Thick as Thieves

by Sandra Brown

  Lisa’s throat worked. “I told Arden the truth. Dad—”

  “Okay,” he said, cutting her off. “Have it your way. One thing you did tell the truth about, I did warn you that, if you betrayed me, I would kill her with you watching.”

  “No!” Lisa cried as she thrust her arm out toward him.

  Arden surged to her feet and raised her knee, trying to knock the pistol out of Rusty’s hand, but dizziness made her uncoordinated. She did no harm to Rusty. He secured her around the waist with his free arm, pulled her back against his chest, and jammed the pistol up under her chin.

  He yelled at Lisa, “Now, I don’t care that you killed the old drunkard, I just want the money!”

  “It’s gone, you idiot! I spent it!”

  Hearing that from Lisa caused Arden’s knees to give way. She sagged against Rusty, making it an effort for him to hold her up. “Stand up,” he demanded and jabbed her under the chin with the gun barrel.

  She forced herself to remain upright, but that endeavor was secondary to trying to grasp and accept that Lisa had done what Rusty accused her of. It couldn’t be true. Could it?

  Yes. Guilt was inscribed on her sister’s face. It was on display in her slumped posture, starkly evident in her eyes. It emanated from her. How had she managed to mask it so well for all these years?

  She spoke in a hoarse voice. “It was an accident. I swear.”

  Arden could only look at her. What was she expected to say?

  Lisa wet her lips. “I was so relieved that I had made it back to the house without something dreadful happening. I actually went to sleep. I woke up when I heard Dad going out the back door.

  “I went downstairs to see what he was doing. Through the window, I saw him in the far distance, walking toward the cypress grove. I thought, he’s drunk, and decided to let him be. But it had gotten foggy. There was drizzle, and it was dark. I was afraid he would injure himself, stumbling around out there. So I talked myself into getting dressed and going after him.

  “He had already pushed off into the water when I caught up to him and asked what the hell he thought he was doing, taking that boat out in the middle of the night. He told me about the call he’d gotten from Brian Foster.” She raised her hand and rubbed her forehead.

  “He knew about my participation in the burglary. I was humiliated, ashamed. He didn’t scold, but said he had to try to prevent the situation from becoming worse. Since it was my fault we’d been dragged into it, I couldn’t let him act alone. I had to make reparation myself. I got into the boat with him.”

  “You were there?” Arden said.

  “I witnessed Rusty and Foster’s fight.”

  Arden felt Rusty’s body tense. Before she could warn Lisa not to say anything more, she continued. “I was the one who actually spotted Rusty’s canoe, caught in some low branches. Dad and I paddled over to it. I lifted the money bag out. We got away unseen and started our way back.

  “I kept urging Dad to hurry. I knew that once Rusty realized the money was missing, he would come looking for Joe Maxwell. We needed to beat him to our house. You were there alone,” she said, meeting Arden’s gaze. “I was so frightened for you.”

  Arden didn’t acknowledge that. “What did you do to Dad?”

  Lisa choked up. “All the way back, he talked about making things right, keeping me out of prison. We would give the money back and make a deal for clemency for me.”

  Rusty sneered, “But you were thinking finders-keepers.”

  She ignored him and kept her eyes on Arden. “I suggested alternatives.”

  “Like keeping the money,” Rusty said.

  Lisa shot him a dirty look. “I suggested that we should consider the ramifications of my confessing. What if it backfired? Dad began to lose it. In the space of a few hours, he’d learned that his firstborn had committed a felony. He’d watched Foster die in a ghastly manner. He’d rowed that damn boat for God knows how far.

  “When we reached our cypress grove, we were still arguing about what our next move should be. I held the money bag while Dad dragged the boat onto solid ground. When he got ashore, he tried to take the bag from me. We had a tug-of-war.”

  “You won,” Arden said.

