A Stranger on the Beach

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A Stranger on the Beach Page 15

by Michele Campbell

“You’re Lynn, right?” he said.

  She reeled back in surprise. Not expecting him to know her name, surprised that he was on the inside already? But he was, and he wanted to make sure that she understood that.

  “Look, not to be disrespectful, Lynn. I appreciate your concern for Caroline’s welfare. But you’ve got it all wrong. She and I are together, we’re involved. She cares for me.”

  He wanted to say, “She loves me,” but he ought to take that slow, out of respect for Caroline’s position.

  “That’s a lie,” Lynn said.

  “I’m not lying.”

  “She said she told you to get lost, but you’re harassing her, following her around like some crazy stalker. She wants you gone.”

  “She doesn’t. If Caroline wanted me gone, she’d tell me that herself.”

  “She did tell you. She threatened to go the police. Now it’s time for you to listen.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Caroline loves me.”

  Lynn’s expression morphed from shocked to horrified. Aidan thought his face must look the same way. What this woman was saying could not be true. Yet, judging by her expression, she believed it was.

  “Wow, she wasn’t kidding,” Lynn said. “You really are crazy. She told me you two had a one-night stand, and she regrets it. She loves her husband. She wants you out of her life, forever. But you won’t listen. I’m here to tell you that you better.”

  “Lies. You’re lying.”

  “I’m not lying. I’m telling you the truth. Get it through that messed-up head of yours and leave my sister alone. You understand me? Or I’ll get somebody to teach you a lesson. I can, you know. My husband has connections. Back off.”

  Lynn rapped her knuckles on the bar to underline her words. Then she got up and marched out the door. Aidan’s breath was coming fast. He staggered out from behind the bar. He could feel people’s eyes on him, but he didn’t care. What Lynn had said was so wrong. It had to be. He needed to convince her of that, or else he’d start to worry it was true. And he couldn’t believe it. He refused. He would not accept that Caroline felt the way her sister claimed. Caroline was not Samantha. This relationship was beautiful, it was the real deal.

  Right?

  In the parking lot, the sea air hit him in the face and cleared his mind. Lynn was getting into a BMW. He ran toward her, waving his arms, and saw a look of alarm blossom on her face.

  “No,” he said. “Wait.”

  He came up to her car and reached for her door handle. She put the car in gear, backed up, and stepped on the gas. The car lurched forward, barreling toward him. He stood his ground till the last minute, then sprang out of the way, hitting the ground and rolling, the wet pavement tearing at his skin. Jesus, she could have killed him. She seemed like she wanted to. The knee of his jeans was ripped and bloody.

  He jumped in his truck and screeched out of the parking lot. Five miles down the road, he saw her taillights, and floored it. She didn’t recognize his truck, didn’t know it was him closing in on her, didn’t speed up to get away like he expected. When he was right on top of her, she looked in the rearview mirror and saw him. Her eyes bugged out in terror. It was a two-lane road, narrow and curving. He pulled alongside her, lowered the passenger window. They were both doing sixty in a thirty-five.

  “Pull over,” he yelled, over the roaring wind. “I have to talk to you.”

  Her mouth moved frantically behind the tinted glass of her window, but he couldn’t tell what she was saying. A horn blared. A car was coming at him head-on, its headlights blinding against his wet windshield. He swerved, slotting back into the right lane, deciding not to kill the person in the other car just because Caroline’s sister was a goddamn liar. Deciding not to die for fear that what she said was true.

  He could kill the sister for what she said. For her lies. But was she lying? What Lynn had said had the awful ring of truth. He hit the brakes and let her pull ahead, then watched her disappear around a bend. He pulled into a turnoff and sat there with his head in his hands. Warm blood from his knee trickled down his leg. It was like his heart bleeding. He’d had such faith in Caroline. He’d put his trust in her, believed she wasn’t the kind to say one thing to his face and another behind his back. Yet he’d felt something from Lynn. He could tell that she believed her own words as they came out of her mouth. She was telling the truth as she knew it. What could that mean, except that Caroline was lying to one of them? But which one?

