Thunder in the Night (Crimson Romance) (27 page)

“You’re not going to capture Clark and expose him,” he told me with certainty, his brows meeting as he scowled with ferocious intensity.

“Your loyalty is admirable,” I said, “but you’re much too late to save him.” I tried to make the statement boastful, to startle him, catch him off guard.

“Save him?” Dan laughed, a hearty, full sound. “I don’t care about him. Lock him away forever if you like. The problem with Clark is he’s a weak man. If he’s pressured, he’ll talk.”

He paused, but I knew with a flash of insight what he was going to say next. I didn’t even blink as he concluded, “And he’ll talk about me.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

In the stillness following this revelation, the only sound came from the pool, where the dolphins still swam undisturbed. I watched Dan in shock and confusion, not fully understanding the import of his words.

“Yes, if Clark is cornered, he’ll crumble,” Dan said. “He isn’t a strong individual, you know, despite his outward appearances.”

“Clark is a criminal,” I said slowly, stating a truth. “But, you?” I shrugged my bare shoulders. I wasn’t fighting his grasp now. I was too stunned to resist just then and he loosened his hold.

I must have looked as dazed as I felt, because he laughed again, with great amusement. “I guess I owe you an explanation. After all your hard work, you deserve to know, I suppose. It’s a short story, really. You see, several years ago, when Elaine and I were on our first zoo trek in Africa, Clark came to me one night in great distress. He told me he was in desperate need of a rather large sum of money and he needed it immediately. Well, naturally, I’m always one to help out a friend and we arranged a loan. I asked him what he needed it for, of course, and his explanation was surprising. It seems he’d gotten involved in a very lucrative but illegal scheme importing protected animals — or parts of them.” He grinned and I recoiled, pulling away in shock.

When he gave my arm a painful wrench I went still.

Dan continued, as if my pain or fear was no concern of his. “He’d come up a bit short on this occasion and didn’t have enough to pay his partners. Without pay, he knew he’d be killed. There is no honor among thieves, Allison.” Dan pursed his lips, shook his head. “No honor. No loyalty.”

“And that surprised you?” I asked. It was hard for me to get the words out. My heart was pounding and my breath was coming in short little gasps.

Intent on confessing his sins, Dan ignored my remark and went on. “All my life — my adult life — people have said I made my money by saying ‘I do.’ They think I married Elaine for her fortune. That I wasn’t capable of earning it on my own. And that isn’t true! I had a good start on it when I met her. Would have done all right on my own. But, then, there she was. So young, so lovely, and with a substantial fortune, to boot. I won’t deny that was part of her charm then, but we were well matched in other ways.”

I saw an opportunity to reason with him and jumped at it. “You still are. Anyone can see you two love each other very much.”

He nodded. “Yes, yes, we do. I’ve always wanted to give her everything her heart desires. I’ve always wanted to prove to us both I could support her. Earn the money she’s so used to having.” He trailed off, his eyes wandering over my left shoulder as he examined the past.

“You got involved with Clark and his criminal activity to prove a point?” I couldn’t keep the astonishment from my voice. If Dan needed to build up his ego, there were plenty of good ways to do it. This didn’t make sense!

“I don’t expect you to understand, Allison. I expect you to listen. Unless you’d rather I just kill you now?” All traces of the kindly, comically grouchy man I’d known had vanished. In his place was this hardened, brittle bit of humanity, so anxious to prove his own worth to no one but himself. So far gone on his quest for fulfillment, he’d kill to protect it.

“Dan! You’re going to kill me?” My entire body was shaking now, quivering with the fear I couldn’t hide or control. Even though the building was warm, I felt cold and stiff, literally petrified as reality dawned. He meant it. He would kill me because I knew about the smuggling.

“But I’m not the only person who knows all this,” I told him. “Do you plan to go on a spree and kill us all? It wouldn’t serve any purpose,” I bargained for my life, hoping to make this irrational man see the truth in my words.

“That’s what Clark said. He’s all in favor of taking the next plane to South America.”

“You told Clark you plan to murder me? Is he supposed to be killing Mart now? Is that why he wanted to see him?” I pressed Dan for answers, moving closer to him as concern for Mart flooded me.

“Clark didn’t ask to see him. I made that up. I’ll deal with Mart later.”

