Seaspun Magic (25 page)

Well, then, where did Leo fit in? Somehow she didn't believe in two mysteries happening at once, not in quiet, pretty Port Townsend. He and the officer weren't a team; she sensed at least that much. No, offhand, she would say they were arch enemies. She remembered Leo's green glitter of victory, and Larry's baleful look, too. But could the two men be after the same thing?

Arianne put the lid down on the creamy Boston-style clam chowder and wandered over to where Rae was playing, rather untunefully, with the pots and pans and all their various lids. Suddenly she gathered her baby boy in her arms and held him close. To his great annoyance, for he was busy. But she held him a second more, finding comfort in his vigorous warmth. At his squawl of protest she released him to his clanking and crashing.

Restless, she inspected all the windows to be sure they were secure, peering out at the windy wet darkness beyond. Already the cold fingers of another storm were reaching down her chimney to splatter on the glowing coals, sending wisps of smoke into the room. She shivered, heaping more wood on the fire for a cheerier flame. Thank heavens there was no shortage of firewood in these parts, and thank God for Orly, who always made sure she was well supplied.

Orly... should she call Orly for comfort and advice? But somehow she didn't want to involve another innocent body in the nefarious proceedings. One—herself—was enough. At least Orly was close at hand should she need help. Her mother, of course, was in Palm Springs, but a phone call would bring Mikey running. And there was always the police....

The winter wind sweeping in from the wide-open ocean battered at the old house, whistled in the eaves and howled around the cornices. The seaward windows rattled; her fire sputtered, and Arianne yearned for the refuge of Leo's strong arms.

To gainfully occupy herself, Arianne decided to gather all the odds and ends of her mystery into one long list. There was an old historical navy fort suddenly active; there was Leo, who spent all his time there, there was Larry, a naval lieutenant. Three possibly unrelated facts with one common denominator—the navy.

Larry was up to something no good, while Leo worked for somebody called MicroCon, Inc., Investigations Branch. Could he be investigating Larry? Could that be why Larry hadn't dared to challenge him? Was that why Leo had talked so strangely about Achilles heels and behavior befitting the trust of one's country?

Arianne thought she might have hit on something important with this line of argument. Things did seem to fit. Larry was, after all, an officer; she supposed he could be trusted with fairly important details of defense. And betraying a country was considered a moral offense, and Leo had hinted at moral behavior. Then, too, what Larry was doing to Jill could hardly be called moral, either. If the navy was watching him, as Leo had casually mentioned could be the case, they would have plenty of reason to raise their eyebrows. They had already caught him out once.

Her own unfortunate involvement must be because of her ESP or her proximity to the old fort or both those reasons. Jill's house was the nearest B and B establishment to the old fort, while Arianne's was right above it, with what amounted to a bird's-eye view. Small wonder Leo would grasp at a chance to stay with her instead of Jill. And why would he not encourage Larry to visit, if it was Larry he was investigating? Had Leo's growing attachment to his landlady interfered? Maybe that was why he hadn't wanted to make love to her. It made his job so much more difficult. How could he encourage the traitor to kiss the bait, when he was falling in love with the bait? Hm. It was amazing what a little figuring could do—

Or else, perhaps Leo was doing some sort of investigation for the navy down at that old fort, and Larry was traitorously spying on him. That version would fit all the salient facts just as well as her first supposition. Leo was investigating those mysterious rings, and Larry was trying to break into them with passwords she was supplying.

Arianne moaned. Perhaps that was why Leo was investigating her, as well. Perhaps he and whoever hired him suspected her of some duplicity with Lieutenant Larry Barnes. This would explain that ESP dossier upstairs! And this would be another reason for Leo not to get emotionally involved with her.

Did Jill know what Larry's scheme entailed? Even if she did know the gist of it, would she enlighten Arianne? Not bloody likely when she was helping Larry in the first place! Some friend she turned out to be!

Arianne stewed over the jigsaw puzzle that was beginning to take shape in some respects, while in others the bits and pieces were without meaning or order. She needed more information, but where would she find it?

She already knew it was useless to try to dig things out of Leo that he didn't want to divulge. Larry, well, she might trap him into saying something, but that was unlikely, too. He had remained closemouthed about his intentions, telling her no more than was absolutely necessary. Certainly nobody at the fort would help her, and if she snooped around there, she might make the powers that be even more suspicious of her than they were now. Her only option was Jill.

