Replacing Gentry (26 page)

“You’re not planning to leave me in here alone, are you?” I asked like a frightened child.

He moved his hands to his hips with a faint groan. “I think it would be best if I slept in the guest room, don’t you?” he said, his face a mask.

Feeling half-insulted, half-terrified, I asked, “Why is it that a man with a well-established reputation as a womanizer is willing to make passes at just about every woman on the planet . . . except me?”

“Because with you, Marlie, it would never be that simple, never be just a casual flirtation, or a quick roll in the sack.”

Taken aback, I choked on my indignation. “Just so you know, I wasn’t insinuating that I wanted you to seduce me, I just—I—I don’t want to be by myself,” I insisted, reaching out to him. “Please don’t leave me alone. Not tonight.”

Johnny wiped his hands down his face and over the back of his neck. “Fine. Let me change,” he agreed and disappeared into the bathroom.

A few too many agonizing minutes later, he returned in a pair of navy house pants and a plain white t-shirt. After switching off the light, he slumped down into the overstuffed chair at the foot of the bed.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Anytime darlin’.”

I nestled under the covers, my eyes taking in the cozy manliness of Johnny’s bedroom. Delighting in the spicy sweet scent of his aftershave, I listened to the symphony of raindrops hitting the roof and windows. Daniel’s house, his bed, his arms around me at night had been exciting—new—and up until last night, safe. But lying here, right now, knowing that Johnny was close, I felt like I’d finally come home.

Chapter Thirty

I
was an accused murderer, a fugitive on the run, wife to a man I didn’t recognize, and still, there was a lightness in my heart.
You really shouldn’t be smiling,
I thought as I leaned in to inspect the black and purple bruise next to my eye. The crescent-shaped gash held together with butterfly bandages curved down in a frown from my cheekbone. I grinned back at it in contradiction.

On the sink below the mirror, Johnny had left me a toothbrush and a note that read:

I thought you could use this, and please do before I return.

(smiley face)

Make yourself at home. Back soon.

Johnny

And I couldn’t help but allow my smile to broaden. Though my situation was dire, my heart aching for Bridger and Bodie, for what I’d uncovered about their father, and the evidence I still needed to piece together, somehow a few words from Johnny were just enough to lessen the load.

In the kitchen I fixed myself a cup of tea and returned to the living room. I brought the mug up to my lips.

A sound.

I listened. Had I heard something? A clicking noise maybe?

Nothing.

Must have been my imagination,
I decided, when the same sound came at me again. This time I was sure it had come from the kitchen. The back door? I bolted upright. Tea sloshed onto my hand. I wiped it away then stood motionless, praying that the next sound would be Johnny’s boots against the kitchen floor. For the few seconds that followed, I heard nothing, nothing but my rapidly beating heart. I set my mug down on the coffee table. Another click followed by a forceful jiggling this time had me turning with a start.

What are the chances Johnny forgot his key?

I wasn’t that lucky. The sound of shattering glass sent me tripping and stumbling straight to Johnny’s secret hiding place. At the closet my hands fumbled, slipping from the doorknob like one of those doomed actors, futilely running for her life in a horror film. A brief stilling of my nerves and I was able to grip the knob and turn.

No sooner had I thrust myself into the dark, musty crevice and latched the false wall behind me, did the sound of carefully placed footfalls pass across the floor outside of the closet. Down the hall the feet went, stopping at each room before entering for a closer examination. At the end of the hall, the steps turned back, moving past me again and out into the living room where the intruder hesitated.

My teacup! I’d left it on the table, still warm. I admonished myself to settle down, reasoning that the darkened space surrounding me would keep me safe. The wave of hysteria quieted just enough for me to listen. Beyond my confinement, there was only silence.

He won’t know where to find you.
You’re all right for now,
I repeated until I almost believed it.

I listened for any sound. Again, nothing.

I should have stayed where I was but the small space was closing in, the darkness coiling itself around me. Reaching for the latch to release the wall, I stopped when a clicking sound from the other side had me yanking my hand back in alarm. Pressing my body against the back wall, I knew there was nowhere for me to go.

The false wall began to inch toward me. My eyes pulled back wide and unblinking. I balled my hands into fists ready to fight whoever had come for me. An instant later, light flooded the small space and I shrank back, blinking against the intrusive beam as I forced my gaze defiantly to that of the intruder on the other side.

Blinking once, twice more, I refocused on the last person I expected to see. “Electra?”

Reaching in, she grabbed hold of my arm. “Miss Marlie. What you doing in there?” she scolded as she yanked me out and into the open.

