"Yes, but the court still has to allow time for relatives to come out of the woodwork."
Tristan ran a hand through his hair, obviously as frustrated as hell.
"They've had time!"
"Not enough," replied Mum slowly.
"I still want my share," demanded Patrick.
"Oh shut up!" snapped Tristan, throwing the money on the table and rubbing his face. Fatigue showed in the dark bags sitting under his eyes.
"No, I won't shut up. It's still a three-way share."
Tristan glared at him.
"Kylie's done her share, following her around," said Patrick, nodding at me. "If we don't get the money, what's the point?"
"Why was Kylie following Samantha?" asked Mum, her eyes narrowed at Patrick. Tony sat up straight, grabbing his wrist and wincing against the pain.
"She was scoping her out for me," said Tristan. "And to answer your earlier question, you were supposed to get the money out of the bank when you found the ransom note. You see, you weren't our target. Samantha was."
I gulped, shocked by this news.
"W…what?" asked Mum, paling.
"The plan was to kidnap Samantha and ransom her to you for the money. But Stupid here grabbed the wrong damned person!" yelled Tristan, pointing at Patrick.
Patrick narrowed his eyes and death-stared him. "Don't call me stupid."
"Well, you are! You had one job today! One! Kidnap the girl and leave a ransom note."
"That's two jobs. And see how much those two look alike? It was an easy mistake."
Tristan sighed. "See what I have to work with?" He looked at Tony. "If you hadn't double-crossed me, I wouldn't be in the situation where I needed 'Thug for Hire' over there!"
What? Hang on a second—Tony was on our side.
"Go to hell, Tristan," snapped Tony.
"Thug for hire?" asked Patrick.
"Yes. What else are you good for?"
"I got your butt out of trouble once or twice!" yelled Patrick.
"Please," said Tristan, disdain dripping from his every word. "You only did that to save your own butt and get some extra money. At any point I could have told the authorities about you stealing the drugs from Aloha Ohana and selling them. But I only hired you because I needed you."
"So you used me?"
"Of course I did. I wanted to speed up the whole money thing, and I wasn't going to murder those men myself! Anyway, you're getting paid, I might add!" snapped Tristan.
Patrick moved to the table and picked up the money, shoving a handful of it into his jeans pocket and going back for a second load. "Not that well, by the looks of things."
"What do you think you're doing?"
"You promised me a lot more than this. I'll consider it a down payment," sneered Patrick.
"But…but…that's mine!"
"Yeah? Well, it's mine now," replied Patrick, raising his gun to Tristan. "Want to argue about it?"
"Double-crossing bastards!" snapped Tristan, raising his own gun to Patrick and unclicking the safety. Patrick didn't blink. He just adjusted his stance and stared Tristan down. I saw the sweat drip down Tristan's temple, but he held his ground. It appeared we had a standoff.
Now don't get me wrong, —I secretly hoped that Tristan and Patrick would just shoot each other, but I was worried because Tristan was now standing behind Mum and me, which put us both in the line of fire. And what did he mean by Tony double-crossing him?
"You're as mad as a cut snake. Both of you," said Tony. He had that right.
Mum whipped her head around and properly looked at Tony, her teeth biting down on her bottom lip. She was thinking something. What that was—I had no idea.
"What is it?" I whispered, watching the confusion cross her face.
"Nothing," she replied. "It's just been a long time since I've heard that saying," she said, still looking at Tony, her eyes narrowed.
He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. Okay, that was weird. I gave Mum a questioning look, a look that she ignored.
"So what now?" asked Tristan, his gaze firmly on Patrick. "Do we just stand here all night until one of our arms gets tired?" He rolled his shoulder as he spoke. If that was what we were waiting for, I figured we wouldn't be waiting long.
"What happens now is I'm taking this money, and I'm going. You can figure this mess out for yourself." Patrick took a step toward the door.
Silence filled the room, each of us wondering what was going to happen next. Mum sat chewing her lip, I sat nervously wanting to pee, and Tony sat rolling his eyes to the top of his head, occasionally wincing against the pain his wrist must have been putting him through.
