David was standing where he could see Jen. The rope jerked as Rick gently pushed himself out and a chunk of the cliff collapsed in a shower of dirt as he swung back.
“Jennette!”
“I’m okay, David,” she called.
Rick reached for the wall of dirt to grab at a projecting root, bringing his swing under control with a quick, uneven twist while the men lowered him. She listened as he called instructions to them, then his feet appeared above the overhang, then the rest of him, turning slowly at the end of the rope. He lifted his face to yell. “I’m here! Pull me up a bit and get the other harness.” Then, he smiled at her and said softly, “I’m here, Jen.”
David ran back to the cliff to pick up the end of Jen’s rope. “It’s coming down.” He threw it high and over the edge, peered anxiously into the dark, then played it out slowly as he backed along its length. He heard Rick call, “A little more…got it!” and the two men braced themselves
Rick untangled the sling, gently shaking it out. “You’ll have to get into it, Jen. I’m afraid to rest any of my weight on the ledge.”
Her legs were cramped from sitting so long and her shoulder ached. “Rick,” she said weakly, “I don’t know if I can.”
“Of course, you can. Just think of it as a movie stunt. Nothing to it.” He pushed the harness toward her, and she reached to take it. “That’s my girl, you can do it.”
“How?”
He showed her how to put it on. The leather was wet and her hands shook but working carefully and trying not to move too much, she squirmed into it.
“Lean forward a little,” he said. “I’ll buckle it.”
When he had checked it thoroughly, he yelled, “Pull it up a little.” The rope snaked up until Rick could feel it taut above her. “Good, that’s enough. Get ready.” He held out his hand to her. “It’s now or never, Jen. I … we won’t let you fall.” His glove was rough against her palm but she could feel the strength of his fingers as he tightened his grip. “Okay?” he asked. She took a deep breath and nodded. As she eased herself off the ledge, Rick reached for her with his other hand. “David, now,” he yelled. “Pull!” She dropped with a sickening lurch and his glove spiraled downward as her hand pulled out of his. Then she was dangling at his side, his arms tight around her. “I’ve got her! Pull us up!”
The four men strained against the weight, stepping backward as hand over hand, they pulled together. The ropes slid smoothly through the wet grass, but earth and stones fell and Jen clung to Rick, her face buried in his shoulder. He braced his foot against the top of the overhang pushing outward as they rose swinging high above the blackness of the deep ravine.
It seemed an eternity before Rick called, “Wait, we’re just below the edge!” Their upward movement stopped but the pendulum swing of their bodies continued. “This is the hard part, Jen. You have to let go and face the other way.”
Loosening her grip on his shirt, she lifted her head. “Nothing could be as hard as getting down from that ledge,” she smiled. “I can do it.”
He looked into her eyes. “Forgive me for this,” he whispered and kissed her tenderly. Before she could react, he had swung her around toward the cliff. “Don’t look down. You’re going up first and I’ll be right behind you. Are you ready?” She nodded. “Roger, let me down about two feet … right there, good.” He reached down to put one hand on the bottom of her shoe. With the other, he straightened her knee. “Okay, guys, pull us together!”
The ropes jerked and Jen felt herself lift as Rick heaved upward through the length of her leg. With one hand on the rope and the other hanging at her side, she couldn’t reach for the edge above her, but Rick’s boost sent her up and past it in a rush. She twisted and slid through the grass. As the rope went slack, she heard the men give a breathless jubilant cheer. Then Rick was beside her unbuckling the harness, helping her to stand. She felt a blanket thrown over her shoulders and turned into David’s arms as he crushed her to him.
“Thank God, you’re safe.” She heard his ragged breathing as he kissed her hair and whispered, “Oh, my darling, I could have lost you. What would I have done without you?”
Jen smiled up at him, but the others were crowding around, whooping and laughing, slapping Rick on the back, and she turned in David’s arms to watch them with tears in her eyes.
“Thank you, Rick,” she smiled. “Thanks, all of you.”
David reached to shake Rick’s hand. “There are no words to say how much I –” but Rick stopped him.
Although he was smiling, Jen saw a brief, bleak look flash across his face as he looked at her and there was no laughter in his eyes. “Take Jen … take your wife home, David.” Then he turned to the others. “Good job, guys,” he grinned. “I couldn’t have done it without you,” and they all started laughing again. “Luke can help me bring the gear. The rest of you go on back and dry out a little. Roger, there’s a flask of brandy in the Jeep. Give some to Jennette and Tony on the way down. And have some waiting for us when we get there.”
He was stooping down to coil one of the ropes as she and David walked away.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The storm had broken at last, its wind lashing the tree branches on the hill above the house, its rain pelting the ground and filling the little stream to overflowing in roils of swiftly moving muddy brown water. With brilliant flashes of lightning and deep rolling thunder, the gods played their dramatic finale to Colleen’s tragic opera. But Jen heard none of it.
David had helped her into the house, his arm strong and warm around her waist. The men had come in behind them as Rob and Danni held the door.
“What happened?”
Jen looked at Tony. “I’ll tell them.”