  If the barista had never given Aidan the cup with Samantha’s name on it, he might believe that Caroline was true to him, and that it was her sister she’d lied to. But the cup was a vivid reminder that the people you love most in this world are the very ones you should never trust. They will cheat on you and use you. They will ruin you, even kill you, if they can. He’d hoped he’d found something different with Caroline, but had he? Would she betray him, the way Samantha had, the way Matthew had? He needed to know. But how, when she refused to see him? Screw it, he was done listening to that. He would try to storm her apartment. But no, she had doormen. They’d stop him and call the police. He could try to follow her on the street. But if Lynn was to be believed, Caroline planned to rat him out for that.

  No. It made no sense. Why would she turn on him?

  He had to see her. Had to warn her. Had to get to the truth. And yet, if she called the police and claimed he was harassing her, he could get in trouble. In his situation, a call to the police could land him back in jail on a probation violation. And Aidan was terrified of going back to jail. Of course, there was also the possibility that the sister was lying, and that Caroline had never said that. He couldn’t stand the confusion. He needed to know what was real. He needed to see Caroline, to talk to her. And more than anything, he needed to warn her about the possible hit on her—and her daughter.

  Maybe the right way to handle this was through Hannah.

  If Lynn was right, and Aidan showed up unannounced at Caroline’s apartment, there was at least some chance, much as he hated to admit it, that Caroline would call the police and inadvertently end up sending him to jail. But Caroline’s daughter didn’t know him from Adam. He could sneak up on her. Not in a sketchy way. But make contact, make sure she was safe. Try to find a way to warn her that she was in danger. He knew where she went to school, and it was less than an hour’s drive from his apartment. He would be doing it out of love for her mother. If Aidan could protect Hannah, that would show Caroline how much he cared, and bring her running back into his arms.

  33

  Jason came home from work and announced that we were meeting Peter Mertz and his wife at a restaurant in Midtown for dinner in twenty minutes.

  “I’m sorry for the short notice, but this is important,” he said. “You need to get changed, and wear something nice.”

  He wouldn’t look at me. His eyes shifted as he spoke, and there was something tight and forced in his manner. I couldn’t help but remember Stacey Allen’s mysterious insinuations that Jason was in trouble at work. I’d tried to get him to discuss that with me, but to no avail. At the housewarming party, Peter had seemed so skeptical when I told that white lie about Jason’s whereabouts, almost like he was on to Jason’s lies himself. At the time, I’d assumed that was about the Russian woman, but was it?

  “What’s going on, Jason? Are you in trouble at work?”

  “Honey, there’s always trouble at work. It’s not worth bothering yourself over. The car’s waiting downstairs. We need to leave in five minutes. Please.”

  I was in the bedroom at the vanity table, doing my eyes, when my phone rang. Every time it rang now, I jumped, terrified it would be Aidan. But it was Lynn. I declined the call, and she called right back, so I picked up.

  “I’m getting ready to go out to dinner. Can I call you back?”

  “He tried to run me off the road.”

  She was breathing hard, her voice panicky. I knew instantly who she meant, but I couldn’t admit that—not to her, not t
o myself. What had I brought into the lives of the people I loved?

  “Who did what?” I said. “Are you okay? You sound bad.”

  “I’m still shaking. Your boyfriend tried to sideswipe my car. No joke. Thank God a car was coming the other way. He was going to collide with it head-on, so he had to back off. It must’ve freaked him out, because he stopped chasing me.”

  “Wait, who?”

  “Who do you think? That fucking bartender.”

  “Aidan?”

  “Yes, Aidan. He’s as crazy as you said, Caroline. We need to go to the police. I didn’t get the plate number, but I can describe the truck to a T. Red, rusted out, banged-up door.”

  “Why would Aidan go after you? That makes no sense.”

