Flashback

by Cait London

  With a tired sigh, he walked to the kitchen, braced his hands on the countertop and stared out the window into the mist that had come from the ocean.

  A fully loaded semi-automatic was out there somewhere, and the man who had driven Mallory to suicide…and in the bedroom was a woman, lying awake and wrapped inside herself, not sharing information that could help Kyle find the gun and the man….

  And all he could do was to wait.

  Rachel walked to the door, paused with her hand on the doorknob, and said, “I’ll see you later.”

  The distance between the kitchen and the apartment’s front door was only a few feet, but to Kyle, it felt like miles.

  “You’ll be at your mother’s?” We’ve come so far…. Why don’t you trust me with what’s troubling you?

  “Yes.”

  Kyle watched Rachel get into her car and slowly pull out of the parking lot, taking a part of his heart with her…. Pup came to lean against his side, and Harry leaped up to the countertop where Kyle picked him up. It seemed as if even the animals understood the dark cloud enveloping Rachel, and there was just that light scent of vanilla lingering around them….

  “Okay, Mallory, I’m worried, too….”

  Seventeen

  RACHEL COULDN’T BEAR THE UGLY IDEA TRAPPED INSIDE HER. Insidiously, it nestled and grew; each memory of Bob with Mallory pinpointed and fostered a sickening image that wouldn’t go away.

  “Once upon a time, there were three sisters…. I could be terribly wrong, Mallory. I pray that I am,” Rachel whispered to the wind as she walked up the well-manicured grounds to Bob Winters’ front door. In the late afternoon light, the porch pillars stood white and tall in front of the colonial-style home.

  With the sparkling Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, the front of Bob’s home seemed pristine.

  In the familiar setting, Rachel’s memories came tumbling back….

  How often had they played on the manicured oceanfront grounds, running up the elegant stairway inside, giggling as they slid down the polished cherrywood banister? How often had they stayed overnight while Trina had taken business classes away from Neptune’s Landing? How often had they gone on day-trips with Bob while their mother was working desperately to grow her used car business?

  The three swings Bob had installed in his backyard—matches to those at Trina’s house—had been moving in the wind as Rachel had parked. Now, echoes of the girls’ carefree laughter swirled around Rachel. The girls had rushed to the white picket fence at the edge of the cliff, eagerly watching the ocean, where the gray whales kept their calves close, gliding elegantly through the dark water, surfacing only to blow.

  Chilled now, despite the mild late May day, Rachel tried to push away images that clung savagely to her. “I’ve got to be wrong, Mallory. I’m stressed, tired, on edge because of what happened to Kyle, discovering that you had a baby—that you gave her away, and none of us knew anything about Katrina. I’m overreacting, that’s all….”

  The wind swished through the needles of the stately tall pines around Rachel. Stunted and malformed on the oceanside, the branches grew long and beautiful away from the wind’s force. She momentarily studied the shape, comparing it to truth and untruth. What were the real memories of the past?

  On her regular cleaning day and day off from making her ice cream rounds, Jada’s wagon was parked in the driveway behind Bob’s shiny black Lincoln. She answered the doorbell, her dusting rag in hand, the fragrance of lemon curling about her. “Hi, what are you doing here?” Jada asked with a grin.

  “I came to see Bob, to see if I can patch things up.”

  Jada frowned and started wiping the dusting cloth over the cherrywood doorframe. “He’s pretty upset about Kyle staying at your place. He never liked me talking with Kyle, and every time I mentioned Kyle, the layer of frost was a foot thick. Bob is just a different generation, Rache…that old-school gentleman stuff. You know how particular he is about appearances and Kyle, staying at your place, has really set him off. He thinks of us as daughters and he doesn’t like the gossip that’s going around—especially since you wore that killer outfit to the businessmen’s meeting. He was really upset…said it’s like advertising wares.”

  “What do you think?”

