didn’t know how else to say it. Andrew was calling Tyla several times a day, and begging her to give him another chance. He wanted her to drop the charges. If convicted, he would lose his medical license. But charges had been filed by the state, not by Tyla. He wanted her to convince the police to drop theirs.

  Will never mentioned his father, but Daphne wanted to know how he was, and if he was okay. Meredith said she was sure he was.

  At least they were all safe now at Meredith’s house. She told them they could stay for as long as they wanted, and hoped they would. Child Protective Services had come to talk to Tyla, Meredith, and the children, and they were satisfied that as long as Tyla and her children stayed with Meredith, the children would be in good hands. Andrew had been forbidden to see them until further hearings and a psychiatric evaluation.

  Meredith tried to leave the room when Andrew called Tyla, but when she didn’t, she could tell he was always wheedling and pleading and begging, and apologizing. He kept reminding Tyla that he was a doctor, and swore he would take anger management classes. Meredith hated that he was manipulating Tyla, and hoped it wasn’t working.

  Things began to unravel then. Will punched a boy at school who called him a name. It was the first time he had exhibited violent tendencies, and they didn’t have far to look for the example for that. He was suspended from school for three days, which had never happened before. Jack complained that someone had taken his Swiss Army knife, and Debbie found it under Will’s pillow in his room. Will swore he hadn’t taken it, and Meredith wanted to believe him, but the evidence was damning. And worst of all for Meredith, there was a beautifully carved ivory horse that had belonged to her parents. She kept it in the library, and Debbie found it smashed to bits on the floor, as though someone had destroyed it intentionally. Everyone in the house knew how much she loved it. Debbie wasn’t even allowed to dust it. It was broken into a million pieces, beyond repair. That time Meredith wondered. And worse still, Debbie said she had seen him do it. She swore it was true. Will sobbed piteously, promising he hadn’t done it.

  Meredith brought the subject up gingerly with Tyla, one morning when they were alone, and pointed out that there had been a number of violent incidents involving Will recently, and she was concerned about him.

  “Do you want us to leave?” Tyla looked crushed. She believed her son. She swore to Meredith that he had never been destructive.

  “He also never saw, or heard, his mother beaten nearly to death by his father. I don’t want you to leave, of course not. But maybe he needs therapy of some kind, someone neutral he can talk to.”

  “He’s not disturbed,” she insisted.

  “He’s suffering,” Meredith said. “That’s different.” They all were and had suffered an unspeakable trauma, physically in Tyla’s case, and emotionally for all of them.

  Meredith talked to Charles about it, and he agreed with her that Will should have counseling, and Daphne too. They’d been through a lot, and it wasn’t over yet. If Andrew was convicted, he would go to prison for many years, which would be heartbreaking for them too. “Although I will tell you that I don’t trust Debbie as an objective reporter of these incidents.”

  “You still don’t trust her?” Meredith looked shocked.

  “No, I don’t. She would love it if Tyla and her kids went home, and if she can help that to happen, I think she’d say damn near anything to achieve it.” Meredith looked sad when he said it.

  “You don’t know her.” He didn’t argue with her about it. He knew that she had a soft spot for them and was loyal to them.

  “There’s one thing I do want to remind you of, though. Most women who have been abused by their husbands or partners go back to them, even if they’re separated. It’s tragic. And they don’t always survive a second round.” The thought of it made her shudder, and she hoped he was wrong. She thought that Tyla talked to Andrew far too often, and was too sympathetic to him, after what he’d done. And she lied to Meredith sometimes and claimed she wasn’t talking to him, and Meredith could tell she was. She didn’t think that Tyla
was always truthful with her, but she did believe Will when he said he hadn’t destroyed anything. But Debbie wasn’t a liar either. Emotions in the house were running high.

  There was another incident a week later. A valuable piece of delicately carved jade vanished out of the drawing room. Debbie reported it to Meredith immediately when she noticed it was missing. It didn’t turn up in Will’s bedroom. It was nowhere to be found. This time, Charles was skeptical, and flatly didn’t believe Debbie.