  “He fell down, on his back, and rapped his head on a cluster of cypress knees. I thought he would come out of it in his own good time. In the meanwhile, I had to get to the house. I ran back, went upstairs, and changed into my pajamas. No sooner had I done that, this lunatic arrived.” She glared at Rusty.

  “Forget him,” Arden said. “Tell me about Dad.”

  “After Rusty left, I went back to the grove. I was exhausted.”

  “I don’t care,” Arden shouted. “Tell me about Dad.”

  “He was dead.” She said it with benumbing finality. “He was exactly as I’d left him. I couldn’t believe it, but…” She raised her arms helplessly at her sides. “There was nothing I could do, Arden.”

  “Except to let everyone think badly of him instead of you.”

  “Yes! It seemed a perfect answer. A solution that was so…neat.”

  “No fuss, no muss.”

  “If I had been sentenced to prison, what would your life have been like?”

  There was nothing Arden could say to that. “What did you do with…him?” She swallowed thickly.

  “Put him in the boat. Weighted him. Then—”

  “Stop. I don’t want to know.”

  Lisa looked like she would protest, then said softly, “He loved the lake.”

  After a beat, Rusty whistled. “You had a busy night, gal. You had a body to dispose of, and a bag of money to hide.”

  “You walked all around it, Rusty. You came this close.” She made an inch with her thumb and index finger. “I was holding my breath.”

  It seemed to Arden that his temperature rose several degrees within seconds. “And later? What did you do with it?”

  “I told you. I spent it.” She smiled. “Every last cent.”

  He flipped his aim to her and fired.

  Shock registered on her face.

  Arden didn’t even realize what had happened until her sister pitched forward and fell to the floor.

  Then Arden screamed.

  While driving with heedless ferocity, Ledge had placed repeated calls to Arden’s cell phone. They’d all gone to voice mail. So he wasn’t surprised when her house came into view and he saw Rusty’s car in the driveway, blocking in both her and Lisa’s cars.

  His impulse was to roar up in his truck and barge in. But without knowing what kind of shit show was going on inside, not knowing what kind of danger Arden was in, he left his pickup at the end of their drive. As he alighted, he saw other vehicles speeding from different directions toward the property.

  The cavalry. God bless Don.

  He didn’t wait for the backup, but proceeded up the drive on foot, revolver drawn. It was still loaded from last night when he’d left it with Arden to defend herself while he’d dealt with Hawkins.

  The only light on inside the house was coming from the window in the room where Arden slept. Running in a crouch, he approached it cautiously, now glad for the pelting rain that helped obscure him.

  Through the window, he saw the three of them in an arrangement that nearly caused his heart to burst. Rusty was holding Arden with a nine-millimeter crammed into the soft tissue under her chin. She could die. At any second.

  But no sooner had Ledge processed that dreadful thought, Rusty suddenly turned the gun on Lisa instead and pulled the trigger. Ledge reacted as he’d been conditioned. He fired. The bullet shattered the window and accomplished exactly what he’d intended: It startled Rusty into releasing Arden.

  The instant Ledge saw an infinitesimal space between them, he fired a second shot. It struck precisely where he had aimed.

  Rusty was neutralized.

  Ledge crashed through what was left of the window.

  Rusty released Arden so abruptly, she reeled into the wall, bashing her elbow. But sh
e was impervious to the pain and only dimly aware of two additional gunshots reverberating in the small space, the racket of glass shattering, the thud of footsteps.

  She stumbled over to Lisa and dropped to her knees, but she was helpless to touch her because of the hand restraints. Frantically, she pulled her hands against them in a maddened attempt to break free.

  A voice she had come to know well said from behind her, “Be still.” She looked over her shoulder. Ledge was kneeling behind her. He snapped the restraints apart with his pocketknife.

  Then gently Arden and he turned Lisa onto her side. When Lisa blinked, Arden sobbed in relief.

  Ledge, who’d located Lisa’s wound, raised his eyes to Arden, and what she saw in them made her tremble.

