by T. F. Walsh
“I don’t understand,” she whispered helplessly. “I didn’t steal any man.”
She knew she had to keep the woman talking, somehow keep her from doing what she intended. The longer she spoke, the better the chance that someone would arrive. She’d recognized the number on the call display. She was sure it was Jason calling.
“Stupida donna! Twenty years ago, you were taking summer courses at the Florence Academy of Art. Your father came to see mine. They occasionally did business together. You flew down to spend a few days as the doting daughter, but you were there for other reasons.”
Carlotta stood and began to pace, getting more and more agitated with each word.
“Parolaccia! You were what, eighteen? You wore those short shorts and halter-tops, flaunting yourself at all the men, including mine. You walked around Palermo painting here and there. You painted peasants, dockworkers, anyone you could find. I saw the way Leo looked at you. I saw the way you smiled and giggled at his compliments. And then you left, but you took the best part of him with you. You stole his honor and his heart.”
“Carlotta, please believe me when I say I don’t remember any of this.” Nikki watched the clock. Mandy was five minutes late.
Carlotta pulled a wallet-sized wedding picture of a beautiful young woman and a doting husband. The face of the man in the picture made Nikki’s skin crawl. He resembled one of the demons in her dream.
“This is my Leo on our wedding day before you ruined my life.”
“No! This isn’t the man I married. I don’t know this man.” But even as she spoke, horrible images teased her mind.
“Bugiardo!” Carlotta screamed. “Liar. You threw yourself at him, and when he refused you, you cried rape. Your father believed you and refused to do business with my father again. It didn’t matter how often Leo protested his innocence, I was the only one who believed him, and yet he wanted you—the poisonous, forbidden fruit.”
“I don’t believe you. Sam and this man can’t be the same person. If what you say were true, my father would have recognized him. He’d never have allowed the marriage. He wouldn’t have let me marry a man he knew was committing bigamy.”
Carlotta laughed, and Nikki knew without a doubt that the woman had lost all touch with reality, making her even more dangerous than she’d thought.
“Why would he have recognized him? Leo covered his tracks well. The night my life fell apart, I went to sleep, and woke up choking, in more pain than I’d have thought possible. My body was badly disfigured, and I was told my husband was dead, burned beyond recognition. My father’s safe had been opened and a briefcase full of money and documents had been stolen. My hand was crushed, my baby dead—yes I was pregnant, too, so in that way we are even—and two fingers gone, along with my beautiful wedding ring.”
Carlotta pulled her left hand out of the pocket of her jacket and waved it in front of Nikki’s face. Bile rose in her mouth, and she fought to suppress the urge to vomit.
Carlotta’s voice became angrier.
“I mourned for years, and then my father got sick. He came to see me in the nunnery. It seemed my husband wasn’t as dead as we thought he was. Ten million dollars was missing from the secret account. It had been removed bit by bit, transferred to another account in the Cayman Islands. My father hired investigators, but eventually, I found you.”
Nikki was stunned. “You think Sam was Leo? You think he did this to you?”
“I had The Butcher cut off your finger to get back a ring I can’t wear, yet I see even that has been repaired for you.” Carlotta stared at Nikki’s hand, and she felt compelled to hide it behind her back.
“I went to a clinic in Mexico City where the doctors claimed they could ease my pain. Imagine my surprise when I saw a picture in a San Francisco newspaper of Dr. Samuel Hart at a charity function to mark his retirement from the hospital. I recognized you. You made it so easy. You stood beside him, your left hand on his arm, flaunting my ring, and I knew I’d found you both.”
Nikki felt the color leave her face as she took in the implication of Carlotta’s words. Before Carlotta could stop her, she ran to the bathroom, where she lost what was left of her lunch. The shadowy dark figure from her nightmares hadn’t been The Butcher. It had been Sam! Sam had been Leo, a man who had apparently tried to rape her.
Carlotta stood in the bathroom doorway, laughing.
