Truth or Dare

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  “Good question.” Zoe sunk back into gloom.

  “Stalkers are, by definition, crazy,” Arcadia pointed out. “They don’t think the way the rest of us do. They’re obsessed. Maybe Branch wanted to know more about you, Zoe, because you’re close to Ethan.”

  Ethan got the cold feeling in his gut again. “This kind of speculation won’t get us anywhere.” He sat up cautiously, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his ribs. “Let’s stick with what we know.”

  “What we know,” Harry said, “is that Branch tried to kill you. We also know that he figured out how to bypass the GFI circuit breaker. He was trying to make it look like an accident. That doesn’t seem like something a true loony would worry about.”

  Arcadia shrugged. “Who knows what kind of logic would make sense to a crazy person.”

  “You know, Ramirez made a couple of interesting observations,” Ethan said. “After he calmed down and stopped chewing on me, that is.”

  “As if you were to blame for what happened,” Zoe said, seriously annoyed. “From the sound of it, Detective Ramirez acted as if you deliberately set the whole thing up just to make his life miserable.”

  “Well, to be fair, you’ve got to look at the situation from Ramirez’s point of view,” Ethan said. “After all, this thing at my pool today happened only a few weeks after those incidents that you and I were involved in last month. I think he’s still a little stressed out.”

  “He’s stressed out? What about us? We’re the ones who almost got killed, not him.”

  She definitely had a point. It struck him that he should have considered that angle sooner. Talk about a blinding flash of the obvious. He ought to have understood that the stress of what she had gone through the previous month had probably had more of an impact on her than either of them had realized.

  She was a gutsy lady but everyone had limits. Zoe had nearly been killed a few weeks before. That sort of thing took a lot out of a person.

  Maybe her conviction that she had sensed something weird in Arcadia’s office and at the show house was some sort of delayed reaction to the trauma she had endured. It made sense that, given her conviction that she was truly psychic, her imagination might have translated her anxiety and stress into a metaphysical experience involving strange vibes.

  He tucked that possibility away for further consideration and returned to the subject at hand.

  “What Ramirez pointed out that was important,” he continued, “was that just tampering with the circuit breaker wouldn’t guarantee a shock, let alone a lethal one. But I think Branch may have put a little more planning into his backyard electrical experiment.”

  “What do you mean?” Zoe asked.

  “I’m going to have an electrician take a close look at the wiring in the underwater light fixtures tomorrow morning. Got a hunch we’ll find out that Branch did some surgery on it.”

  “That would make it look even more like a professional hit,” Harry mumbled.

  Ethan nodded reluctantly. Zoe squeezed her eyes closed for a couple of seconds, but when she opened them, her gaze was clear and determined.

  Arcadia swung one leg. “Do you think that the elderly woman I saw, the one with the camera, really was just an innocent tourist?”

  “Maybe,” Ethan said. “Maybe not. If this was a contract arrangement, it’s possible that Branch hired her to gather some background information on me before he made his move. The research might have included a rundown of my known friends and associates.”

  Zoe shuddered. “In which case that woman probably took photos of all of us.”

  “Except maybe Harry,” Ethan said, thinking it over. “He was out of town for most of the last two weeks.”

  There was a short silence. Everyone looked at him.

  Harry cocked a brow. “So?”

  “So, it occurs to me,” Ethan said slowly, “that if Branch was relying on that woman with the camera to supply his background data, and if she missed you because you were out of town, whoever is behind this might not know about you, Harry. Not yet, at any rate.”

  Harry smiled his grave-digger’s smile. “Think maybe that makes me your ace in the hole?”

  “Could be.”

  “Want me to talk to some folks in LA? See if any of my former business associates can come up with the name of someone who might be really, really pissed at you because of what happened after Drew was killed?”

  “All right. Thanks.” The ache in his ribs was getting worse. He stretched out an arm, groping for the bottle of pills on the coffee table.

  “Don’t move.” Zoe leaped to her feet. “I’ll get those for you.”

  She unscrewed the cap and spilled two of the tablets into his palm. Obediently he put them in his mouth and took the glass of water she handed to him. She rearranged the pillows while he swallowed the anti-inflammatories.

  It was strange having a wife hover like this, he thought. On one level he had to admit that he was sort of enjoying himself. Furthermore, chances were excellent that the situation would only get better. Zoe hadn’t even seen the bruises at their worst yet. By tomorrow morning they would be downright colorful.

  He tried to imagine what new level of protection she would institute following the close call at the pool. Maybe he would find a crash helmet or some knee pads waiting for him on the hall table the next time he left the apartment.

  But beneath the satisfaction of knowing that she cared enough to fuss, the cold, gray feeling lingered. It hadn’t gone away. It was just temporarily obscured by the adrenaline and the distractions of this case. When things got back to normal, he knew that he would wake up one morning and discover that nothing had changed. The sword of Damocles was still hanging over his head.

  Arcadia leaned back in her chair. “I appreciate your concern about me, Ethan, but I think it’s clear now that you’re the target. You’re the one who needs protection. Harry should be guarding you, not me.”

  “That’s an excellent idea.” Enthusiasm sparked in Zoe’s voice.

