Petals on the Pillow (22 page)

Elizabeth
—

Meet me at the dock at eight o’clock sharp. I have Betsy. If you want to see her unharmed, you won’t tell anyone about this. Just be there.

Kendra

David looked blankly back at her. “I don’t get it. What does this mean?”

“Don’t you see?” Kelly practically screamed with frustration. “That’s how Kendra got Elizabeth out to the dock that night. She told her she had Betsy. Otherwise Elizabeth would never have wandered out there in the storm.”

“Why would Kendra want Elizabeth out on the dock in a storm? You’re not making any sense.”

Kelly shook her head in disgust. “You can’t mean that you haven’t seen the way Kendra looks at Harrison. Even Betsy knows what Kendra wants, though she doesn’t really understand why. I don’t think even I realized how serious she was before tonight.”

“No. You’ve got it all wrong.” David shook his head. “Kendra’s Harrison’s assistant. Besides, she was Elizabeth’s friend. She loved her.”

“I don’t think so,” Kelly murmured. “It all makes a kind of horrid sense now. Insinuate yourself into a household, be a friend to everyone and then you have access to everything you need to manipulate everyone.”

“Kendra? A manipulator?”

“She certainly did a fine job with me. She’s the one who talked me into leaving tonight. Now she has Harrison all to herself with just Betsy to compete with.” The thought hit Kelly with the power of a brick. “And she has Betsy all to herself, too. There’s no one there to protect her. David, you’ve got to get me back to the Manor right now.”

***

“Kelly, I really think you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions.” David steered his Jaguar through the rain.

Kelly might have enjoyed the ride. She’d never ridden in cars like these before, but right now she was wet and cold and tired and her nerves thrummed with anxiety. “Maybe so, but it won’t hurt to make sure Betsy’s safe and to explain a few things to Harrison.”

He shrugged. “I suppose not, but I’m sure you’ve got the whole Kendra scenario turned around. There’s going to be a logical explanation that we’ll all laugh about later.”

“Well, I’m not laughing now,” a smoky voice said.

David hit the brakes, nearly skidding his car off the road. “What the hell was that?” he demanded, staring at Kelly in the faint glow from the dashboard.

Kelly didn’t answer right away. She had heard the voice, too, and knew instantly to whom it belonged. She’d heard it in enough dreams. This time, however, she was wide awake when she heard Elizabeth speak. Even eerier, she’d felt her own mouth move to shape the words. “I just don’t think it’s a jok
ing matter,” she said finally.

“That’s not what I meant. That voice. It wasn’t how you usually talk,” Clark argued.

Kelly pretended to be indifferent, but the truth was she felt as if all her senses were heightened. Everything was magnified. She heard each individual rain drop hitting the roof of the car, saw the steam that came from Clark’s mouth in the cold night air, heard her own thumping heart in her chest. “I’m not going to argue with you right now about my intonation or anything else. I just want to get to the Manor. Are you going to take me or not?”

“I’m driving. I’m driving,” Clark muttered and put the car back in gear, but Kelly caught him looking surreptitiously at her as he drove.

They pulled up to the Manor’s gate and David stopped the car. Kelly looked at him and he gazed back with a twisted smile. “I kind of doubt Harrison is going to buzz me in,” he said.

Kelly got out of the car and kicked a rock into the woods in frustration. If she’d only remembered to grab the remote out of the Benz they’d be sailing through already. Now they’d have to run for it. In the rain. In the dark. She wasn’t thrilled, but a sense of foreboding filled her with such a rush that she barely paused.

Pushing through the pedestrian gate, she called over her shoulder, “Are you coming or are you going to sit there?”

She heard David mutter, “I’m coming. I’m coming. Geez, are you always this pushy?”

Kelly didn’t bother to answer.

She trotted up the drive as fast as she thought she could without exhausting herself before she reached the Manor. The rain continued to pour down. Thunder rumbled ominously now as well.

The feeling of dread continued to build inside Kelly. Her heart raced. A cold prickly sweat dripped down between her shoulder blades. She came to a rise in the drive that would give her an unobstructed view of the front of the Manor and a good portion of the grounds.