“What am I doing?” I said, floored by her presence. “What are
you
doing?”

She threw her hands in the air. “I come for you! What else?”

“But how did you know,” I started when my next thought surged to the forefront. “How is Herbert? Is he okay?”

Electra gave her head a shake. “Herbert,
es vijo loco
, but he going to be fine,” she said, brushing dust from the closet off my shoulder with a frown. “He should know better than to take on man half his age.”

Relief overcame me. I slumped back against the wall.

“So, it wasn’t me who attacked Herbert?” I said, pressing a hand to my chest—one less thing to worry about. “Thank heaven.” I was about to shout for joy when something she’d said struck me. “Wait a minute. If I didn’t kill Paul, and Herbert didn’t kill Paul, then who did?”

“I promise Miss Gentry mama and papa, and I try, but I no able to protect her. This time, I no let those boys lose another mama.” Electra smoothed her tight bun, her finger absently trailing the scar down her cheek. “I not as young as I use to be, but I still have fight in me.” She crossed herself and spit to the side. “Mister Paul,
el demonio
, he get what he deserve,” she said and spat again.

I was confused. “Why didn’t you say something last night? The police think it was me; they think I attacked Herbert, they think
I
killed Paul.”

She jabbed a fist to her hip, tapping her toe at me. “What you think I doing now?” she said like I was being ungrateful. “Beside, Mister Cannon, he need to trust you, to decide for himself that you tell truth. If I tell ’em first then maybe he always wonder, maybe
you
worry too he still question, that he no trust you, and you no trust him.”

I gave her a questioning look. “Wait, I don’t understand.”

She rolled her shoulder like it should be obvious. “I keep quiet ’til Mister Cannon come to me and ask for help. He come this morning and say he know you no do this, that Mister Paul was the one,” she said, and I thought I heard a hint of sympathy, or maybe apology, ringing through her heavily accented words. “Then, I tell him what happen and he say he think he know where to find you.”

It sounded like she was saying that Daniel wasn’t against me. That he believed me. But just to make sure, I recapped. “So Daniel doesn’t think I was trying to sabotage him? That I killed Paul or was sleeping with him . . . that I took drugs?”

Electra opened her mouth to answer but the words that came next were not hers.

“He doesn’t and
did not
, not even for an instant.” The voice came out of nowhere, irrevocably responding to my question.

“Daniel!” I gasped.

He held his hands up to show me he meant no harm. “Marlie, it’s all right. I know everythin’,” he said gently.

I had no idea what to say. In all my hoping for a positive outcome—one that didn’t end with me behind bars—I hadn’t imagined a moment like this. I hadn’t dared to consider that Daniel would end up on my side.

“I leave you two alone,” Electra said, starting for the kitchen door. As she passed by, she shot me a look of caution. “I be out back if anyone need me.”

When she disappeared through the kitchen Daniel took a few steps closer. “Marlie, all of the Metro PD is out lookin’ for you. You need to come with me now and turn yourself in so we can settle this before it gets out of hand,” he said as if there wasn’t a hundred other things he needed to say first.

I stayed put. How could I trust that he was here to help me after the way he acted the night before at the hospital, not to mention the things he said to Paul in the study
and
the evidence I found in the safe? What if all this was just a ruse to trap me?

“Why should I trust you? You deserted me at the hospital when Detective Ripley accused me of murder, of trying to kill Herbert, and having an affair with Paul.” I swallowed back the sudden rise of bile. “It’s no wonder the police are after me when even my own husband gives the impression he thinks I’m guilty.”

Daniel shook his head, his face slackening with a miserable look. “Marlie, you have to know how shocked I was at all that had happened. Do you think it was easy for me to see you sittin’ there with your face bashed up and not want to kill someone myself? But I couldn’t be seen as tryin’ to impede the investigation. That would have just made you look guiltier.”

“But you just walked out without a word,” I lashed back. “You left me alone to fend for myself. They cuffed me to the bed like a criminal!”

He shrank back from my outburst. “I’m sorry. When you mentioned Paul’s eyes I had to see for myself,” he said. “I couldn’t believe I’d been fooled again.”

“You know what Paul was?” I asked to confirm that we’d both arrived at the same conclusion.

“Yes, and evidently, so do you,” he said with a curious look.

Evil conspirators changing their appearance in order to replicate others—the truthfulness should have scared me but it didn’t. Instead, I felt steady, stronger—complete. “In the study you told Paul you’d ‘take care of me’?” I gave him a look that indicated I expected nothing less than the truth.

