They ascended the concrete steps to the parking area, where Natalie’s car was parked. The right rear fender was still smashed in, where she and Kyle had been rammed the day of Anthony’s funeral. She wondered now if Anthea had had something to do with that, as well.
Anthea released Natalie’s arm long enough to unlock the passenger door, and then, after some difficulty, opened it. She made Natalie slide in first and get behind the wheel, then Anthea climbed in and slammed the door. She handed Natalie the keys. “Let’s go.”
“Where to?” Natalie inserted the key into the ignition. She prayed the car wouldn’t start, but the engine turned over on the first crank.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Anthea motioned with the gun for Natalie to head out of the parking lot.
They drove for fifteen or twenty minutes, taking Broadway away from downtown. They passed the zoo and the Japanese Tea Garden with its sky tram and took a back street to a remote area of the park. And all the while Natalie’s thoughts were on Kyle. She had to find a way to protect him, to save him from Russo.
And Spence. Dear God, please let him be all right, she prayed. What if she lost both Kyle and Spence? What if she never got the chance to tell them the truth?
At Anthea’s direction, Natalie pulled the car to the side of the road and parked. They both got out, and Anthea took Natalie’s arm and steered her through the dense forest of cypress trees and water oaks toward the river.
“Just tell me one thing,” Natalie said, as they neared the water. “If you had all this planned, why did you try to bribe me to leave town that day?”
“Because I would have followed you,” Anthea said, as if she couldn’t believe Natalie hadn’t figured it out for herself. “It would have been so much easier to get rid of you and the kid away from here, away from all the suspicions. You would have just disappeared, and no one would ever have known. But you wouldn’t go and so now I’ll just have to be patient.”
“What do you mean?” Natalie stumbled over a dead branch, and Anthea grabbed her arm roughly.
“Anthony’s dead, Spence is walking into an ambush, and you’re about to commit suicide. That leaves just one person standing in my way.”
“Kyle,” Natalie breathed.
“The kid will have to wait awhile,” Anthea said. “Though, after you’re gone, Mother will undoubtedly get custody. That’ll make an…unfortunate accident so much easier to arrange.”
Natalie’s heart pounded in terror. She had to find a way out of here. She had to protect Kyle.
But how could she get away? Anthea had a death grip on her arm.
Melinda was waiting for them by the river. She stood shivering in the moonlight, her arms wrapped around her middle as she watched them approach.
Natalie turned to Anthea. “Why did you bring me here?”
“I told you,” Anthea said. “You’re about to commit suicide.”
“Poor thing,” Melinda cooed. “You’ve been so distraught. Overcome with guilt for what you did. The idea of facing a trial and then life in prison is too much for you. You simply can’t go on.”
“No one will believe that,” Natalie argued, her heart racing as fast as her mind. She had to get out of here. Now. Before it was too late. She had to make sure Kyle was safe, and she had to somehow get to Spence—if he was still alive.
“The police will believe it. After all, they already think you’re a murderer.” Anthea waved the gun at their surroundings. “It’s pretty isolated out here. It may take a couple of days for them to find your body. By that time, the D.A. will have received your suicide note in the mail.”
Moonlight gleamed in Anthea’s eyes, but what Natalie saw wasn’t madness. It was greed. It was hate. And it was triumph.
Melinda glanced around uneasily. “Let’s get on with it,” she said. “It’s creepy out here.”
“You’ll never get away with it,” Natalie said, desperate now to stall the inevitable.
“We already have gotten away with it,” Anthea said. “I’ve been planning this for a long, long time, every last detail. I even planted the custody papers in Anthony’s office, so the police would think you had a motive to kill him. I’ve thought of everything. Nothing can go wrong now.”
“What about the tape?” Natalie said quickly. “You didn’t plan on that, did you?”
Momentary doubt flashed in Anthea’s eyes. Melinda said, “What tape?”