  “That’s not the kind of thing a kid would want. You can’t do anything with it.” It aroused his suspicions, and that afternoon, Charles wandered into the kitchen, took some Ziploc bags, and dropped some common objects into them. The salt cellar Debbie used often from above the stove, a coffee mug she’d used and he emptied and dropped into the plastic bag, a pair of kitchen scissors, a glass he’d seen Jack drink out of an hour before and no one had washed yet. He took half a dozen ordinary items, put all the Ziplocs in a paper bag, and went out to his car with it. He came back an hour later. Debbie was already complaining that someone had taken her scissors and the salt by then. Charles made no comment and no one had observed his little treasure hunt around the kitchen. He’d have one of his employees take it all to the police lab for fingerprinting.

  He got a call from one of his police contacts the next morning and nothing he heard surprised him. It was what he had expected, and it was painful sharing it with Meredith, who had been betrayed by people she loved before.

  He told her what he’d done, and she looked shocked at first, when he said he had sent the objects he knew had their fingerprints on them to the police, to run them through the interstate computers, and the California Criminal Justice System to check for criminal records and prior convictions.

  “I hate to say this to you, but Debbie and Jack both have prison records, for stolen credit cards, credit card fraud, shoplifting, possession of drugs with intent to sell. They have a list of convictions an arm long. They’ve both served time. They were suspected of stealing money from two previous employers, but both couples died before it could be proven, and their families chose not to pursue it. The couple you love, who became your best friends, are crooks. They’re convicts, convicted felons. And I’ll bet that if you go through your house accounts carefully, you’ll find that they’ve been stealing money from you too. They’re not who you think they are. I’m really sorry, Meredith.” She looked heartbroken, and he hated to give her the bad news.

  “They can’t be what you say,” she said with tears in her eyes. “They came to me with glowing references.”

  “They probably wrote them themselves. Did you call the people who wrote them?” She shook her head.

  “They were so good, I thought I didn’t need to.”

  “From what I’ve seen and what you’ve said to me, I think they’ve manipulated you and isolated you, and controlled you, or tried to, until I came along, and you made new friends, and weren’t as vulnerable as before. I think that’s why they hate any of your neighbors staying here, and me probably. They want you alone, and they don’t want anyone watching them. I’ve had a bad feeling about them since the day I met them. I want to do something with you now. Where are they right now?”

  “I don’t know. I think Jack went to the hardware store, and Debbie wanted to buy milk. The kids drank it all.”

  “I want to go to their room with you and have a look around.”

  “I can’t let you do that,” she said, horrified. “I respect their privacy. They’re decent people,” she pleaded for them, with the affection of fifteen years of loyalty on both sides.

  “They have prison records,” he reminded her. “They’re criminals, with arrest records a mile long.” The facts were impossible to deny, although she was sure they had never stolen from her. She would have sworn to it. She wanted to prove it to Charles.

  Reluctantly, she stood up and followed Charles out of her study. They went downstairs, and Meredith took a key from a locked key rack that was only to be used in emergencies, like in case of fire. She unlocked their door, and almost shuddered as she did it. She trusted them, and she was sure that they wouldn’t find anything that had been missing. She was violating them and fifteen years of their kindness to her.

  They walked into the living room of their apartment, where Jack and Debbie knew they were safe and their employer hadn’t set foot in fifteen years, and never would. She was too respectful and proper to do so. The piece of carved jade was sitting on a coffee table, amid a bunch of newspapers, with some nail clippers, and a pack of cigarettes. The Fabergé box that had been missing since the earthquake was sitting on the chest of drawers in the bedroom. Meredith’s breath caught as her eyes swept the room. There were two extremely valuable small French paintings that she and Scott had bought in Paris. They were hanging above their bed. Apparently, they liked them enough to steal them, and they knew she would never come into their room. She couldn’t remember when the paintings had disappeared, she’d never even noticed they were missing.

  Charles pulled open the closet door, and there were four alligator handbags that Meredith had forgotten she ever owned, and hadn’t seen in ten or twelve years. She couldn’t help wondering if they had shattered the ivory horse on purpose and blamed Will, and planted Jack’s Swiss Army knife underneath his pillow. They were cruel, evil people who had played her for a fool. She wondered if Charles was right, and they had intentionally isolated her and tried to influence and control her, or simply took advantage of the fact that she had isolated herself, and she had no other friends left except the two of them, two petty criminals who had used her in every way they could.

