Irene understands the simile—it’s apt—but she hates thinking about Russ that way.
“The marijuana farmer was already on the books, and next might be someone who moved cocaine, heroin, oxycodone. So…on that first trip down here, they set Russ up.”
“Set him up?”
“Oscar Cobb was in the restaurant at Caneel on their first night. He’d told Todd that his former girlfriend, Rosie Small, would be working as a cocktail waitress. He also told Todd that Rosie was single, vulnerable, and extremely beautiful. Oscar staged a situation where he followed Rosie out to her car and harassed her, allowing Russ to step in and save the day.”
Irene gasps. “You mean the part…I’m sorry, I read about this in Rosie’s diaries…Russ put Oscar in some kind of headlock. That was staged?”
“Yes,” Marilyn says. “Rosie left the restaurant, Oscar followed, and he knew Russ would be heading back to his room along the same path. He let Russ get the better of him. If you knew Oscar, you’d understand that a headlock from someone like Russ wasn’t going to stop him. Once Oscar told Todd that he’d been successful, Todd and Stephen took Bluebeard over to the BVIs, leaving Russ alone for the weekend. That was all by design.”
Russ had been set up. Irene felt almost embarrassed for him.
“But Rosie had no idea?”
“None.”
“Russ still could have acted like an upstanding and faithful husband,” Irene says. “But he didn’t.”
“That’s right,” Marilyn says. “Todd and Stephen saw Rosie in Russ’s hotel room and they knew he could be blackmailed. He certainly wouldn’t want the news getting back to you in Iowa City. And then Rosie reached out to Russ using Todd’s e-mail, and Todd suspected she was pregnant. Todd flew down to confirm this and saw with his own eyes that it was true. He told Russ, and Russ confirmed with Rosie that it was his baby. She said she didn’t want to see him again and he honored that, but he started sending money.”
Marilyn leans forward; her pretty nails gently scratch at the knees of her khaki capris. “Does this come as a surprise?”
“I’m aware he sent her money.”
Marilyn purses her lips, sighs, shakes her head. “Because both Todd and Stephen knew about Rosie and the baby, there was nothing they couldn’t ask Russ to do. They put all of the ‘sensitive’ business deals under Russ’s supervision, in a whole separate subdivision of the company. They made it seem like this offshoot was independent of Ascension. Russ’s name alone was on the paperwork as the principal for all of the money laundering, all of the tax fraud, even things that weren’t so bad, like hiding money for a European soccer star who owed alimony. He couldn’t object, and Todd paid Russ handsomely to keep him happy. You had plenty of money at home? For the renovation of the Victorian?”
“Yes,” Irene whispers.
“In 2014, Rosie’s mother died, and Russ and Rosie reunited. Because there had been no oversight on any of the company’s deals, Russ grew bolder. He wanted property down here, a villa. He couldn’t very well keep bringing Rosie to Caneel; someone would find out about them. Through a tip from Oscar Cobb, Todd approached a failing real estate concern, Welcome to Paradise, owned by Douglas and Paulette Vickers. They’d bought a hundred and forty acres in Little Cinnamon with the intention of developing the hillside, but they ran out of money. They were about to lose the whole thing to the bank when Todd paid a visit.” Marilyn shakes her head. “You want to talk about two people who are completely under my husband’s sway? It’s the Vickerses. Todd saved them from ruin just after their son was born. They allowed dozens of phony real estate deals to be run through their office. But officially, Paulette and Douglas worked for Russ and Russ alone.”
Marilyn pauses. “They could have turned Todd in. I wish they had. But they were too afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Being killed,” Marilyn says.
Killed, Irene thinks. For turning in Todd, which is what Marilyn is going to do. Irene has no idea how Marilyn is remaining so composed, though Irene admits that she’s comforted by it. Marilyn reminds Irene a little of herself. She might not always have been strong, but she’s strong now.
“They’re both serving time instead,” Marilyn says.
Irene recalls her initial meeting with Paulette Vickers, which was during her very first hour on this island. Paulette had seemed flighty and completely insensitive to Irene’s emotional state, which was numb shock. She had prattled on about the hiking trails, about the landscapers. She had displayed nothing but calm acceptance that her employer was dead.