When Anthea didn’t answer, Natalie did, “There was a tape recorder in my office the night Anthony was killed. The murder…everything was captured on tape.”
Melinda gasped. “Is that true, Anthea?”
Anthea shrugged. “I have the tape now, so what difference does it make?”
“I made a copy,” Natalie said.
Melinda swore viciously, but Anthea just shook her head. “She’s lying. I saw her face. She was as surprised by that tape as I was. There’s no copy. Is there?” She sneered at Natalie, daring her to try and make a run for it.
“The point is,” Natalie said, striving to keep the fear and desperation out of her voice, “you didn’t plan for that tape. What else might you have missed? What else is out there that will give you two away?”
“You said nothing could go wrong,” Melinda whined. “You said everything would go according to plan. You said if we stuck together, we’d get it all. With Anthony and Spence gone and Natalie dead or in prison, the only person standing in our way would be Kyle. You said you’d take care of him, when the time was right. You said—”
“Shut up!” Anthea whirled around, turning the gun on Melinda. “Shut up, you whining bitch!”
Melinda’s eyes widened in the moonlight. Natalie could see the fear on her face as she said urgently, “If you shoot me, what happens to your alibi for the night Anthony was murdered? Or tonight, for that matter? We’re in this together, Anthea. You need me just as much as I need you.”
As Natalie listened to the conspirators argue, she edged back, one tiny step at a time, toward the woods. Then, taking a deep breath, she whirled to run, diving headlong for cover. Melinda screamed a warning. Anthea turned and fired just as Natalie’s foot caught a tree root and she fell sprawling to the ground. The bullet whizzed over her head and slammed into a tree trunk, the sound reverberating across the river.
Half crawling, half running, Natalie scrambled toward the woods, but Anthea was right behind her. “Stop right there,” she said in a voice filled with deadly intent, “or I’ll shoot you in the back.”
Natalie hesitated, then turned.
“Face it, Natalie. There’s no way out for you.”
“You won’t get away with this,” Natalie whispered again.
Anthea shrugged. “I’m a Bishop. I can get away with anything. And once this tape is destroyed—” she pulled the tape from her pocket and held it up in the moonlight “—no one will ever know who killed Anthony. Or you. I’ll have everything I ever wanted. Money, power, and—”
“Mother’s undying devotion,” said a voice from the darkness. “That’s really why you did it, isn’t it, Anthea?”
In unison, Natalie and Anthea swung toward the sound. Spence came out of the woods and faced his sister. “It’s over, Anthea. Give me the tape.”
Natalie stared at his dark profile, relief flooding through her. He was all right!
While sister and brother stared at each other, Melinda tried to make a run for it, but someone else emerged from the woods and caught her, holding her fast. Melinda struggled for a moment, then dropped to her knees, sobbing hysterically.
“She made me do it!” she screamed. “It was all her idea!”
“Shut up!” Anthea whirled toward Melinda. “Keep your mouth shut, you idiot!”
In a flash, Spence grabbed Anthea’s arm and wrenched away the gun. The tape went flying through the air. For one breathless moment Natalie thought it would fall into the water, and the evidence that would clear her would be forever lost. But the tape landed on the bank, mere inches from the river
. She walked over and picked it up. Her hand trembling, she clutched it to her breast.
Spence turned back to Anthea. “That’s why you killed him, isn’t it? You wanted Mother’s love. With Anthony gone, you thought she would turn to you.”
Anthea said nothing, but Melinda couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut. It was as if a dam had burst wide open. “Yes! She killed him! And she threatened to kill me if I didn’t go along with her. Look at her! Look at the way she’s dressed. She’s a flaming psychopath. Half the time, she thinks she is Anthony. That’s why she killed him, so she could take his place!”
The whole bizarre circle now focused on Melinda. As if aware that this could well be the performance of a lifetime, she dissolved into tears once again. “You have to believe me, Spence,” she sobbed. “It was all her idea, and she frightened me into helping her. I didn’t want to do it. I loved Anthony!” Melinda would have collapsed to the ground again if not for the man who was holding her up, the man Natalie now recognized as Frank Delmontico.
