Last Night

by Meryl Sawyer

  Someone had turned on a lamp, and its dim light cast shadows across the small room. A blurry Gwen, holding a revolver, stood not far from the bed. Nearby was Dana, concern for him etching her beautiful face.

  "It'll never work," Rob said, surprised at how calm and forceful his voice sounded despite the debilitating blows to his head that still had him off-kilter.

  "Prince Charming awakens. How sweet."

  Dana tried to move to his side. Gwen waved her back with the gun.

  "You can kill us, but the police will never chalk it up to domestic violence." He managed to scoot into a sitting position and lock his arms around his knees so he wouldn't topple over. "There won't be powder burns on my hands. The position of the bodies and dozens of other details will be out of sync."

  "That's right," Dana chimed in. "You'll never get away with this."

  "You both think I'm stupid, don't you? Neither of you ever gave me any credit for being brilliant. You're just like my father."

  The look of pure hatred in Gwen's eyes almost made Rob panic. It wasn't going to be easy to reason with her, and he was so woozy that he didn't think he could overpower her without getting killed—or worse, getting Dana killed.

  "Now my father—the almighty Boss Sihida— thinks I'm worthless because some bimbo was appointed to superior court instead of me."

  "That's why she was blackmailing me," Dana told Rob. "Gwen lost the election to superior court last year. She claims she'll never be able to muster the political backing to run again."

  Rob tried to placate her. "I'm sure your father—"

  "I had to beg my father for help last time. He said that I'd never win unless I was the incumbent judge. Islanders don't vote for pushy women. But if I'm appointed to fill a vacancy and do well, I'll have no trouble being elected."

  Rob couldn't argue with her logic. "Is a seat on the court worth killing for?"

  "I tried to get rid of Dana, to make this easy, but she refused to leave."

  Rob couldn't help saying, "She doesn't scare easily."

  Gwen huffed her disgust. "Dana could fall in a cesspool and come out smelling like a rose. Binkley calls for a judicial review. What happens? She beats the charges. And everyone rallies around the golden girl. Well, I'm sure it's going to be a touching funeral. I can hardly wait."

  "Gwen," Rob said, "we can work this out. Let's—"

  "Don't patronize me! I've gone this far. There's no turning back."

  "Okay, just how do you plan on getting away with murder?" Rob asked just to keep her going. With each passing second he was feeling stronger. He was going to have to rush her and risk being killed —or die anyway.

  "During the fight a lamp will tip over. The fire will destroy enough evidence so that the police won't look for powder burns."

  Rob opened his mouth to say the angles of the wounds might tip them off, but the doorbell rang. It had to be Zach looking for him. Gwen aimed the gun at Dana.

  "I'm not expecting—"

  "It's probably one of those drunk kids from that brawl across the street," Rob said, cutting Dana off. "They'll go away in a minute."

  Please God, he prayed silently, get Zach out of here. He was certain Gwen hadn't seen Zach at the party. He'd spent most of the time on the lanai off the kitchen with that mouthy parrot. If Gwen discovered it was his son at the door, she'd kill Zach too.

  The bell rang again, then there was a long silence during which Gwen never lowered the gun. Now Zach was punching the bell, the chimes echoing through the house like a death knell.

  34

  The doorbell stopped ringing as suddenly as it had begun. The silence was as unsettling as the noise, and Dana sensed that Gwen was on the brink. Any second she could squeeze the trigger. Dana had been shaky since she'd accepted Gwen's offer to drive her home from the party and Gwen had pulled a gun. But now, having Rob with her and seeing he wasn't too badly hurt, she felt calmer. They couldn't die like this. They had too much to live for. Together they could outsmart Gwen.

  Those thoughts uppermost in her mind, Dana began to talk, hoping to distract Gwen. "Why don't you tell Rob how you knew he'd come over, how you watched as his car drove up the street."

  "Who could miss a silver Porsche?" Gwen asked.

  Dana noted the way Rob's eyes narrowed slightly at this information. What was wrong, she wondered. Then it hit her. Zach. He'd been at the party with Rob. There hadn't been enough time to take him home and return.