  He said, “Ambulance is coming up the drive.”

  She looked back down at Lisa, who was moving her hand in a restless, groping motion until she found Arden’s. Realizing what her sister was attempting, Arden hooked their little fingers together. Lisa closed her eyes momentarily, then reopened them and gave Arden’s finger a tug.

  Arden leaned down, placing her ear directly above Lisa’s lips, but what she managed to utter was gibberish. Arden leaned back in order to look into her face, but Lisa’s eyes were already partially closed and unseeing.

  Arden sensed commotion behind her and, at the same time, Ledge placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her up to stand. “Give them room.”

  Paramedics crowded into the space. One immediately began administering CPR on Lisa.

  “Lisa?” Arden hiccupped a sob. “Lisa?”

  Ledge placed his arm around her and drew her close.

  Lisa was still receiving CPR when they placed her on a gurney and carried her to the ambulance. Arden was given a hand up and climbed in. The doors were shut, and it sped down the drive toward the road.

  Ledge had seen in the eyes of one of the medics who had attended Lisa what he already knew. It had been a belly shot. Her chances of surviving were remote. He wanted to be with Arden.

  But she might not want to be with him.

  The rain had stopped. The men Don had sent to assist if necessary were circled around in the yard, chawing among themselves over what had happened, and giving their statements to the law officers who’d arrived with the ambulance. Some were from the sheriff’s office. Some, Ledge was relieved to see, were from other agencies. They would be impartial.

  One of the retired Rangers noticed Ledge and brushed the brim of his hat with his fingertips. Ledge bobbed his chin in acknowledgment but didn’t join the group. He stayed on the steps at the back door.

  Soon, Rusty was carted out of the bedroom, through the kitchen, and out the door where Ledge had been waiting.

  The .357 had blown Rusty’s right shoulder joint to smithereens. The medics had stanched the hemorrhaging blood vessels, but Ledge knew it hurt like a mother. It wouldn’t kill him. Ledge hadn’t meant it to.

  He hadn’t been looking Rusty in the eye.

  Rusty was cursing the paramedics who carried his gurney. When he spotted Ledge, he tried to sit up, straining against the straps holding him down. “Fuck you, Burnet. You crippled me.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m not done with you.”

  “Oh, you’re done, Rusty.”

  “I’m going to kill you.”

  Ledge did something he never thought he would do in the presence of Rusty Dyle. He smiled. “I don’t think so.”

  Epilogue

  A pair of headlights swept across the living room windows before going off. A door was shut. Footsteps sounded on the porch, then the new lock on the front door was unlatched with a decisive snap, and the door swung open.

  Ledge stood silhouetted against a twilit sky.

  Arden stayed as she was, seated on the second step of the staircase, bare toes curled over the edge of the next tread down. Her high-heeled pumps lay on the floor where she had stepped out of them. The darkness inside was relieved only by two candles, which she’d placed on either end of the mantel.

  “Hi.”

  “Where did you get a key?”

  “I bribed the locksmith.” He said it with no sign of embarrassment or remorse.

  She let it go. “How did you know I would be here?”

  “Just figured.”

  It had been four days since Lisa was pronounced DOA at the hospital. During that time, there had been formalities, legal and otherwise, that had kept Ledge and her apart. She hadn’t sought him out. He’d made no attempt to see her. They hadn’t even spoken by phone.

  He must have been sensitive to her need for time and distance away from him in order to contend with everything that had been disclosed in the final hour of Lisa’s life.

  The crime scene tape had been removed from the house today. She’d been cleared to return, and she’d felt that she must go back. But after getting the candles from a kitchen drawer, she had gone into the living area, even though it was the least comfortable room without a place to sit.

  She would never go into the catch-all room again.

  When she’d left with Lisa in the ambulance, she’d taken nothing with her except her handbag. Everything she was wearing, she’d had to buy. The new black dress was appropriately funereal.