What else had Paulette told her?
“The villa was in Russ’s name,” Irene says.
“Everything is in Russ’s name,” Marilyn says. “That’s what I’m telling you.”
“Because of me,” Irene says. “He allowed himself to be blackmailed because of me. Because he didn’t want me to find out about Rosie and Maia.”
“I can’t speak for Russ,” Marilyn says, “but I think some men get a thrill out of leading a double life. I’m sure Russ was sick with guilt most of the time. But there was also probably a rush or a high from…pulling it off. I think it made him feel superhuman.”
Irene presses her fingers into her temples. “This is what I can’t reconcile,” she says. “At home, he was…the same. We had more money, yes, and we both changed because of that. We bought the Church Street house, we bought new cars, we ate out all the time, we donated to local causes, we set the boys up to succeed. But as people, we stayed the same. I worked at a magazine and oversaw the house renovation. Russ…he was exactly the same. Corny. Goofy. He could be insufferable with his earnest enthusiasm. The money didn’t make him sophisticated…or smug…or self-congratulatory. But neither did he seem like a man who was racked with guilt. He did make the occasional grandiose gesture—he hired a plane to fly a happy-birthday banner when I turned fifty; he would send me lavish bouquets. But I thought he was doing these things because he could. Because he loved me. He felt bad about being away so much, and he apologized about this the normal amount, but he never overplayed his hand. He never seemed tortured. So what can I think but that he was a complete sociopath?”
Marilyn says, “I met Russ a handful of times in my capacity as office manager. He was always so…guileless, so genuine. Every time I talked to him, I felt sorry for him. He didn’t belong in business with my husband. He was a sheep running with wolves.”
“You’ll forgive me for saying this, but Russ was neither guileless nor genuine. You knew he had a second family. There was no reason to feel sorry for him.”
Marilyn stares at Irene. “Of course you’re right. I just wanted you to know that he was…different from the other two. He was a nice person.”
“Nice,” Irene says. “But a wolf just the same.”
“Maybe deep down I knew he wouldn’t survive this,” Marilyn says. “Todd is ruthless. He’s greedy, and I’m not talking about money. He wants control, he wants power, he wants…domination. That’s what led us here. Russ, I think, was more than happy to let Todd pull the puppet strings. But Stephen wasn’t. Stephen realized that Todd was taking more than his share of the profits, and Stephen feared he wasn’t as protected as he needed to be. The danger in any entity with three principals is that when one side of the triangle weakens, another is reinforced. Stephen did the predictable thing and cozied up to Russ. Russ was already having a crisis of conscience about the despicable people whose money they were laundering. They were working with a Russian company who moved assault rifles—big, big money—but there was that rash of school shootings in the States, as I’m sure you’ll remember, and in several cases, the illegal guns could be traced back to our client. It was a tense time, and there were some uncomfortable inquiries into that client. Nothing came of it, but Russ and Stephen took advantage of the scare to say they wanted out. Before they talked to Todd, they both came to see me. Russ was first. He visited my office in Miami in early September.”
September, Ir
ene thinks. End of summer, beginning of fall, students returning to the university, football games on Saturdays, Go, Hawks!
“He told me he was ready to retire; he wanted to go home to Iowa and be with you. The house you’d been renovating for years was finally finished and he wanted to enjoy it—throw parties, host holidays. He wanted to spend time with his mother, who was quite elderly. He wanted to travel to Denver to help his younger son manage the outdoor-supply stores. He wanted to fly to Houston to see his grandson. He’d had a wonderful run in the Virgin Islands, he said, and he was grateful for all Ascension had given him, but it was time for him to return home.”
Irene can’t believe it but her immediate thoughts are What about Rosie? What about Maia? Was he just going to leave them behind?
“I told him that wasn’t possible. I told him he was too deeply vested in the company to just walk away. I told him the smartest thing to do was not to breathe a word of what he’d shared with me to Todd. I told him to protect his assets and protect you.”
