If You Ever Tell

by Carlene Thompson

  Carmen suddenly laughed again. “And then lo and behold, the very next morning the son of a bitch recanted his confession! Talk about a stroke of luck! I knew then there was no such thing as justice in the world. I’ve always known it, but I never had proof. That was my proof. If justice existed, Roscoe would have gone quietly into that good night called death and you would have been forever exonerated of killing Hugh and Wendy. But there is no justice. Don’t you see, Teri? There… is… no… justice!”

  “It would seem you’re right.” Teresa kept her voice neutral. She knew showing contempt for Carmen might be a fatal mistake. “What about the night someone in a long black coat with a hood like yours left Snowflake on my porch? That couldn’t have been you, Carmen—I was on the phone with you.”

  Teresa glanced in the rearview mirror long enough to see Carmen smile. “I had a key to the Farr house. I’ve gone in and out dozens of times. I took that night-light years ago. I don’t know why—maybe because it came from Trinkets and Treasures, which the munificent Hugh so generously gave me as a parting gift.

  “A couple of months ago, I caught a teenage boy shoplifting in the store. He was terrified. He begged. It was his third offense. I finally said I wouldn’t tell the police as long as he promised to do me a favor someday. I made certain he knew I was serious—he did not have a free pass. Well, I finally demanded my due. I lent him this coat, gave him the night-light, and told him exactly what time to leave it on your porch, making sure you caught a glimpse of him—hood, makeup, wig, and all—just to give you even more of a scare. And I knew he wouldn’t dare tell anyone—they might go to the police and if so, I had a surveillance tape showing him shoplifting. If I went down, so did he.”

  “It was a good plan,” Carmen said with satisfaction. “I called you at the time I’d told him to arrive. Even if you’d had the slightest doubt about me being involved in your recent harassment, you couldn’t suspect me of leaving the night-light—I can’t be in two places at once. So, everything worked perfectly.”

  “And it never occurred to me that if you’d been as frantic as you’d seemed, you would have called the police to come check on me, not hung on the phone screaming,” Teresa said. “I was stupid.”

  “Yes,” Carmen answered with mild amusement. “Stupid.”

  “You also took that videotape of my sixteenth birthday from Dad’s house, picked the lock to my house, and put on the tape just before I got home with Mac.”

  “You told me you were going out to dinner with him. Sierra didn’t react too badly when I came in—she knows me. But you were so slow. I waited until I saw the headlights of Mac’s car coming toward your house before I stuck in the tape and went out the back.”

  “Clever. You also left Mom’s scarf in Dad’s house, didn’t you? The woman next door is definitely paranoid, but she was right about seeing lights upstairs.”

  “I knew the very day the house sold. The real estate agent dropped into Trinkets and Treasures just brimming with the news. I took a chance that you couldn’t resist going in the house one last time and rummaging through Marielle’s junk. I still had the copy of Emm’s key to the house. I left the scarf that night. I went back the next night to make sure the scarf still had that distinctive, deceptively fresh scent.”

  “Oh, it did. You’ll be glad to know that finding it scared the hell out of me.” Teresa paused. “But I saw Mom wearing that scarf just days before she disappeared. She didn’t leave it behind in the house for you to pick up on one of your secret tours. When did you take the scarf from Mom, Carmen?”

  Their gazes met in the rearview mirror. “On the day she came to see you, Teri. On the last day of her life.” Carmen gave Teri that odd, tilted smile again. “Well, we’re finally at the TNT Area. Let’s see what it has in store for you and Daniel.”

  3

  While Celeste wrote, Mac hung over her shoulder, nervously jingling change in his pocket and yelling, “Carmen did what?” and, “She made them go where?” until Celeste would have screamed, if she could have. When she finished, she held out the paper and he jerked it from her trembling hand, read it again, and burst out with, “Oh, my God!” Then he rushed to the phone.

  His anxiety had communicated itself to Sierra, sparking another barking fit. Celeste knew Mac was trying to talk to the police, so she dragged the dog into the kitchen and grabbed one of the strawberry cupcakes arranged on a platter, crumbling it up and tossing it into a dog dish. Sierra promptly stopped barking and began eating as if she hadn’t tasted food for a week. When she finished, they returned to the living room just as Mac hung up the phone.

  “The police are headed for the TNT Area, but they don’t know where to go when they get there. The place covers hundreds of acres. Do you have any idea where Carmen was taking Teri and Daniel?” Mac was still shouting at her and Celeste clapped her hands over her ears and grimaced while shaking her head. “No idea at all?” Mac yelled.

