by Amy M. Reade
“We came to help,” Brandt greeted us. “Giselle is going to help Vali and Leland with their cottage tonight, so if there’s anything you need me to do in Summerplace, just say the word.”
“That’s very kind of you both,” Alex replied. “Actually, things are pretty well under control here. But maybe Pete could use some help down in the boathouse. Why don’t you go ask him?”
Brandt and Giselle left then, and Alex went to bed early. She wanted to be well rested because, she said, tomorrow would be a long day.
My room was all packed; I had even taken the rock that had been thrown through my French doors and put it outdoors, where it belonged. I carefully packed the slashed portrait of Diana and hid it with my possessions. I planned to take it to a studio in Cape Cartier to see if it could be repaired.
I finished a mystery book I had borrowed from among those remaining in the library downstairs, but I still wasn’t tired, so I went downstairs looking for another book and to get a cup of tea. The kitchen was dark, but I could see light from the dining room spilling under the kitchen door. I intended to make my tea and hurry back upstairs when I heard people talking. I recognized the voices of Will and Giselle, speaking together in low tones. I heard the word “Diana.”
Suddenly I forgot all about my tea. I crept to the door to hear what they were saying.
“Another glass of pinot?” Will asked, his words slurring a bit.
“Of course,” Giselle answered.
I heard a chair being pushed back and footsteps moving to the cabinet where the wine was kept. A few seconds of silence, then footsteps again.
“Thanks,” Giselle said.
“Cheers,” came Will’s reply.
“Anyway,” Will was saying, “it’s true. I had a huge crush on you. And since you were always here visiting Diana or Vali and Leland, I got to see you all the time.”
“You had a crush on me?” Giselle giggled.
“Yeah, but that was around the time that I was supposed to leave for New York to start work for HSH, and Diana convinced me that my career came first.”
“It would never have worked out. Your life was moving in another direction, and my only option at the time was to stay in Cape Cartier.”
“What do you think would have happened between us if I had stayed?”
“I think it would have been good,” Giselle answered evasively. “But our lives have gone different ways. And now I have Brandt.”
“I wish I’d stayed. You and I would have been great together.”
I didn’t stay to hear any more. Will and Giselle kept talking, but I crept quietly out of the kitchen and back up to my room. This was unexpected. I had assumed that Will’s attraction to Giselle was purely physical. I had no idea he’d actually had feelings for her. It sounded like he still did.
And if Diana had convinced him to put his career first, if Diana had kept them apart, that might give Will a reason to fight with her. To hate her. To kill her.
I tried reading, but the ramifications of what I had just heard in the dining room kept echoing through my mind. I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t sleep. Should I tell Alex? Should I tell Pete? No, I decided, they both had a lot on their minds with the move to Solstice. But I would tell them as soon as the move was complete.
I wish I hadn’t waited.
CHAPTER 15
Moving day dawned gray and windy. The boughs on the trees outside my balcony doors dipped and tossed; the wind whistled a low rushing sound through the pine needles.
When I went in to see her, Alex was up and dressed and already directing the moving of her office boxes. In fact, the office was almost empty of Alex’s belongings by the time I got there. A crew of moving men was helping with the move, men who, I learned, performed this work for Alex every year and were trusted to move the remainder of the household efficiently and within a single day. Pete was in and out of the office as well, helping the movers.
I spent the day helping Pete and Alex, making several trips to Pine Island with Pete and helping unload the boat each time we docked. There were movers at Solstice too, who helped unload the boat and put things in the house. The system worked like a well-oiled machine, and it was fascinating to see this annual move pared down to a science.
The weather worsened throughout the day, and Alex said more than once that she was glad we were all leaving Summerplace before the storm came. Bone-chilling rain spattered several times during the day as the sky darkened and became more forbidding.