Arianne didn't hesitate. She smelled trouble. It was in the night's darkness, in the rain's drumming, and it had her spooked.

Although it was almost time for Leo to arrive for dinner, she scribbled him a quick note, bundled Rae into his winter coat and draped her yellow rain slicker over them both. Then she ran like blazes over to Jill's house several hundred yards distant, her Wellingtons squelching on the rain-soaked muddy path. She banged on Jill's back door with her fist.

Jill looked as though she might have been expecting someone else. Her face dropped, and she glanced back into her house and then apprehensively at Arianne. Determinedly she managed a wan smile. "Am I on baby-sitting detail again tonight?"

"No, Jill...may I come in?"

She wasn't welcoming, but she stood aside. "If you're going to bug me about going to Orly, Arianne, don't. I'll decide when the time's right."

"I didn't come about Orly." Gratefully Arianne put Rae on his feet, puffing from the run. She was sure her son gained five pounds a day. He was delighted to greet his playmate, Erin, and the children immediately became immersed in a game of pretend. Gauging Jill's expression, Arianne guessed her mood hadn't improved any, but there was a stubborn set to her chin. Perhaps Jill was being paid a tidy sum for her role as accomplice.

Arianne hesitated, to choose her words carefully. Just because Jill had decided that, like the captain of a sinking ship, she would go down with her ex-husband, Arianne was not going to let them drag her along, too. Life was, after all, too precious, and she had her son's welfare to consider. She had to make Jill talk. She had no choice.

Arianne plowed right in with no preliminaries, deciding to rely on shock value. "What's your ex-husband Larry Barnes up to? You'd better tell me, or I'll call the sheriff!"

Jill gaped at her with a sort of uncanny horror, and Arianne knew she figured her insight was the result of her ESP, not plain deductive reasoning with a dash of feminine intuition thrown in.

"Um, ah, er," she babbled.

"Cough it up!" Arianne was relentless. She fastened her eyes on Jill and didn't let go, knowing now that the other woman was afraid of her witchery. So there were times, after all, when her ESP came in handy! Not breaking her stare, she backed slowly toward Jill's phone. She didn't know how it happened—maybe it was telepathy between her and Rae—but as if on cue, he started shrieking like a police siren, a perfect imitation, and Erin gleefully joined in.

The unexpectedness of it shattered Jill's resolve. She crumpled into a chair and dissolved into tears. "Please don't call the cops, please don't call the cops—" she sobbed, in between the cacophony of the boys. "Please, please, please..."

Arianne went to Erin, put a finger on his lips to shut him up, kissed him on both cheeks and said, "Erin, sweetheart, would you please take Rae into the living room and play there with him?"

Glad to be entrusted with such an important and solemn task, he took Rae by the hand and led him, still noisy, away.

Arianne turned back to Jill, who had her arms on the table and her face buried in her arms. "Well, hurry up," she snapped harshly, not letting up. "I haven't got all night!"

"I don't know what he's d-doing," Jill whimpered, wracked with sobs. "He never tells me what it's all about until a-after!"

"You have to do better than that!"

"I don't know!" Jill cried, "Go ahead, do whatever you do, I don't know!"

"Dammit!" Arianne exclaimed. "Dammit it all to hell, anyway!"

"I'm sorry," Jill gasped between tears. "I'm s-s-sorry, but...but...but—"

"But you just had to tell him about my ESP!" Arianne accused angrily.

"He wanted me to spy on the old fort," she said, squirming, "but I couldn't do that so... I gave him you, instead."

"Oh, Jill!"

"I know it's awful, I know it stinks, but what could I do? I had nothing else to trade off."

"So you sicced him on me! Oh, Jill!"

Jill writhed under Arianne's furious stare.

"Do you have any idea what Larry wanted you to watch out for at the fort? Does it tie in with his scheme? Any hint, any clue, anything he might have said? Oh, by the way, if it's any comfort to you, we didn't make love!"

Jill shuddered; Arianne didn't know whether she did so from relief or pain.

"He's much too smart to give himself away." Jill blew her nose amid her tears. "He just asked me to set him up with y-y-you!"