September was when Russ made his new will, changing the executor from Todd Croft to Irene. Irene is the only person I trust to do the right thing, he’d said.
“Russ listened to my advice but Stephen did not. He went to Todd and turned it into a test of wills. He said both he and Russ wanted out. He said there was nothing Todd could do to stop them. Todd was…furious. He pointed out that both Russ’s and Stephen’s fingerprints were all over incriminating deals, and if they left, Todd would go to the authorities. To his credit, Stephen called Todd’s bluff. He didn’t think Todd would sacrifice the company. He wrote up sophisticated NDAs and presented them to Todd, and, at that point, Todd changed his tack and said, ‘Fine, you sign the NDAs, you can walk away.’”
Irene’s breathing is shallow. She knows what’s coming. She knows this is the end. She should stop Marilyn now; she doesn’t need to hear any more. Marilyn can tell it all to the FBI, that’s fine, but Irene doesn’t want to hear the truth spoken. “Marilyn.”
“Do you want me to stop?” Marilyn says. “Now?”
“Is there any way…I’m just afraid…” She’s thinking of Baker and Cash. And Floyd. Ayers and the baby. She can’t put them in danger just because she wants to hear how the story ends. Furthermore, she already knows how it ends.
However, to stop Marilyn now is to destroy, in some sense, the integrity of her intentions. “If you continue,” Irene says, “will my family or I be in any danger?”
“When I leave here,” Marilyn says, “I’m going directly to the FBI. Todd is still in custody. His boat captain was released and, I heard, fled the country. Todd’s business was so sensitive that we weren’t able to hire a lot of support staff. It was Russ, Stephen, the Vickerses…and Oscar. You’re safe. Or you will be, I promise.”
Irene takes a deep breath. Half of her wants to ask Marilyn to leave—but that might be even more dangerous. “Go ahead.”
“Todd used Paulette Vickers to bug the villa and compromise Stephen’s phone, Russ’s phone, and even Rosie’s phone. Todd discovered that Stephen and Russ planned to meet with British authorities on January second on Tortola. They were traveling in Stephen’s private helicopter—he was an accomplished pilot. To make it seem like a holiday trip, Russ invited Rosie to Anegada. Stephen would fly them over, they would stay at the beachfront cottage owned by one of their shell companies, and then, the following morning, Russ would claim he had a work emergency. The three of them would fly to Tortola, Russ would put Rosie on the ferry back to St. John, and Russ and Stephen would go to their meeting. Todd knew all this. He asked Oscar Cobb to put explosives on Stephen’s helicopter.”
“Oscar?” Irene whispers.
“Oscar refused to do it. He knew what Todd was up to, knew that he was planning on killing Stephen, Russ, and Rosie. Oscar had been drinking, it was late on New Year’s Eve, they had a fight, Oscar told Todd to find some other fool to do his dirty work because Oscar was out and Oscar was going to put a bounty on Todd’s head with his friends over in St. Thomas. Todd told Oscar that he understood Oscar was angry, it had probably come time for them to split ways, new year and all that. He told Oscar he should come see me in the office the next morning, that I would give him his severance pay.”
Finally, Marilyn shows some emotion. Her eyes glass over. “Oscar and I had a nice relationship. He did a lot of bad things, I knew this, but I could see glimmers of goodness in him, and I think I might have been the only one. He trusted me, he called me ‘Mama.’ He got to my villa on Water Island before Todd, woke me up with his pounding on the door. He told me what Todd was planning to do and begged me to stop it. He said…” Here Marilyn’s voice cracks. “He said he’d called Rosie—he still had her number after so many years—to warn her not to go, but the call had gone straight to her voicemail. He begged me to call Russ.” Tears are fully rolling down Marilyn’s cheeks. Irene wants to offer the woman a tissue, but she’s afraid to move. “So, if I were a better person, this would be where I would tell you that yes, I did call Russ and that through my connections, I saved them, and that they are still alive on an island so remote it doesn’t even have a name.”
Still alive, Irene thinks. Despite everything, her heart yearns for this—not only Russ, but Rosie, too. Still. Alive. Baker and Cash would have their dad back, Floyd his grandpa. Huck would have his daughter back. And Maia. What Irene wishes for most of all is for Maia to have her mother back.