“I think you remember a little more now, si? You understand why you have to die. You should have seen the surprise on his face when he recognized me. He tried to beg for your lives, but I had The Butcher tape his mouth shut. I snipped off the fingers of Leo’s left hand one by one using your cooking shears. The left hand was for my father, for stealing from the family. I cut off the right hand for me. What kind of man does that to his wife and unborn child? But love is blind, and I blame you. Before he met you, he loved me. As I cut off the last finger, I forgave him. Now, it’s your turn to pay.”
The sound of the school bus stopping was loud in the silence outside. Mandy! She needed to protect her baby from this monster. She stood, wiped her mouth, and walked out of the bathroom. She doubted she could rush the woman who was a good six inches taller than her and probably double her weight. She had to buy time and pray that Jason would come.
“Ah, here’s the little darling now.”
Danny raced down the stairs as he did each day when he heard the bus. He barked viciously at Carlotta who kicked him into the closet and shut the door. The dog yelped once and then fell silent.
“Why did you do that?” Nikki cried, tears running down her cheeks. “The poor little thing couldn’t have hurt you.”
Carlotta ignored her.
“Come, we’ll go out and meet your daughter, and then go down to the boathouse. I’ve got a surprise waiting. If the child had resembled Leo, I’d have let her live, and raised her as my own, but she looks like you. You and your daughter will suffer the fate Leo intended for me.”
• • •
Annoyed with the delay and worried about Nikki, Jason pulled over to the side of the road. He was exactly where Molly had told him to go, but there was nothing here. He banged his fist on the dash and checked the GPS coordinates he’d been given. He got out of the car, checked the drainage ditches. It hadn’t rained, although it might at any moment, but it didn’t look as if anyone had gone off the road here. Maybe Molly had the location wrong. He climbed back into his SUV and continued along the road. He’d gone another ten miles when he saw the California Highway Patrol officer coming toward him. He stopped and flagged down the motorcycle.
“Did you see anything?” he asked, his gut twisting. He had a bad feeling about this.
“Nope. I thought the accident was farther down the road.”
“I’ve come all the way from Larosa, and the road’s clear.” He fought to keep his voice even.
The CHP officer shook his head. “Damn kids. That’s the third false call this month. I’ll bet if they check the 911 log, they’ll find it’s a burner phone. One of these days, we’ll be chasing a false call, and someone’s going to die because we aren’t there.”
Fear stabbed Jason. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. First the call from Brad and now this.
“I’ve got to go.” He reversed the vehicle and sped off without even saying goodbye. In the rearview mirror, he saw the CHP officer do the same. The man might think it was a joke played by a teenager, but Jason was afraid it was a far deadlier game.
He picked up the radio and contacted Molly.
“Molly, it’s me. Did you reach Nikki?” He was abrupt, but the dispatcher didn’t seem to notice.
“I called, Jason, but she didn’t answer. I left a message. How bad’s the accident?”
“There isn’t one. It’s a hoax. Call Buck and have him meet me at Nikki’s house.” He ended the radio call. He used his Bluetooth to call Nikki’s cell phone. It rang until it went to voice mail.
“Nikki, listen to me. I’m sorry about everything I did an
d not owning up to it. Carlotta’s in the area. You’re in danger. Call me, Nikki, please. I love you.”
The acid in his stomach churned as he raced along the highway back to Larosa. He turned on the sirens and stepped heavily on the gas. He couldn’t afford to be late this time.
He turned off the lights and the siren a quarter mile from the house, but didn’t decrease his speed. He parked the car on the edge of the property, pulled out his gun, and ran toward the house and up the steps. It was all wrong. Terror filled him. There was no way Nikki would have left the door open like that if she were inside. He hurried into the house and called loudly, hoping someone would answer.
“Nikki, Mandy, where are you?” His heart raced. His body was covered in perspiration that had nothing to do with the temperature.
Excited barking greeted him, and he hurried toward the bathroom door. The sound was coming from the utility closet where Danny’s litter was kept. That door usually was open, but someone had closed it. He opened the door and bent down. The young dog stood on three legs. He’d been injured. Fury filled him. What kind of monster hurt a small dog like that?