When she reached it, what she saw sucked the breath right out of her lungs. Kendra marched down the rolling lawn toward the dock. In her grasp was a wriggling, fighting Betsy. The two disappeared behind a hummock of grass.

Kelly began to run in earnest.

“What is it now?” David yelled after her.

“Kendra has Betsy. Get Harrison out here now.”

Kelly tore across the grass. Ahead of her, Kendra continued to make her way toward the boathouse and the dock. Betsy’s struggles seemed weaker and weaker, as if she was losing strength as they got closer and closer to the spot where her mother had drowned.

The gap closed a little. Kelly’s feet flew. She was oblivious to the rain as it poured down on her, noting it only for how her feet slipped and slid on the wet grass. She was within yelling distance of Kendra now but decided to save her breath. Kendra’s speed had picked up now that Betsy had stopped twisting and kicking.

Kelly was still yards away when she saw Kendra drag Betsy out onto the wooden dock.

***

David watched Kelly run from him. Whatever was going on here was a complete mystery to him. Kelly’s sudden anxiety, her sudden suspicions about Kendra—all of it seemed preposter
ous. On the other hand, it also seemed very real. And then there was the small matter of how she’d talked in the car. He knew that voice and it wasn’t Kelly’s, and when he looked at her, he could have sworn that her eyes had been ... well ... green.

He headed up the hill to the Manor. At least he’d have a chance to talk to Harrison face to face and make sure he knew the truth about David’s note to Elizabeth.

He pounded on the front door of Hawk Manor. Using both fists, he set off a tattoo that he hoped could not be ignored even in the muffling quiet of the old Manor. His own heart raced now. The urgency that Kelly had clearly been feeling had finally communicated itself to him, and he knew he had to get Harrison down to the dock as soon as he could.

He felt like he’d been hammering away on the huge locked doors for hours when they finally swung open.

Harrison swayed on the threshold, wild-haired and red-eyed. He grabbed the doorframe to steady himself. “It’s you,” was all he said when he saw Clark standing in the portico, but it was enough to send a wah of whiskey off his breath that was strong enough to make David flinch.

“You’re drunk,” David said, stunned for a moment. Harrison’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, well, you’re an asshole.” He turned and weaved away across the rotunda.

Clark caught up to him in two long strides. He grabbed Harrison by the arm and spun him around. “Listen to me, Harrison. I’m not sure what’s going on, but Kendra’s got Betsy and they’re heading down to the dock. Kelly went after them, but we’ve got to get down there, too.”

Harrison stared at him for a moment, stunned, and then a sly look crept into his eyes. “Oh, I get it,” he slurred. “This is some little game you and Kelly cooked up to get me down to the dock for some reason. Why? Do you think if you push me into the Sound that you’ll be able to regain control of St. John Industries? Forget it, Clark. There’s no way you can undo what Kendra and I have managed to do. But speaking of partner
ships, when exactly did you ‘recruit’ Kelly? Was it after she got here, or did you manage to seduce her before she ever made it to the island?”

“Kelly and me? What the hell are you talking about Harrison?” David couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “It’s crazy enough that you think Elizabeth and I were lovers. What the hell makes you think Kelly and I are involved?”

Harrison shrugged Clark’s now loosened grasp off his arm. “Your innocent act is really starting to annoy me, David. I saw you and Kelly together in the garden the other day and it all clicked for me. This whole business of knowing all kinds of things only Elizabeth would know about. It would have been easy for you. You two shared all your secrets, didn’t you? And who better to coach Kelly on how to kiss like Elizabeth than Elizabeth’s own lover.”

The two men were nose to nose now. “I was not Elizabeth’s lover,” David growled. “And I’m not Kelly’s lover either.”

“Sure you’re not,” Harrison said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “You just arrange clandestine meetings with all the women in my life for fun.”

“The note you think is proof of my affair with Elizabeth is nothing of the sort.”

“Then would you like to explain exactly why you were trying to set up a secret meeting with my wife on the night that she died?” Harrison thundered.