  She probably figured Harry was even better than soy milk and SPF 48-plus sunscreen, Ethan thought. She was right.

  Harry nodded somberly. “The ladies have a point.”

  “Maybe,” Ethan conceded, “but you can’t guard me and be my secret weapon at the same time. We need to keep you in the shadows until we know what’s going on here.”

  “Seems pretty clear to me,” Harry said. “Someone tried to kill you. Got to expect he’ll try again.”

  “But probably not right away. With Branch in a coma, whoever sent him after me is going to have to reassess his options.”

  Harry nodded. “Okay, I’ll go along with that. We may have a little time.”

  “How can you be sure of that?” Zoe demanded, plumping up the pillow behind Ethan’s shoulders.

  Harry shrugged. “Well, for one thing, it’s gonna take some time to find another hit man.”

  Zoe paused in mid-plump, looking a little ill.

  Arcadia frowned. “Are you sure about that, Harry?”

  “In spite of how they make it look in the movies,” Harry said mildly, “guys like Branch don’t grow on trees.”

  There was a short, acute silence.

  “What?” Harry said. “You didn’t think I had a sense of humor?”

  Arcadia patted his hand affectionately. “You never cease to amaze me.”

  “That’s actually a really interesting point,” Ethan said.

  “You mean about people like Branch not being that easy to hire?” Zoe asked.

  “Hell, no. There are probably several hundred thousand sociopaths out there who would be happy to kill someone for a few bucks,” Ethan said. “But finding one who knows how to make the result look like an accident, a guy who has had some professional hand-to-hand combat training, a guy who’s a pro, that’s not going to be so easy.”

  “What are you thinking?” Harry queried.

  “I’m thinking it might be a good idea to find out more about Branch.” Ethan rea
ched for his notebook on the coffee table and immediately regretted the action when his ribs protested. He realized Zoe was watching him closely so he tried to do the John Wayne thing. “I’m also thinking it might be a good idea not to sit around and wait for the cops to get the answers.”

  Harry was intrigued. “How do you plan to research Branch? You said all he had on him was a phony driver’s license with a no-good address in Phoenix.”

  “He also had an unusual tattoo. I drew a picture of it for Singleton, who is checking it out on-line. And I saw some more of those protein shakes in his van. The address of the nutrition shop in Phoenix was on the sack. Thought I’d start there.”

  30

  He walked through Nightwinds, searching for her. He opened the door of the theater but she was not there.

  He went outside into the night. She was standing at the edge of the pool looking down into the water. When she saw him she smiled sadly and shook her head.

  “You can’t come out here,” she said. “There’s a psychic barrier.”

  He would not let it stop him this time. He kept walking until he stood on the coping beside her.

  “The barrier doesn’t matter,” he said.

  “Yes, it does. You can’t feel it because you don’t believe in it but it matters to me.”

  The underwater lights were on. He could see Simon Wendover floating, faceup, just beneath the surface of the gently slapping water. Wendover laughed his silent dead man’s laugh.

  “She may stay with you for a while but eventually you’ll lose her, just like all the others,” Wendover promised.

  “I don’t care about the others,” he said. “I just need Zoe.”

  Wendover grinned. “Don’t worry, you won’t be lonely. I’ll drop in now and again to keep you company. You’ll never be rid of me.”

  He awoke in the sudden, fully alert way that he did when his sleeping brain registered an unnatural sound somewhere in the household. He lay still for a moment, listening intently. But he knew that it was the dream that had awakened him, not the sound of someone moving stealthily through the apartment.

  Zoe stirred beside him, shifting a little in her sleep. Her bare foot brushed against his leg. He wanted to put his arm around her and pull her close but he was afraid he would wake her. If she knew he’d had another nightmare she would ask questions.

  After a moment, he realized that the adrenaline produced by the dream images was not going to evaporate quickly. The stuff coursed through his veins, making him edgy and restless. He had to move, had to get out of the bed.

  He eased aside the covers and got to his feet, trying not to jostle Zoe.

  He found his trousers in the darkness and made it to the bedroom door before she spoke.

  “Ethan?”

  He paused. “I’m going to get a glass of water. Go to sleep. I’ll come back to bed in a while.”

  But true to form, she did not follow orders. He heard the brush of her legs under the sheets as she rose from the bed. Then he heard her bare feet padding on the carpet behind him.

  “What is it?” she asked, snagging her robe off the hook and trailing after him down the hall. “Another dream?”

  “Yeah.”

  He went into the kitchen and halted long enough to step into his pants. He pulled up the zipper and went to the counter, not bothering with the lights. The moon shone through the window, etching the small space in a ghostly silver glow.

  He opened a cupboard, took down a glass and turned on the faucet.

  “Maybe we should talk about your dreams,” Zoe said.

  Her voice was gentle but it was imbued with the determined, stubborn quality that he had come to know so well. She wasn’t going to let go this time. He was probably doomed. Somewhere in the shadows he thought he heard Wendover laugh again.

  He sat down at the table and thought about his options. They were limited. He could try feeding her a comforting lie that she might buy for a while, or he could tell her the truth.

  He had never been much good with the comforting lies.