Mum's attention hadn't left Tony, her mouth hanging open very unattractively. I really needed to ask her what the heck she was looking at, but right now didn't feel like the appropriate time.
"If you leave now, you won't see any more money," said Tristan. Patrick flinched but stopped. "I promise you that. However, if you stay and help me, I will honor the agreement as soon as I have the money."
"But I really feel like shooting someone," snapped Patrick, his temper flaring. "Maybe I should just shoot the woman." He turned his gun to Mum, and my stomach went into freefall. On instinct I moved in front of her.
"You really are an idiot," said Tony. "If you kill her or Samantha, you'll never get the money." I liked his strategy. If Tristan and Patrick both thought they still needed us, we had a good chance of getting out of here alive.
"Stop calling me an idiot!" Patrick swung the gun from person to person, unsure whom he wanted to shoot the most. "So tell me—how is this going to end?"
Tristan rubbed his eyes with the ball of his fist. "I don't know."
"Well, what was plan B?"
"Plan B?" asked Tristan.
"Yeah. There's always a plan B in case plan A goes wrong. You have a plan B, right?"
"Well…the plan was for us to get the money and then you kill the women. By the time they were found, we'd be long gone. There was no plan B."
Tony laughed. "Idiots," he whispered, almost under his breath. Almost.
"Oh, just shut up, Brian…Tony…whatever the hell your name is?" sneered Tristan. "This is all your fault anyway."
Mum shifted in her seat, anger flashing as she stared at Tony.
"I knew it was you!" she sneered. "The second I saw you. I knew it!"
Tony stared back at her and then slowly nodded
What?
"Mum, what are you talking about?" I asked, moving to the side of her and wondering if Patrick had knocked her head at some point.
She didn't respond. She just sat staring at Tony, her mouth hanging open. "But…but why? Why are you here? You were always in Australia."
He nodded. "A year ago I found out that you had moved here. So I followed you."
"Why?" she asked.
"What are you talking about?" I still hadn't caught up with the conversation.
"A while back I was involved in a bad accident," continued Tony, ignoring my question. "I nearly died. It made me reassess my life and what I'd done. When I got to the island and saw how you were working so hard to keep a roof over your head, I knew then that I needed to find a way to put things right for you. Tristan gave me the perfect chance to do that."
"Mum!" I snapped. "What's going on?"
She pulled her gaze away from Tony and looked at me. She gulped.
Tristan laughed. "So Brian, are you going to tell your daughter who you really are?" he asked.
My head snapped to Tristan. Daughter? I looked at Tony. And then back to Mum.
"But…his name's Tony, not Brian," I stammered, completely confused.
Tristan laughed. "His name is Brian Antony Barrett. His ID says so."
"Yeah, tell them how he spilled his guts about the whole family situation the day that he confronted you about Albert's murder," laughed Patrick. Tristan turned and glared at him. The glare suggested that he should shut up.
"Mum, it's not true, is it?"
&nbs
p; Her eyes filled with tears, and she slowly nodded.
"But…but…our name is Reynolds. Not Barrett."
"Reynolds is my maiden name. Brian and I never married."
"This is just ridiculous," I scoffed. "If he was my father you would have recognized him. I mean, how many times have you seen him at Aloha Ohana?"
"None," said Tony. "I always made sure we were on different rosters. She never saw me. I made sure of that." He turned to Mum. "I'm sorry, Rita. I treated you badly all those years ago. All the affairs and never being present in the kids' lives. But I always loved you, and for the last year that I've been in Aloha Lagoon, I've been watching over you, making sure you were okay, trying to help you in any way I could."
Tony was my father? How? How could that be?
"What do you mean, helping me?" asked Mum, suspicion mingling in the emotions she was showing.
"I made sure that you got all the extra money I could find. Like…like the work raffles that you've been winning. I made that happen. And remember how you won that thousand dollars in the radio competition? Well, you didn't. I did. I just asked them to say that you won it."
Mum nodded. "I knew I didn't enter any radio competition. I don't even listen to the radio. I told them they had it wrong, but they just kept insisting."
"Yes! And the money that kept turning up hidden in your house. That was me. I gave you all the extra money I earned. I only kept enough to live on."
