Too Near the Edge

by Lynn Osterkamp

  He leaned forward to look me in the eye. “Cleo, I’m disappointed in you. We could have had something together—with our mutual interests in creating opportunities, making the world a better place. But now a lot of people will be hurt, and it’s all your fault. Thanks to you and your policeman boyfriend prying and spreading lies about me, I’ve had to take down my web pages and my companies are history.”

  I figured Pablo must have been digging around last week and found out more about Erik’s businesses. Maybe even had police officers questioning him. It felt good to think Pablo did take me seriously even though he didn’t say he was. I felt a brief smile form within me at the thought of him.

  I guessed Erik was scared his past had caught up with him. “If your businesses are legitimate, why do you have to disband them?”

  “I don’t need all this hassle. I’ve run a lot of businesses in my day, and I can go somewhere else where people appreciate the opportunities I’m offering them. But because I’ll be leaving here before I planned to, all the people growing the herbs will get nothing—and that includes Nathan. Sharon will lose, too. She would have gotten big returns on the money Adam invested in my nutrition business.

  But now it will all be lost.”

  So that’s where Adam’s money went! “I’m pretty sure Sharon doesn’t know Adam had invested in your business. If this was such a great investment, why didn’t you tell her? Why? Because it was all bogus! Pyramid schemes and other scams that you planned to milk for what you could get and then skip town?”

  “I guess you’ll never know, will you?” Erik sneered. I don’t have to tell you anything. I’m on my way out of town right now. I will disappear! No one will find me. I’ve done it before.”

  “Whatever, Erik. I’m tired. If you’re leaving, go ahead and do it.” I pushed my chair back and tried to stand up.

  But Erik quickly stood up and pushed me back down in the chair. “I’m not finished with you yet, Cleo. You deserve to suffer, to pay for the suffering you have caused.”

  “What about the suffering you’ve caused? You ripped off Adam so Sharon and Nathan ended up poor. You’ve cheated who knows how many people out of $500 or more. Don’t you owe these people something?”

  “That’s not your concern, Cleo. We’re talking about you here.”

  “Erik, you know Pablo knows about you. If anything happens to me, he’ll know who to look for.”

  “I’m not going to kill you, Cleo. That would be too easy. But you will suffer. Because you will know I’m out there, watching you. Don’t think I’ll forget you or what you’ve done! I know how to find you. You’ll never know when I’ll show up on your porch, in your house, or in your studio. You’ll live in fear that someday when you least expect it, I’ll come along and make you pay for what you’ve done. I’m one ghost that will definitely come back to haunt you. Here’s your phone. Call anyone you want. It won’t do you any good.” With that, he stood up and disappeared into the shadows.

  I got up, unlocked the door, went in and locked it again from the inside—knowing, of course, that Erik could pick the lock if he wanted to. I checked all the windows, then staggered into the bedroom, pushed a chair against the door, pulled off my clothes and sank into bed, too exhausted to take any more precautions.

  Chapter 41

  The next day—Sunday—I woke up about noon. In contrast to the cheerful sunshine streaming through my windows, I felt groggy and out of sorts. After a shower, I went out to the garden to pick some tomatoes, chives, parsley and strawberries. Out in the yard, I halfway expected to smell some nasty stink of Erik still hanging there. But it was clean and sparkly almost as if Natalie had come over and cleansed its aura while I slept. The scent of my roses and phlox, blooming as though it were a summer day like any other, improved my mood.

  I had eaten next to nothing in the past twenty-four hours, so I was starved. I fixed myself a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and herbs, strawberries, toast and coffee. While I ate, I checked for phone messages.

  Pablo had called from Oregon about 11:00. Someone from the Longmont PD had called him and he was up-to-date on what had happened to Sharon, Elisa and Donald. And he knew I had been with them at the lab.

  I dreaded the conversation I knew we would have, but I called him back anyway. He had the basics that the police knew, but he had a lot of questions.