  “You don’t believe me?”

  “I didn’t say that. But I do think you should calm down and ask yourself if it was really him, or some maniac who happened to look like him. Come on, what motive does Aidan have to go after you? How would he even know who you are?”

  “He would go after me to get to you. And I don’t know how he knew. But he knew, and he said a lot of stuff. He claimed to be close to you, Caroline. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “He said this while he was chasing you in his truck?”

  “No. Before.”

  “He came to your house, and said these things?” I said, stunned.

  My phone. Aidan must’ve found Lynn’s address on my phone, tracked her down, and attacked her. My worst fears were coming true.

  “No, not my house,” she said.

  “Then where did this happen?”

  “Near the bar where he works.”

  “Why were you at the bar where he works?”

  “Because. I told him to back off.”

  “Ugh, Lynn. What did you do?”

  “You’re being so passive that I felt I had to step in. I went there, and I told him to leave you alone.”

  “Are you insane? That’s guaranteed to set him off.”

  “Well, it did. You should thank me, because now we have enough to go to the police.”

  “But you created the situation. Don’t you see? Now Aidan has an excuse. The police won’t do anything.”

  “What are you talking about? How does telling him to back off you give him an excuse to try to kill me?”

  “The police won’t take it seriously.”

  “Of course they will. You’re not making any sense. Are you covering for this guy, Caroline?”

  I was about to tell her that Aidan’s brother was the chief of police. I heard a noise and turned to see Jason standing right behind me. When had he gotten there, how much had he heard?

  “Who’s that?” he said.

  I held the phone away from me and covered the microphone.

  “It’s Lynn.”

  “What does she want?”

  “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

  “Did I hear you say something about going to the police?”

  “Someone stole something from her. Or, she thinks they did. Hold on, okay?” I said, putting the phone back to my ear. “Lynn, listen. Jason and I are late to dinner. I’ll have to call you back.”

  “What are we going to do?” she demanded.

  “Let me think about it. I’ll call you later.”

  I hung up, then I turned my back to him. “Zip me up, and let’s go,” I said.

  The Uber was waiting downstairs, a black SUV. When we were buckled into the backseat, Jason asked me again if he hadn’t heard me talking to Lynn about going to the police over something.

  “She can’t find a piece of jewelry, and she’s wondering if her housekeeper took it,” I said.

  “Rosario? Hasn’t she been with them for, like, twenty years?”

  “It couldn’t be Rosario, right? I told her to look around. She probably misplaced it. You know how people hide their jewelry, like if a workman’s coming or something, and then they forget where they put it? That’s probably what happened.”

  Fifth Avenue was clogged with traffic. I felt bad lying to Jason when we were trying to find our way back into one another’s hearts. But I couldn’t tell him about Aidan without risking our reconciliation, especially not now that Aidan might be volatile, even dangerous. Jason would blame me for bringing this element of instability into our lives. He might even start thinking that we should separate again. I stared at the reflections of the buildings on the window of the SUV and felt so alone. I was keeping secrets from my husband. And I wondered what secrets he was keeping from me.

  Peter Mertz was sitting alone in the dimly lit bar area at the restaurant, a martini on the table in front of him. Where was his wife? He stood up when we came in. But there was no smile of greeting on his face, no move to kiss or even greet me at all.

  “What’s this?” he said to Jason, but he was looking at me.

  “Did I misunderstand?” Jason said. “I thought wives were included.”

  “We never said that.”

  I saw what was going on, and my stomach cratered. I had not been invited to this meal. There was something very serious going on between Jason and Peter that was meant to be discussed tonight, and whatever it was, it was bad enough that Jason was trying to avoid it. I was being used. My presence here was a shield.

  “My mistake,” Jason said. “I do apologize. But since Caroline is here, why don’t we sit down and eat? Pete, you and I can talk at the office tomorrow.”