“No.” His face was grey, his eyes shadowed by exhaustion and his own private grief, but he drew himself up to square his shoulders. “This is my responsibility. Take Jen to bed, would you, Danni?”
“Of course. Ellen, bring some tea, please, and two hot water bottles.”
Jen laid a gentle hand on Tony’s arm, her cheeks wet with tears. “I’m so sorry.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow, kid. Get some rest.”
While Danni supported her up the stairs, she heard his voice, unemotionally flat, answering David’s questions as the men moved into the breakfast room.
She washed quickly, letting the stinging hot water rain down on her chilled and aching body, gritting her teeth as she tried to raise her shoulder to rinse the dirt and leaves from her hair. Then she slipped into a nightgown and Danni helped her into bed, handing her the teacup and saying grimly, “Ellen, please see that every stitch of that filthy clothing is thrown out.”
“Even the sneakers?”
Jen remembered the feel of Rick’s hand on her shoe as he had thrust her upward in that last dizzying lunge over the cliff face. With a shiver, she nodded. “Yes, all of it, everything.”
“Right,” said Danni. “Drink your tea. Roger will tell me the details later, so don’t try to talk.” When Jen had finished, Danni took her empty cup and waved Ellen out of the room. She turned off the light and as she closed the door quietly, she smiled. “Sleep. That’s what you need right now.”
Sleep. What was the line? That knits up the ravell’d sleave of care. Was there such a word? Shouldn’t it be unravelled? But Jen’s eyes had closed before the thought was done.
She slept until after noon and still feeling grimy, showered again in a useless effort to scrub away the memories of the ledge as she washed her hair. She had just finished dressing when Danni came in.
“Lieutenant Talbot is downstairs. He’s talked with everyone but you, and the search-and-rescue team has arrived. They’re at the cliff with David. If you don’t feel up to talking with the lieutenant, I can make some excuse.”
“No, I’ll come down.”
“David decided last night that for Tony’s sake, the police wouldn’t be told about Colleen’s attempts on your life. You all walked up through the woods together and
the three of you were standing by the studio talking about the honeymoon trip when the ground gave way. Tony scrambled to safety and you landed on the ledge, but she was killed in the fall. It was an accident.”
Jen nodded. It was best. The straightforward story of a terrible accident was preferable to an involved explanation of madness and murder. After the fact, the police could have done nothing, and it would only have caused scandal and heartache. Tony had been through enough.
The interview with Lieutenant Talbot wasn’t easy but she stuck to the story that the family had agreed upon, keeping her answers to his questions short and as general as she could. Apparently, her simple lies rang true, because he believed them without question.
“Thank you, Miss Colson. I’m glad you’re safe, and please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend. I’m going out to the hillside now. When we bring … when we’re ready to leave, I’ll come back to talk with Mr. Manelli about the arrangements.”
As she closed the front door behind him, Danni and Roger came down the stairs with kids, dogs and suitcases.
“I’ll get everyone into the car, Danni.” Roger gave Jen a kiss and a smile. “Take some time to let everything get back to normal, then come down to stay with us for a while, the three of you. I’ll have the new boat soon and we’ll take Anna out together to make sure she’s all right on the water.”
He and the children carried everything out the back door as Danni turned to hug her. “Yes, Jennette, come to visit us soon. It was a terrible thing to have happen to you, but it’s good to have the old David back again. He adores you and it’s time for Mother to simply accept that fact and be happy for you both.”
“I hope she will.”
“I’ll talk to her.” She nodded and Jen saw again her resemblance to Adelia. Then Danni’s face softened. “Tony’s in the library. He said he’d like to talk with you before he has to leave.”
When she’d gone, Jen walked slowly down the hall. She opened the library door to see him standing by a window gazing out at the rose garden and she fought back her tears. They would be no help to either of them. Closing the door, she went to stand beside him and for a while, they simply stood there together looking out as the sun finally broke through the clouds, reflecting tiny rainbows of light from the rain-washed petals.
Tony handed her the envelope with the airline tickets. “You and David use them. It would be good for you two to get away if you can manage it.” Then, still staring out the window, he sighed. “There won’t be a … a funeral,” his voice jerked, but he recovered quickly. “She had no family. There’s no one else but me and it would just be a field day for the press. I don’t want you to have to … I’ll make all the arrangements quietly. After … after it’s over … my sister’s been wanting me to visit for years, but I’ve always been too busy. I called her this morning. You and Aaron can carry on … without me. And if you don’t want me to come back, I’ll understand.”
Jen pulled him around to face her. “Oh, Tony, of course I want you back. Take all the time you need. We’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready.” She led him to the couch. “I’ll answer any questions that you have now, anything that you need to know that I haven’t already told you, then we’ll never mention it again unless you want to.”
They talked for over an hour and she told him everything that had happened from the car accident to the scene that they had both witnessed on the cliff. Everything except the letters. They were gone and David and she would try to forget them. She explained to Tony how she’d gotten out of the cabin, remembered her narrow escapes on the sound stage and had known then, without doubt, that someone was trying to kill her.