  “That you’re after whoever that doll resembles, trying to bring him out. If it is Shane, I get my piece of the action.” Jada paused to take the bottle of lemon oil from her multi-pocketed cleaning apron. She poured the oil onto the cloth and glanced at Rachel. “Don’t just stand there—come in…. This is almost like home and you don’t have to be invited in…. And Bob didn’t like hearing about Shane, how he’d seduced Mallory. I think Bob is really worked up over that. He’s been calling the church committees and putting pressure on them to oust Shane…. My, my. Those size fourteen custom-made heels sure did paint a different picture about good old Shane. He’s lucky I didn’t hit him with one of those spikes.”

  Rachel followed Jada into the hallway while her sister continued dusting and talking, “Now I’m going to have to start hunting for a sperm donor all over again. You’ve ruined Kyle for me. He was my last resort, and I can’t see you sharing. Then Shane was a total washout. He’s been seeing Terri—all that came out in our little argument. But that figures, doesn’t it? Or does it? Anyway, Bob is upstairs. He’ll be down in a minute…but by the way, I didn’t know you’d given him keys to Nine Balls and your apartment. I just saw them on his key ring on his desk, marked and everything…. And here I was worrying that I’d been careless with my keys—I am sometimes—but with that gun missing, I’ve been super careful.”

  Bob had keys to Rachel’s apartment. Of course, he would have keys. He would have had them when Mallory lived in the apartment, because he often helped her—Helped her? Was that what he did? He was often there, repairing this or that, taking Mallory some small appliance, helping her move furniture….

  As the person who usually tended the Everlys’ handyman needs, Bob had used the locks from his store. He would have had the means to make copies of the keys. His clerk had installed the new locks—but he’d said that Bob had personally checked them….

  Personally checked them, and made copies…. Did that mean he had Kyle’s handgun?

  Stunned by Bob’s possession of the keys, Rachel tried to smile at Jada.

  “Do you think I could wait for him in the study?” The study where Mallory had sat on his lap, toying with his computer? A fifteen-year-old girl eager to learn about computers should have had her own chair next to the person teaching her, shouldn’t she have?

  He’d given the three girls heart lockets…but Bob had adjusted the locket on Mallory’s chest, not the other sisters’…and he’d lingered, fascinated with her….

  Jada brought Rachel abruptly back to the present. “Okay, but I’m getting ready to leave. Moses has me on a timer, where and when I go…I have to report to him every minute.”

  Rachel thought of Kyle, how he’d watched her leave the apartment: tall, silent, brooding, and worried about her. But she’d had to make this journey alone, to talk with Bob, to see his expression—

  In the study, Rachel noted the keys and sat in front of Bob’s desk. The room was elegant, lined with bookshelves and all the fittings of a home office. She tried to breathe quietly, to steady her nerves. Was it possible that Bob had taken the gun, had come and gone in the apartment as he wished?

  Was it possible that all those loving touches were those of a sexual predator?

  Rachel tried to shake that sickening image—of young Mallory cuddling close to Bob, evidently wanting to please him…. She’d wanted to please everyone in those first days after she’d lost her fear of the Everlys…. And Bob was always there, more often with Mallory than with Jada or Rachel.

  Rachel swallowed back the need to run away as the scenes came rushing back—When her mother had been away on business trips, the girls had stayed in Bob’s home, and Mallory had always chosen the downstairs bedroom, next to the master bedroom, whil
e Jada and Rachel had slept upstairs….

  As a teenager, Mallory had cleaned his house and he was usually there—

  Freshly showered, Bob entered the study. “Hi, Rachel. Jada said you were here. How pleasant.”

  He walked to hug her and Rachel held her breath, comparing Kyle’s embrace, open and friendly when she was troubled, to Bob’s tighter hold, which pressed her breasts into his soft belly….

  She eased away, uncertain of the past, blending with the present. The man who had attacked her in the park, who couldn’t perform when the others laughed, had been soft—The flashing images leaped back at her and she realized she had trembled.

  “What’s wrong, Rachel?” Bob asked too quietly.

  “I just came to talk. Things have been strained between all of us lately…. I didn’t know you have keys to Nine Balls or to my apartment.”

  He glanced at the desk and smiled, his balding head gleaming in the light from the windows. “When my locksmith made your extras at the store, I took the liberty of making copies—just in case you might need me, on an emergency basis. Is that a problem?”