A flicker of hope sprung alive within me. We’d left Mart on the path ages ago. He’d had plenty of time to discover Dan’s lie and realize Clark really wasn’t looking for him.
Surely then
, I thought,
Mart will know something is wrong. Surely he’ll come looking for me!
The tiny bit of hope shriveled with my next thought. We were here in the dolphin enclosure, where no one would ever think to look. Until it was too late.

“I’ll deal with Mart next,” Dan repeated, blinking and bringing his eyes back to focus on me. “Just as I had that greedy Mendoza eliminated.”

“You killed Tommy Mendoza?” The revelations were coming fast and furiously.

“No, I didn’t kill him. I merely arranged it. He stumbled onto our scheme and wanted a part of the action. Too big a part. He wouldn’t listen to reason, so … .” His shoulders lifted and fell, casually explaining away violent death.

“What about Clark?” I asked. “What are your plans for him?”

“I think it’s time Clark left Rochester. Got started somewhere else. Our business can easily switch locations. Demand is limitless, and so is supply.”

“Limitless!” I burst out, thinking of the ivory bits and the elephants they had once been part of. “You’re crazy! These animals are endangered. They could become extinct. Disappear forever!”

Dan waved a hand in dismissal. “You’ve been hanging around Mart too much. He’s such an alarmist. Clark assured me from the start that all these so-called ecologists were overreacting. Animals are like cabbages, Allison. You can always grow more.”

“Clark told you this? The man who leads treks and give lectures on conservation?” I shook my head, sending my earrings dancing. “That’s ludicrous!”

“No, lucrative. If you had a demanding gal like Sylvia to support, you’d find this scheme pretty attractive, let me tell you. That girl loves the finer things, you know. Clark is well paid by the zoo, but it’s still never enough.”

“It’s amazing what people can justify for the sake of a buck,” I said. I hung my head down and fought back tears. I wasn’t thinking of myself then. I was thinking about human nature and all its inherent flaws.

Lost in my dismal thoughts, I didn’t hear the door open on the other side of the pool. Didn’t realize anyone had come in until the sound of voices reached my ears.

Dan heard them, too, and jerked me to my feet, clapping a hand over my mouth and pushing me
toward the wall. I stumbled a bit in my shoes, but Dan’s firm grasp around my body kept me upright. Shoving me under scaffolding which made up the underside of the bleachers, Dan joined me in the shadowy darkness.

Something hard poked me in the rib cage and I looked down to see the outline of a gun.

“If you move or make a sound, I’ll shoot you,” he hissed in my ear, and I knew he meant his words.

In silence, we watched two people move into view, engaged in a heated argument. I nearly fainted dead away when I recognized them.

It was Clark and Sylvia.

Chapter Thirty-Six

I heard Dan draw in a sharp breath beside me as the couple moved further into the room. Sylvia was speaking, her angry gestures accompanying angry words.

“I won’t stand for this behavior, Clark! You’ll not humiliate me like this again, do you hear me?” She stomped one foot down hard on the floor.

Clark defended himself. “You’ve got it all wrong,” he told her, his voice soothing, as if he were trying to deal with a sulky child. “You know there’s no one but you for me. Pumpkin, you must realize that.” He reached out, attempting to touch her but she stepped back out of reach.

“Don’t you touch me and don’t lie! I’m not blind, Clark, although I’ve certainly done my best to overlook your faults!” She gave him a contemptuous glance, her eyes flicking over him from head to toe. “I saw that woman hanging all over you tonight. Cozying up to you — in front of everyone. And this isn’t the first time, either!” Spinning on her heel, she strode to the very edge of the pool, looking down into the depths of the water. The worst of her anger seemed to have flared and abated. Her shoulders slumped in defeat and I thought she might start to cry.

Clark advanced slowly, coming up behind her in silence, as if he were approaching a motion-sensitive explosive. He looked nervous and stricken, his mouth drawn down tight. The flickering light from the water played over his strained features. “Sylvia, that woman didn’t mean anything. She’s drunk! Couldn’t you tell? She didn’t know what she was doing.”

As he explained, I could picture the scene. A tipsy attendee, in a partying mood, advancing on the object of her affections, Clark. Sylvia, watching from the sidelines, would be doing a slow burn. Looking away, she’d remain in character as hostess of the fete. But inside … .