  “I’m sorry, Meredith,” Charles said when he saw the look on her face. “If you let me, I can do some research with the stores and services you do business with. Creaming money off the top of your accounts is how a lot of these people operate. The stores won’t like to admit it, but faced with the police, they will. You’ve been profitable for Jack and Debbie, more than you intended.” She nodded. “They’ve probably stolen money from you in other ways too.” She thought of the car Jack had bought recently, a new Mercedes. She’d been impressed that they’d saved enough money to do so.

  “I’d like to know,” she said to him in a choked voice, and sat down in their living room, to wait for them. Charles sat in a chair across from her. They sat there like stone statues until they heard Debbie and Jack come in. They were talking and laughing, and Debbie screamed when she walked into the room and saw them. She looked as though she didn’t know which direction to run. Her eyes darted to the piece of jade on the table, to Meredith’s face, and then she ran into the bedroom and came back again.

  “Game over,” Charles said quietly. “You’ve had a profitable little business running here, haven’t you?”

  “What the hell are you doing in our apartment?” Jack shouted at him, advancing on him menacingly, and Charles looked unimpressed and didn’t move.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I’ve gone through the police files, they have your fingerprints, and we’ve seen the arrest records for both of you. We’ll be giving them a list of what you’ve stolen from here. What we can find records for. We’ll cross-check Ms. White’s insurance records to see what’s disappeared over the years. I imagine you sold a lot of it. You had a nice little cash flow going for yourselves, didn’t you? I’ve got two of my operatives on the way over. They’ll watch you pack, and you’ll be escorted out of the building as soon as you’re packed. You’re finished here. Ms. White will press charges, and there will be a full audit of all her household accounts.” Meredith had just told him that Debbie could write checks on one household account. He was going to have all the locks changed too.

  “You’re a bitch to let him do this,” Debbie shouted at Meredith, as she sat motionless watching the woman who had pretended to comfort her for so many years. “We were the best friends you ever had.” Mere
dith didn’t speak to her. She didn’t know what to say. She was crushed and speechless for a minute.

  “Friends don’t steal from each other, and cheat and lie and manipulate,” Charles said to her. “You’ve got half an hour to pack. We’ll watch you do it. We’ll report this to the police today. It’s up to Ms. White if she’s going to prosecute you. I’m going to advise her to. And I suggest you don’t leave town,” he said in an ice-cold voice.

  “Screw you!” Debbie spat at him as though talking to a prison guard. They had nothing to lose now. They had turned into people Meredith didn’t even recognize. They always had been, she knew now.

  Jack ambled into their bedroom and took out a suitcase while Charles watched what he put in it. He brought the Fabergé box back to sit in front of Meredith, where she could keep an eye on it, and he was watching the two paintings to make sure they didn’t disappear. There wasn’t a sound in either room while they packed. Two of Charles’s operatives came to the back door ten minutes later and Meredith let them in. They crowded into the small apartment with them. One stood a foot away from Debbie, and the other next to Jack. They knew there was no room left to maneuver. Charles was right. The game was over. Meredith looked as though someone had died as they zipped up their bags, looked around the room, and stared at her. There was no apology, no thank-you, no regret on either of their faces. Just two nasty, sick people, sociopaths, who had had a heyday with her, and exploited the tragedies in her life for fifteen years.

  Charles’s operatives walked them out into the street, where their car was parked. Meredith made no attempt to say goodbye to them. She couldn’t say a word. Charles directed one of his men to call a locksmith, while Meredith collected the stolen items they’d retrieved and laid them on the bed.

  “I’ll bring them up to you later,” Charles promised, and then they left the small airless apartment and went back upstairs. It had been one of the most unpleasant, saddest hours she’d ever spent. All of her illusions about humanity had come crashing down around her. She didn’t say a word to Charles on their way upstairs. The only words she could finally get out were “Thank you.” She walked straight into Tyla’s bedroom then and spoke to her, standing at the foot of the bed, as Charles waited in the hall for her.