  “You made them yourself?” Rachel already knew the answer, but she needed to hear it from Bob.

  “It’s not hard. A machine just makes copies, you know that. You put in a blank and the master key, and you get a copy. Simple. You girls have been in my store hundreds of times, watching my clerk do that, or myself. It doesn’t take a genius.”

  “I’d like them back…please.”

  Bob frowned at her and quickly took the keys from his ring, handing them to her. He opened his desk drawer, hurled the remaining keys into it and jammed it shut, all angry, abrupt movements. “It’s that Kyle Scanlon, isn’t it? That no-good mechanic has gotten to you. I’ll bet he has a key—”

  Bob’s fierce scowl, his reddening complexion, the intimidating posture of his body, shocked Rachel. He’d always been so gentle, so mild mannered…. He reminded her of the trees outside, beautiful and natural on one side; the other misshapen and ugly.

  Rachel tried desperately to cling to logic, that Bob’s anger only applied to Kyle, a dislike that had always been there. Because Kyle was competition? A younger man taking Mallory’s attention? “No, Kyle doesn’t have a key.”

  Bob’s hand wrapped, tight and hurtful, around Rachel’s upper arm. “Scanlon shouldn’t be staying in your apartment. It doesn’t look right. First Mallory, and then you. You were dressed like a tart at the businessmen’s meeting. I told your mother that she really needs to talk with you.”

  There was no mistaking this message; Bob intended to intimidate her, ordering her to do as he wished. He wasn’t going to listen to her—

  Rachel had never liked bullies; the words were framed on her tongue and slipping into the study’s deadly quiet air before she could stop them: “Didn’t you like the way the other men looked at me? Do you consider me to be your private property, Bob?”

  Bob’s eyes narrowed, his face tight with anger. “Of course not. You’re out of line, Rachel. I’m only telling you for your own good. You’ve always been headstrong and argumentative, far too independent, not desirable qualities—and now Scanlon has gotten to you…. Any idiot can see that you need to watch your step, that you have to stay away from any image like Mallory’s. Everyone is waiting to see what you’ll do, how you’ll act and if you turn up in the same mold as Mallory.”

  “You’re hurting me, Bob.” Rachel’s statement of fact, soft within his study, was more of a notation to herself, that Bob could hurt her.

  He almost flung her arm away. “You need to listen and you’re just determined not to, aren’t you?”

  She had never seen this seemingly mild-mannered man angry, but there was no denying his intimidating stance, the way his fists clenched at his side. Sickened by the lurking thoughts that Bob had been Mallory’s tormentor, Rachel felt a deadly, fearless calm. “Did you love Mallory?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I love all of you girls.”

  Rachel’s one word quivered in the heavy silence that followed. “How?”

  Bob snatched that word and his lips flattened against his teeth, another menacing expression, challenging her to follow up with an explanation. “What?”

  Rachel wasn’t backing down. “How did you love us? How did you love Mallory?”

  Bob was silent for a moment, then he exploded, “I don’t like that inference…. You were girls, I was stepping in as a father you didn’t have. Get out and when you’re ready to apologize, you may come back. You’ll be lucky if I don’t tell your mother about this. Trina wouldn’t like it.”

  “I agree. She wouldn’t like it at all. And you weren’t the one to bankroll Mallory for that first down money—it was Kyle. You never denied it and we thought what a nice guy. What a nice guy you are, Bob,” she added too sweetly, her stomach churning, her body cold.

  “You’re going to take that no-good’s word over mine?”

  “I saw his books and Kyle doesn’t lie. I think you do. How easy it must have all been—with Mallory.” With her keys gripped in her cold shaking hand, Rachel walked out of the study and down the hallway. She opened the front door to leave Bob’s home, then turned to look back at him.

  In the hallway, his anger ricocheted against the walls, the elegant gold-framed paintings, the exotic rugs over the polished floors. It throbbed all around Rachel as she dropped one word into the silent, furious storm—“Mallory.”

  “You get back here and let’s finish this—don’t you dare walk out that door.”