Arianne realized she had to be very careful not to give anything away herself, like the possibility of Leo's being there to investigate Larry. Jill would be sure to pass such information on to her ex. Remembering that baleful look the officer had given Leo sent an uneasy shiver up her spine. She had no doubt Larry could be very unpleasant when he had a mind to be—

Jill sobbed on. "I feel so sick I could—I just want to die! How do you think I felt, every time he made me baby-sit. I knew I was taking a chance talking about him—indirectly—with you so much, but I c-couldn't help it. I-I was going crazy." She gasped to catch her breath. "And I've been so scared about what he's going to do.... I can't eat, I can't sleep. I feel like I haven't slept in years!"

"Don't you start with the self-pity! You brought this on all by yourself! When he comes knocking you don't have to let him in, you know. If you're too weak, then either remove him from your life or remove yourself from his! For crying out loud, Jill, have a little backbone!"

"I—I should drown myself in the ocean. It's right outside the door!"

"Now I've heard everything! Pull yourself together, or I'm going to slap you in a second!"

There was silence for a short while, and then Jill stammered, "You think I should g-go see Orly?"

"What's the point? You've got nothing to tell him. No, that's a lousy idea. But here's a good one. Go visit my mother. She's a very understanding soul. You know how she is. And you'll be tonic for my Aunt May, who has to make up problems just to have some. They'll love puttering around with the kids, and it'll give you a chance to rest. You look like you're an inch from collapsing. Throw a few things in a suitcase and go. That's all it will take to get out of here. I'll phone ahead so they'll be waiting for you. You'll have a lovely Christmas with them in Palm Springs. If you leave right away, you'll get there by tomorrow night, no problem. If you need money for a motel tonight, I'll lend you some. What do you say?"

"I—I—how can I thank you?"

"Just get the hell out of here." Arianne felt too sorry for her weak neighbor to refuse to help her, angry as she was. But she knew their friendship would never be the same.

"Okay. I'll go. Right now."

With almost feverish zeal Jill began an organizational blitz that had Arianne on the run to get a dozen small but necessary chores done. With children there were so many
accoutrements
: toys, diapers, milk and cookies. And furnaces and pilot lights and garbage needed tending before the house could be left. Just once, Arianne looked toward her house to see if Leo was home, perchance silhouetted in a window. But he didn't appear to be. Finally the car was packed, and the children dressed for the journey and assembled by the back door.

"There's just one more thing," Arianne said, coming up from the basement. "Larry. He has a key to get in, doesn't he?"

"He has at least two," Jill replied shamefacedly, pulling a toque over her short-cropped brown hair.

"Right. So we don't want to alarm him by your sudden and unexplained disappearance, do we? You must leave him a letter."

"A goodbye letter?" Jill murmured after a moment's reflection.

"Well, if you like. Whatever, as long as it stops him from chasing after you."

Jill nodded bitterly. "That'll be easy. There's paper in that drawer beside you, and I have a pen somewhere—" She riffled through her purse.

They sat down at the kitchen table to compose the all-important letter. Larry shouldn't suspect for a moment that Jill had betrayed him. After all, the object was to get her out of trouble, not in deeper. Jill chewed the end of the pen in concentration.

"'Dear Larry,'" she began aloud, scribbling rapidly in accompaniment. "'I can't take it anymore, seeing you and Arianne together!'" She stopped and looked up. "That's a good start. What next?"

"Um... um... since we don't want him getting suspicious, let's let him think his plans as far as I'm concerned are working. Here goes. 'You don't need me, now that you have what you want. She'—meaning me— 'she's eating right out of your hand!'" Arianne thought she had better explain. "He'll believe that, because I've been using him to make Leo jealous."

"I'm glad somebody's finally getting some use out of him! Leo, huh? I thought I told you about paying guests!"

"I'll tell you about it sometime." Arianne smiled faintly.

Jill smiled faintly back and then continued with the letter. " 'My sister in Tulsa is sick and needs my help, so I'm leaving to be with her, and I'm using this quick exit to leave you, too. I really think it's better this way. I can't see us ever making a go of it, and I've decided that I never want to see you again. This is it, Larry, this is really the end. P.S. Please leave your keys to my house in the mailbox.'" Jill signed her name with a sad flourish. "There! That sounds properly sincere, doesn't it?" A residual sob shook her voice slightly. "I just hope he doesn't phone my sister!" She folded the short letter, put it in an envelope and wrote his name on the front of it. Arianne sighed sadly, and both of them almost burst into tears.