The Great Escape (21 page)

Something died, right there in front of her, on the carpet, bleeding.

She stared at it, head down for a few minutes, and when she looked up

that something dead was in her eyes and it was a terrible sight. Mike

stared at her and then turned back to the window, an automaton. 'Can

you,' she whispered dully, wondering why she was twisting the knife

in further and wondering why there was no more pain, 'look me in the

eyes and tell me that you don't want me here?' Silence, and he tensed.

She could feel it with every nerve of her body, every fibre of her soul.

BUT then she laughed, and that too was a terrible sound. 'Never mind,'

she said. 'Because do you know what? I don't believe in humanity any

more.' She turned very slowly because if she didn't she would fall

down and not get up, ever. And then with measured paces, she walked

carefully to the door. Don't feel, don't feel—ah, Mike don't! Her

thoughts screamed and screamed, and she wondered when they

would ever stop screaming. She didn't even know why; everything

else inside her felt so dead she might never feel again, and that was a

blessing. The nightmare was real, but the reality was a nightmare and

she should be waking soon. It was time to wake up. It was time to

snap out of the dream, but she couldn't, because she knew she was

pretending, to make things easier. As she reached the hall she heard

Mike speak, and the words he was saying were so incredible, so

horribly, utterly terrible that she jerked to a stop and turned again,

face dead white, hands clenched tightly, and her whole slim body so

tense that she thought something would crack.

'Mrs Kimble,' he said deeply, turning away from the window and

being silhouetted against the bright sun's glare, 'the little matter of the

bonus is something we need to discuss. You see, I know about the

plot to kill Dee. Two failings in as many days is a rather rotten

efficiency, don't you think? It was just a little too much to believe,

just a bit too obvious. You should have told me from the beginning,

Mrs Kimble. I could have helped you with the details. But

now—well, it's a different matter. Everything's totally different. I

know now, and I'm feeling a bit left out, not being included in the

plans. It may just cost you a little more because of that, Mrs Kimble.'

The world stopped, just stopped stock still. Then it tilted so

sickeningly and Dee felt her balance go, starting to topple forward.

The silhouette at the window moved so quickly he was a blur, and he

caught her before she hit the floor. But she wasn't unconscious,

because life was too cruel to let her faint. When she felt those

wonderfully familiar and yet horrifyingly unfamiliar arms close

around her, she screamed and fought him so violently and with such a

single- mindedness that he had to let go of her before she hurt herself.

She fell to the ground like a wounded animal, thinking to herself

hazily, and I thought there could be no more pain. They won't have to

kill me. I'm already dying.

'Clever, clever man,' Judith was saying admiringly, and the

admiration was cold. 'So those bungling fools really did let the cat out

of the bag, did they? When did you figure it all out?'

'After the first time. It didn't take me long,' he spoke, moving back to

the window. Howard slumped further in his chair. A bird sang

piercingly just outside the window. Dust motes danced in the

sunlight. Dee managed somehow to drag herself to a chair and to pull

herself into it. She might not have been there, as much attention as

everyone was giving her. She might already be dead for all they

noticed.

Always being overlooked, ignored, always being lonely.' God, what a

memory, she thought calmly. She'd done a good job of escaping—she

really had. Nine months before he found her. She might even try

again, if they were careless with watching her. But it didn't really

matter now, because no matter how she would try, she would never

escape again. The prison was inside her now. She would never be

able to trust, to let herself love again. She didn't really care if she lived

or died, and really would prefer to be dead. That joy of living that she

had gone off to seek, those months ago, had finally been destroyed by

the enemy.

'So you're wanting a little extra . . .' Judith mused, turning and

walking slowly across the room. 'A little extra to keep your mouth

shut, or a little extra to enlist your aid in our task? No, I think if we're

to be sure you keep quiet, we'll have to expect you to help with the

execution of the plan. Then you would be an accomplice and as guilty

as the rest of us.' She glanced sharply at him. 'Could you do that, Mr

Carridine? Could you help us?'

'Whatever it takes,' he said steadily. Dee heard him and didn't seem to

react at all. The room was getting a little fuzzy around the edges.

Wasn't it rich to have her lover plotting to kill her? Wasn't it just

absolutely rich? The room snapped back into a sharper clarity than it

had ever been before. She straightened in her chair and her blue eyes

sharpened into a hard brightness, her mind ticking swiftly over. Rich,

but not as rich as she would have been in a month and a half. If Mike

was as mercenary as all that, why hadn't he taken the smart way out

and stuck with her, the original heiress, the one in a position to

ultimately give him the most?

Foolish, foolish . . . her eyes swung to his silhouette and he seemed to

be looking at her. If his reasons for giving her away to her guardians

were not mercenary reasons—and the very fact that he had apparently

betrayed her and thus lost her confidence and trust would prove that

he was not mercenary—then that would mean that his reasons were

something else entirely.

Everyone was talking over her and around her, terms being discussed,

plans being made, macabre, terrible plans, but she wasn't even

listening. She was sitting there quite calmly, her face no longer that

terrible shade of white, thinking. She was totally unaware of the fact

that she was being watched quite closely by that silhouette by the

window. If he had a reason, then she could find it sooner or later. She

was coming out of the shock and was no longer willing to take things

at face value. Arid something was not quite right.