Now that Irene knows what she knows, might it even be possible that she and Rosie could have been friends? Or was that just a hopeless fantasy?
“I’ve had dreams,” Irene says, “vivid dreams, where Russ is alive.”
“I was not a better person,” Marilyn says. “I was the same pathetic, dutiful coward I’ve been since the day I married Todd. I kept Oscar in the office, comforting him, when I should have been telling him to run for his life. Todd showed up with a gun and took Oscar to Bluebeard. I knew I would never see Oscar again, and I had an idea that I would never see my husband again. There was no way he could stay in the Virgin Islands after he killed Oscar. Oscar knew too many dangerous people.” Marilyn wipes a finger under each eye. “Todd filled Bluebeard with documents incriminating Russ and Stephen. Then, with the captain’s help, he tied Oscar up, shot him, and tossed him overboard as soon as they were on the open sea, and he took off for Venezuela.” Marilyn takes a breath. “Todd has a girlfriend in Venezuela, girlfriends everywhere, but the most important thing is that Venezuela has no extradition laws. I think he dreamed of a life on Margarita Island with Gloriana—and he almost made it. I think part of him enjoyed the chase, to be honest. But it was the chase that got him arrested. Todd called me to let me know he’d been taken into custody and that I was to destroy all the incriminating documents in the safe on Water Island—Todd’s offshore account information, payouts from the sensitive deals, correspondence from Todd to these clients. That had been our contingency plan for years.”
“But you didn’t do it?”
“I did the opposite,” Marilyn says. “I made copies of everything.”
“Why?” Irene says.
Finally, Marilyn looks like someone describing an epiphany. “I guess I realized I could go down with Todd or I could watch him go down alone.” She shakes her head. “Wasn’t that hard of a choice. He killed four people.”
“And he has no idea what you’ve done?”
“None,” Marilyn says. She gives Irene a rueful smile. “You might think he would be more wary of the only person who knows everything.”
“Yes.”
“But Todd doesn’t even see me,” Marilyn says. “He stopped seeing me the second my father handed over the seed money. To Todd, I’m invisible.”
Irene makes a noise of recognition. What had Lydia said during their New Year’s Day dinner at the Pullman Diner? The CIA should hire women in their fifties. We’re invisible.
“Of course, tomorrow that will change.” She places her hands on her thighs and pushes herself to standin
g. “I should go. I need to get ready to meet Agent Vasco.”
Agent Vasco, Irene thinks. She has completely forgotten about Agent Vasco.
Irene leads Marilyn Monroe to the front door; she wants to hug the woman. “You are…so brave. How can I thank you?”
“No thanks necessary,” Marilyn says. “I was a coward for a long time, Irene. I had a chance every single day to come clean and I didn’t, and now four people are dead. Their blood is on my hands.”
Irene says, “Do you still love him? Todd?”
Marilyn’s eyebrows shoot up; the question has clearly surprised her. “Do you still love Russ?” she asks, but she slips out the door without waiting for an answer.
Because, Irene realizes, there is no answer. Irene watches Marilyn climb into her Jeep. In the movies, this would be where Marilyn’s car explodes into a ball of fire. Irene releases a breath as Marilyn backs out of the driveway and pulls away.
Irene lingers in the parking lot across from Mongoose Junction until she sees the Mississippi pulling up to the National Park Service dock. Huck does the complicated choreography of pulling in and, at the same time, tying up.
He needs a mate, Irene thinks.
The family aboard hop off, a couple and two little kids, one of whom is screaming bloody murder. There are no fish to be filleted, so they must have struck out, even inshore. Irene watches the father tip Huck as the mother carries the kids off.
Irene smiles at her as she passes, but the mother doesn’t see her.
Huck doesn’t see her either. He’s checking around the boat, making sure the family hasn’t forgotten anything. He goes to lift the rope off the bollard, but Irene beats him to it.
He looks up. He’s wearing his wraparound sunglasses so it’s impossible to tell how her surprise is being received.
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