  I had to hand it to him. Jason was smooth under pressure. The guileless expression, the even tone of his voice. Every word out of his mouth sounded so reasonable that the listener would ask themselves if they were the crazy one. I’d taught Jason well. The student had become the master, and now he used his powers of persuasion to keep me in the dark about what increasingly seemed like very important matters. First the Russian woman, now whatever this discord was between him and Peter. Maybe I was the one who should reconsider our reconciliation.

  “If you two need to talk, I can always go home,” I said. “Honestly, I don’t mind.”

  “Or, Pete could call Donna, tell her to hop in a car and come join us,” Jason said.

  “I believe the reservation is only for two people,” Peter said.

  “It’s for four. My secretary made it,” Jason replied.

  Peter looked back and forth between Jason and me, presumably weighing his need to have it out with Jason against his reluctance to be rude to me.

  “This isn’t really the place to have our business discussion,” Jason said.

  “Yes. I said that when you suggested it.”

  Jason shrugged.

  Peter took out his phone.

  “Fine, let me see if she can get down here.”

  The four of us ended up having a lovely meal, despite a discernible undercurrent of tension between Jason and Peter. I’d put my phone to silent, so I didn’t know until later how many times Lynn had called, in a frenzy of anxiety, asking what I planned to do about Aidan. Nor did I know that Aidan had called me several times from an unfamiliar number, one I hadn’t blocked, demanding to speak to me right away. He claimed he had information that Jason was a danger to me in some way, and even a danger to Hannah. Not only was that ridiculous, it was a downright creepy thing to suggest. Luckily, I didn’t listen to that voicemail until the next day.

  The four of us—the Starks and the Mertzes—sat together in the exquisite, airy dining room, under glittering chandeliers, toasting and chatting like the old friends we supposedly were. I ordered the duck, and drank two glasses of a fine cabernet, and had what appeared on the surface to be a roaring good time. I admired my husband’s good looks, laughed at Peter’s jokes, gossiped with Donna, commented on the elegant outfits of the women at the next table. It was a night I’d look back on like it belonged to a distant, untroubled century. Because the reckoning was coming for all of us. I could feel it.

  34

  The morning after Lynn’s run-in with Aidan on the road, she called my phone. I hesitated before pickin
g up. I knew she’d be mad that I hadn’t called her back last night to address what she perceived as a major crisis. I couldn’t handle an argument right now. After that strange dinner with Peter Mertz and his wife, Jason had gone “to the office,” and hadn’t come home till three o’clock in the morning. I’d pretended to be asleep when he came in. But in reality, I’d barely slept all night.

  “You never called me back last night,” she said, and she sounded genuinely angry.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, flustered. “Our dinner went late. It was a business dinner, so I couldn’t get away to call back. I’m on my way out now, so—”

  “Whatever you’re doing can wait. I’m going to the police about your bartender, and you’re coming with me. No excuses.”

  I was in the bedroom. Jason was in the shower in the master bath. As Lynn spoke, I heard the water turn off. He’d be standing right behind the door next to me, drying off. I couldn’t let him overhear this conversation. Jason still hadn’t found out about my fling with Aidan, and I wanted very much to keep it that way.

  I walked out into the hall.

  “Lynn, it’s not a good time,” I said, in a low tone. “Can I call you back?”

  “No. What’s the problem? Don’t you want to get this guy?”

  “Jason is here,” I whispered.

  “Come to my house as soon as you can. We’ll go to the police station in Glenhampton, together. We don’t have to say a word to Jason about any of this.”

  “It won’t do any good to go to the police. I wanted to explain to you last night, but we got interrupted. His brother is the chief.”

  “The chief of what?”

  “Aidan’s brother is the chief of police in Glenhampton.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I’m not. If we go to his brother, it’ll get back to Aidan for sure, and piss him off more. That’s why I talked to the police in the city. But they told me I had no case. I don’t think that what happened to you last night changes that.”

  “Maybe you’re right. The cops in the city’ll say since it happened in Glenhampton, it’s not their problem.”

 

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