The Opposite of Dark

by Debra Purdy Kong

  As the cop took off, Rhonda hurried down the front steps. “What’s happened?”

  “Get the first aid kit, now!”

  Rhonda rushed back inside. Casey lifted her hand for a closer look at Lou’s injury. Blood frothed from the wound in his chest. When he inhaled, she heard a sucking sound. Not good.

  “Hang in there, Lou. Ambulance’ll be here soon.”

  While she checked his pulse, his fearful eyes watched her. His breathing was rapid and strained, pulse too fast. Casey applied pressure. Blood seeped out from under her hand.

  Summer tiptoed toward them, her eyes wide and frightened.

  Casey looked up. “I need your help; go get me the plastic wrap and duct tape from the kitchen right away.”

  Summer dashed inside.

  “Please, please stay with me, Lou,” she said. “You’ll be okay.”

  Time had stopped. Nothing was moving fast enough. When Rhonda and Summer reappeared, Casey told Rhonda to cut a strip of tape with the scissors in the kit.

  “Summer, there’s a blanket inside a package in the kit. Could you get it out?”

  Both worked on their tasks while tears slid down their cheeks. Casey heard a siren in the distance.

  “I called you a couple of times over the past hour,” Casey said, glancing at Rhonda. “Where were you?”

  “Picking up Summer from her friend’s place. The mother wanted to chat, and Summer insisted on playing with their new dog a few more minutes.”

  Lou opened his mouth and tried to speak.

  “No! Don’t talk, just lie still.” Casey’s hands shook as she taped plastic wrap over the wound.

  Summer draped the blanket over Lou’s legs while he closed his eyes.

  “I can hear the ambulance.” Rhonda placed her hand on Lou’s forehead and looked at Casey. “He’s clammy.”

  “It’s shock. We need to prop him up a little so he can breathe easier.”

  The ambulance arrived. Before Casey could move him, foamy blood oozed from Lou’s mouth. His breathing became more labored.

  “Lou!” Casey squeezed his hand. Sweat poured out of her and her own shallow breaths sped up. “Don’t you dare leave me!” Paramedics rushed to her side. “He has a sucking chest wound and can’t breathe!”

  As the paramedics worked, Casey told them what she knew about his condition and medical history. She also provided the name of his mother’s work place. She’d barely finished when a hand touched her shoulder and Detective Lalonde asked her to step back.

  “Darcy did this, and you let him go!? What the hell kind of cop are you?” Casey hadn’t realized how hard she was shaking until Rhonda put her arm around her.

  “Mrs. Stubbs, did you see the shooting?” Lalonde asked.

  “No, I was picking Summer up from a friend’s house. We’d just got home when I heard shouting out front and went to see what was going on.”

  No one spoke while the paramedics worked. When they finally wheeled Lou to the ambulance, Casey followed until Lalonde stepped in front of her. “You can do more for him by talking to me.”

  “No, I have to be with him. It’s my fault!”

  Again, she started for the ambulance, and Lalonde gripped her arm. Casey tried to break free, but he was too strong. Collapsing against him, she began to sob.

  “He’ll be all right,” Rhonda said, coming forward to hold Casey in her arms. “You can see him later.”

  Casey forced herself to calm down. She had to stay strong for Lou. After he was lifted into the ambulance, she glanced at Darcy’s belongings on the sidewalk.

  “That’s Darcy’s stuff. Shouldn’t you be searching it?”

  While Lalonde called to Krueger, Casey felt herself growing light-headed. Black dots blinked in front of her eyes. Lalonde mumbled something she couldn’t hear. He was escorting her toward the house when the strength left Casey’s legs and she stumbled. He and Rhonda helped her to the stairs. Casey glimpsed Summer in the doorway, wiping tears from her face. Once they’d sat her on the bottom step, Lalonde said, “Thank you, Mrs. Stubbs. Would you wait inside, please?”

  She frowned and then sighed. “I’ll make some tea.”

  “I have to call Lou’s mom.” Casey propped her elbows on her knees and let the tears spill.

  “First, tell me what happened.”

  She took long deep breaths and tried to concentrate. Slowly, she sat upright and described events, including how Lou and Theo had arrived together.

