Gathering Lies

by Meg O'Brien

  “And possibly to find out where you’ve hidden your evidence against the Five?”

  “But I didn’t put that in my book. I’ve never told anyone.”

  “He couldn’t have known that, though. Not until he read your manuscript. Sarah, I can’t stress enough how careful you have to be until we get off this island. I’ll do my best to protect you, but as you’ve seen, I can’t be everywhere at once. And I’d never forgive myself—nor would Ian forgive me—if anything happened to you.”

  “Ian.” I laughed shortly. “You know, this really doesn’t sound like the Ian MacDonald who dumped me unceremoniously three months ago. How do you and he fit into this?”

  “Ian and I learned about Judge Ford’s committee, and we managed to infiltrate it. There are three other members of the committee, besides Ian and me. We meet secretly and underground—literally—in a room they call the Whale Room, several stories down in a private building in Seattle. Ian and I have only been to a few meetings, but this committee has been in existence for quite a while. Months, really.”

  “But surely they know Ian and you are cops?”

  “Of course, they do. And that’s the beauty of it. They think we’ve turned. That’s what I was saying, Sarah. We couldn’t have done that if he hadn’t dropped you like a hot potato the minute you so publicly announced your intention to go after the Five. Ian and I have pretended to go along with all of Ford’s orders to find you, get our hands on the evidence and then silence you. Our real intent, of course, has been to protect you. I’ll be honest, Sarah. We aren’t doing this simply for humanitarian reasons. You’re a major part of the case we’re putting together against the Seattle Five. In fact your evidence against the Five is the first real break we’ve had. God knows, that infamous Blue Wall of Silence hasn’t helped. But you, Sarah—you could help put them and their bosses away for a very long time.”

  “How do you figure on getting to the bosses?”

  “What we hope is that as long as you—or we—have control of the evidence, and it’s safe, one or more of the Five just might cop a plea and talk.”

  I got up and walked to the path, looking back at the farmhouse. I remembered how good it had felt, the first day I arrived, to be here again. How safe.

  “Have you been in contact with Ian since the quake?” I asked.

  “I was for a day or so right after the quake. Before my phone went out.”

  “How is he?”

  “Unfortunately, he and Judge Ford’s other committee members were stuck underground in their meeting room, waiting for rescue. Ian said they’d heard reports that there was looting in the streets. Not only that, but killings—cold-blooded, senseless killings. People are being shot in the streets, Sarah, for no reason at all. It’s tragic, Ian said, to see what’s going on. Seattle is like a country at war, and Ian and the rest of the department will have their hands full for weeks, once this is over.”

  “And, you—you were here on the island already, when the quake hit? You came over on Friday, just as you said?”

  “Yes. The only thing I left out is the fact that it was Ian who sent me. Once we learned that you had come here to Esme, he was anxious that I get over here somehow and look after you. It was a last-minute plan, and I hopped on the ferry without thinking about provisions, clothes, anything.”

  “How did you find out where I was?”

  “I’d been asking ferry operators and passengers for days, and finally I ran across the captain of the private ferry that comes out here. He remembered bringing you here.” Gabe smiled. “The guy told me he remembered you because you were especially attractive. Like Sharon Stone, he said. Short blond hair, great figure…”

  I ignored the compliment and fell silent, mulling it over. While my logical mind tended to believe him, my gut was having fits. Finally I said, “There’s only one problem, so far as I can see.”

  “And that is?”

  “I don’t have that evidence with me, Gabe. It’s back in Seattle. And by now, it could well be lost forever under a pile of rubble.”

  I watched his face, hoping to see something telltale in his expression. But in the dim light I saw nothing but a flicker of disappointment.

  “Christ, Sarah. That’s something we never considered. We were so sure you would have brought whatever it was with you—that you wouldn’t have left it at home for an entire month, where the Five might get their hands on it. But if it’s been lost in the quake…”

  “Well, of course, there’s always the chance it survived. I’ll have to see, when I get back.”