  Celeste gave up trying to make him understand that her hearing was fine. She shook her head sadly. Mac muttered, “Damn.” Then he boomed, “Celeste, I have good news for you. The police just told me that your father is alive!” Celeste’s blue eyes flew wide. “That’s right. Your father was stabbed, but the wound wasn’t fatal. A neighbor called nine-one-one and the paramedics came immediately. Your dad is in surgery, but they think he’s going to be all right.” Celeste beamed. Then Mac said more softly, “I’m afraid your grandmother didn’t make it, though. I’m very sorry.”

  Celeste’s head drooped. Mac leaned down, took her face in his hands, tilted it upward, and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Everyone has been looking for you, honey. I told the police where you are and they’re coming to get you.” Celeste shook her head and pointed at Sierra. “They’ll take her, too. You run and find one of her leashes. I think Teri keeps them on a hook in the kitchen.”

  When Celeste returned with a leash firmly attached to Sierra’s collar, Mac looked out the window. “I see a police car coming up the road now. Everything is going to be fine, kiddo.”

  Five minutes later, a patrolman gently escorted Celeste and an exuberant Sierra to a police car. Mac leaned in before the policeman closed the door. “I’m sorry I have to leave you, Celeste, but I want to help the police find Teri. You’ve been an incredibly brave girl. I’m so proud of you. Teri would be, too. And I want you to remember something, Celeste. Teri loves you very much and she has tremendous faith in you. She’d want you to know how she feels about you, no matter what happens.”

  As Mac shut the door, Celeste smiled tremulously, tears spilling over her cheeks. She hadn’t been able to save Grandma, but Daddy was alive, and maybe, just maybe, Teri would survive this horrible night, too.

  4

  At 2:30 a.m., the highway was nearly deserted. Mac knew the police were ahead of him although he couldn’t see any police cars. He remembered that Marielle’s parents had owned a building near the entrance to what was now the McClintic Wildlife Preserve and had willed the building to her. Maybe Carmen had taken Teri and Daniel to the building. At least Mac hoped she had because it was easy to find and he could think of nowhere else to look. He’d directed the police to the building.

  As he drove, Mac finally tried to absorb the fact that Carmen, of all people, had killed Hugh and Wendy Farr, stabbed Celeste, pretended to be Teri’s friend for years, killed Fay Warner and injured Jason, and now taken Teri and Daniel hostage. Mac had known the woman since he used to mow lawns for the Farrs and she’d been friends with Marielle. He’d had only a speaking acquaintance with her, but she’d always been nice to him. She’d been so kind to Teri and she’d always seemed so normal that he still couldn’t completely believe Celeste’s story. Oh, he was certain someone had kidnapped Teri and Daniel, but perhaps Celeste had made a mistake about who had kidnapped them. She’d been a traumatized girl for so long. She was traumatized again. Maybe she was basing her accusations on old, tangled stories and misunderstandings. She had to be wrong.

  Except that f
or some reason Mac couldn’t quite identify, he didn’t believe Celeste was mistaken. Attractive, hardworking, funny, charming Carmen Norris was a cold-blooded killer.

  Four miles north of Point Pleasant, Mac turned in at the wide Y-shaped entrance to the wildlife preserve. His headlights pierced the unusually dark night, revealing a paved road edged by well-cultivated corn and soybean fields. Just beyond the fields, he saw the outline of the building owned by Marielle and the flashing of lights atop patrol cars. He pulled into the parking lot, jumped out of his Lexus, and without switching off the engine dashed to the nearest policeman.

  “Anybody here?” he asked nervously.

  The young patrolman shook his head. “The building is locked up tight, Mr. MacKenzie. We’ve searched all around it and we can’t find any recent signs of people being here—not even fresh car tracks. I’m afraid no one is here.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Mac said hopelessly. “This place is too open—too close to the road, too visible to anyone passing by. Carmen would have taken—” Mac broke off, unable to say “Teri.” “Her and the boy somewhere more isolated.”

  “Do you have any idea where that might be? After all, this place covers over two thousand acres.”

  Over two thousand acres. Mac knew the area was huge, but hearing someone actually announce an approximation of the acreage caused his hopes to sink. How could he possibly find Teri in such a big place, especially when time was so important?

  Mac closed his eyes, trying to recall everything he knew about the area. He remembered that during World War II, two power plants had been constructed to supply energy for the manufacture of explosives. One of the plants—located across from the building Marielle had owned—had been destroyed. He knew a maze of tunnels lay beneath the ground of the complex. He remembered that after the war, parts of the complex had been sold off to chemical companies for storage of their materials.

