Deadly Intentions, page 12
“Think so?”
“Life is so precarious,” the woman said. “Harriet died because a thief murdered her for a stupid bowl. Do you think I’m too obsessed with finding it, as obsessed as the thief?”
“You aren’t committing murder to get it back. Maybe taking unorthodox measures, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to have what belongs to you returned.”
“How in the world are we going to find it now?”
“I’m puzzled because if the thief has it, why was my bag searched?”
“I don’t think the bag was connected to the robbery. I think the bag was there and someone thought there might be money or something valuable in there. The car theft was probably a common thief.”
Good, Justin thought. You just keep thinking that.
“You missed the ferry,” Brian said an hour later.
Lisa looked at the clock. “You did that deliberately. And you know I don’t want to stay in this house.”
“If it makes you feel better, we can go back to the motel.”
“It doesn’t make sense to pay for a motel when you have this house, but the place needs a good cleaning and I feel a little spooked staying here.”
“You’re still under contract.”
“Not since Harriet died. And I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
“You had a business arrangement with my grandfather so it still holds. And now that the police tape is gone, you can fulfill your obligation. Besides, there’s all that fingerprint powder to get rid of.”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course. I don’t like mess any more than the next person.”
“Then I’ll schedule it in.” Lisa was thinking it was a good place to train Jackie. They could take their time and work any day she pleased.
A cell phone rang.
“Is that yours?” Brian asked.
“My ring is different. Must be yours.”
“I don’t have one,” Brian said. “I have to get one.”
“Maybe it’s Harriet’s.”
They moved in the direction from which the sound came. Suddenly it stopped and there was the sound of breaking glass. Brian darted toward the den and got there in time to see someone picking himself up and sprinting down the beach.
“Call the police,” he hollered out as he exploded out the window behind the guy and fell on his bad leg, going down hard in the azaleas and cursing.
The man was tearing around the corner of the house before he could pick himself up.
Brian limped after him, but the guy was streaking far quicker than Brian’s bum leg would allow him to go. Brian kept going. He wasn’t giving up. In the distance he heard a motor start and a car drive away. A small car tore into a side street. Looked like a blue Mustang. From the streetlight he caught the last three digits of the license plate.
Brian stood there a couple of seconds to catch his breath before he started back to the house. No doubt Lisa would give him an earful. He smiled.
She was waiting by the door, peeping through the side windows.
“Are you crazy?” she asked, opening the door for him. “Running after that man like that. He could have killed you. What if he had a gun? It could’ve been the same man who killed Mrs. Woolsley.”
“More than likely it was.”
“And you ran after him anyway?” she snapped.
“I’m a SEAL, baby.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Some might think so.”
They saw blinking lights pull up to the curb. A cop got out.
As soon as the police left, Lisa said, “I’m not staying here tonight.”
“I’ll take you to the motel,” Brian said, “but I can’t stay there.”
“It’s not safe here,” Lisa said, even though she knew Brian wouldn’t budge on that issue.
“I have to go by the motel anyway to check something out. I don’t like the idea of you staying alone. Remember someone followed you the other night.”
Lisa didn’t know why he had to go there if he wasn’t going to stay.
She drove to the motel, but she had no intentions of leaving him. What if the killer saw her and came after her? Even lame, he was her only protection off the island.
“I want my money,” the man said. “I’ve waited long enough.”
“I don’t have the bowl yet,” Greg told him. “No bowl, no payoff.”
“The deal was I get paid if I give you the location of the bowl. I’ve done my part. You should have hired more competent people. Nobody was supposed to die. I want my money or I’m going to the police.”
“You’re threatening me?”
“Yes. Remember I know who you are, but you don’t know who I am.”
“You’re easy enough to find,” Greg said, threateningly.
The caller hung up, regretting the decision to contact him in the first place. The hand that tucked the phone in the pocket trembled slightly. How was this going to end? He couldn’t see a good ending to this at all. When he decided to move in this direction more than a year ago, he had no idea this would be the outcome. That the entire thing would get so convoluted. He felt like he was working with a bunch of bumbling fools.
He glanced at his partner in crime. “I don’t know if it’s been worth all this.”
“They were fools. You aren’t responsible for their actions.”
“But we started it,” he said.
“We didn’t kill anyone. We didn’t ask them to kill anyone. Don’t take responsibility for something you didn’t do.”
“That doesn’t change what they did. It shouldn’t have taken this long.”
“Look, I’m not taking on another worry. Everybody else is enjoying their lives. Nice homes. Great family vacations. We’re not asking for anything out of the ordinary. It’s only fair that we have a little something for ourselves, too.
“This is our ship and I’m taking advantage of it. ’Cause it might not come our way again. And that bowl isn’t going to do anybody any good getting dusted off once a year to parade before a bunch of strangers coming through town. Tell me what good it’s doing anybody, especially when that family has an identical bowl they can enjoy just as much as that one.”
“You’re right.”