  “How is Ziegler connected to Mr. Sheckter?”

  “He isn’t.”

  “Then why was Mr. Sheckter in Ziegler’s car?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t have time to ask. I gather Theo took off?”

  “Neither he nor the Saab were around when we arrived. I’m waiting for a report from the officer who was posted here.”

  Rhonda reappeared and handed Casey a mug.

  “Thanks.” She sipped the tea.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Stubbs,” Lalonde said. “That’ll be all.”

  “I doubt it.” She shut the door.

  “Something’s been bothering me about Churcott’s relationship with Mrs. Stubbs,” Lalonde said.

  Casey glared at him. “My best friend’s been shot and that’s what’s worrying you?”

  “If Churcott thought you were the one with access to three million dollars, why did he spend so much time with her?”

  “To see if Rhonda knew about the missing money. He knew I wouldn’t tell him much.” She sipped the tea. “Or maybe Mother put him up to it for her own amusement.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  Casey explained the relationship between Darcy and Mother, and Mother and Rhonda, and how hurtful Mother could be. She told Lalonde about Mother’s numerous affairs, and how Rhonda had covered for her until her own husband became one of Mother’s lovers. When Casey told him about Mother’s appeals to renew her friendship with Rhonda, Lalonde asked, “Why would your mother pursue a friendship with a woman engaged to her ex-husband?”

  Hadn’t he been listening? “To intervene, manipulate, and destroy.” Casey slowly rose. “I need to call Lou’s mom.”

  As she climbed the steps, Lalonde said, “Do you always run without thinking?”

  Casey stopped. “What are you talking about?”

  “The first time we met, you ran out of the morgue. The second time, you ran after Ziegler in the cemetery. Next was Europe, then you were running off to see Simone Archambault, and finally pursuing Churcott on your own.”

  “Better than living with helplessness and self-pity for months on end.”

  “There is a middle ground, you know.”

  “When you’ve been raised by Lillian and Marcus Holland, there is no middle ground, Detective.”

  “Or maybe you’ve simply inherited your parents’ knack for doing what you want without considering the consequences.”

  She stepped inside and slammed the door.

  In her apartment, Casey googled the name of the dental office where Lou’s mom, Barb, worked as a hygienist. A minute later, she learned that Barb had already left for the hospital. Casey was about to follow suit when she noticed Lou’s blood on her shirt. She yanked the shirt over her head, grabbed a clean one, and then headed for her car.

  At the hospital, Lou’s siblings were crowded into a small, private waiting room designated for families. The door was open, a sign marked “Scheckter” and “Occupied” posted beside it. As Casey stood in the doorway, Lou’s mother rushed over and embraced her.

  “The doctors are working on him,” Barb said. “His right lung collapsed.”

  “I was afraid of that.”

  “I don’t know if they’ve taken the bullet out yet.” Barb’s hand fluttered over her silver heart pendant. “I don’t understand how this happened.”

  “I was the target, Barb. Lou was protecting me.” Casey tried to tell her why but, judging from the confusion on Barb’s face, she wasn’t making much sense.

  “Go home and rest, Casey.
We’re here, and Lou’s dad is flying in from Winnipeg.”

  Leaving wasn’t an option. Casey walked past more waiting rooms until she came to an alcove containing half a dozen chairs. She plunked into the first one and looked at the dark carpet until her vision blurred. Lalonde might have had a point about running without thinking. Wasn’t she just as likely to run from relationships as she was to run into trouble? She’d run from Lou. She saw that now. And he knew it. But he’d waited . . . If he died . . . There was a special kind of hell for her type of cowardice. It consumed spirit the way quicksand consumed bodies. She could almost feel the suffocation starting.

  Casey had no idea how long she’d been staring at the floor when she realized she wasn’t alone. She looked up and saw Theo. The guy might not be a killer, but Darcy sure in hell was and he might be on Theo’s payroll.

  “Please tell me Darcy’s been caught,” she said.

  Theo sat beside her. “I can’t.”

  She leaned back in the chair and groaned. No surprise there.