Mum looked flabbergasted. "You broke into my house?"
"Well…yes. But it was all for a good cause. I remembered how you always hid money around the house, and then you'd forget about it. I snuck in and hid it so that when you found it, you would think that you'd put it there."
Mum shook her head. Her mouth was opening and closing again, but no words were coming out. I didn't blame her for being speechless. I was a little bit that way myself.
"I helped, Rita," Tony continued. "I helped any way I could. I'm just sorry it didn't come early enough."
"Oh, look at the touching family reunion," said Patrick mockingly. "Doesn't it just make your heart swell?"
I thought back to the conversation I'd had with Tony when he'd told me that he had a family that he'd lost touch with. Even though I was annoyed that he'd broken into our house and angry about the way I had just found out that he was my father, I believed him when he told me he regretted not knowing us. Maybe we could make up for lost time. Sure, we wouldn't have the relationship we could have had, but it was never too late, right?
"You know what," snapped Tristan. "I've had enough. Tony is not the good guy here. Have you asked yourself why your family was named beneficiary of the two murdered men, Rita? It was because he was part of a plan."
"Plan?" she asked.
Tony looked at her, tears skimming his lashes. "I was to convince as many residents as possible to change their wills to name us," he said, pointing to himself and Tristan, "and then we were to retire rich."
"But it turns out Tony's a double crossing bastard," spat Tristan. "I should have had Patrick kill him days ago, but I figured I should keep him around until I had this sorted. Just in case he had any other tricks up his sleeve that I might need to know about."
Nausea rolled in my stomach. Maybe it was too late.
I heard the cry escape Mum. "Brian, you had those men murdered?"
"No!" shouted Tony—Brian—whichever! "Murder wasn't part of the plan. Those men had no family to leave their money to, so Tristan explained to me that no one was being hurt by it. I knew that the residents trusted me and would listen to my advice. Only I saw a better opportunity. I could help you and Luke with the extra cash." He hung his head in shame. When he looked up again, he had tears in his eyes. "I didn't know that they would be murdered. That was all Tristan."
"But…but…Detective Ray blamed Mum and Luke," I stammered, not really believing what I was hearing.
"Yeah, I know! That wasn't supposed to happen," continued Tony. "Those men were to die of natural causes."
"They did die of natural causes," said Patrick, smiling. "Lack of oxygen and too much insulin is a natural cause." He thought he was hilarious. I thought he was a lunatic.
"You double-crossed me," Tony snarled, looking at Tristan.
"Yeah, but you double-crossed me first!"
Patrick's fingers twitched on the gun.
Horror was etched across Mum's face, her eyes filling with tears.
I sat down on the floor next to her, my stomach cramping.
"I spoke to Albert about how you were my wife once," said Tony, looking at Mum. "I told him how I'd left you with the kids and how I was never faithful to you. He understood my remorse. He had no family, so I suggested he give his money to you. He wanted you to have it, Rita, he really did. But I would never have hurt him to get it!"
"Why didn't you just talk to me?" asked Mum quietly. "Tell me you were here?"
"Because you're better off without me in your lives. I always screwed everything up for you. I thought it would be better to stay away and help from afar. If everything had gone to plan, you would never have known the truth."
"Neither would I!" sneered Tristan. We all turned to look at him. "At least not until it was too late. If everything had gone to your plan, Brian, it could have been years before I found out that I'd been double-crossed."
"Yeah, and I was supposed to be long gone by then," replied Tony quietly.
"But…but what did you do to stop Detective Ray questioning Mum?" I asked.
"I put him onto Patrick. I told him that he was stealing drugs and I thought he'd been the murderer. I knew that Detective Ray could never have found the evidence to pin it on Rita. Turns out I was right about Patrick anyway." Patrick fidgeted, glaring at Tony, hatred causing him to look even uglier.
"What about Jeremy?" I asked. I was trying to understand what Tony-slash-Brian was telling us, but the ringing in my ears was making it very difficult. "If you knew that Albert was murdered because of the money, did you at least try to save him?"