The same kind who has Nikki and Mandy.
“Where are they, boy?”
The dog barked and ran toward the door, his three-legged gait almost as fast as his four-legged one. The little dog raced across the lawn to the boathouse and stood there. He didn’t bark. He seemed to understand the need for stealth.
Jason, his heart in his mouth, fear pulsing through his veins, crept along the side of the boathouse until he could look through the window. The pane was dirty, masking him from those inside, but he could see Mandy and Nikki at the far end of the structure, near the water doors.
Nikki held Mandy slightly behind her, shielding her from a woman tossing gasoline at them from the jerry can kept there to refuel the lawnmower. Nikki kept moving closer and closer to the locked door. He saw the board across it. Why was she doing that? They’d be trapped against the solid wall.
He watched her sidle a few steps, and it became clear. His beautiful, brave woman was preparing to sacrifice herself to save her daughter. There wasn’t enough room for both of them to jump into the water beside the fishing boat, but if she could get to the end of the slip, she’d be able to push Mandy in so the child could slide under the door.
“Please, Carlotta, let Mandy go. She’s just a baby,” Nikki implored the deranged woman.
“No. My baby died in the fire, so she has to die, too. None of Leo’s children can survive. It’s my curse and my revenge—the price you have to pay for your crime.”
“I didn’t steal him from you. How could I? Look at your wedding picture. He was devoted to you, remember? You have this all wrong. He’d never have left you on purpose.”
Smart girl. She was buying time for him to act. There was no way he could fire the gun from here. As it had been in the Colorado, he didn’t have a clear shot. With the window, the bullet would be deflected. He had another idea.
The slip was secured not from inside the boathouse, but from outside. Whoever had hung the boathouse door had hung it backwards. He’d meant to have it fixed. Thank God he hadn’t.
He heard Carlotta laugh and took the opportunity to pull the restraining board away from the first metal bracket holding it in place. If Nikki was close enough, she might have heard it. He realized she had when she raised her voice to speak louder. She would mask any more sounds he might make.
“Carlotta, we can fix this. I have money. I’ll pay for the doctors and the reconstructive surgery. You can be beautiful again. You can find a new husband, a man who’ll love you, and who won’t be tempted by anything or anyone.”
Carlotta laughed loudly, and he could hear the insanity in her voice. “You fool! Do you think I need your money? I don’t. I’m a wealthy woman now. I have all the money Leo took from my father to impress you. Once you’re dead, I’ll be beautiful again. Leo was most obliging about giving me the necessary information. He really believed I was going to let you and your children live. No. You need to die. You have to suffer in hell like I did. You must burn.”
Jason pulled the last of the board though the bracket and felt the tension on the door ease. He hoped Nikki saw it, too. He prayed he’d be able to get in under the door and raise it enough to have them both escape before Carlotta started the fire.
He slipped into the icy water and slowly lifted the door away from the wall enough to see in. Nikki and Mandy were on the very edge of the floor. There was probably enough room to push Mandy into the water, but unless he raised the door higher, Nikki wouldn’t be able to escape.
He shifted his gaze to Carlotta. He still didn’t have a clear shot, but it didn’t matter. He’d left his weapon on the dock when he got into the water. He’d seen pictures of the woman before she’d been burned, and he’d seen the sketches Nikki had drawn. It was the mania in her eyes that drew him. She dropped the jerry can and picked up the Luger. She aimed it at Mandy.
“I can shoot the child first and save her some of the pain. This isn’t her fault. It’s yours.”
Mandy cried softly, and Nikki moved her more completely behind her.
“Suit yourself.” He recognized the object in Carlotta’s left hand. It was the barbecue lighter he found on a nail just inside the boathouse door. He’d meant to get rid of it. The last time he’d used it, the flame had stayed on. The safety switch was defective. Fluid continued to seep out of the gasoline can at her feet. The fumes must be strong inside. He could smell them from where he was. She began to click the lighter off and on.
