The Other Side

by J. D. Robb

  Her image seemed to glow like the sun before fading completely.

  “Miss Christina.” Mrs. Mellon paused in the doorway of the library.

  Chris looked up from her father’s desk, where she was busy recording checks in a ledger. “Yes?”

  “I just saw Mr. Deering’s car pulling up the drive.”

  Before Chris could stow the ledger, Mark strode along the hallway and paused behind the housekeeper. She stepped aside, and his tall figure seemed to fill the doorway.

  His tone was incredulous. “Now what’s this about hiding out here in your parents’ place indefinitely?”

  “Mark.” Chris rounded the desk and flung her arms around his neck. “You didn’t have to drive all this way. I thought I’d made myself clear on the phone.”

  “Clear as mud. You’re giving up your apartment in the city? You actually think you can run your father’s complex company from an office here in your family home? Come on, darling. Get a grip. That doesn’t make any sense, and you know it.”

  “It makes perfect sense to me.” She caught his hand and led him toward the leather sofa across the room. “Sit here and let me tell you what I’ve been thinking.”

  Mrs. Mellon cleared her throat. “Would you like me to make some tea, Miss Christina?”

  Chris turned. “Yes, please. That would be nice.” She glanced at Mark. “Have you had lunch?”

  He nodded. “On my way up here. But I could use a vodka and tonic.”

  The housekeeper crossed the room to the wet bar and began fixing the drink. When he took a seat on the sofa, she handed him a crystal tumbler before hurrying from the room.

  While Mark sipped his drink, Chris paced in front of him. “Every night, when Bonnie and I tuck Tyler into bed, we see him looking past us toward the doorway. We’ve talked it over, and we both feel that he hasn’t grasped the fact that Mom and Dad are gone for good. He thinks they’re off on a trip. He still expects to see them coming in to kiss him good night.”

  “That’s natural enough. He’s just a kid. He’ll get used to it, in time.”

  Chris sighed. A long, deep sound that rose from the depths of her soul. “I know, Mark. But you can’t imagine the pain I feel when I see my little brother watching for someone who’s never going to come into his room again.”

  “Look.” He set aside his drink and caught her hands in his, drawing her down to sit beside him. “I know Tyler isn’t like other kids his age. I realize that he requires a lot of extra care. But he has an expensive tutor and caregiver in Bonnie, and he also has Mrs. Mellon. They were good enough for him when your folks were alive. Now that they’re gone, you’re acting as though you have to hover around him every minute of the day, just to get him through his grief. But in fact, you’re not even certain he is grieving. For all you know, he’s off in some fantasy world, waiting for fairy dust to land on his shoulder.”

  “Don’t, Mark. Don’t make light of this.” She placed a hand on his chest and pushed a little away. “I may not know exactly what’s going through my little brother’s mind, but I can see that he’s suffering, and I want to help.”

  “You’re suffering, too.” He lowered his voice. “And I want to help you.”

  “Then try to understand that I need time to work through all this.”

  “Take all the time you need, darling. But in the meantime, I suggest we move up the date of our wedding, so that I can properly take care of you and Tyler the way only a husband can.”

  “That’s sweet.” She paused while Mrs. Mellon walked across the room to place a silver tray on a side table.

  “Shall I pour, Miss Christina?”

  Chris shook her head. “Thanks, Mrs. Mellon. I’ll do it.”

  She crossed to the table and filled a cup, taking time to squeeze a wedge of lemon into her tea.

  When they were alone, she turned to Mark. “In fact, I’ve been thinking of postponing the wedding for a while.” At his sound of disgust she added quickly, “It simply isn’t possible for me to make wedding plans while my life is in such turmoil.”

  “Just like that?” He tossed back the rest of his drink and got to his feet. “Without consulting me, you’ve decided to cancel all our plans?”

  “It’s only for a while, Mark. Just until things settle down in my life. How can I possibly think about designer gowns, caterers, wedding lists, celebrations, at a time like this?”