At last, the movers were gone. They had taken the very last load from Summerplace over to Solstice. They would complete their work in Alex’s winter home and be gone by the time the rest of the household arrived. We were all going to Solstice in Alex’s two boats before the storm worsened. Pete was to pilot one and Stephan would pilot the other. Pete was down at the boathouse, Vali and Leland were checking their cottage to make sure nothing had been missed, Stephan and Will were upstairs, and Giselle was helping her aunt and uncle. Brandt had been called in to work due to the storm and had left several hours earlier. Alex and I were in her office, double-checking that we had sent everything over to Solstice. Outside I could hear the rain falling steadily, and several times I saw trees bending almost horizontally in the fierce wind. I wondered, not for the first time, how safe it would be to leave the island under such conditions.
As if reading my mind, Alex said worriedly, “I’m not so sure we should go to Solstice tonight. This storm has gotten bad more quickly than it was forecast to. I think maybe we should stay here until tomorrow.”
“Do you want me to tell everyone?” I asked.
“Wait for just a little bit.”
Just then the door to the office crashed open.
Alex and I turned with a gasp to see Giselle standing in the doorway, wet, wild-eyed, and breathing heavily. She was wearing a big yellow raincoat buttoned up to her chin.
“Alex! Macy!” she cried. “I just got a radio transmission from Pete! He’s in trouble!”
“What? How? What happened?” Alex and I asked in a jumble of words.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. He’s out in the boat and he needs help. I can’t find Stephan or Will or Leland. Macy, can you come?”
“Of course! But I thought he was at the boathouse!”
“He said he had to run over to Cape Cartier to get some special computer cable for Alex’s office at Solstice. What does it matter? Hurry!”
“Oh, he never should have left in this weather,” Alex worried, her voice high. “Macy, what can I do?”
“You stay here in case Pete calls on the radio. If he calls, tell him we’re on our way. I’ll let you know as soon as we find him,” I replied grimly.
“Okay. Go!” she ordered.
I grabbed a coat that was lying on a bench in the foyer, and Giselle and I ran out the front door. As soon as we got outside, we were hit by the full force of the storm. The icy rain stung my face and ran in rivulets down the front of my coat. The late afternoon was dark and had become noticeably colder.
We ran down the stone front steps and around the side of Summerplace to Vali and Leland’s cottage, then veered onto the worn path through the woods. In my state of mind, it didn’t occur to me at the time to wonder why we were running away from the boathouse. I just kept running, following Giselle, and before long I heard another noise in the woods. A crashing sound, footsteps pounding. Another person was running behind us. Chasing us.
A man’s voice called out of the black torrent.
“Macy! Wait!” It was Will. And he was getting closer. I was afraid.
I ran faster, blindly, tripping over small roots and twigs on the ground. The needles made the path slippery, but still I continued, determined not to let Will catch me. Giselle was ahead of me, running faster, looking back now and then to make sure that I was still behind her. I stumbled once, falling and catching myself on the heels of my hands. Will was just behind me. I could hear him breathing hard. I could see his eyes, bright and terrifying
.
“Macy, wait! Get back here,” he commanded.
“No!” I shouted. I scrambled back to my feet, but he reached out of the darkness and grabbed the back of my coat.
“Let me go!” I screamed, panicking now, jerking the wet coat out of his hands.
I ran then with a strength I didn’t know I had, leaving Will behind. I looked back once and saw him bending over with his hands on his knees, still breathing heavily. Suddenly he stood up and went running back in the direction of Summerplace. I turned; up ahead, Giselle was at the leaning tree, untying a small boat that was tethered there.
“Come on!” she shouted, holding the rope in her hands.
I jumped into the boat and sat down. I didn’t have time to worry that I didn’t have a life jacket. I was so anxious about Pete that I could think of nothing else.
Giselle jumped in behind me, throwing the rope onto the floor of the boat. She gunned the engine and swung out in a wide arc away from Hallstead Island. I looked back but didn’t see Will. The rain continued to pound us relentlessly; this boat had no canopy under which to find refuge.