He expelled a breath. “I only said those things to keep you safe. I knew he was lyin’ about you but I didn’t know why. He’d been my best friend for as long as I can remember. He was my business partner, my advisor, I just couldn’t figure out why he was tryin’ so hard to discredit you. I didn’t know then he wasn’t really Paul. Besides, I thought you were out of town. I thought you’d be safe until I could figure a few things out and decide on my next move.”

“Your next ‘move’?” I questioned with an edge of suspicion. “Like the accident that killed the woman in Gentry’s car or that poor woman in the alley? I know about all the stolen records, the police report, and the missing autopsy.”

He swallowed hard. “I guess it’s time I told you everythin’ then,” he said.

I crossed my arms over my chest to hide that I was shaking. “I guess it is.”

Daniel combed his fingers through his dark hair. The gray at his temples looked unusually white.

“My daddy was an Iphiclesian, Gentry’s father too. In college I joined. I was overly idealistic back then and their philosophy appealed to me. But over the years, as I fell deeper into the organization, I found out they had a dark side, a side I’d never seen before. Gentry’s folks had run from them, gone to hide in Columbia. But the Iphiclesians finally caught up to them around the time she and I got engaged. By the time I learned the truth, it was too late for me to get out. I tried to play along, tried to find a middle ground between what they required and my own conscience. It was exhaustin’.

“Then, about four years ago, I discovered that Gentry—the woman I called my wife—was an imposter. And not just a fraud, but someone my own Society had sent to manipulate me, to destroy the very people I’d sworn to protect. For six months I’d lived with that imposter. Before I found out what she was, I had no idea the depths the Iphiclesians would go to get what they wanted.”

He pushed out a cynical kind of laugh.

“And I didn’t even notice she wasn’t Gentry until, apparently, she grew tired of pretendin’. Tired of playin’ the dotin’ mother, lovin’ wife, and social advocate. She started sleepin’ with Johnny, not to mention others, and usin’ drugs.” He spoke as if he needed to get the words out quickly before he changed his mind. “I couldn’t allow it to continue. I knew it was wrong, but when Paul said he could make her go away, I took him up on his offer. I don’t know what I thought he was going to do and wouldn’t allow myself to think about it. You have to understand. I had no choice. She was hurtin’ my children with her scornful words, hurtin’ my reputation and that of my family’s with her deplorable behavior,” he said, tears watering his eyes. “And now it looks as though she might still be out there. So who did Paul kill and bury in Gentry’s grave? It’s all a terrible mess, a mess I’m responsible for.”

I could tell by the unusual wobble in his voice that his decision was causing him considerable regret. And for good reason. Inadvertently, he’d had someone killed and his actions had been decisive, premeditated. But done so with the sole purpose of protecting Bridger and Bodie. I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t have done the same. A stab of sympathy inched into my heart, but I denied its call for compassion. I was owed a few more answers and I couldn’t allow my emotions to get in the way of discovering the truth—all of it.

“And the woman in the alley?”

“Gentry,” he mumbled, a tear spilling over to roll down his cheek. “They killed her and replaced her with . . . that woman. And what’s worse, by the time I finally figured out what had happened to her there was nothin’ I could do about it. If I tried to expose the Iphiclesians, they would have killed us all, or so Paul kept tellin’ me.”

Daniel’s words were garbled with emotion, with pain and ire. “That’s why I removed all the records. I couldn’t have anyone puttin’ the pieces together until I could do so myself and calculate how best to proceed.” He looked to me with a plea for understanding, for forgiveness. “I’m so sorry Marlie for pullin’ you into this. But I thought that now I knew what I was up against, I could protect you. Please, you have to try and understand. I love you.”

His appeal for empathy was so earnest I couldn’t help but feel unworthy. I’d misjudged him. I cast my eyes down to hide the guilt I harbored. How could I punish Daniel for unspeakable acts committed in the best interest of his family when I’d been snooping around, not to mention hiding secrets about my past as well?

“I guess we’re all capable of terrible things when faced with impossible situations,” I admitted in a meek whisper.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d been married before?” he asked.

“It happened a long time ago and lasted for such a short time, I hardly believe it myself anymore. His name was Finn and his parents didn’t approve of me, or so I thought,” I said.

“Shortly after we married I got pregnant, and soon after that I discovered I was losing the baby. Finn’s parents were pressuring him to annul the marriage. I knew he would never leave me and his child, so I hid what I knew was a serious problem with the pregnancy. I was practically bleeding to death and still, I didn’t say a thing. I was desperate not to lose him. I deceived him. So desperate, in fact, that I ignored the bleeding until an infection set in and eventually damaged both of my fallopian tubes beyond repair.”