  “I followed the cop who went after him until Darcy jumped in his car and took off like a freakin’ maniac. I also went to Lillian’s place, but he didn’t show up.”

  She opened her eyes. “Will Darcy go back to Rhonda’s house? He’s still expecting me to hand over that money, right?”

  “Yes, but he knows it’s too risky to show up right now. How’s Lou?”

  “His lung collapsed.” She shifted in her chair. “I hate hospitals.”

  “Me, too.” Theo glanced at magazines on the round table in front of them. “My wife was in intensive care for two days before she passed away. Hit by a drunk driver with three prior convictions. Guy went to jail briefly. A month after he got out, he died too.” Theo met Casey’s gaze. “Did you know Lou’s in love with you?”

  She swallowed back the guilt. “I’d begun to get that feeling.”

  “How do you feel about him?”

  Casey’s eyes filled with tears. “More than I can say.” More than she wanted to tell this guy. Hadn’t Theo played a role in this nightmare? She wiped her eyes with a tissue. “How on god’s earth did Lou wind up in your car?”

  “You weren’t returning my calls, presumably because of trust issues, so I asked for help from the person you trusted. I thought you’d want a witness and good friend close by when I showed you what I had. Lou wasn’t hard to track down.”

  “He wouldn’t have cooperated if he thought it would put me in danger.”

  “Actually, he’s the one who told me you were in danger. He was about to rush out the door to follow you to Marcus’s place when I showed up, so I offered to help.”

  Casey blinked back more tears.

  “We passed you on Marine Drive and turned around, but couldn’t catch up,” Theo said. “When we reached Napier, I spotted Darcy’s car speeding toward the house.”

  Casey saw the large clock on a wall outside the alcove. It felt much later than nine-thirty. “You, Mother, and Darcy.” She shook her head. “Death and destruction follow you three wherever you go, don’t they?”

  “They don’t follow us. Darcy creates them and I’ve been trying to stop him.”

  A nurse hurried by. Other visitors ambled past, glancing furtively at her.

  “Maybe Darcy creates chaos with your blessing. Maybe you had him kill Dad, fully expecting to locate the money, only it wasn’t where you thought it’d be.”

  “Darcy acted on his own and here’s the proof I told you about.” Theo removed a letter, cassette tape, and folded sheet of paper with black smudges from his pockets. He handed the sheet to her. “It was in a locker at the bus terminal. Simone Archambault probably wanted you to drive her there to collect the stuff.”

  Casey remembered Simone lifting a folded smudged sheet and cassette from her trunk before she handed over the notebook. “How’d you know about her locker?”

  “I followed you to the theater, but it didn’t take long to realize Darcy was also tailing you.”

  “Great. Which one of you followed me to my car?”

  “I did, to make sure he didn’t hurt you. I should have realized the bastard had a reason for hanging back. I’m guessing that he spotted Simone and went after her. Once you were in your car, I headed back to the theater to confront Darcy and that’s when I found Simone lying between the building and some bushes.” Theo paused as more people walked by. “She told me her name and I called 911. Poor thing was badly beaten.”

  “I didn’t see Simone, and if she was there, why didn’t she approach me?”

  “Probably because she recognized Darcy when she saw him follow you to the theater. She would have wanted to stay hidden until he left.”

  “They knew each other?”

  “She knew who he was. When I told her my name, she gave me a key to a locker at the bus terminal, and told me to give everything in the locker to you.”

  “How’d she end up on the porch?”

  “That’s where I messed up. I’d assumed Darcy took off after the beating, but he must have spotted me coming and hid. I’m guessing he’d planned to get more information out of Simone. Obviously, he didn’t know about the key. When I heard the ambulance a couple of blocks away, I took off.”

  Casey scowled. “If you’d bloody stayed with Simone, she might still be alive.”

  “Or he would have killed us both. When the ambulance was a block away, I left. I honestly didn’t think he’d grab her. I underestimated his need to take his rage out on her and you.”

  Casey unfolded the sheet of paper and found herself looking at a sketch of Simone and Dad seated at a table. On the left side, a tall man with curly hair and shaded glasses stood in a doorway. Darcy.

  “Is that Alvin’s All-Canadian Café?”