Giselle was saying something, but the wind was shrieking and I couldn’t hear her. She was highly agitated. She looked around wildly in all directions as we sped across the water. Pete was nowhere to be seen, and the weather was worsening. I was becoming more worried as every moment passed. Our small boat undulated with the roaring waves for several minutes.
As my eyes scanned the black, churning river water in search of Pete, I hardly noticed that the boat was slowing down.
“Do you see something?” I asked Giselle.
“I do see something,” she replied.
“Do you see him? Where is he?” I demanded, my voice getting louder, more urgent.
She had slowed the boat down considerably now, and I couldn’t see Pete anywhere. I was in a panic. But she got my attention by speaking again, quietly, so that I had to strain to hear her.
“You can stop pretending now. I know who you are,” she said, her eyes bright with malice, her manner entirely calm now, in contrast to the storm raging around us. A chill went up my spine, prickling the hairs on the back of my neck.
“What are you talking about?” I asked her slowly, watching her movements warily now.
“I said I know who you are, Diana,” she replied, her teeth clenched.
And then I knew.
The danger had not been from Will. It had been from Giselle all along. She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her raincoat, despite the downpour issuing from the skies, and leaned forward to finger the rope that still lay on the floor of the boat. As she did so, her necklace slipped out from its protection under the coat. With a start I realized that she was wearing Diana’s necklace, the one that had been stolen from Alex’s room.
“So you’ve come back, my dear friend,” she said with a sneer.
“Giselle, what are you talking about? I’m Macy. You know that.”
“Shut up. You’re lying. Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you the minute I saw you? Did you think I wouldn’t know why you’ve come back?”
“Giselle, please, you’re not thinking straight. You know me. I’m Alex’s nurse, not her daughter.”
“Stop it!” she screeched, squeezing her eyes shut. I was afraid. I needed to get her to change the subject.
“Do you know where Pete is?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Probably at the boathouse,” she answered nonchalantly. Tentacles of icy fear began fingering my scalp. Pete hadn’t gone anywhere. Of course not. He was too smart to go out in a storm like this. Why hadn’t that occurred to me before I went with Giselle?
Our small boat was being tossed about in the dark waves, and as I grasped the side of the boat tightly, I looked around for something that could help me. There was nothing. I saw an island nearby, but it was too far away, especially for someone who couldn’t swim. Giselle maneuvered the boat slowly around the island until we were out of the main channel. Through the ebony squall I could see a dark hole in the rock foundation of the island. I couldn’t see it well because of the increasingly cold rain assaulting my face, but I knew it was there.
It was toward this hole that Giselle seemed to be steering the boat. A wave of panic rose in my throat, as if my subconscious knew what awaited me.
“This is Devil’s Oven, Diana,” Giselle said in a silky voice that didn’t sound like hers. I had heard that name before. My mind seemed to be working in slow motion. Why did it sound familiar?
Giselle seemed to read my mind. “You remember Devil’s Oven. Will told you the story not long ago. A man was forced to live in here for months because he did something bad. Just like you.”
That was it! That pirate—Bill Johnston. Now the memory of Will’s chilling version of the tale thrust itself into my memory like a knife.
“Giselle, I haven’t done anything bad.”
“Oh, yes, you have.” She rolled her eyes. “Are you really going to pretend you haven’t?”
“What did I do?”
“Do I have to spell it out for you? It was Brandt. You took Brandt from me. He would have married me if it weren’t for you. Brandt and I have always belonged together. But he thought he was in love with you, so that’s why I had to get rid of you. So he and I could be together. Don’t you understand?” She was talking as though I were an imbecile.
“Killing you was so easy.” She laughed softly. “Since you couldn’t swim, all I had to do was push you into the water far enough from the leaning tree so that you couldn’t reach it.”
She was really convinced that I was Diana. Her calm rationale scared me more than anything else. I had to keep her talking.