  Gwen must not have seen Zach. That wasn't surprising. Dana had watched Rob prowling around Garth's place, but she hadn't seen Zach until he walked up to her. Zach had to have been the person ringing the doorbell. Would he think to call the police? Or would he go back to the car and turn on the radio full blast? With teenagers you never knew.

  "What made you think I'd come over?" Rob asked Gwen.

  "Because you're crazy about her."

  There was such fury in Gwen's voice that Dana decided there was an element of jealousy behind Gwen's actions. Granted, Boss Sihida's expectations were at the root of Gwen's problems, but she'd gone out with Rob and must have been upset when he hadn't called her again.

  "Now the two of you can be together through eternity." She raised the gun, pointing at Dana's heart.

  "Wait a second!" Rob yelled, and Dana felt the blood surge to her temples as she anticipated the shot. "I understand how you bribed an evidence clerk to frame me. Clever. Very clever." Gwen beamed despite the sarcastic tone in his voice. "How did you know about the man who raped Dana and Vanessa?"

  "I should let you go to your graves wondering," Gwen said, but Dana realized she wanted to brag. She was relishing every moment, letting them suffer with the knowledge she was going to kill them.

  "I'm sure it's a very simple explanation—"

  "It wasn't simple." Gwen raised her voice an octave. "This was brilliant, and it would have worked until you snooped around."

  "Okay, what was so brilliant?" Rob asked. "You didn't know the whole story. You thought Hank died."

  Gwen shrugged off this oversight. "When Dana was medicated, having her wisdom teeth removed, she blabbed. My brother said that she'd killed what's-his-name."

  Dana couldn't help gasping. Never—ever—had she thought that she'd been the source of the information. But now that she looked back to the ordeal at the dentist's, she remembered how oddly Gwen's brother had acted. Well, no wonder. He thought he'd just treated a cold-blooded killer.

  "Gwen's extremely resourceful," Dana said, praying Zach had called the police. "She made certain Binkley found out about the so-called murder, but she managed to shift the blame to Big Daddy."

  "It was easy. Once I found out about the divorce I made an anonymous call to Thornton Coltrane. He took it from there."

  "You made lots of anonymous calls," Rob said.

  "I just played on people's fear and greed."

  Rob's brow furrowed and he shook his head derisively. "I really did underestimate you, Gwen. I never even suspected—"

  "Meeeee-ooow!" Molly screeched from the hall as if her tail had been caught in a door. The cat bolted into the room, shot across Gwen's feet, and vaulted onto the bed, landing on Rob. Right behind her barreled Zach at a dead run.

  "Christ!" Gwen screamed, seeing the maroonhaired kid with the weird earrings appearing out of the darkness like a swamp monster.

  If Dana hadn't been so terrified she would have laughed. Until she saw the tire iron in Zach's hand. Gwen cocked the gun.

  "Dana! Zach! Hit the floor!" yelled Rob, jumping off the bed.

  Dana didn't have a second to think—she just acted, hurling herself at Gwen. She pivoted, leveling the gun at Dana's chest. Dana ducked, trying to fling herself at Gwen's waist and take her down before she fired. Suddenly, Dana heard a pop like a twig snapping, a deceptively soft sound.

  Searing pain ripped through her torso. She careened to the right, bumping into the bed, then reeled backward, clutching her chest. Dimly, she heard a thwack and saw out of the corner of her eye
that Rob was tackling Gwen just as Zach hit her with the tire iron.

  Gwen was out cold; they were safe. Dana stared at the blood dripping from her fingers, the pain spiking suddenly, stealing the air from her lungs, keeping her from crying out. Her blood? Couldn't be, she thought, as the room cycloned around her, then mercifully cloaked her in darkness.

  "Dana! Dana!" Rob yelled as he saw her slump to the floor. "Oh, God, no!" He huddled over her limp form, saying her name over and over and over as he ripped off her blouse to check the wound.

  "I'm calling nine-one-one!" Zach cried.

  Rob tore part of the sheet off the bed and tried to stanch the blood flowing from her chest. "You're going to be fine, darling. I promise."

