‘She’s up at the house.’
‘OK, Martin. I need you to call Detective Keary. Tell him Dunlop is here, somewhere on the grounds. Tell him to contact everyone we have stationed here and let them know. And tell him to get that team over here.’
Billy stood silently in the bushes outside the house. The lights were on inside and he had an unspoiled view. He was dying for a cigarette, just a couple of drags. For a moment, he fingered the lighter in his pocket, but he didn’t dare. He moved slowly around the house, searching for her. The rooms at the back were dark, bedrooms probably. Then a light came on. He crept closer. He knew she couldn’t see him. It was too dark out here.
He watched as she stripped off the rumpled slacks and blouse she had been wearing and put on a pair of shorts and a shirt. Damn she was hot, he thought. Too bad. His eyes followed her as she left the bedroom. For a few minutes, she walked around the house. She headed into the kitchen; poured a glass of water, took a sip, then poured the rest out. He watched as she looked at some photographs on an end table in the living room. She picked one up to look at it more closely and then put it back down. She looked unsettled, moving from the dining room to the TV room. He edged along following her every move. A young cop knocked on the veranda door. He ducked down. She started, peered out and slid open the door.
‘Everything OK, Miss Harrington?’ he asked.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Fine … fine. Thank you, everything’s fine,’ she said, but Billy could see she was nervous. The young cop walked away, making his rounds to the back of the house, but she didn’t close the door. She just stood there looking out into the night. This might be my only chance, he thought as he raised his gun.
Thomas raced up the path to Annie and Martin’s house. The outside was shrouded in darkness, but he could see the inside lights blazing in the night. And there, standing in the living room, was Emily − a perfect target.
He crept silently along, searching the nearby bushes and shrubs. There was little sound, even the night creatures were silent. And then ahead of him he heard a rustle. There, in the bushes to the left. A figure was rising up. A hand reaching out, holding a gun.
‘Emily, get down!’ he roared.
He heard a shot. Saw Emily diving to the floor. The figure turning. Another shot, then another. And then it was done.
THIRTY-THREE
Emily threw herself to the floor when she heard Thomas’ roar. She could feel the bullet whizzing past her as she lay there frozen, her heart pounding and her breath ragged. She rolled to the shelter of the sofa, holding her body tight, trying to shield herself. Two more shots. Please God, don’t let it be Thomas, she prayed. As she heard the sliding door begin to open, she held her breath and closed her eyes.
‘Emily?’ she heard Thomas’ voice.
‘Thomas … Oh, Thomas.’ She started to sob.
Thomas rushed over to her, gently lifting her off the floor and placing her on the couch. For a moment Emily just sat there, staring into space.
‘It’s OK, Emily. It’s over,’ Thomas said. ‘It’s done.’
Emily only nodded her head. She couldn’t speak, her mind repeating the whizzing of the bullet over and over. Suddenly the front door crashed open and three police officers rushed in, their guns drawn. ‘He’s outside,’ Thomas shouted. ‘He’s dead.’
Thomas called down to Annie and Martin and waited with Emily until they came. ‘Thomas,’ Annie said, ‘are you all right?’
‘I’m fine, but I have things I need to do. I want you and Martin to stay with Emily.’
‘You go do what you have to,’ Annie said as Thomas got up from the couch and headed for the veranda door. ‘And Thomas … thank you.’
‘Emily,’ Annie said, sitting down and covering Emily’s still trembling hands with her own. ‘You must have been terrified.’
‘It happened so fast, Annie. I wasn’t frightened until it was over. I was afraid he had killed Thomas.’
Martin brought both of them a brandy. His face was lined and ashen, and Emily noticed that his hand shook as he handed her the glass. ‘That was much too close a call,’ he said. ‘A matter of minutes. If Thomas hadn’t arrived when he did, I shudder—’
‘Let’s not talk about what ifs,’ Annie said. ‘Emily’s safe and they’ve got him.’
One of the forensic team arrived. ‘Sorry, Mr Maitland,’ he said, pointing to one of the beautiful paintings that Emily had so admired. A small black hole surrounded by scorch marks pierced its center. ‘We’ve got to—’
‘Of course,’ Martin said. ‘We’ll leave you to it.’