  “Cleo, what happened? What were you three doing at Waycroft’s lab yesterday morning that set him off?” Pablo sounded worked-up. Not that he didn’t have reason to be upset, but as a cop he’s learned to at least sound calm under almost any circumstances.

  “What did we do to set him off? You make it sound like it was all our fault. He’s the one who shot at me, knocked Sharon out, and kidnapped Elisa,” I said indignantly.

  “Whoa, Cleo, relax. I just want to know what happened there at the lab.” His tone was steady now.

  It hit me that only Sharon, Elisa and I—and possibly by now, Joel—knew what we had found out about Waycroft’s project, and, more importantly, knew Waycroft had killed Adam. Much as I would have liked to vindicate my claim that Adam was murdered, I thought it should be Sharon’s call as to what would be told about Adam, now that Waycroft was dead. So I told Pablo only what we had discovered about Waycroft’s research and how we went to his lab to use the evidence to get him to back off and quit harassing us.

  “And then he pulled a gun out of his desk drawer, pointed it at us, and said he would find a way to kill us and make it look like an accident.”

  “Why did you run when he had a gun on you?” He sounded incredulous.

  “There was a demonstration outside that distracted him for a minute, and I thought that was my only chance.”

  “You were very lucky, Cleo. You could have been killed.”

  “I know, I know. But I got away with just a scratch. Elisa’s the one who was really hurt—actually almost died. And I need to get back over to the hospital to see how she is.”

  “I don’t know, Cleo. I want to hug you because you’re safe, but I also want to shake you for taking those chances. We need to talk more about this. How about tomorrow night? I won’t be back until 4:00 today and then I have to work late tonight to make up for being gone.”

  It was a talk I wasn’t looking forward to, but I knew we’d have it eventually. And I was curious about what pressures he had brought to bear on Erik that led him to leave town. We agreed on dinner the next night.

  When I got over to the hospital, I found Elisa much improved. They had moved her from intensive care to a regular patient room.

  She looked battered, with two black eyes, scratches and bruises on her face, a bandage on her head where some of her hair had been shaved off, and a cast on her right arm. Not her usual put-together look. But she was alert and eager to talk to me about what had happened.

  “Right after he hit Sharon and knocked her out, he tied me to a chair and gave me some kind of injection that he said would put me under in about ten minutes. Then he untied me and took me out to his jeep. I was asleep before we got to Arapahoe and Folsom. The next thing I remember was being in a different car driving up Boulder Canyon to Nederland. I think I came to just before Boulder Falls.”

  “So you don’t remember anything about being at Holly’s, leaving Donald’s car, and taking hers?”

  “No, not a thing.”

  “I assume he switched cars to buy himself some time,” I said, “because the police were looking for the jeep. But why was he going up the canyon after that? And why was he on highway 119?”

  “When I first woke up, I heard him talking on his cell phone arranging for a limousine to pick him up at Central City to drive him to an airport in Pueblo. He didn’t know I was awake, and I didn’t let on. Then I heard him make a call to someone to arrange a charter flight for him from Pueblo to somewhere in Mexico. I kept on acting like I was still unconscious and I guess he was too busy making all those calls to take a careful look at me. My face was turned away from him t
oward the window on my side of the car, so I was able to open my eyes and look out without him knowing.”

  “So how come he crashed the car? Was it because he was on the phone?”

  “No. It was because I surprised him, grabbed the wheel, and steered the car off the road when we were on a narrow turn next to a steep ravine. I’d been sitting there thinking about how I could get away. I could tell from the phone calls that he planned to take me with him to Mexico as a hostage, in case he needed a bargaining chip. I figured once I was in Mexico and he didn’t need me anymore, he’d arrange for me to disappear or die in some accident. So I decided I’d rather take my chances on an accident here, where at least I had some chance of surviving.”

  “Wow! That was gutsy. I don’t think I would have had the nerve to cause a car crash in the mountains.”