“You’re lying,” Anthea said, defending herself at last. “You wanted him dead as much as I did.”
“No! I loved him—”
“You wanted him dead because he wanted a divorce. He despised you. He still loved Natalie and you knew it.”
“He never loved her—”
Once her own flood started, Anthea couldn’t seem to stem it. The words gushed from her mouth, frothing with venom. “The only reason he married you was to spite her. He hated you from the very first. He told me he couldn’t stand to look at you, touch you. That the only way he could…perform in bed was to pretend you were her.”
Natalie’s skin crawled as she listened to the two of them fight. She could only imagine what Spence must be feeling. She glanced at his face, but all she saw was darkness and shadow.
Dimly, Natalie became aware of other people moving in from the woods, police officers surrounding the clearing. But Melinda and Anthea seemed not to notice. They were too intent on blaming the other, too bent on destroying each other.
“You hated him because he loved her,” Anthea taunted again.
Then, suddenly, Melinda seemed to snap. She screamed as if mortally wounded, and tore her hands through her hair. “Yes, I hated him! I hated him for what he did to me! I wanted him dead. All these years he let me think I was the one who couldn’t have children. He called me barren, empty, half a woman when all the time he was the one. He was sterile, and he didn’t tell me. He let the whole world think it was me!”
Her words fell like bombs in the stillness of the night. Natalie gasped as their meaning struck her. She felt Spence’s eyes on her in the darkness, but she didn’t turn and look at him. She couldn’t.
“What about Kyle?” Spence asked, although Natalie had no idea to whom he was addressing the question.
“Take a wild guess,” Melinda replied. “He can’t be Anthony’s.”
“Is this true?”
Natalie glanced up. Although she couldn’t see his face in the darkness, she could feel the power of his eyes on her. Those Bishop eyes. Eyes so like his son’s.
“Is it true?” he asked again.
But before Natalie could speak, Spence turned and walked away.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Natalie watched numbly as Melinda and Anthea were handcuffed and led away by the officers. Frank Delmontico came over to her and handed her his jacket.
“It’s cold out here,” he said.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, accepting the jacket and spreading it over her shoulders. It was colder than he could ever imagine, Natalie thought, fighting back tears.
“Are you ready to go?”
She looked up at him. “Go where?”
He shrugged. “The police station. I suspect we’re all in for a long night.”
For the first time, Frank’s part in the night’s events hit Natalie. She stared at him in the darkness. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
He shrugged again. “I still have a lot of friends on the street, and I heard what was going down tonight. Normally, I don’t have a lot of use for the feds, but Russo—” His voice hardened. “That son of a bitch is the reason I spent ten years in prison. He framed me and I swore I’d find a way to get even with him. Tonight I got my chance.”
Natalie looked at him in surprise. She’d never seen such passion in Frank Delmontico’s eyes. “So you warned Spence about the ambush?”
“Damn straight, I warned him.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked, waving her hand at their surroundings. “How did you and Spence know where to find me?”
“I’ve been watching you lately,” Frank admitted. “Keeping my eye on you. I know what it’s like to be accused of a crime you didn’t commit. I thought maybe I could find a way to help you. When I saw you leave your shop with the Bishop woman, I figured she was up to no good. I tailed the two of you out to the parking lot where I hooked up with Spence. We followed you out here.”
An ex-con and an FBI agent coming to her rescue. Yet another irony in her life, Natalie thought.
“How can I ever thank you,” she said, putting her hand on Frank’s sleeve.
He smiled grimly. “The only thanks I want is to see Jack Russo behind bars. And Spence has already promised me that pleasure.”