  Her lids fluttered, slowly opening. She gazed at him with eyes so dilated and unfocused that he wasn't certain she could actually see him.

  "Cold," she whispered, her voice weak. "So cold."

  She was going into shock. He grabbed the comforter and tucked it around her. "Better?"

  "You… you didn't give me a chance. I loved you, but you didn't give me a chance." Her lids slammed shut and her head lolled back against his shoulder.

  He cradled her in his arms. Don't let her die without letting me tell her I love her. "I love you, Dana," he whispered, even though he knew she couldn't hear him.

  He didn't know how long he'd sat there, holding her, whispering his innermost feelings until the piercing wail of an ambulance broke into his thoughts. He looked up and found Zach hovering over Gwen, the tire iron raised in his hand even though she was out cold. Seconds later police and med techs rushed into the room.

  "We'll take her now," one of the med techs said, and Rob surrendered Dana's lifeless form.

  * * *

  "It's my fault," Rob explained to Vanessa and Garth as they waited at the hospital. Dana had been in surgery for over an hour. "I should have been with Dana, then Gwen wouldn't have taken her by surprise."

  "Gwen would have found another way," Garth assured him.

  "She's a psychopath," Vanessa added.

  Rob paced the hall, trying to pass the time. Then he sat in stoic silence and watched the second hand on the waiting-room clock. Nothing helped. The next hour crawled by even slower than the first. When the doctor finally came in to speak with them, Zach was sleeping on a sofa with Jason curled up beside him, his head in Zach's lap.

  "She's lost a lot of blood, but she's going to be fine," Dr. Scott said.

  "Thank God," Rob cried.

  "May we see her?" Vanessa asked.

  "She won't know you're there. She's sedated."

  It didn't matter; the three of them wanted to see Dana, to see for themselves that she'd survived. There wasn't much to see. A small form lying helpless, linked to a bank of monitors by a jungle of wires and tubes. Her face was leached of color, appearing even paler with her blonde hair. Her lips— how many times had he kissed them?—were slightly blue. She didn't look as if she had the strength to make it another minute, let alone through the long night.

  "I'm staying with her," Rob announced. He had to be by her side—this time.

  Vanessa started to protest, but Garth touched her arm. "Let's take Zach home with us," he said. "We'll be back first thing in the morning."

  Rob awakened his son while Vanessa lifted Jason onto Garth's lap. He wheeled the sleeping boy down the hall. Like a family, Rob realized vaguely.

  "Is Dana okay?" Zach asked, his eyes heavy with sleep.

  "She's going to be fine." Rob gazed into his son's eyes, a mirror image of his own. "You were very brave, you know. You saved us."

  A dull flush shot up Zach's neck to his cheeks. "Nah. Dana saved us."

  An image of Dana hurling herself at Gwen flashed across his mind. "You're right, son. She put her career at risk to clear my name, then charged Gwen to keep her from killing you. I owe her… more than I can ever repay."

  Zach heaved a sigh, blowing air upward and lifting his maroon bangs. "I feel like a real ass for lying to her."

  "She'll understand. I promise."

  "You better marry her. She's way cool. Way cool."

  "I hope she'll have me. After the way I've acted, I don't know."

  "Get real. She'll marry you." Zach offered him a sudden, arresting smile. "I won't mind if you have a kid like Jason."

  "Could be a little girl. But knowing Dana, she won't be the prissy kind." Rob cleared his throat, not knowing what to say exactly, but realizing there would never be a better time to reassure his son. "No matter what, I'll always love you. They took you away from me when you weren't much older than Jason. I've missed you every day since."

  He hugged Zach, and surprisingly his son hugged him back even harder. "If Dana will have us, we'll be a family again. That's what I want. I love you both. Love you forever."

  "Aw, Dad, come on," Zach said, but there were tears in his eyes.

  She awakened slowly, floating upward in a dreamlike trance. She was on Maui, high in the up-country, stretched out in a meadow of white ginger, staring up at the ribbons of clouds that were waltzing across the sky. Above her, like a reigning monarch, towered Haleakala. The volcano's peak looked black against the deep blue sky.