19
“Our family’s crab fry is this weekend,” Lisa said to Brian as she drove. She was still nervous about frying the crabs without her grandmother even though she’d done it for years with her.
“I heard your family talking about it. Will you be able to do it?”
“She wants me to. And she’s made everyone promise to go. It’s kind of a springtime family tradition,” Lisa said. “My friend from Minnesota is coming, too.”
They made it to the motel. When Brian didn’t move to exit the car, Lisa glared at him, puzzled.
“I know we didn’t drive all the way out here for nothing,” she said. “What’re you waiting for?”
“Drive around the other side of the motel. I’m looking for a car.”
“What car?”
“A blue Mustang. I saw one leaving my grandfather’s house tonight.”
They drove around the small complex checking out each car. “Well, there isn’t one here now.”
“I can’t leave you here alone,” Brian said. “And I have to stay at the house tonight in case the guy returns.”
“I don’t want to go back there.”
“You won’t be alone,” Brian said.
“I know. It’s just . . .” Lisa wavered, then relented.
Tootsie paced the floor of her condo unit. One of the friends she’d made in the artist colony had let her use her car and home while she was studying for a year in Paris and Italy. The friend’s car had a parking space in the condo garage.
She didn’t know what to do. The police on Paradise Island wanted to question her. She couldn’t go back there.
In December they found out she was making a duplicate of the bowl. One of the artists at the colony had killed someone because of it. She’d also discovered Tootsie was making the duplicate and threatened her. They’d fought and Tootsie had escaped. Although Tootsie hadn’t been involved in the crime, the police wanted to question her about the bowl.
And now this.
She didn’t know if she could continue to trust Justin. She didn’t want to go to jail, but she didn’t want to die, either. Once Justin had the bowls he wouldn’t need her anymore. Although she didn’t tell him, she had both bowls. She’d meant to leave the duplicate but the events happened so quickly. After Justin killed that woman she’d escaped.
She’d been so damn stupid thinking they had a future together. She didn’t believe in love, but she thought he’d had some feelings for her. That he truly wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
She’d been accommodating. She was sick to death of being alone. But alone was a damn sight better than in jail. Her grandfather always used to say, “Be careful what you wish for.” She should have listened.
Maybe she could talk to some of the friends she’d made at the artist colony. Justin wouldn’t recognize her friend’s car. They could meet someplace and brainstorm.
Tootsie was scared to death. She didn’t know what to do. She had only enough money left for maybe a week and a half. She couldn’t return to the colony to see if any of her vases had sold. Not since the sheriff wanted to question her. She wasn’t quite in dire straits yet. She could always find ways to make money.
She knew Justin was searching for her. But he didn’t know her friends and he was keeping a low profile. If he went to Paradise Island and asked questions about her, the news would get back to the sheriff. So he had more sense than to search for her there.
She’d had food delivered. She was safe for now. But she couldn’t stay here forever and she couldn’t return to her home in Santa Fe. Justin had given the motel a Baltimore address and used a fake driver’s license. Most people couldn’t tell the difference.
The men in Lisa’s family were in charge of gathering the crabs for the crab fry. Her cousin Gabrielle’s parents always came from Philly. Gabrielle’s mother was Naomi’s only daughter. She was already there and her husband had come down with her when Naomi went to the hospital.
Early in the morning her father would go out to gather crabs with her uncles and cousins.
At least they had something to celebrate—their grandmother’s successful angioplasty. She was home already. But wouldn’t it have been something if Lisa had been able to retrieve her grandmother’s bowl?
Jackie had been crying about money, so she was supposed to meet Lisa at the Knight house to clean early that morning. She’d hoped to leave Jackie to finish the house while she went to the funeral with Brian.
Jackie showed up an hour late. Lisa had set aside that day for the cleaning and she couldn’t change her schedule to another day. She’d already cleaned two bedrooms by the time Jackie showed up, screwing up her schedule. Harriet’s funeral was at two. She could only work a couple more hours before she had to shower and dress.
“Why are you late?” Lisa asked, annoyed.
“Girl, I couldn’t get to sleep last night. It was the wee hours of the morning by the time I fell asleep.”
“If you were going to be late, you should have called.”
“I didn’t think you’d mind. It’s not like you haven’t shown up to work late a time or two,” Jackie said.
“That’s true, but I was wrong to do that when other people were depending on me. Okay, I cleaned some bedrooms. We’ll start in the kitchen and go on from there.”
It was a tiresome day. She demonstrated how she wanted the kitchen, the bedrooms, and the bathrooms cleaned and left Jackie on her own. When Lisa was getting ready to dress, she checked on Jackie’s progress. She’d only made a halfhearted effort. There were streaks of dust on the dresser in the bedroom. Lint was in the corners of both the bathroom and a bedroom. She only made a halfhearted swipe at cleaning the commode and countertops. Folks wouldn’t hire Lisa again if this was going to be the result.