“Well, then why didn’t you stop her?” Sylvia wheeled around to face her husband, teetering for a second as her shoes slid on a puddle of water created by the dolphins’ splashes. She recovered her balance almost immediately and didn’t miss a beat. “Why didn’t you tell her to knock it off, instead of just standing there enjoying it?” She waved her arms in accompaniment to her words. “I tell you, Clark, I’ve had too much of this over the years and it just seems to be getting worse. I’m not along on every one of your blasted trips to God-knows-where to keep an eye on you! What happens when I’m not around? Maybe I don’t want to know!”

“Sylvia, you’re blowing this way out of proportion.” Clark made an attempt at damage control. “Be reasonable, darling. She contributes a lot to the zoo. It wouldn’t do to be rude to her, would it?”

“The zoo! The zoo! All you ever think about is this stupid zoo. I’m sick of it! Sick of the politics, the problems, and the smell. Clark, I want out. I want a divorce.”

Dan and I had been silent and still, our own horrific tableau frozen as this new one unfolded. At Sylvia’s pronouncement, Dan stiffened, as if he’d taken the blow personally.

Shifting around beside me, he was getting nervous, I could tell. He was a jittery old man, emotionally unstable and armed with a lethal weapon. I should have been taking these moments of delay to think and plan. I should have been developing some sort of strategy to try and save my life. But my mind was a blank, dwelling on other details, wondering where Sylvia placed the blame for her own clandestine love affair.

Clark had staggered back a step at her declaration, making me wonder how he really felt toward her. Was it love or security that kept them together? In Belize, at Altun Ha, Dan had said he wasn’t sure it was Clark whom Sylvia loved, hinting it could be something else. Prestige? Social standing? Or had he meant someone else? The professor?

Whatever Clark felt, its roots ran deep because he looked truly anguished now. Sylvia’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears as she looked at her husband. This was exacting a toll from her, too.

Clark opened his mouth to speak and Sylvia held up a hand to stop him. “No. No discussion. You won’t change my mind. Please don’t try.”

He took another step closer and the assertive action jolted Sylvia past her moment of sadness, bringing her anger back to the surface.

She backed up, standing at the very corner of the pool.

One more step and she’ll end up in the water
, I thought, realizing how close she was to the edge.

“Leave it, Clark! I’m going back to the party where I will be your dutiful wife one last night. Tomorrow, you’ll hear from my attorney.”

She made to move around Clark, in the direction of the exit. His hand shot out, grabbing her arm and twisting her around. I gasped and Dan gave me a jab.

“Sylvia, please!” Clark begged, but she was having none of it. He shifted gears. “I won’t let you go! I won’t let you do this to me.” His own violent instincts surfacing, he tightened his hold on her arm.

“Let go of me!” she hissed, squirming and fighting. With one sudden, forceful jerk, she pulled her arm away adding a swift kick at his shin. As she wrenched free, Clark was left off balance, slipping in the same puddle Sylvia had earlier, teetering at the edge of the pool.

Sylvia took off, running for the exit and sobbing loudly. Maybe she never even saw Clark’s flailing arms and his attempts to catch himself. She didn’t hear the heavy thud as his head collided with the tile floor at the edge of the pool. She didn’t see the blood red stain rapidly seeping into the water, turning it pink.

It all happened in the blink of an eye, moving in slow motion to be replayed in my nightmares for weeks to come. Beside me, Dan was stunned and motionless.

Without taking time to think about it, I made my move. Mercilessly, I rammed my left elbow into his paunchy stomach, doubling him over as his breath came out in a rush, and getting that gun away from my side. My stiletto heels, causing me pain all evening, were a blessing now as I brought one down on the top of his foot. He gave a yowl of pain, crumpling even further, and it was almost easy to give him the shove that tipped him over.

I leapt over his body, hiked my dress up with both hands and pelted across the room. My heels skittered on the tiles and, as I passed the pool, I spared a second to glance at Clark’s body floating on the surface of the water. The curious dolphins had drawn nearer, swimming in circles around him and making the scene even more unreal.

I hit the door at a run, pushing it open with one hand while the other hand kept my dress above my knees. It was a ridiculous outfit for the situation, heavy, awkward, and incredibly restricting. If I’d been able to remove the shoes rapidly, I would have, but the straps were buckled tight, making it impossible.