  “The dream was about you and Simon Wendover.”

  She sat down slowly across from him, her face unreadable in the ghost light.

  “Both of us? Together in your dream? What was the connection?”

  “I’m not sure.” He wrapped both hands around the glass. “Wendover shows up now and again, especially in November. He comes back to remind me that I crossed a line because of him.”

  She said nothing; just waited.

  “Once that happens, you can never cross back to the other side. Things are never the same.”

  She took one of his hands away from the glass and wrapped her warm fingers around his cold ones.

  “I was obsessed. My wife said I was crazy and she was right. I swear to you that I truly believe that I required vengeance to stay sane. But looking back I realize that what I really wanted was absolution for the sin of having failed to protect my little brother. Goes without saying that I never got it.”

  Her fingers tightened on his.

  “I knew even then that revenge can’t buy that kind of peace of mind,” he said after a while.

  “If you could go back in time, would you turn aside from your vengeance?”

  He thought about how he had felt that day when Simon Wendover had walked, smiling in triumph, out of the courtroom.

  “No,” he said finally. “But I have to deal with the fact that the reason he went free was because I didn’t keep his hit man alive long enough to testify. I screwed up and the whole damn case fell apart.”

  “The police were supposed to keep the hit man alive, not you.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Wendover got to him and that was the end of it.” He was acutely aware of the warmth of her hands. “Hell, I shouldn’t have dumped this on you. I never meant to burden you with it.”

  “I already guessed most of it,” she said simply. “From the first time that Bonnie told me about Wendover’s death in a mysterious boating accident, I knew.”

  He gripped her fingers convulsively, so tight that he almost crushed them. “You never said anything.”

  “Ethan, please understand. It hurts me to know what it must have cost you to do what you did. I also know that you could not have stopped until you got justice for your brother. You would do the same thing for Theo or Jeff or Bonnie or me. It’s part of who you are. I think I’ve known that almost from the beginning. I’m only sorry that you have to live with the bad dreams and the memories.”

  “I can live with them,” he said, opting for stark honesty. “That’s not what’s scaring the hell out of me.”

  A tremor went through her but she did not try to pull her hand away from him. “What does scare the hell out of you?”

  “That I can’t be the kind of innocent, gentle man you once loved. I’ll never be another Preston Cleland. I’ll never be free of my past.”

  “I don’t care.” She leaned forward a little, hanging on to his hand now as tightly as he was hanging on to hers. “You’re not the only one who has been changed by the past. I’m different. I’m weird. Heck, I believe that I’m psychic, remember? You think you went a little crazy once? Well, I’ve got a bulging file of medical records that proves that I’m downright crazy.”

  “Zoe—”

  “Trust me, after what I went through at Candle Lake Manor, I’m not the same woman who married Preston. The woman I am today loves you, Ethan.”

  The night sighed around him. He let her words and the promises in her eyes sink deep. He felt them settle into his soul. After a while he could no longer hear Wendover’s laughter.

  31

  The electrician’s name was Jim. He was a strong, solidly built man with the easygoing self-assurance of a person who knew his craft.

  He stood beside the pool, opposite Ethan. Together they studied the sealed, waterproof light fixture that Jim had removed from the underwater socket. A length of cord dangled from it.

  “What tipped you off?” Jim asked with an ex
pression of great interest.

  “It was a couple of those JDLR things,” Ethan said.

  Jim raised his brows. “Something just didn’t look right?”

  Ethan nodded. “I had secured the pool cover with a lock. Got a couple of young nephews so I take extra precautions when it comes to attractive nuisances. When I noticed that the cover had been removed, I started wondering just what the hell was going on. The fact that the same painter was here again with no one else around worried me a little, too.”

  “How did you figure out he’d tampered with the lights?”

  “When I walked toward him across the patio I noticed a damp spot on the concrete near this fixture.” Ethan glanced down at the light. “Didn’t see any other signs of recent splashing, though. Couldn’t figure out why it would be damp in just that one particular place and nowhere else. When kids jump into a pool they get everything in the vicinity wet.”

  Jim chuckled. “So it was what guys in your line of work probably like to call a clue, huh?”

  “Right. The suckers don’t come along often, so when one shows up, I try to pay attention.”

  “Good thing you noticed this one.” Jim picked up the cord and displayed the clean slice in the heavy insulation. “This is a brand-new cut mark. It left the wire exposed to the water and created a short. Once that GFI circuit breaker was bypassed, this whole pool was an accident waiting to happen.”

  Ethan examined the sliced cord more closely. “How can I prove to the cops that this slice was done recently?”

  “Copper wire under the insulation isn’t corroded at all.” Jim bent the cord to show him more of the gleaming wire inside. “It would have turned green real quick in this chlorinated water.”

  “Oh, yeah, right,” Ethan said, impressed with the pure logic. “Good thinking.”

  “It’s an electrician thing,” Jim said.

  Singleton came to the door of his bookshop when he heard Ethan on the stairs.

  “You’re on your way to Phoenix?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” Ethan checked his watch. “Zoe’s going with me. I don’t want to leave her here alone, and you and Harry both have your hands full right now.”