  “Yes. I talked to staff back then and found out that Simone’s nephew was eating with them that night. He’s an artist. I never did get a chance to talk to the man. All I could find out was that he left for a backpacking trip around Australia the day after that meal.”

  Casey wasn’t sure she bought Theo’s story. “I drove back to the theater for a last look, then went to the bus terminal. I didn’t see you, Darcy, or Simone anywhere.”

  “The bushes kept a lot hidden, and anyway, how closely did you look?”

  He was right. She hadn’t gotten out of her car, but had only driven past.

  “You were probably on your way home by the time I found the terminal,” Theo added, handing her the letter. “Simone had two keys on the chain she wore. I don’t know what the other one was for.”

  As he showed her the keys, Casey thought she recognized the smaller one. Simone had used one just like it to open the trunk in her home. She held the torn envelope in front of Theo. “Did you read the letter?”

  “Yes, and you should too.”

  She opened the letter and began reading the tiny but legible handwriting.

  I should have told you when you came. Darcy phoned after you left. Found out where I lived. I had to hide. Marcus was murdered. He knew there was trouble when Darcy showed up at the café. Marcus asked my nephew to draw Darcy to have a record.

  Marcus gave me notebook at the hospital. He wanted to listen to Mozart. He couldn’t tolerate light or loud noise. His throat was swollen—could hardly talk or move. I gave him my nephew’s old tape player and put it under his blanket so he could reach the buttons. Next day, I heard music playing, then voices. Marcus and Darcy talking. Marcus wanted me to have the tape. I tried to leave the hospital, but Darcy was there, so I hid. Later I learned Marcus was dead.

  Simone

  Casey looked at the cassette in Theo’s hand. Mozart: The Last Four String Quartets. “What did Dad and Darcy talk about?”

  “What Darcy did to him, and why.” Theo paused. “I’m not sure if Marcus was supposed to die, at least not until Darcy found the money. He probably miscalculated the dosage.”

  Casey turned the tape over in her hands.

  “You need to hear it, so I brought this.” Theo rem
oved a small cassette player from a pocket inside his coat.

  Casey wasn’t sure she was ready. How long would it take before she stopped slamming into one crisis after another? She felt like a pinball trapped inside a machine built from her own memories, obstacles, and disasters. The more battles she survived, the more chance she had of winning. But if she rolled between those flippers . . .

  Theo popped the cassette in and Casey heard Mozart. Seconds later, the sound of Dad’s voice made her tear up. Long pauses separated slurred, barely audible words. When Darcy spoke, her back stiffened.

  “Look, Marcus, just tell me where the money is, then you can have the antitoxin.”

  “There’s . . . no . . .”

  “Toxin? Sure there is. Didn’t I tell you about my brother, the microbiologist? He’s spent his stupid life studying botulism. Finally got some use out of him.”

  “If I . . . die . . . you . . . won’t . . .”

  “Oh, I’ll find the money all right, don’t worry. It’d just go faster if you helped. Hell, you could save your useless life if you told me where you stashed it.”

  A long silence. Casey looked at Theo, who was scowling.

  “Think about my offer,” Darcy added. “I’ll be back for an answer in two hours.”

  Mozart returned.

  “Simone must have visited Marcus after that,” Theo said. “Just before Darcy came back.”

  Casey gripped the arms of the chair. She was so angry she could barely get the words out.

  “Darcy worked for you. Was this your idea?”

  “I admit I wanted the money and assigned Darcy to help find it, for a commission. But I swear I didn’t want Marcus hurt. Darcy was simply supposed to follow Marcus and figure out where he might have hidden the cash.”

  Why should she believe him?.

  “With this evidence, we’ve got Darcy,” Theo continued. “I’ve been in touch with his brother, who said that some botulism bacterium was stolen from his lab about the time Darcy came to visit him.”

  “Was there an antitoxin?”

  “No.”

  Casey rubbed her forehead. “How much does my mother know about this?”

  “I don’t think Lillian ever knew whether the poisoning was accidental or deliberate,” Theo replied. “But she wouldn’t have confronted Darcy. She knows he has a temper, and if he had any reason to think she might betray him, she knew he’d hurt her.”