The three of them walked out and watched the scene unfolding just below. Sirens blared and flashing lights once again illuminated the night. There must have been six or seven police cars scattered across the lawns, and Emily could see Thomas directing the men. They swarmed this way and that, searching the bushes and collecting bits of evidence. There was a knock at the front door and Martin walked in to answer it.
At the entrance stood the medical examiner. Always sardonic, Van Trigt bowed his head slightly and said, ‘Making a bit of a habit of this, are you, Mr Maitland?’ Martin showed him to the veranda and he made his way to the scene. Emily could see the body lying there. She turned away and went inside.
Sarah and Jon arrived a few minutes later. Sarah ran first to her mother and then to Emily. ‘I’m glad he’s dead,’ she said. ‘At least it will save everyone from going through a trial.’ You could hear the anger in her voice. Alex came in shortly after and sat with her father.
The few people who were still at the Bluffs soon started to make their way tentatively up the path towards Annie and Martin’s. The sirens and flashing lights had become all too familiar and they were all worried about what had happened. Soon Christopher and Henri, Alice and Joe and Marietta and Nora were all seated around the living room. Martin told them what little he knew, but he couldn’t answer their many questions.
‘What have you decided to do about the Bluffs, Martin?’ Marietta asked, her voice tremulous.
‘We’ll close for the month of January,’ Martin answered. ‘We’ve already started notifying people. Most have been pretty understanding. They’ve all read what’s been going on down here. We’re trying to set them up at other resorts.’
‘We’ll visit Alex in New York and Christopher in Paris. Take some time for ourselves. Have a real vacation,’ Annie added.
Martin turned to Marietta. ‘What we’ll do after that, I don’t—’
‘We’ll reopen,’ Annie said. ‘The Bluffs has been our life for over thirty years. I won’t let him take that away from us.’
‘Oh, thank God,’ Marietta said. ‘I don’t know what I would have done. I mean, where would I go?’
It was a couple of hours before Thomas joined them. Emily could see the exhaustion on his face. ‘Thomas, can you tell us anything?’ Martin asked. ‘Can you tell us why?’
Thomas spoke carefully. ‘We don’t know everything yet but it seems that Billy Dunlop was a low-level drug dealer who was trying to make his way up in that world. He obviously lured Ariana into a relationship. God knows how, but he was older, good looking, charming when he wanted to be and had an edge of excitement to him, I imagine. We believe he was trying to get her to carry a package, cocaine most likely, when she went to the States. She must have refused and he killed her.’
‘For that?’ Annie said. ‘That bastard.’
‘He couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t say anything. I’m afraid he believed Peggy saw him with Ariana. She hadn’t, but she had seen him on the path and thought he seemed strange, out of place. Once he saw the sketch and heard there was a witness, he decided he had to get rid of her.’
‘And Emily?’ Sarah asked.
‘The bracelet. He was afraid Emily would remember how she lost her bracelet … and she did. That’s how we identified him. We were almost too late.’
‘Do the others know?’ Emily asked.
‘They do. I called the Van Meeterens
and Ted Lawson. They’re relieved but I’m afraid this won’t be over for them for a long time … if ever.’
Thomas explained that he had to leave; there was much to do down at headquarters. They all thanked him for what he had done, but he seemed to take little comfort in that. He and Emily headed out to the veranda.
He held her close and whispered her name. ‘What will you do, Emily? Will you leave tomorrow?’
‘No, I’ll wait till Friday.’
‘Please, say you’ll have dinner with me tomorrow night. We’ll go somewhere quiet – somewhere where we can talk … I’m so sorry things turned out like this. I’d hoped that we’d—’
‘Hush, Thomas. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault. If it hadn’t been for you …’ But she didn’t want to think about that. ‘I’d love to have dinner tomorrow night. And Thomas, I thought that maybe, once this is all settled … you could get some time off? I know New York is not the best in winter, but …’
‘Oh, Emily, I’m sure I’d love New York in winter.’ Thomas smiled.
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