His grief was there at the back of his eyes, but he held it rigidly. “She did all of it. And for what? The money?”
“That, yes. But she … I had no idea she hated me so much.”
“She hid it well.”
“I’m not sure that it was I, the person, she hated so much as Jennette Colson, the symbol, the focus of her twisted envy. When we were together, one-on-one, her friendship with me was sincere. I think that’s why I never saw the loathing behind the mask.”
“If she hated Jennette Colson so much, why didn’t she simply kill you?”
Jen shrugged helplessly. “Perhaps it was because she’d convinced herself that she was doing it for the money, so it had to be an accident. It couldn’t appear to be suicide because of the insurance and if there were a murder investigation, the police would look too closely at the evidence. Five million dollars is a strong motive. She must have found that old policy in your desk. You were the beneficiary and she was your …” Jen paused, not wanting to hurt him with the word, “your fiancée but you hadn’t told anyone yet. So, she forged my signature to increase the amount of the benefit and then the accidents began.”
“I know it’s true, Jen, but when I think of her, I still can’t believe it.”
She nodded. “It had to have been so hard for her – years of wanting fame and fortune and never being able even to make a start – and it became an obsession. From what she said, she’d begun planning something like this soon after I hired her at SailingStar, long before you and she became close. She hated me, but I know she truly loved you, Tony, as if she were two different people.”
“I met her, and loved her, too late to save her.” His tight control was breaking down and Jen rose to turn away. He was quiet for a while, then she heard him sigh deeply as there was a knock and Thelma opened the door.
“The lieutenant would like to see you, Mr. Manelli.”
He stood up. “Please tell him I’ll be with him in a minute.”
Jen kissed him lightly on the cheek and straightened his lapel. “You will come back, won’t you, when you’ve had enough time away? We need you here. I need you.”
His smile was sad, but at least it was a smile. “You bet, kid.”
* * *
Her talk with Tony had been difficult. With Rick it was even worse. He hadn’t returned from taking Rob to the airport and she and David had dined with Adelia. Then when David had been called to the phone and didn’t return immediately to the living room, she’d gone through the sunroom to stand on the terrace.
As before, Rick found her there, looking down at the moonlit pond. But there was no passionate embrace, no easy set to his shoulders, and Jen was glad that the darkness hid his eyes, and hers. He stood stiffly, an arm’s length away, his voice cool. “There never has been anyone for you but David, has there, Jennette.” When she didn’t respond, he went on. “In Cancún, I had hoped –”
“I’m not the woman you knew in Cancún. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did. After years of loving you, helplessly, hopelessly, suddenly you were there in my arms. I would have moved heaven and earth to make you happy. You could have loved me, I’m sure of it.”
“No.” The sound hung between them like a solid wall. “I didn’t know why David was so furious with me. When he left, I was angry and desperately unhappy. I shouldn’t have turned to you that night. If Anna hadn’t wakened ….”
“I wouldn’t have regretted it.”
“And I would have. Bitterly.”
“So, I was merely a convenient port in your marital storm.” His cold words didn’t hide the pain behind them. “You used me then, and you used me again when you made me believe that you were Jenet Croft. You may not have loved me in Cancún, but Jenet loved me.”
She had to make him understand for his own sake as well as hers. With a sigh, she spoke colorlessly to the darkness. “That Jen may have loved you, but this Jennette loves her husband. Jen was only for a while, but Jennette has her life here with David and with Anna. There’s never been anyone but him. I’m sorry, Rick. That’s the way it is and always will be.”
He said nothing but she felt his gaze on her face as she looked out over the pond. After an endless moment, he turned away and left her standing there.
As weary as she was, she stayed on the terr
ace long enough for him to go upstairs, then walked down the long curve of the living room and into the hall. David came out of his office to join her on the stairs. They climbed together side by side and at the door of his room, he paused. “I’ve missed you, Jennette. Our bed is empty without you.”
“David,” she spoke his name gently, aware of his nearness, his desire, but there were things still left unsaid between them. “I need a little time, please, and I am so very tired.” Seeing the hurt in his eyes as he moved to leave her, she stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Tomorrow, I promise you,” she said, and his face softened.
“I’ll wait, my darling, as long as you need. How could I have believed those letters? That woman tried to destroy our happiness and she almost succeeded.” He walked with her to her bedroom, his arm around her shoulders. “It will be hard for you to forgive me. I was so … unkind.” He lifted an eyebrow and Jen laughed softly.
“You were a brute, but I understand what you must have been feeling.” At her door, she looked up at him with a warm smile. “Good night, David.”
He lifted his hand to gently caress her face. “I love you, Jennette. Through it all, I never stopped loving you,” He looked anxiously into her eyes. “You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, I know.”
She watched him walk away down the hall, then quietly closed the door. It had been a long, difficult day and she was exhausted. She needed rest, a night to sleep and heal. Undressing as quickly as her aching body would let her, she slipped between the sheets and stretched out with a sigh. It was over.
Tomorrow they would talk. When he knew … could he forgive all the lies? Seeing his face in her mind, she fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Six
A Dizzying Balance Page 28