She didn't even feel any shock at the ease with which she was able to

accept that her guardians wanted her dead. Retrospect guided her

right along the path that Mike had taken and she saw his reasoning,

realising it was sound. She was the only thing that stood between her

aunt and millions of dollars. Dee, the daughter of a sister she had

begun to hate and resent. Dee, the pretty girl she should have had but

couldn't, just as Dee's father was the wealthy man she should have

married but didn't. It was all so glaringly obvious that she marvelled

at her own stupidity at having never seen it before. Or hadn't she?

Hadn't she run away when things became too much? Was that

because she had sensed the antipathy in the house, and her own

instinct for survival had prompted her to bolt from home? She'd

exclaimed to Mike not so very long ago that this life had been killing

her. Perhaps her subconscious had sensed that it had been more than

just a figure of speech.

And Mike was going to buy her all the time in the world. Her eyes

narrowed on Judith, cat-like, looking extremely calculating, and

everything fell into place. She knew what Mike was up to now. 'You

are such a fool, Judith,' she heard herself say, crystal clearly. 'Such an

utter fool.'

The other woman swung around and stared at her with such a wealth

of malevolence and antipathy gleaming in her small eyes that Dee had

to swallow, taken aback at the sight of so much unreasoning, active

hate.

'It appears to me, miss,' Judith hissed, coming forward and looking as

if she'd dearly love to strike her, 'that you're not in any position to be

saying much of anything at the moment, so I'd keep damn well quiet,

if I were you!'

'It does appear that way,' Dee replied calmly, and saw the figure at the

window move at last. 'But I don't believe I shall remain silent, all the

same. I—I just don't understand you. I don't understand you! Why do

you hate me so? Why are you doing this? There's enough money,

more than enough for all of us! Don't you realise that if you'd just

once shown me a bit of true kindness, I would have been more than

happy to share everything I have with you? My God, don't you know

that if—if you'd only given me a little love instead of this terrible,

senseless animosity, I would have given you the world .. .' Unwanted

and useless tears pricked her eyes and she brushed her face

impatiently. She shouldn't, not for them. They weren't worth it. They

weren't worth—a drop of wetness splashed on her hands, then

another.

She was shocked at Judith's harsh, mocking laughter, a sound that

reverberated through her whole being and haunted her for quite some

time afterwards. 'Why do you suppose we'd think you worth the

effort?' the older woman sneered, stalking close to eye her up and

down with a loathing that was all too apparent. 'And why do you think

we'd be content with the crumbs that you'd see fit to throw our way

when we could have it all! Oh, it's so easy! It's so incredibly easy!

Don't you know that I could crush you like an ant with one careless

finger and never mourn the loss? Alice was a fool, but then she

always was a fool! She actually expected me to be happy caring for

her child, ready to accept the burden of someone who stood between

me and everything I've always dreamed of! It was a stupid mockery,

that pittance—' and the word was a poisonous spat of hate and envy

and destroying greed, '—of an allowance. An insult to me! A damned

slap in the face!'

it wasn't!' Dee screamed, out of hurting for the memory of a mother

so loved and needed and yearned for, and a mother so irrevocably

gone, it wasn't! You could have had more than enough money put

away, if you'd only saved your allowance while you lived at the house

and had all your expenses paid!
What does the money matter?
I don't

understand!' Her total incomprehension made the statement a cry of

bewilderment and remembered pain, it brings me more grief and

trouble than anything I know. I hate it, do you hear me—
hate
it!'

'Well then, isn't that convenient!' Judith retorted, pacing around Dee's

chair in a predatory manner that had her shrinking down into her seat.

'Because you aren't going to get it! All my life I've stood by and

watched Alice get it all—all of it! Everything!' Her hand flew out in

convulsive, blinded anger and out of the corner of her eye Dee saw

Howard shrink away as if Judith had hit him. 'She had youth! She had

beauty, and a damnable charm that I could never imitate, no matter

how I tried! And in the end she had dear, handsome Charles, and so

much money she could have shared more with me, a whole fortune

more and—my God!—never would have even missed it! While

Howard here,' she swept out a contemptuous hand and he cringed

away even more, 'hadn't enough sense to hold down a decent job for

more than a few months or a year at a time! And in the end, dear,

lovely Alice got hers. Oh yes, in the end all of her youth and beauty

and wealth got her nowhere, nowhere!'

Dee couldn't stop the deluge of grief that shook her at the callous

dismissal of the bright and beloved personality that had once meant

the entire world to her. 'Her own sister! Oh God, her own sister --'

She heard the other woman say abruptly, 'Well then, that's it. It's a

shame that those men we hired were fools, otherwise it'd be over now.

But Carridine will help us, and that's a surprise, Howard, isn't it?

We'd had him figured differently, but he's just another Judas, like

everyone else in the world.' She cocked her head in a grotesque

caricature of a bright bird and eyed Dee with a contemplative look

that was utterly repulsive. 'Suicide, perhaps. A slashing of the wrists

would be messy, but effective. We could put her in the bathroom in

her room, to avoid too much of a mess. Or there's strangulation. You

could hang yourself, but where would we put you?'

Horrified disgust swamped Dee and she burst out uncontrollably, 'My

God, how can you stand there and tell me so calmly that you are—are

actually able to contemplate—which one of you would cut my