  "Dana… Dana," she heard someone calling from a hillock far away. She tried to say something, but words wouldn't come. Instead, a fretful moan escaped her lips. Through slitted eyes she saw a silhouette of a man.

  She mustered the strength to whisper, "Rob?"

  "It's me, angel." He squeezed her hand. "You're going to be all right."

  The floating sensation evaporated, replaced by a pain so sharp that it hurt to breathe. "Where am I?" She listened as he explained about her surgery.

  Most of it barely registered. "Don't leave me," she whispered, her voice dropping with each word, her strength ebbing quickly. "Promise me."

  It was noon before she awakened again, but Rob never left her side. Daylight made Dana appear stronger, healthier despite the armada of frightening-looking machines. Her color was better, her lips no longer blue.

  "How are you doing?" Rob asked, stroking her forehead.

  "Better," she said. "What's wrong with me?"

  "The bullet lodged in your shoulder. You'll be sore for a while, but you'll be as good as new in no time."

  "Gwen?"

  "She's in the jail's hospital with a mild concussion."

  Dana didn't say another word; she merely gazed at him with those fantastic green eyes.

  "I really like you as a blonde, you know. What made you to do it?"

  "I decided to be the real me. I've been hiding for too many years."

  "I like it. I like it," he said, but he knew that wasn't what she wanted to hear. "I don't know how to thank you for clearing me. If you hadn't I might very well have been convicted. I'd have lost Zach. And you."

  He cradled her cheek in his hand, knowing he was inadequately expressing what was in his heart.

  "You were willing to sacrifice everything.—for me. You have no idea how that makes me feel, do you?"

  She shrugged—or tried to—but the effort brought tears to her eyes. Her entire shoulder was encased in bandages. It would take weeks of physical therapy before she could move her arm.

  "Dana, I love you. Don't you know that?"

  She looked at him blankly as if he were discussing some new life form or some damn mathematical equation. She wasn't going to make this easy for him—not that he blamed her.

  "I should have told you that I was about to be arrested, but I wanted to protect you. I didn't want—"

  "No, you didn't. That may have been part of it, but fess up, Rob. You didn't trust me. You thought I'd desert you."

  What could he say? It was the truth. Even Zach had seen it. "You're right. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't. I made a mistake. I can't change the past. All I can do is ask you to forgive me."

  "I forgave you the minute I walked into the DA's office to try to help you."

  There ought to be words to express the heartfelt emot
ion he was experiencing, but all he could say was "I love you."

  "I knew that when you kissed me at the party." She managed a sly smile. "No man kisses a woman like that just to say congratulations."

  Rob chuckled. "You got that right. Zach said I made a scene."

  "You did, and you were really good at it."

  "Well, I wasn't so good at discovering Gwen was out to get you." He shook his head. "I never suspected her."

  "Who would think she'd kill anyone over a place on the bench?"

  "I guess Boss Sihida is just as intimidating as Big Daddy. Gwen wanted to please him at all costs."

  "That's true," Dana agreed. "But you have to realize that Gwen doesn't have a life beyond her career. That's why it was so important to her." Dana reached for his hand, able to move only so far without disturbing the IV. Her fingers were icy; he cradled them in his warm palm. "I learned something when Lillian died. People are more important than careers. That's why I had no trouble walking into the DA's office and asking about the evidence."

  "I love you more than I can say. I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I was wrong. Dead wrong."

  "Don't let it happen again," Dana warned him with a smile. Then she stared at the small bandage on his temple. "How's your head? She really conked you with that frying pan."

  "I've got two killer lumps and the grandmother of all headaches. Wanna kiss it and make it better?"

  "You bet," she said.

  "Seriously, Dana." He turned her hand over and kissed the palm. "I want you to marry me."

  "Have you discussed this with Zach? I don't think he likes me."

  "He changed his mind. Actually, he insisted I drive over to your house. Despite how smart Gwen thinks she is, I would have waited until later except that Zach wanted me to tell you how much I love you."

  "Really? How sweet. I'm prepared to love him— maroon hair and all." She blessed him with her sassiest smile.

  He bent over and gently kissed her. "Love you forever."