After the Sunset

by Mark Stone

  “You’re using the word ‘we’ liberally,” Joel said, looking down at his leg. “I can’t help you right now. All I’d do is slow you down. That being said, I didn’t spend the last year twiddling my thumbs. I’ve looked into things. The mayor didn’t choose to put us on Marco Island for no reason. I told him to.”

  “And why would you do that?” I asked.

  “Because I’ve studied the videos, Dillon,” he said. “I’ve watched them a hundred times, and I found something on the video that was sent to Dennis, the one that told him I was his mark, the one that pitted my best friend against me.”

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  “A flash of light,” he said. It came from a strike of lightning through an adjacent window when the person was recording. It didn’t illuminate a face or even any sort of bodily clues. But it did illuminate a scrap of paper on the table in front of the person. It only did it for a second, a half a second really, but it was enough for me to see coordinates.”

  “Coordinates?” I asked.

  “Longitude and latitude,” Joel said. “An address for a house on this very island.” He shook his head again. “I think I know where the bastards live.”

  Chapter 32

  I stared at the phone in my hand, weighing my options carefully. It had taken me the better part of an hour to get to a bar on Marco Island. From there, snatched a phone from an unsuspecting (and pretty intoxicated) barfly who looked to be on his fifth beer and the bartender’s last nerve. It wasn’t something I would have normally done. Stealing is stealing no matter what the extenuating circumstances. That goes double for a cop, but this wasn’t a normal situation.

  Having just been through a horrible accident, I looked like-well, someone who had just been through a horrible accident. I was wet and bruised up, and I certainly looked worse for my wear. Though I doubted that the person or people responsible for this game would look at a backwoods watering hole for me, going around asking to use phones in my condition would only serve to rile up attention. I couldn’t afford that right now, especially with Joel practically helpless and all alone.

  Besides, the barfly had a flip phone. So, I knew he wouldn’t have a passcode. I’d give it back to him shortly. No harm. No foul.

  After telling Jack Lacey everything that was going on and getting his word that he’d haul ass to where Joel was and drag the wounded man somewhere safe and under the radar for medical intervention (as well as telling him a few things I hadn’t told Joel I was going to), I hung up with him and faced a terribly difficult choice.

  I had promised Joel I wouldn’t call Rebecca. He told me it would be dangerous and, by God, it probably would. Still, I couldn’t help but think about what it was she must have been going through. With her wedding dress hanging in the closet, she was probably beside herself with worry and despair. I could picture her right now; those seafoam eyes brimming with tears, that beautiful and caring face destroyed by grief. One phone call would take it away, but at what cost?

  I had no idea who or what kind of person or people I was dealing with. If Rebecca’s phone was being watched, then one word from me would be enough to send the powers that be scrambling to hunt me down. And who knows? Maybe they’d go after Rebecca to draw me out.

  No. As much as it killed me, I couldn’t call her. As much as it might save me, I couldn’t risk hearing her voice.

  There was another issue, too, one I couldn’t shake quite as easily. Though I could live with the idea of Rebecca having to wait to hear how much I loved her again, the idea that I might never get to certainly didn’t sit well with me. What if I died doing this? What if I never made it back to her? What if I made Rebecca Day a widow before I ever even made her a wife?

  I couldn’t have that. I wouldn’t. Luckily for me, there was a way I could tell her, a way that would bypass whatever dangers calling her would put us in.

  As a doctor in Naples’ most prestigious hospital, Rebecca had an open hospital line. It was used strictly for business purposes; surgery scheduling, insurance information, and prescription salespeople. It was a dead line, so to speak. It would take me directly to a voicemail; a voicemail Rebecca wouldn’t check until she went back to work. Judging by how things were going here, when that would be was anyone’s guess.

  Still, if I could tell her how I felt, if I could tell her how wonderful an honor it had been to know her and to love her, and how I wouldn’t change any piece of it for all the time in the world, then at least I could give her that.

  I dialed the number. I knew it by heart. I knew all of her numbers by heart. Part of me hoped that I’d get a personalized message from the woman I loved, a greeting telling me to leave a message at the beep. Hearing her voice would center me the way it always had. I didn’t get that though. Instead, I was met with a cold automated voice telling me that I’d reached the desk of Dr. Rebecca Day and that, if I had business with her, I could let her know about it here.

  Business. That seemed like such a clinical word for what I needed to say to her. Still, it was the only option I had.

  I heard the beep and closed my eyes.

  “Hey,” I said, picturing her face against the inside of my eyelids. “I know you’re not going to get this until later, maybe much later, depending on how the night goes. If things happen the way I hope they will, then you already know I didn’t die when the boat crashed. You know I fought my way back to you, and you know that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you.” I took a deep breath and thought about what that life might look like. I thought about children, and Rebecca with strands of gray in her hair. I thought about decades together. I thought about retiring and living out our golden years sailing the world. I thought about a thousand happy nights and a thousand random Tuesdays we’d get to spend together. I thought about the fact that I was the luckiest mother’s son in the whole damn world.

  And then I thought about the idea that it might not happen.