David gritted his teeth. His frustration mounted to the point where he thought he was going to grab Harrison and shake some sense into him. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Harrison. I didn’t set up a meeting with her that night. That note was months old. I wrote it when Elizabeth and I were planning your surprise party. I gave it to Kendra to give to Elizabeth. She must have kept it and planted it that night— after she gave Elizabeth her note. The one that said she had Betsy and if Elizabeth wanted to guarantee her safety she’d come to the dock.”

Harrison reeled back. “Betsy? She said she had Betsy?” David advanced on him. “Yes. Betsy. Kelly found another note tonight in one of Elizabeth’s sketchbooks. Don’t you remember that night, Harrison? Don’t you remember how at first we couldn’t find Elizabeth or Betsy? We finally found Betsy locked in the old maid’s pantry in the east wing. Do you remember? Do you remember how we all thought it was just an accident that she’d gotten stuck in there?”

“Kendra? Kendra said she had Betsy?” Harrison’s voice filled with wonder. “Kendra?”

“Yeah, look, I don’t completely understand it either,” David said impatiently. “But maybe we better ask Kendra to explain it to all of us.”

“And she definitely has Betsy now?” Harrison asked David.

“Yeah. I saw them myself. Heading down to the dock.”

“And Kelly’s going there, too?”

“She was on their trail when I headed up here to get you.” “Then what the hell are we doing standing around here?” Harrison asked.

***

When Kendra pulled Betsy onto the dock, the little girl began to struggle again.

Kelly clattered onto the rough wood seconds behind them. Kendra whirled around, Betsy still firmly in her grasp, at the sound of Kelly’s footsteps. Kendra’s eyes were wild, dark holes in her white face. Her pale hair flew around her head in the wind like some kind of flaxen fright wig.

“Let Betsy go, Kendra,” Kelly yelled over the wind.

“No!” Kendra shrieked back, clutching Betsy tighter to her. “You go away. This is none of your business now.”

“Let her go,” Kelly repeated. “She’s no threat to you.”

“You’re wrong, you know. I tried everything to make the lit
tle brat like me, but she’s hated me from the start. Now that you’re gone, she’s the one thing left between Harrison and me.” Kendra edged closer to the end of the dock.

Kelly’s heart beat so fast she was afraid it would rise right up in her throat and choke her. She inched herself closer to Kendra and Betsy, who continued to flail at her captor. “No, Kendra, you’re wrong. If it’s not Betsy, it’ll be something else. Harrison is not yours for the taking. Let the girl go.”

“You don’t understand. You wouldn’t, of course. Little Miss Impulse acting on her every whim and fancy. I spent months planning all this!” Kendra screeched.

Kelly held her hands up in front of her in placating gesture. She tried to keep from loo
king Betsy directly in the eye, afraid of the fear she knew she would see there. “I can see that. It’s obvious now that I look at it. It must have taken hours and hours of planning.”

“It did.” Kendra seemed mollified somehow by Kelly’s acknowledgement. “Getting Harrison to hire me as his assis
tant, getting him to move me out here, getting rid of Elizabeth. I’ve devoted my life to this for three years.”

Kelly edged closer still.
A few more inches and she thought she might be able to grab Betsy out of Kendra’s grasp. “And now you’re almost finished.”

Kendra’s eyes narrowed and she clutched Betsy closer to her. “I was, until you came along,” she spat. “I devote my life to freeing him from the pests that would destroy him, tending him, nurturing him along in his hatred of all the other people who would keep him from me, and then when he’s ripe, you come along and he falls into your lap like an apple from a tree.

“It must have seemed terribly unfair,” Kelly said evenly, trying to keep her voice calm and steady as she inched still closer.

“Seemed unfair?” Kendra howled. “Seemed? What have you ever done for him but fall back and spread your legs! I’d hoped that you were a passing fancy, something that would fade away when your stupid mural was done. But then I heard him ask you to the Art for the Whole Planet Ball! I couldn’t believe my ears! He’s supposed to take
me!”