  “Well, you know me—I’ve always loved a challenge. Maybe it was crazy, but I’m a risk taker by nature. No question this was more of a gamble than I usually take, but I was desperate to get away from him. And I couldn’t just sit there and let that ass have everything his way. Could you hand me that water glass?”

  I put the glass in her left hand, waited while she took a long drink and then put it back on the table. “I guess you know Donald died in the crash.”

  “Yes, Jack told me. Maybe I should feel something, but I don’t. Donald was a brilliant man, but he had turned into a monster.”

  “Have you told anyone that he killed Adam?”

  “No. I only told them about the Mexico research project where he’s buying babies. I figured the rest is up to Sharon. She has Nathan to think about. It’s not like it makes any difference whether the truth comes out about how Adam died, now that Donald is dead. And they’d only have our word as proof anyway.”

  “Exactly. Losing Donald is going to be hard enough for Nathan as it is. And he’s going to have another disappointment as well. Erik Vaughn turns out to be a fraud, scamming people with those herb-growing kits. I’ll fill you in on the details later, but the gist of it is that he’s left town and there won’t be any money for the herb growers.”

  Jack and Maria showed up then, and I could see Elisa had wilted a bit, so I left, gave Sharon a call, and went over to spend a little time with her. When I got there, she was working on Adam’s computer, which was still on the dining room table where we had set it up the other night. Joel had taken Nathan tubing in Boulder Creek.

  “I haven’t found anything about Dad’s research project yet, but Adam does have a whole computer folder of financial stuff relating to his business,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out who owes him money.”

  I hated to give her more bad news, but I knew I couldn’t hold off any longer telling her about Erik. I began hesitantly. “Um…I saw Erik yesterday…well actually it was early this morning…about 4:00 a.m.

  He was on my porch when I got home from the hospital.”

  “Waiting on your porch at 4:00 a.m.? Why?”

  “He had some things to say to me. It’s kind of a long story—which I’ll tell you later. But the main thing is, Erik told me that Adam had invested a lot of money in his business. So that’s why Adam’s company was in debt when he died.”

  “That’s a relief. Now Erik can pay back the money, and we’ll be fine.” She stopped and thought for a minute. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Why didn’t Erik tell me about Adam’s investment? He knew I was worried about where the money went.”

  “Exactly, Sharon. Here’s the thing. Erik isn’t who he seems to be, and any money invested with him isn’t likely to be returned.” I went on to tell her the whole story including Pablo’s investigation, my trip to Minneapolis, all I had learned from Harry, my confrontations with Erik, and his announcement that he would shut down his businesses and leave town. “So I’m afraid he won’t be paying back Adam’s investment or making good on Nathan’s herb plants. You can try to get your money back by reporting him to consumer fraud or something, but from what Harry said, pretty much no one ever catches Erik—Horace—or whatever he decides to call himself the next place he goes.”

  Sharon wept on my shoulder. I felt mean for telling her all of this after what she’d been through in the last few days, but I’d been holding it back from her too long already. My trip to Minneapolis had been Wednesday, and it was already Sunday by then.

  She grabbed a tissue, blew her nose and wiped her eyes. “I can’t believe I felt so close to him, that I let Nathan get close to him, that we went camping with him.”

  “From what Harry told me, and from what I’ve seen from Erik lately, I’d say he’s an excellent actor, has an amazing ability to charm and seduce others. Basically a sociopathic personality. But his ‘dark side’ is hard to spot. We’re not alone—so many people have been taken in. He’s wonderful at making promises and coming across as a great guy but rarely makes good on anything. Maybe some of the time he even intended to do what he said he would do, but mostly he just told people what they wanted to hear so he could get what he wanted. He usually got what he set out to get, and when he didn’t, he moved on.”

  “You’re right, but I still feel stupid not seeing him for what he was. Do you think he killed Jenny?”