  Ledge closed the front door and walked toward her. As he got closer, she caught him looking at her legs. Her hem rode several inches above her bent knees, but she didn’t want to tug it down and call further attention.

  He lowered himself onto the step beside her. They didn’t look at each other or speak for a full minute; then he said, “You buried her today?”

  “You heard?”

  “You can’t keep a secret in this town.”

  “You can. You did. Lisa certainly did.”

  He exhaled a breath laden with regret. “I heard about the worst secret she’d kept. God, I’m sorry, Arden.”

  He’d missed hearing that shocking revelation by seconds before he had shot out the window glass. “Who told you?” Arden asked.

  “The detective who took my statement. He’d also taken yours.” He turned his head to look at her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No. I’m weary of it.”

  “Fine by me.”

  They sat in silence. Then she said, “Our appointment with the attorney general…?”

  “That’s in abeyance. A prosecutor in Rusty’s office—young, idealistic, no love lost for his former boss—is treating the public disgracing of Rusty Dyle like a crusade. He’s already charged him with two counts of first-degree murder—Lisa and Hawkins. That doesn’t include Brian Foster.

  “He said Rusty had taken crookedness to new heights and promised that heads will roll in the sheriff’s department, the county court. That’s just for starters. In light of all that, the burglary of Welch’s store way back in 2000 is at the bottom of his to-do list.”

  “He and the attorney general would probably be content never to reopen that investigation.”

  “Probably. But I want my admission to go on the record, even if it’s by deposition. I also want to make an official apology to you. Here and now.” He held her gaze. “Arden, I’m sorry I didn’t confess my part in it sooner. I should have leveled with you the day you came to the workshop. My intention was good, but maybe my judgment was lousy.”

  The seriousness of his expression was emphasized by the play of candlelight and shadow across his features. “Yes, you should have,” she said softly. “But if you hadn’t gotten here when you did, and acted, Rusty would have killed me, too. In exchange for saving my life, I can forgive you the other.”

  He looked like he wanted to say more, but he had apologized, she had accepted, so before he could belabor the point, she changed the subject. “Thank you for contacting the demolition company for me.”

  “You’ve heard from them already?”

  “This morning. The foreman is coming tomorrow to walk through the house to see what will be involved. Goodwill is taking all the household items and my belon
gings. I don’t want any of it. I didn’t have much here, anyway.”

  He looked at her through his perceptive squint. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

  “No, it needs to come down.”

  He looked over at the piano. “What about that?”

  “I’ve already notified a day care center that it’s theirs for the taking.”

  “Nice.”

  She took a deep and weary breath. “I also must see to Lisa’s affairs in Dallas. There’s a multitude of them.”

  “That’s what the lawyers on retainer are for.”

  “I know. But there will be so much I must personally handle. Sorting through her effects, and what’s left of Wallace’s. The house will have to be sold. I can enlist Helena to help, but, largely, decisions on how to dispense with it all will fall to me. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.”

  “Then stop thinking about it. It’ll get done. Operating capital won’t be a problem for you. You’re going to be rich.”

  “Yes.”

  “Try to contain your happiness.”

  She acknowledged that he was being facetious. “Wealth was Lisa’s ambition, not mine. I’m grateful for the financial security, but I’m going to make a business of giving large portions of it away.”

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m going to establish a foundation that will benefit a number of charities.”

  “Yeah? That’s great. Can I make a pitch for veterans’ organizations?”

  “Submit a list. They’ll be first in line for consideration.” She smiled at him, but her thoughts were serious. “There’s a lot I’ll have to learn. It will be a full-time job, but it so happens that I need a full-time job, and overseeing something like this excites me. It feels right, like this is what I’ve been seeking, like this is what I was intended for and just didn’t know it yet.” Her throat tightened. “I just wish this epiphany hadn’t come about the way it did.”

  He gave her a moment, then said, “Well, before you start giving away your fortune, don’t forget that you owe me a hundred bucks.”