  He walked to her and smoothed a hand over her hair. His tone lowered to a whisper. “I’m not some insensitive clod. I know how devastated you are at the loss of your parents. Why don’t you think about this instead? Forget about the extravagant wedding your parents had planned for you. Instead, we’ll have a simple morning ceremony before Judge McShane. He’s an old friend of your family. I’m sure he’d be happy to choose a time in the next few weeks when he could fit us in. Then we’ll wait to celebrate the happy event with family and friends at a more appropriate time, after you and Tyler have had time to get past your grief.”

  “You’d do that for me? Forgo the fancy ceremony and the celebration we’d planned?”

  “You know I would. All I want is your happiness, darling.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes. She pressed her hands over her face, muffling her voice. “Let me think about it, Mark.”

  “Of course.” He gathered her close. Against her temple he muttered, “All I want is your happiness. I want to help you. And I can’t think of a better way than by being a permanent part of your life. Promise me you’ll give my idea some serious thought.”

  She drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “I will. Thank you for understanding and for being so patient. Can you stay for supper?”

  “Sorry. I’ve already had to shuffle several appointments today. I’ll be playing catch-up the rest of the week.” He kissed her before turning away. In the doorway he paused. “I’ll call you later today. I hope by then you’ll have had a chance to speak with the judge and you can give me your answer.”

  She nodded and blew him a kiss.

  As his car started down the drive, she turned to find Tyler sidling up beside her to stare out the window. With a smile Christina dropped an arm around his shoulders and waved until Mark was out of sight.

  “Tyler is lucky to have such a loving sister.” Ted watched with satisfaction as Christina led her little brother outside to the garden, where they stood together in the dappled sunshine.

  “You’re right. But I wonder if we haven’t placed too much of a burden on her young shoulders.”

  “What do you mean, babe? Look at her. She’s doing all the right things, putting her own happiness on hold while watching out for Tyler.”

  “That’s just my point. If she isn’t careful, Ted, she’s going to lose Mark. You can sense his frustration.” Vanessa pointed to a distant vision of Mark taking the hairpin curves of the highway at a dangerous speed.

  “You heard him. He understands Christina’s need to look out for Tyler. In fact, I like his suggestion that they have a small, private wedding now, and wait until later, when Christina is more settled, to celebrate with family and friends.”

  “Maybe.” Vanessa crossed her arms over her chest and began tapping her foot, a sure sign that the wheels were turning in her brain. “I sensed a real tension in him. Didn’t you?”

  Ted’s eyes narrowed. “Now that you mention it, I did.”

  “Christina has been so caught up in her grief and in Tyler’s confusion that she may be completely unaware that Mark is grieving, too. After all, we were the only family he had. He often said that he loved us so much he actually thought of us more as parents than future in-laws.” Vanessa caught her husband’s hand. “Let’s drop by his place in the city and see if we can’t offer him some comfort.”

  As they passed through the walls of their familiar home, Ted grinned at his wife. “You know, there’s something to be said for this kind of travel.”

  Her smile was as bright as the sunlight. “It beats the freeway.”

  “I’m not taki
ng any calls, Joanna.” Mark never even paused at the desk of his assistant before closeting himself in his office. Once there he stared morosely at the stack of papers on his desk before picking up the phone.

  “Henderson? Mark Deering here. I know. I know. You’re going to have to wait a while longer for that check. But it’ll be there before the deadline. You have my word on it.”

  He paused, listened, then said dryly, “How about if I add a ten percent late fee? Will that satisfy you?”

  Again he listened before saying, “All right. We’ll do an electronic deposit. As soon as I have the funds available, you’ll hear from my banker. The end of the month at the very latest.”

  As soon as the call ended, he dialed again, saying almost the same thing to someone named Julian. While he promised full payment of his debt, Mark looked up as a knock sounded on the private entrance to his office. Cutting short the call, he set down the receiver and hurried across the room.

  “Mr. Smith?” The man speaking wore a grease-stained mechanic’s uniform with a faded yellow company logo on the pocket. Dark hair hung to his shoulders.