  He took my hands. “Sarah, let me help. Tell me where it is, and I’ll call Ian and tell him to check it out.”

  “But Ian’s stuck underground. Isn’t that what you said?”

  “He was, but they were rescued after the first couple of days.”

  “You talked to him when he got out, then? He’s all right?”

  “Yes. He’s fine.”

  “Is he coming here?”

  “I’m not sure, Sarah. He’s got his hands full, but he said he was doing his best to get a rescue team out here to us.”

  “Well, that’s wonderful. It shouldn’t be long, then. The evidence can wait till we get back. Right?”

  He dropped my hands and ran one of his own through his hair. “Sarah, look. I don’t know how to say this without it coming out wrong. But what if something should happen to you between now and then? What if Luke or Grace should get to you? Hurt you? I mean…oh, hell. Tell me what the evidence is, please, Sarah, so I can see it gets into the right hands. Tell me where to find it.”

  “Gabe, I wish I could. Honestly. But I gave it to a friend for safekeeping, and I don’t know what she did with it. I don’t even know if she’s still alive.”

  I saw frustration cross his face, and almost hated myself for lying. Everything Gabe had said made sense. And it wasn’t entirely that I didn’t trust him. It was myself I didn’t trust—to make the right decision for all concerned.

  One thing was clear, now: Gabe hadn’t stolen the Allegra case. That left six other people who might have done it. And my bet was on Luke. Or Grace.

  “I know it’s hard for you to accept what I’m saying,” Gabe said. “But, Sarah, please at least do one thing for me? Be careful. Watch your back every moment of the time we have left on this island. Don’t trust anyone.”

  “What about you?” I said. “Shouldn’t I trust you?”

  He grinned, and Gabe the Charmer came back. “If you did, then I’d be really worried. But yes, Sarah. I hope one day you’ll come to trust me.”

  15

  Gabe asked me not to tell anyone that Ian was sending help. “We don’t want to force anyone’s hand,” he said. “Let’s just wait until it happens.”

  From the moment he and I had that talk, I knew what I had to do. Based on what he had told me, and how much sense it made, I decided to heed Gabe’s advice—and my own instinct—and not trust anyone.

  Still, I couldn’t just stand around and wait to see who on Esme Island might actually be after me. Maybe it was Luke and Grace, as he’d said. And maybe there was someone else. The point being, I could no longer wait for the Allegra case to turn up. I had foolishly thought that given enough time, the person who took it would show himself—or herself—in some way. I had also foolishly thought I had all the time in the world to resolve this here on Esme.

  Now, with help on the way, the never-ending days seemed impossibly short. What if we were rescued before I found the Allegra case? Before it was back in my hands? Everyone here would go his and her own separate way. In the blink of an eye, I could lose for all time my one opportunity to put the Five behind bars.

  For that matter—what if I’d waited too long already? What if the person who took it had destroyed it? Had taken the stockings out and dumped them in the Sound?

  And who aside from Luke and Grace would be motivated to do that?

  I thought of Timmy with her potential bankruptcy; and even Kim, who had seemed on
the brink of saying something about her life, at times, then stopping. I thought of Dana, who didn’t want to talk about her life at home.

  She’s the one I began with, the morning after my talk with Gabe.

  “You never say much about yourself,” I commented, while we were washing clothes in the Sound.

  “Don’t I?” she said. “No, I guess not.”

  When she didn’t continue, I added, “Is there some trouble back home? I don’t mean to be nosy, but we are all in such a mess here, Dana. And tempers are rising from so much stress. Maybe it would help if we could talk to each other.”

  Dana sighed and sat back on her heels. Her pant legs, as mine, were rolled up to the knee, but still they’d gotten wet as we squatted in the water, scrubbing our clothes with a bar of soap. She began to rinse and wring out a T-shirt.

  “The truth is, Sarah, I’m leaving my husband. I’m not going back to Santa Fe when this is over.”