Lisa felt horrible. Jackie had been her best friend and she wanted to help her. But didn’t friends have a responsibility to their friends? Wasn’t it a two-way street? She’d have thought Jackie would want to do a good job because they were friends as well as cousins—and Jackie claimed she desperately needed the money.
By twelve-thirty, Jackie was yawning. She laid her head down on the table for a quick nap.
“Why don’t you go home? I’ll finish up here after the funeral,” Lisa said.
Jackie’s head snapped up. “No. I’m not going to leave the rest for you to do by yourself.”
Lisa would have to go over everything Jackie did anyway. She was just in the way. “I’ll pay you at the end of the week. But go on. We only work half days at each house.”
After Jackie left, Lisa and Brian dressed for the funeral.
The funeral was well attended. Mrs. Woolsley was liked and respected. Brian and Lisa spoke to her sisters afterward, but did not attend the graveside service.
After they returned from the funeral Lisa spent the rest of the day cleaning. It wasn’t that things were out of place, but that no one had lived there for a year. Dust covered most surfaces and the place needed a good going-over—to say nothing of the fingerprint powder. It was greasy and hard to remove. Why didn’t police clean up after themselves? She’d have to have a talk with Alyssa. Maybe they’d hire her to clean after them in the future. Business was business.
She made her way back to the island to take care of some paperwork and go over the scheduling, order supplies, and pay bills.
Lisa was exhausted, but she didn’t feel like being alone that night. Brian didn’t know she was returning to his home, but he was the one who wanted to form a relationship. She tried to keep it in perspective. It was sex, plain and simple, and she was getting what she could as long as it lasted. He was so damn good.
Lisa couldn’t help the foolish smile she knew blasted her face at just the thought of being with Brian between the sheets again.
The old ferry captain was on duty and Lisa got out of the car to talk to him.
“You know Patience is back,” he said.
“All dried out?”
He smiled. Patience was his niece. “Didn’t smell a drop of liquor on her.”
“Good for her.” Patience Kingsley had made drinking her life’s purpose. Who could blame her? Lord only knew what went on in that house when she was married to a necrophiliac. Lisa would’ve put down a few herself if she’d lived in those conditions.
Of course Patience didn’t know about her husband’s strange behavior when she married him, but . . . Lisa shuddered. You never knew people.
“Changed her name back to Jones.”
“I would’ve too.”
“Didn’t want any association with that man.”
“Lord knows I can’t blame her,” Lisa commiserated.
“So how’s that new business of yours coming along?”
“Just great so far.”
“Might get you to clean our house. Give the missus a break.”
Lisa dug into her purse. “Here’s a card,” she said, handing it to him. “Call me anytime.” Vanetta had told her to always have business cards and brochures on her. “Here’s a brochure, too. Lets you know the services we offer. If something isn’t mentioned there just let me know. We’re accommodating.”
The captain glanced at the business card, but he wasn’t too interested in cleaning specifics. He just folded the brochure and tucked it into his pocket.
Lisa stood on deck to enjoy the evening breeze until it was time to disembark.
The night was quiet as she drove off the ferry and through a deserted area. At least she wasn’t alone on the streets, she thought. It was late and the lights shining in her rearview mirror gave her some comfort.
Suddenly the lights came up behind her and a car bumped her on the back fender.
Lisa’s head jerked forward and then back hard against the headrest. Lord, she was in the middle of nowhere. She tried to increase her speed, but she couldn’t get the acceleration out of her little car to put some distance between her and the fool behind her.
She panicked when the headlights approached again. She geared herself for the impact that came seconds later. Lisa fought the wheel to stay on the road.
Suddenly a hard push propelled her right off the road and down a hill. Lisa’s life flashed before her as she came to a jarring stop against a tree.
Slowly, Lisa came to. She opened her eyes. Where in the world was she? What had happened? A bright light shone in her eyes giving her a splitting headache. She shut her eyes tightly.
“Wake up.” Somebody shoved a hand on her shoulder. “The bowl, bitch. The one you stole from the house. I want it back,” a menacing voice said.
“I don’t have it.” Lisa’s voice was so dry and weak with fear she could barely speak.
“Then you better get it.”
“I didn’t take it,” Lisa said. “It’s lost. It’s been lost for more than a year.”
“Bitch, if you’re lying . . .”
“I’m not. My family is searching for it,” she said, hoping he believed her. “Who are you?” She couldn’t see anything beyond the blinding light in her eyes.
“Your worst nightmare. If you’re lying to me, I’ll be back. And you won’t like the consequences.”
Suddenly, he was gone along with the offending light. Lisa was cold. Where on earth was she? She glanced around and realized she was still in her car, at least. She moved her hand across her forehead. She was bleeding.
She fumbled for her purse, dug into it for her cell phone, and prayed she’d get reception. She dialed Brian. He picked up on the first ring.
“Where are you?” he shouted.
“Someone ran me off the road.”
“Are you hurt?”
“A little. My head hurts. It’s dark and I’m not going exploring in the middle of nowhere.”