  “Come in.” Mark closed the door and crossed to his desk. Unlocking the drawer, he removed an envelope and handed it to the stranger.

  The man counted the money quickly before pocketing it.

  Mark followed the man to the closed door. “You did a good job.”

  “Told you I would. I was the head mechanic in the joint.”

  “I can see why. As I told you earlier, I want no further contact between us. Understood?”

  “Don’t worry. For this much money, I’d cut out my own tongue.” The man patted his pocket. “You ever want me to do you another favor, you know how to reach me.”

  “Yeah. I’ll keep it in mind. I may have something for you in a couple of months. In the meantime, no contact. We’ve never met.” Mark held the door while the man stepped outside, then closed and carefully locked it before returning to his desk.

  Hearing the phone ring, he pushed the intercom and snarled, “I told you, Joanna. No calls.”

  “I thought you’d want to take this one, Mark. It’s Christina.”

  With an audible sigh of impatience he composed himself before picking up the phone. “Hello, darling.”

  He listened and frowned. “How long will he be in Venice?” His hand closed into a fist. “That long? What does his schedule look like when he returns?” A moment later he broke into a wide smile. “He’ll be back the first of next month? Perfect. Why don’t you go ahead and book the date with his secretary now?” He paused before saying, “Now, now. I know you have some doubts about this, but it’s the best thing for all of us. And you won’t have the complication of fretting over all those details. We’ll have a simple ceremony in his chambers, and we can even bring along Tyler and Mrs. Mellon and Bonnie, if you’d like. I don’t want you to worry about a thing. Just remember that I love you, Christina. That’s all that matters now.”

  He disconnected, rifled through his papers, and dialed again.

  “Morgan? Mark Deering here. I’m calling about that little debt I owe you. You can expect a check the early part of next month.” He paused, then sat back, smiling. “Not this time, old buddy. I know you’ve heard it before, but this time you can take it to the bank. I’ve just learned that I’m about to come into some serious money.”

  Ted and Vanessa stared at each other with matching looks of stunned disbelief. How was it possible that this handsome, charming man, whom they loved like a son, had another side to his personality? A dark, frightening side.

  “Ted, did you hear what he just said? He’s talking about the wedding and Christina’s inheritance. He intends to use Christina to clear his own debts.”

  “I heard.”

  At his desk, Mark felt a sudden draft. Papers began rippling across his desk, almost as though human fingers were rifling through them, invisible eyes scanning their contents.

  Ted flipped through the papers, pointing to the figures on each page as he mentally began tallying the total. “From the little I’ve seen so far, Mark is up to his eyebrows in debt. So much so, that unless I miss my guess, he’s fighting to keep his precious company from going under.”

  Sweating, Mark glanced at the open window. With a muttered oath he pushed away from his desk to cross the room and close it before fiddling with the air-conditioning thermostat on the wall. When he returned to his desk, the papers lay perfectly still. Satisfied, he removed his suit jacket and returned his attention to the pile of bills atop his desk, going over each one and circling the totals.

  “And that awful man.” Vanessa indicated the closed door. “What was that about?”

  “It was about our deaths.” Ted’s voice held the cold note of fury. “Now I realize why the car behaved so badly on those wet curves. It was no accident that the brakes wouldn’t work. They’d been tampered with. By that . . . prison mechanic.”

  “We were murdered?” Vanessa stared at him with a look of horror and revulsion. And then an even worse truth dawned. “Oh, Ted. Think about it. It stands to reason that if Mark was willing to kill us to get to Christina’s money . . . ”

  Ted finished for her. “. . . he’d be more than willing to kill again, as soon as he controls her estate.”

  Three

  “Oh, Ted.” Vanessa’s eyes were round with fear. “This is like some horrible nightmare. We have to stop Christina from marrying Mark.”

  “Exactly. But how? You heard Gram. I can’t just reach out and throttle him within an inch of his life.” Ted slammed a fist into his open palm. “Though I’d love to.” He paused a moment, considering. “We can’t use physical force. We can’t interfere with a mortal’s free will. Where does that leave us?”