  This wasn’t anything I’d expected to hear, and I sat back on a low rock and gave her my full attention. “Really?” I said. “You planned this all along?”

  She nodded. “I’m in love with someone else, and we’re meeting in Vancouver—” She broke off. “That is, we were supposed to meet in Vancouver. Who knows, now?”

  Her face was drawn, and the sadness that filled it made me reach out to her. That she was a “runaway wife” had never in a million years occurred to me.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.

  “I suppose, the way things are now, it wouldn’t hurt. The truth is, my husband—well, he started being abusive right after we were married, two years ago. I stayed with him because he threatened to kill me if I left, but a few months ago I finally screwed up my courage and decided to walk.”

  She wiped sweat from her brow with a soapy hand. “I wasn’t sure how I’d do it, but when the invitation came from Thornberry, I jumped at it. I wasn’t going to stay the whole month, Sarah. That was just what I told my husband. I was going to take the ferry back to Seattle one day, rent a car and drive to Vancouver. I’m walking out—leaving my clothes, credit cards, everything I own behind in Santa Fe. I’m hoping he won’t be able to track me down.”

  “My God, Dana. I had no idea.”

  “Well, at first I didn’t trust anyone here with the truth. And now—” She shrugged. “If there was anyone I’d trust, it’d be you, Sarah. Please don’t tell anyone else, though. If I do make it to Vancouver, and my husband manages to find me…”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t say a word. But you said you’re meeting someone? A lover?”

  She gave me a weak smile. “I don’t know how that’ll work out. But I fell in love with John—that’s his name, John—at a powwow that was held in Santa Fe last year. He’s part Cherokee, and he’s sweet and kind. We found we had a lot in common, and one thing led to another…” She dipped her hands into the cold water again.

  “Is John from Vancouver?” I asked.

  “Actually, from a little town outside the city. He should have made it through the quake just fine, considering what little damage Vancouver suffered. That’s the one thing that’s kept me sane here.”

  “He must be going crazy, though, wondering how you are,” I said.

  “I know. That’s why—” She broke off.

  “What, Dana?”

  “Oh, I’m just being silly. But if only there was a way to get a message to him.”

  I fell silent.

  “What about you, Sarah?” Dana asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Well, you and Luke. The way he looks at you sometimes…” She rolled her eyes.

  “I’m sure you’re wrong about that,” I said, frowning. “Luke and I were friends a long time ago. But like you and your husband, we don’t really have much in common anymore.”

  “What about Gabe, then? Grace said you two were having a very intense talk on the path last night.”

  “She did, did she? She told all of you this?”

  “No, I just happened to overhear her talking to Luke. I figured she was warning him that he’d better get out there and stop you or he’d lose his newly found girlfriend again.”

  “She didn’t actually say that, did she?”

  “I didn’t hear everything. Just her saying, ‘You’d better get out there and put a stop to that—right now.’”

  So Grace didn’t want me talking to Gabe. But why? Was she afraid he’d tell me exactly what he did tell me about her and Luke?

  “I hate to say it, but I still don’t like Grace very much,” Dana continued. “I’ll bet that woman has a live shell for a heart.”

  “A live shell?”

  “Just waiting to go off at the slightest touch,” Dana said. “You know—a hard case. In fact, if Kim hadn’t been with her at the time, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Grace had killed Jane.”

  “But why would she?” I asked.

  “Who knows? Maybe because Jane looked cross-eyed at her one day.”

  Or maybe something else, I was thinking. Gabe’s belief was that Luke had killed Jane, since he’d seen him at the ravine. I didn’t want to believe that at first, but it was seeming more and more possible that Gabe was telling the truth.

  So—what if Jane found out why Luke and Grace were on the island? What if she overheard them talking, or saw something between them, the same way I had? It could have been anything, and it could have occurred at Gabe’s cabin just as easily as anywhere else. Luke could have been there with Grace, and if Jane walked in on them…

  Kim and Grace had supposedly been walking along the shore together at the time Jane died. But had Grace left Kim for any length of time? And if so, why hadn’t Kim mentioned that?