“So you were the one who left the note for Alex. You killed Forrest, too.”
“I had to. You see, he had spoken to Brandt about me. I heard the whole conversation, but neither of them knew it. Forrest was concerned that I was too controlling. Too demanding. He was afraid that I would insert myself into every aspect of Brandt’s life. As if Brandt doesn’t want me in every part of his life.” She laughed bitterly. “Brandt stood up for me, though. He said I merely needed affirmation. He’s such a wonderful man.”
So that was the topic of the “unpleasant” conversation that Brandt and Forrest had before Forrest’s death.
She paused, looking at me intently, then continued. “But I knew then and there that Forrest could impede our happiness, just like you did. So I had to get rid of him, too.”
I gasped softly. She chuckled, then said, “It was easy to kill him. I knew that all I would have to do was push him down those balcony stairs. One day when I was visiting Aunt Vali, I saw Forrest on the balcony. I ran up the stairs very quietly and confronted him. He tried to tell me that he was just looking out for Brandt’s and my happiness, but I knew better. He was trying to get Brandt to leave me. I told him that I had heard their conversation. Then I pushed him and ran away. No one ever figured it out.”
“Forrest was telling you the truth. He wasn’t trying to get Brandt to leave you.”
She ignored me. “And now—now—I find out that you stole Will from me too! And you’ve come back to rob me of my happiness again. Well, I won’t let it happen. This is where I’m going to give you your first swimming lesson. Remember? I told you I would teach you to swim.” She laughed eerily and terror gripped my throat.
She steered the boat skillfully into the mouth of Devil’s Oven. Inside the island cave it was dark and the waves rolled and pitched. It was relatively quiet, but I could still hear the wind howling outside. I searched my mind frantically for anything that would keep her talking.
“What about all the things that have been happening on Hallstead Island? What about the photo album and the slashed portrait and pushing me down on the dock? What about the rock being thrown into my room?”
“All good tactics to scare you, no doubt. But they weren’t all mine. It’s true; I did slash the portrait. It looks much better now, if you ask me. And I was the one
who pushed you on the dock. You probably thought Will did it, didn’t you? And I know what you’re doing now, you bitch. You think that if you keep me talking, you’ll get away from me somehow. But you’re wrong.”
And before I knew what was happening, Giselle reached over and slapped my cheek hard. I leaped up from pure reflex and she grabbed my shoulders and shoved with all her might. There was no room for me to step back when she pushed me. I lost my footing and stumbled backward. I heard a blood-curdling scream escape my throat as my body tumbled into the frigid water. My arm hit the side of the boat as I fell, and a searing pain shot through my shoulder. Immediately a wave lunged at me, completely submerging me in an underwater abyss of disorientation. Then, as the wave receded for a moment, my head broke through the surface of the water and I filled my lungs with air. I opened my eyes and saw Giselle as she disappeared in the boat around the outside of the cave that was to become my tomb.
I was thrashing my legs and my unhurt arm, fighting for control over the bitterly cold water. Waves cascaded over my head every few seconds, sending me into spasms of terror and confusion. I was choking on all the water I swallowed, its iciness burning my lungs every time the waves crashed over me.
The darkness in Devil’s Oven was complete. I could see nothing. The waves finally gave me a respite of several seconds and by kicking my legs violently and paddling my good arm, I was able to keep my chin just above the surface of the water. I thrashed forward and suddenly felt a breathtaking pain in my foot.
I had kicked something. My mind, though moving very slowly, somehow understood that I had reached a wall inside the cave. I needed to find a handhold or a foothold. I kicked my other foot gingerly as I reached out with my good arm to hug the wall. Finding a wall would do me no good if I couldn’t find a ledge or a rocky protrusion on which I could rest. It wasn’t long before my fingers moved back into a large crevice in the rock. Here was a place I could cling to for a moment to catch my breath.