“How long do you think it will take for the fire to burn through your clothes and start nipping at your skin? Have you ever smelled the aroma of burned flesh? For months in the hospital, it was all I could smell.” Her interest seemed captivated by the lighter’s small flame.
He was almost in position. He watched as Carlotta started to walk toward Nikki, the lighter, flame on, held out in front of her. Jason edged to the center of the door, bent down, clasped the wood in his hand, and stood up, pulling the door up and away as he did, hoping Carlotta wouldn’t fire the pistol in her right hand. She’d hit him, but she might also hit Nikki or Mandy.
“Now!” he yelled.
Nikki pushed Mandy into the water and jumped in. Startled, Carlotta moved toward them, tripped over the jerry can at her feet, and fell with the lighter in her hand in the on position. The gasoline on the floor ignited in a whoosh of flame. She tried to stand and began to scream as her own clothing, soaked in gasoline where it had splashed back on her, caught fire. He pushed Mandy and Nikki away, prepared to go after the woman, but the heat of the flames forced him to drop the door. Carlotta’s agonized cries pierced the air, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing anyone could do to save her now.
He pulled Nikki and Mandy into his arms. Relief flooded him. They were safe. Both of his girls were crying, and his tears joined theirs. He was sorry he hadn’t been able to rescue Carlotta, but the thought that it could’ve been Nikki and Mandy inside the boathouse chilled him. He carried Mandy over to the dock where he picked up his discarded weapon and moved away from the burning structure. Nikki walked beside him, holding his arm. He heard the sirens as Buck pulled up in front of the house. Within seconds the deputy was racing across the lawn toward him.
“What the hell happened, Jason? Is the fire department on its way?”
He shook his head. “Call it in. It’s over, Buck. It’s finally over. Carlotta Scarletti’s inside.” He indicated the burning boathouse. “She died in a hellfire of her own making.”
• • •
Assured that Jason wouldn’t be leaving the house tonight, Mandy had fallen asleep with Benji and Danny tucked in beside her. No doubt she’d have nightmares in the weeks to come, but all she could talk about was how Jason had saved her once more. It was probably the biggest case of hero worship Nikki had ever seen. She closed the bedroom door and went into her own room.
She stripped off her grubby clothes,
garments she’d throw in the garbage as soon as she went downstairs, and stepped under the shower, careful to keep the bandage on her forehead dry. The paramedic had attended to the cut, checked the bruising on her cheek—she’d have a shiner tomorrow—and pronounced them both fine. They were cold and wet, but alive thanks to Jason. If Mandy thought he hung the moon, Nikki gave him credit for the sun and stars too. He was her guardian angel hero.
There were things she needed to say, but she hoped when she finished, they could give themselves another chance at a future together. Life was too short to worry about the past. It was the present that counted, and the future you looked toward.
Jason has spent the last hour on the phone with Brad and Ivan. Forensic investigators were on site waiting for the fire department’s permission to enter the boathouse. It would take days to collect all the evidence. At Jason’s suggestion, he’d take her and Mandy to Colorado in the morning. She hoped to persuade him to stay with them.
Nikki turned off the shower, dried herself, and put on her robe. When she went into the bedroom, the bed had been turned down and Jason stood by the window, his hands clasped behind his back. He turned at the sound she’d made.
There were tears in his eyes that matched those she felt slipping down her cheeks. Her heart went out to this imperfect man she loved.
“When I got here and saw the open door, I thought I was too late. I wanted to die. I know I can’t make up for what happened . . . ”
She hurried over to him and lifted her hand to touch his face.
“Please stop, Jason. I was wrong. I’m so sorry I said the things I did. If you’d hurried that night, you’d have faced four killers. Carlotta was still there. You’d have been killed, and we’d all be dead. Your siren prevented them from searching the house again for Mandy. They were convinced I was almost dead. It’s the only reason they left. You’ve saved my life three times, Jason. There’s nothing to forgive.”