"Of course I did. I knew weasel Tristan wouldn't do the dirty work, and I suspected Patrick, but other than guarding Jeremy myself, I couldn't do anything about it."
"You could have told Detective Ray!" I almost screamed.
"Tristan said that he would have me incriminated in the plan. He said that he'd tell the detective that I was part of it all along, and then Rita and Luke would never see the money. No, I thought it was better if I guarded Jeremy myself, but Patrick overpowered me. Knocked me out cold. When I woke up, Jeremy was gone." Tony really was quite pathetic.
"I don't know what you're all so upset about. Those men were old, sick, and going to die anyway!" scoffed Patrick. "You're making a big song and dance about nothing."
Tristan turned to him. "Yes, you're right. So explain to me again why you chickened out and didn't kill Jeremy on the same night as Albert, like I proposed?"
"I didn't chicken out. I was getting the rat poison from where I'd hid it, when someone was coming. I needed to get out before I got caught. But I went back a few days later and finished the job, didn't I?"
Tristan growled. I didn't think Patrick was about to get the employee-of-the-month award. He then turned to Tony. "If you'd just done your job like planned and got me named as beneficiary, I'd be on my way to the Bahamas by now. But no—you got greedy!" Tristan paced around the room, swinging the gun as he spoke, contempt rolling off him. "What's wrong with this country that you can't even get good help anymore?"
Tears ran down Tony's cheeks. "Rita, I was trying to help you. Those men just weren't supposed to die like that. Please believe me when I say I didn't know about that part of the plan."
"You could have done more to save Jeremy. You could have stopped it if you'd told someone!" Mum snapped.
Tony's head hung low, and loud sobs wracked his body.
I looked at him contemptuously, wondering how this man could be my father.
"I've had enough," spat Patrick. "Now, here's what I sugges
t we do. I take the money. We agree that Rita gives us the rest as soon as she gets it, we split it, you can all go free, and no one goes to prison. If anyone spills this to the authorities, I go in and shoot them. What do we all think?"
Tony seemed to snap out of his misery, anger burning in his eyes as he turned to Patrick. "I don't think so," he said. "That money belongs to Rita. You're not getting a cent of it!"
The tension in the room grew. Patrick had once again lifted his gun and had it aimed at no one in particular. Tristan saw this and raised his as well.
"You know what? I changed my mind," said Patrick. "I'm taking this money and cutting my losses." With that he turned his weapon to Tristan and pulled the trigger.
The noise in the small cement room was deafening. I heard screams, which in actual fact could have been from me. Tristan apparently didn't like being shot at, so he shot back at Patrick.
I don't know whether he hit him or not, my attention solely on Mum. Blood oozed from her chest, her eyes rolled back, and her head slumped to one side. Patrick's bullet had missed Tristan and got Mum.
No! This couldn't be happening! Mum could not have been shot.
I screamed out to her, undoing the ties that held her hands to the chair, and then pulled her to the floor. I needed to help her. I needed to remember my CPR training. But I couldn't. The noise level in the room had escalated. People were shouting, moving around. Patrick dropped to the floor, his hands out in front of him. Was he shot? I didn't think so, but honestly, I couldn't care. I didn't even turn to see what was happening, my entire universe consisting of only Mum.
"Mum!" I called. "Mum, Mum, please be okay," I cried, lifting her head into my lap. Her skin had gone deathly pale, her breath coming out in short, sharp spurts. She couldn't leave me. She was my rock, one of my best friends, and I wasn't ready to lose her. "Please, Mum, don't die," I whispered, kissing her cheek.
I heard a voice yelling at me to move, to let her go, but I couldn't. I could never let her go. Seconds later, I felt hands under my arms pulling me upward and away from her. I screamed and kicked out, my mind in a blind panic. I wouldn't let anyone hurt her. I wouldn't.
"Sam! Let her go. I need to help her."
The voice broke through my panic, making me stop and look at who was speaking. It was Luke. I had no idea where he'd come from, but I had never been more grateful for him in my life. He moved past me to Mum, laying her flat and checking her pulse. I heard her cough, and then I dissolved into a sobbing heap.
Deadly Wipeout (Aloha Lagoon Mysteries Book 3) Page 22