  “If things don’t go the way I want them to though, there are some things I need to tell you. You know I love you. I won’t waste my time with that. When I started this call, I figured I would tell you how blessed I felt to have had you in my life for as long as I did. I was going to tell you that you were the best thing that ever happened to me and that knowing you is the reason I’m the man I am…or man I was, I suppose.” I swallowed hard. “You already know all that though. You know everything I’ve ever said and everything I couldn’t say. We’re not kids, you and me. We worked for what we had together and I want you to know that, if I’m dead right now, I treasured that to my final breath. I also want you to know that you deserve to be happy again. I don’t want you moping around for the rest of your life. I-I never got to see you in your wedding dress, but I have no doubt that you make too beautiful a bride to never do it again. I’m always with you, even when I’m not.” I tightened my grip on the phone. “I pray to God that, when you hear this, I’m by your side. If not though, I want you to know I really wish I could have been your husband. Now, wish me luck, baby. I’ve gotta go to work.”

  I closed the flip phone and looked down at it. It was time to end this.

  Chapter 33

  I felt like death warmed over as I made my way to the coordinates found on that piece of paper from the video. My entire body ached. Though I definitely wasn’t in as bad a shape as Joel was after jumping off the boat, I was certainly worse for wear. I could imagine myself now, limping down the aisle tomorrow with my friends and family looking on. It certainly wouldn’t be perfect, but I’d kill for the chance to do it right now.

  I had no idea what I was going to find as I came to a clearing near the spot I was looking for. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too much. After all, I was alone right now and not in the best shape to defend myself. Still, I knew that-whatever it was- I would have to face it head on. It was the only way I’d even have a shot to make it back tomorrow.

  Coming up to the clearing, I saw that the coordinates were not to a house or even a building. Wha
t I saw as I looked out in front of me was a singular well. Small, stone, and rounded; it sat in overgrown swamp land. It was new and as out of place as anything I had ever seen in these parts. Whatever was going on here, whatever the reason these coordinates were on a desk beside whoever was speaking in those videos, I was now face to face with it. I had no choice but to keep going.

  The sun was almost up now, and the Florida sky was tinted with gray, just enough light for me to be able to see where I was going.

  I didn’t move though. I knew better than that. I had hedged my bets on something and, in doing so, got some much-needed backup for myself as well as (hopefully) the information I’d need to put an end to all of this.

  So, I took a deep breath and waited.

  It seemed like nearly an hour before I heard the sort of rustling that indicated another human being was on the way.

  My body tensed, but only out of routine. I knew who was coming, and I was pretty sure I knew what he was going to say.

  “There you are, you son of a bitch.”

  Okay. So I didn’t know exactly what he was going to say.

  I turned to find Jack Lacey marching toward me. Since I’d last seen him, he’d been sailing up the east coast. His hair had earned a few more grays and the stubble on his face had grown into a full-fledged beard. He looked to be in better shape though, leaner than he was before and his eyes looked free of the cloud that had plagued them ever since I’d known him.

  “Took you long enough,” I answered, nodding at the man and giving him a closed mouth smile.

  “That’s what happens when you send somebody on a wild goose chase,” Jack responded, settling beside me. He looked out at the well. “That’s strange.”

  “You got that right,” I said. “And it’s not a wild goose chase if you know what you’re going to find and where it is.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “It’s still kinda weird though. I’ve never been sent to pick up a guy who I knew wasn’t going to be there.”

  “So he wasn’t?” I asked, even though I’d known the answer before Jack had even opened his mouth. “Joel was gone?”

  “Like the wind,” Jack said. “Nothing there but wet clothes and tire tracks.”

  That was exactly what I was expecting to hear. I hadn’t known it before he spoke, but once Joel recounted what happened the night his brother Sam died two years ago, I knew I was being lied to.

  He told me Emma was there the night Sam died, something his father Gary hadn’t mentioned when he spoke about the fire the night Joel went missing last year. In fact, Gary was very clear about letting me know that he and Sam had been the only people in the house that night.

  It got me thinking about why one of them would be lying to me. Then I remembered what Joel said about Emma and what Lilith had said about Gary.

  “You were right about Archer too,” Jack said. “The EMT who got shot the night Joel Mayberry disappeared. He wasn’t just a cop, but he was also the cop on the scene the night Sam Mayberry was killed.”

  “You found the report he made?” I asked, looking over at a man who knew a thing or two about getting his hands-on information he had no business knowing.

  “Sure did,” he said. “It was just like you said. He wrote about Lilith Mayberry saying it was a setup, that someone had set the fire to murder her son. He also wrote that there were three people in the house that night; two males and a female.”

  “Right,” I said, nodding. Joel had said something else too. He said about Sam ‘finding out’ Emma was in that house. Now, as a guy who snuck a girl into his parent’s house a time or two before, that struck me as odd. As many times as Charlotte had hidden in my closet or in my bathroom, never had I had to ‘find out’ she was there. She was there for me. I knew she was there, and I would have never run out of the house without her if the damn thing was on fire. That meant Emma hadn’t been there for Sam. She had been there for the only other person in the house, a man who had a history as being unfaithful.