  I would have to talk to her next.

  “You know,” Dana said, “this place is beginning to feel damned spooky. Do you get the feeling there are things going on here that we don’t know anything at all about?”

  “I do,” I said. “I most definitely do.”

  Over the next few days, Gabe continued to work the women, and now and then he would slide a glance at me as if telling me, This is only a job. Hang on. Help will arrive soon.

  So I watched as he flirted and smiled, getting close to each woman to find out who and what they were. My feelings were mixed about this. I hoped he would succeed and discover if anyone here, aside from Luke and Grace, posed a danger to me. At the same time, I prayed he would find that there was no one else.

  As for my initial suspicions about Gabe, I was beginning to set them aside. As I watched him help first one woman, then another build a fire, gather food or search through their cottage rubble for something lost since the night of the quake, I even felt a twinge of jealousy now and then. Gabe’s style of helping was never a “take charge” one, as if the person he helped were less competent than he. Rather, he offered his services as a friend, and he was never overtly sexual toward any of the women. We all came to relax around him, assured that he was not going to expect “payment” of that sort when all was said and done. At least, not if that payment was unwanted.

  Luke, on the contrary, was growing ever more distant toward all of us, except Grace. They spent long hours away from the farmhouse together, and no one knew where they were or what they were doing. Each time they would come back with fish or oysters, and that would be their excuse. They had been out “scouting” for food.

  Luke took me aside once in the midst of all this and asked me point-blank if I would confide in him finally, tell him where I’d hidden the evidence against the Five.

  “If anything should happen to you, Sarah—” he began.

  “What could happen to me?” I countered, with a flicker of fear. What do you have planned for me? was the thought that ran through my mind.

  “I don’t know,” he said, “and that’s just it. You felt that aftershock last night.”

  “Yes.” We had all felt it and been frightened by it. It was worse than any since the original quake.

  “Sarah,
my father says the U.S. Geological Survey believes it was actually a new quake from a previously undiscovered fault. If that’s true, there could be others. And they could get worse. All I know is, if anything happens to you, I’d want to be able to get that evidence to the right people and finish the job for you. I’d do whatever I had to do to clear your name.”

  “That’s very kind of you, Luke,” I said carefully. “But aren’t you assuming a lot—that something might happen to me, rather than you? What if it’s the other way around?”

  “Well, of course, that could be the case,” he agreed, frowning. “Anything could happen to anybody here, and we should be thinking of what to do in that event. We should all make lists of family and friends to be notified afterward, and—” He hesitated. “I hate to say this, but we should ask everyone if they have any last requests.”

  I was forced to agree that we should, indeed, do all that. I led him away from any idea of my telling him where Lonnie Mae’s evidence was, however, by saying, “And that reminds me. Is it okay now if I call my mom from your phone? After all, if things are as serious as you say they are—”

  He smiled. “No need. I asked my father to call and tell her you were all right. She knows, Sarah. In fact, she sends her love.”

  “Really?” I raised a brow. “When did you do that?”

  “Just last night,” he said. “You were asleep when I came in.”

  “You mean, when you and Grace came in.”

  He looked away.

  “Still,” I said, “I’d like to talk to my mom, myself.”

  “Well, actually, she isn’t in Miami now. She and your aunt are on a short trip to Bermuda. They left this morning, early.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “No. I guess your aunt thought your mom could use a short vacation.”

  For some reason, I didn’t believe that for a minute. What I did believe was that Luke didn’t want me calling my mother.

  “My agent, then,” I said. “I’d like her to know I’m all right.”

  “I told you last night, Sarah, we can’t use what little cell power we have left just to let people know we’re all right. Don’t you think everyone here would like to do that? Including me? I’m sorry, but you can’t call anyone until the rescue team arrives.”