* * *
AT POLICE HEADQUARTERS, Natalie gave her statement and was then ushered into a small holding room. Thanks to the tape, she’d been assured that the charges against her would be dropped immediately. Natalie knew she should be ecstatic that her nightmare was finally coming to an end, but she wasn’t. All she could think about was Spence and the look on his face before he’d turned and walked away from her.
The door to the room opened, and she glanced up, hoping it would be Spence. But when Blanche walked through the door, Natalie’s heart dropped. She wasn’t ready to face her friend yet. Not after what she’d learned tonight.
Was that how Spence felt about her? she wondered.
Blanche looked terrible. She looked as if she’d dressed in a big hurry, throwing on the first thing she found and not bothering to comb her hair or put on makeup. She approached Natalie tentatively and sat down beside her.
“I can only imagine what you must think of me,” she said quietly. “You must think I’m little better than Melinda.”
“You’re not a murderer,” Natalie said.
“No. I’m not a murderer.” Her voice was filled with self-loathing. “I’m just a stupid woman who betrayed her best friend. The only real friend I’ve ever had. Oh, Natalie.” She broke down then, weeping softly into her hands. Finally she looked up, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand. “The only excuse I have is that I loved him,” she whispered. “I really loved him.”
“Then I’m sorry for you,” Natalie said softly.
Blanche glanced away, as if no longer able to meet Natalie’s eyes. “When he came to me and asked for the key and alarm code to your shop, I refused at first. I couldn’t imagine why he wanted them. But he said you had something of his. Something you wouldn’t give back. He only needed a few moments alone in your shop to find it, and then his relationship with you would be severed forever. I thought if he got what he wanted, he’d leave you and Kyle alone.”
Natalie stared at her in disbelief. “Are you saying you did it for me?”
Blanche closed her eyes briefly. “I wish I could. But I was thinking of myself. I thought if I could help him do this one thing—”
“He would be grateful enough to leave Melinda and marry you.”
Blanche nodded. “As I said before, I’m a stupid woman.”
Natalie let that pass without comment. “After I was charged with Anthony’s murder, when the police thought that I had let him into my shop, why didn’t you come forward then? Why didn’t you try to clear me?”
Blanche turned back to her. “I was afraid to! Don’t you see? I had a motive every bit as strong as yours. The shunned, desperate mistress. I couldn’t ta
ke that chance. I was too scared.”
“And so you said nothing,” Natalie said coldly. “What if I had been convicted? Would you still have remained silent?”
“I don’t like to think so.” Blanche stared down at her hands.
“But you don’t know for sure, do you? I thought you were my friend, Blanche. I thought I could trust you.”
Blanche lifted her tearstained face. “Can you ever forgive me?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” Natalie answered sadly, her thoughts once again turning to Spence. “Sometimes forgiveness is not that easy to come by.”
* * *
DAWN HAD BROKEN BEFORE Natalie finally saw Spence again. He came to the holding room to bring her home. For that small gesture, Natalie was profoundly grateful, because she knew what it had cost him. He had found out in the cruelest way possible that Kyle was his son, and Natalie had only herself to blame.
She glanced at his silent profile as he pulled the car into her parents’ driveway and killed the engine. He sat for a moment with his arms draped over the steering wheel, looking indescribably weary as he gazed out at the dawn. It was all Natalie could do not to reach out to him.
Instead she remained silent, waiting for him to speak. When he turned to her, she held her breath.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked at last. “Back then, when you first found out. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You don’t know how much I wanted to,” Natalie told him. “But you were gone. I didn’t even know how to find you. And then Anthony started telling me all those lies about you, making me believe that you had never cared about me, and that you certainly wouldn’t want my baby. I was alone and I was frightened and I didn’t know what to do.”
“So you listened to Anthony.”
Natalie sighed. “He told me that he would marry me and give my baby a name. He said it was the perfect solution for everyone concerned. The baby would be taken care of, and you would never have to know. You and your…fiancée could get married, just like you’d planned. No one had to get hurt.”
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