  “Gary Mayberry was screwing his son’s girlfriend, wasn’t he?” Jack asked, shaking his head.

  “I think so,” I answered. “And I think Sam found out about it. I think the call he made to Joel was to tell his brother what was going on. I also think Lilith might not have been wrong about the fire being an accident.”

  “You think the bastard killed his son, too?” Jack asked.

  “That’s the only thing that makes any sense,” I said. “I think this whole ‘game’ thing is about revenge. I think they’re rounding up everyone who had anything to do with Sam’s death and making them pay.” I took a deep breath. “Dennis Chambers knew everything about the family, and he was close with Emma, too. He said he wished she had kept her secrets. I think he knew about the affair before Sam did. I think he might have even been the one to tip Sam off about what was going on.”

  “And Joel blames him for that?” Jack asked. “Like he’s partially responsible for Sam’s death too?”

  “If a cop just trying to do his job can be responsible, why not a family friend who inadvertently set the whole thing in motion?” I asked. My hands balled into fists at my sides. “And not just Joel. Someone came and got him. Someone else is involved in this.”

  “And you let them get away,” Jack said.

  “Only because I had to,” I answered. “I had to draw them out. I had to make Joel believe I wasn’t suspicious of him. Besides, he’s not getting far. I planted my cellphone on him when I was fixing up his leg.”

  “I thought you said your phone went to hell when you jumped out of the boat,” Jack said.

  “I had to say that,” I answered. “My phone is waterproof. I’ve been through enough crap to know I needed it. But I couldn’t be sure who was listening and, besides, I knew I’d need to track him. All I have to do is call Boomer and he’ll get into my account. It’ll lead him right to-”

  Jack’s phone starting ringing. He looked down at it and his eyes went wide.

  “Damnit,” he muttered. “It’s-it’s you.”

  Instantly, I knew what that meant.

  Jack answered the call and put it on speaker.

  “Pretty clever, you two,” Joel’s voice sounded in the air. “You almost had me, but you have to understand, I’ve been planning this for a long time now.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why did you fake your own death? It’s the one piece of all of this I can’t figure out.”

  “It’s the rules of the game, Dillon,” Joel said. “You survive the first attack, and you get to know that it’s happening. I tried to kill my father. He deserved it for what he did to Sam. But then he knew and I couldn’t risk him murdering me too. So I did what I did and bided my time. It was a damn fine show too.”

  “You’re sick,” Jack said.

  “Maybe,” he answered. “But I’m also in control. I didn’t bring you here for nothing, Dillon. You need to go into that well, sir. Otherwise, you’re never going to know what all of this has to do with you, or with the people you love.”

  “You leave my family out of this,” I said.

  “Your family involved themselves,” he answered. “Or, at least, a person who will very soon be part of your family.”

  My mouth went dry. “My, God. Rebecca.”

  “My brother went into surgery after the fire,” Joel said. “A more skilled doctor could have saved him. He didn’t have one of those though. He had a crappy doctor, one who let him die. Care to guess what her name was?”

  “Don’t you touch her!” I said, suddenly realizing I was miles away from the woman I loved with no way of getting to her if something happened. “You don’t lay a finger on her!”

  “We’ll see,” he said. “Now, if you want her to be safe, I suggest you do as I said and get into that damn well. You better hurry, too. The clock is ticking.”

  With that, Joel Mayberry hung up the phone.

  Chapter 34

  “My, God, Dil. Is that really you?” Boomer sounded choked up on the other end of Jack’s phone
. In all honesty, it took all I could do not to break down while talking to him too.

  The relief on my best friend’s voice was palpable. While it came as no surprise, seeing as how he probably thought I was dead and all, it still hit me like a ton of bricks. Everyone I knew had been through so much just for knowing me. While this wasn’t my fault (I knew that now), it was still happening to me and that meant it was happening to them…to all of them.

  “Tell the old man I’m not dead, okay?” I said, breathing heavy and closing my eyes to stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks.

  “He’s right here,” Boomer answered. “He knows, and he wants to talk to you.”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, I do want to talk to him, but I can’t right now. There’s business to attend to.”

  I went through the whole thing, telling Boomer all that had happened and all that I’d learned. When I was finished, I got down to the part that really mattered.

  “So, I need you to make sure Rebecca is safe until I get this taken care of, Boom,” I said. “Put her in a damn cell if you have to. Just make sure they can’t get to her. They blame her for Sam’s death. They think because she’s the one who operated on him that-”

  “Dill,” Boomer said, cutting me off. The tone of his voice was chilling and stopped me right in my tracks. “You don’t know. Of course, you don’t know.”

  “Don’t know what?” I asked, my heart screeching to a dead halt in my chest. “What happened, Boom?”

  “Everything was such a blur after you were taken last night,” he answered. “Charlotte told me that Rebecca never showed up for her bachelorette party. We’ve been trying to call her all night to tell her what happened to you, but-”

  “I have to go,” I said sternly, my eyes jutting toward the well.

  “You’re not doing that,” Jack said from beside me, reading my expression.