  “Maybe. But there’s no way we’ll ever know. For her sake, to avenge her death, I wish we could pin it on him. But I can’t see how we could do it.”

  “That’s so sad. But you’re right. Okay, let’s see if we can find anything on the computer about Adam investing in Erik’s scams.”

  Using the computer’s search feature, we entered “Vaughn’s Holistic Healing.” It didn’t take long to find the documents. Adam had invested about $80,000 over the past year, for which he had a one-third interest in the business. We tried going to Erik’s website several times, but each time we got only the white page with the message: The page cannot be found. The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. So it looked like taking down the website was one promise Erik had actually kept.

  “Great! I own a third of a non-existent business,” Sharon said. “I sure wish I’d known about this before Erik left town. Maybe that’s why he never got around to doing what he said he would do to boot up this computer. Hmmm….I wonder whether he was actually the one who stole it.”

  “But why would he give it to Narmada? In fact why would he give it back at all?”

  “Good point. I wonder if she stole it herself and just said it was someone she knew?”

  “Wouldn’t stealing be bad karma for her?” I asked. “You know what? Not telling us who took it is bad karma too. I’m going to call her right now and give her the chance to redeem herself.”

  “Good luck with that,” Sharon said.

  I took out my cell, which had Narmada’s number in memory from the times she’d called me. I expected to get voice mail, so when she actually answered, I wasn’t prepared.

  “Natalie…um, I mean Narmada, it’s Cleo. But you probably know that from your caller ID, and anyway you’re psychic.” Good grief, could I be any more clumsy? All at once I realized I owed her big time for showing up at Waycroft’s lab when she did. “I want to thank you for the demonstration. It truly saved my life—and Sharon’s and Elisa’s too—and we’re all very grateful. I don’t know what we would have done if you and your friends hadn’t shown up when you did.”

  “Cleo, I told you I was meant to organize this demonstration, and now we know why. I felt it there when you were in danger. The soul bond we have is very strong.”

  “Soul bond?” I had no idea what she meant, but I was curious.

  “Yes, I feel we’re sharing a vibration, that we have a cosmic connection. I’m sure we’ve shared experiences in other times and dimensions. Now we need to transform our negative relationship patterns. Everything needs to be completely clear between us. So I’m going to tell you the whole truth. It was me. I took Adam’s computer. I had to do it to see what toxic stuff he had on there about me. The negative energy he spread a
bout me had to be removed. But it didn’t work. I couldn’t log on. So I knew it wasn’t meant to be. And I could feel it dragging me down, just having it in my space.”

  “So that’s why you gave it to me? To get it out of your space?”

  “Yes. I knew I had to get it back to Sharon, but I couldn’t deal with her. She would have called the police and created negativity. I knew you’d get it back to her.”

  “So why tell me now?”

  “I told you.” She sounded slightly exasperated, as if explaining to a backward child. “We have a soul bond. Our connection must be kept clear.”

  “Oh, right. I understand.” Not really, but I didn’t want to go any further with the soul bond thing. “Anyway, Sharon has the computer back, and she’s able to log on, so no harm done, I guess.”

  “Exactly!” Narmada said with enthusiasm. “Here’s how I see it. I helped you and Sharon and your friend out at Waycroft’s lab. Now you and Sharon can help me out by dropping the issue of the computer. I didn’t hurt anyone and you have the computer back.”

  Given all that had happened in the past few days, the stolen computer was a minor blip. And Narmada was right. We owed her big time. So I agreed with her and said I’d talk to Sharon about it.

  Sharon had been listening and was eager for the details. When I told her what Narmada had said, she laughed. “Sounds like her karma’s pretty shot after all this. No need for me to try to get her in more trouble. And her timing for that demonstration was terrific. So let’s forget about the computer theft.”

  It was good to see her smiling again. It felt like a good opportunity to bring up the issue of what she wanted to say about her dad and Adam. So I jumped in.