  Rachel closed the door softly behind her, sealing away the place where three sisters had come to play and laugh….

  “She knows, damn her. I knew Rachel couldn’t leave well enough alone. She’s putting things together now…. She might even have that damned doll. This is her fault—and Mallory’s. I can’t let Rachel ruin my life. I’ve worked too hard to build my reputation. I knew Rachel would be trouble. She always was, and she’s not going to leave this alone.”

  Bob watched Rachel stride down the walkway to her yellow Cadillac. “I taught you how to drive, took you to get your license. I took care of all of you, taking you to movies when your mother was working…. And this is the payment I get? Accusations?”

  If Rachel had that doll—she would be playing connect-the-dots and they would lead directly to him.

  “I can’t afford that…. Measures have to be taken…. She just isn’t listening to reason, and before long she’ll be causing real trouble…. Everything I do is justifiable…none of this is my fault,” Bob stated lightly, calmly as he unlocked a desk drawer and withdrew Kyle’s gun, aiming it at Rachel. “Mallory asked for what she got and so has Rachel. Not my fault at all. I am stopping this before it goes any further. Rachel won’t dare say anything until she has proof—she’s too good at details. One murder-suicide coming up—tonight.”

  Bob smiled as he thought about hitting Kyle in the garage’s storeroom, the force behind the blow, the power of his kicks. “A bullet is too clean, but I might be able to make Rachel bend, and that’s the game, after all—getting my way. He can watch as she fights me, as I take her. She’ll be careful how she approaches Trina and Jada, and that gives me time….”

  He frowned suddenly. Since her visit to Rachel’s apartment last night, Trina had been pale and distracted. If Rachel had spread her theories to her mother, that might mean—

  His feral growl circled the room. Trina provided him with a shield he wouldn’t want to lose, but if he had to—

  The study was quiet, but in the sudden stillness Bob thought he heard Mallory’s voice: If you hurt my family, I’ll haunt you forever….

  He chuckled wildly. “I don’t think so, dear. You’re dead.”

  The shadows quivered and Bob thought he caught the slight scent of vanilla. Am I? Or am I only on the edge of time, waiting for you?

  Trina looked up from packing her briefcase. In her office light, she looked suddenly worn and tired, her expression sad as sh
e looked at Rachel. “Bob’s wife? Alissa? I remember her. She was a frail, sweet woman. She was in a lot of pain, and on depression therapy, and eventually couldn’t go on. She committed suicide about twenty-two or -three years ago. He’d already had years of coping with her—such a lonely guy. You were about eleven or so when he came over. At first, he was just an older guy, the safe kind, you know—not looking for a ‘hot-to-trot’ divorcée. I guess you girls filled a void for him. He was great and gradually, I came to trust him—trust was difficult for me back then. I guess we both needed someone. Alissa had been gone maybe three or four years before we became comfortable with each other.”

  While Rachel waited, Trina locked her office door. They held hands as they walked to their cars. “I’m glad Jada and Moses are staying at the house, but I’m even more glad that Kyle is with you. I was so worried about him—terrible thing.”

  “Yes, terrible thing,” Rachel echoed, but her mind was on the terrible things that had happened to Mallory.

  “I can’t focus on selling cars and profit. Maybe I should just take some time off.” Trina smiled sadly. “I’d so love to see my granddaughter, to see if she looks like Mallory. Do you think we could just take a few days away and drive to see her? I wouldn’t want to upset her—but just that piece of Mallory would be so precious.”

  Rachel thought of the nine-year-old girl with Mallory’s face and angular, athletic body, the girl with fine brown hair. In a few years, she would be thirteen, just the same age as Mallory when she’d become a sister. “I think she’s on some kind of summer trip with her mother now. We’ve got to be careful about that, Mom.”

  “Why would Mallory ever want to hide my grandchild?”

  Rachel shook her head, but in her mind, the harsh, stark answer reverberated: Because she was afraid the same thing could happen to her daughter.

  Kyle’s Hummer slid into the parking lot beside Rachel’s Cadillac. He got out and walked around the Cadillac, giving the big yellow trunk his usual pat that said he appreciated good machinery.