  “I don’t know.” Vanessa was pacing, her fingernail tapping a nervous tattoo on her crossed arm. “From Mark’s phone conversation with Christina, we only have a month to figure this out. That is, if we’re allowed to stay here that long.” Tears filled her eyes. “Darling, we can’t leave. We can’t let this monster win.”

  “I know, babe.” Ted drew his wife close. “Now, don’t despair. We’ll think of something.”

  Vanessa pushed away as a sudden thought intruded. “I have it. We need to find a mortal who’ll interfere for us.”

  Ted arched a brow. “I recognize that look, babe. What’ve you got in mind?”

  “What better way to stop a marriage than by having the bride-to-be fall hard for another man?”

  “A bit late for that, don’t you think? Christina has been dating Mark exclusively for more than a year. If you’ll recall, they paired up just about the time she hooked the Lyon Entertainment account, putting our company on the map.” He paused, eyes narrowing. “Come to think of it, that’s probably why Mark became so interested. It was right after California Business Weekly wrote that flattering article about Christina.”

  “Proclaiming her the fastest rising star on the advertising planet,” his wife put in dryly. “Now that we know what kind of snake he really is, it’s beginning to add up.” She gave a sigh of disgust. “Why didn’t we see all this before it was too late?”

  “Because he’s an expert at dazzling people with his charm. That’s what made his company so popular in the first place.” Ted caught his wife’s hand. “Come on. I can’t stand to be in the same space with that maggot another minute.”

  As they passed through the walls of Mark’s office, Vanessa’s voice sounded soft and whispery. “Where are we going?”

  “I don’t have a clue.” Ted added in an angry aside, “Maybe we can find that ‘other man’ you were hoping for. Preferably in a boxing ring. Or maybe at a rifle range.”

  “Ready for a lunch break?” Christina stepped into the playroom, where Bonnie was trying to entice Tyler to add a wooden block to the tower she had constructed.

  Bonnie was considered one of the most qualified teachers in the state of California, having spent more than twenty-five years working with special children. Af
ter just six months with Tyler, she had formed a bond of trust with the boy. Though he had yet to speak, he had begun to interact with her, occasionally joining in the activities she initiated, and once or twice stopping to listen to certain words as she read aloud to him from a book. Small steps to some, but to the Crenshaw family, each simple act of normalcy was a milestone.

  Bonnie shoved a hand through the wild tangle of salt-and-pepper corkscrew curls that refused to be tamed. “Lunch sounds good to me. How about you, Tyler?”

  The boy was holding a wooden square, turning it around and around in his hand, as though enjoying the feel of the smooth, polished texture.

  “I think he’s hungry. I know I am.” Bonnie got slowly to her feet and tugged on the colorful cotton shirt covering her ample bosom.

  Christina was always amazed that this woman could spend hours on the floor, playing with toy trucks and tractors, stacking wooden blocks, or just kneeling eye to eye with Tyler while patiently telling him something, without ever knowing whether or not he heard a single word. To most people it would seem a thankless job. To Bonnie, with her boundless enthusiasm, each quirk of the boy’s eyebrow, each pause in his constant pacing meant a breakthrough of sorts.

  Christina led the way to the kitchen, where Mrs. Mellon was just adding a fat bowl of flowers to a glass-topped table set in a little window alcove. Since returning to her parents’ home, Christina had asked the housekeeper to serve all their meals in the kitchen. The dining room felt far too formal. Besides, it still caused her pain to think about the joyous meals she’d shared with her mother and father in that special place.

  Special. Everything about this house was special to her. The lush flower gardens that had been lovingly tended by her mother. The master bedroom upstairs, now closed off, where she and her mother had sat together for endless hours, planning her wedding. But of all the spaces in this house, the one most dear to her was her dad’s office, which still bore the scent of his occasional cigars. This was where she’d gone to him with plans to attend Wharton. And where she’d confided that, more than anything, she wanted to follow in his footsteps and make her mark in the advertising world.