  Storage. The word echoed in Mac’s mind. Not only chemicals were stored in the TNT Area. During the war, manufacturers had stored explosives in “igloos,” steel and concrete domes covered with dirt and grass so they would be invisible to reconnaissance planes. Marielle had been intrigued by the history of the area. Many times his mother had mentioned that Marielle had tried to talk Emma into visiting the site with her when she did research for the book she hoped to write, but the area had terrified Emma. “You couldn’t get me up there for love or money,” Emma always said. “I’m afraid the only people who will go with Marielle are Teresa and Carmen. Mostly Carmen. She loves that place almost as much as Marielle does.”

  But Teresa and Carmen weren’t the only people who’d accompanied Marielle to the TNT Area. He and Teri had gone one day because Teri thought it would please her mother. They’d gone to one particular igloo—one Marielle favored because it was not sealed shut. She’d told them she’d come to it with Carmen and that Carmen had taken one photograph of her by the igloo, but she wanted more. So they’d made an adventure of exploring the place and of taking pictures. Many pictures, because Marielle had been so taken with the structure, even the inside where the walls bore graffiti, names of supposedly “easy” girls and their phone numbers, highly creative commands for some unpopular town figures to “go to hell,” a few inverted pentagrams. Mac now frowned, feeling desperate. If only he could remember the location of that igloo…

  5

  Teresa hadn’t gone far into the TNT Area when Carmen instructed her to take a left turn. They drove a few feet before reaching a low iron bar blocking the road. Carmen told her to shut off the car and get out. “And remember, I have Daniel tight in my grip,” she added.

  While Carmen slid from the backseat of the car, Teresa stood in the warm darkness, listening to frogs croaking around nearby ponds and the occasional hoot of an owl. She’d never liked this place, not because it was said to have been the home of “Mothman,” the creature she’d always thought to be the ridiculous invention of idle minds, but because the area had been the site where death was manufactured—death in the form of explosives. Some of those explosives remained here, hidden, waiting. The thought gave her a chill.

  “You’re shivering,” Carmen said right behind her. “It’s not at all cold. Are you frightened?”

  “Yes. Who wouldn’t be?”

  “Good! No false bravado. I hate when people try to act brave in the face of death. Unless they don’t care about dying.”

  “Gus cared about dying,” Teresa said stonily. “Did he try to act brave?”

  “Gus made the mistake of walking into the barn when I was letting Eclipse loose.” Carmen laughed again. “He thought I was Marielle. He was overjoyed! Did you know he and your mother used to have a little bit of a relationship? Nothing that went very far. I never could understand it—your mother had Hugh Farr, but the man she wanted was Gus Gibbs! Anyway, when he got a good look at me, it was all over for him. The rake was there, just waiting for me, and I put Gus out of his misery.”

  “And turned Eclipse loose, then ran out of the barn right in front of my car.”

  “Running in front of your car wasn’t planned, but you should have seen your face! Then you jumped out in the rain and started wailing, ‘Mommy!’ Oh, my God, it was priceless!”

  “I’m glad you thought so.” Teresa started to turn around, but Carmen gave her a sharp, “No!” Teri obeyed, standing still on the dirt road, letting the night sounds of the deserted area wash over her, knowing that soon she would hear nothing. “May I ask one last question?” she ventured.

  “I suppose.” Carmen had begun to sound tired. She’d had a rough evening, Teresa thought with gallows humor.

  “What happened to my mother?”

  “Oh dear, I thought you would have guessed by now. After the big scene at your house, when Hugh caught her and she managed to escape, she came running to me. To me! She cried and moaned and carried on in that damned hopeless, helpless way of hers that had always driven me wild. I snapped. I just couldn’t take it anymore, especially after just finding out that Wendy was pregnant.

  “I put on a good show. I comforted her for a while, then I told her I’d drive her back to her aunt Beulah’s house. Only we never went to Beulah’s. I drove her straight up here, right to the igloo ahead of us. It was evening by then. I didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing us. Tired as she was, she couldn’t resist getting out to look at that old igloo she’d loved. While she was wandering around, mumbling to herself, I stabbed her. Quite a number of times, actually. And it felt so good to finally end her mewling self-pity. So very, very good!”

  Teresa’s stomach clenched. For a moment the dark, lonely landscape spun and she thought she was going to throw up. Then she drew a deep breath. “What did you do with her body?”

  “I buried her up here.”

  “Where?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Just take my word for it that you’d never find her, even if you got the chance to look. There’s probably not much left of her anyway. Still, you’ll be with her. That’s why I wanted to kill you up here, Teri. You’re like her—the woman with everything, even love. You have everything I should have had, just like your mother. But I didn’t allow her to keep everything and I won’t allow you to, either. I hate you just as much as I always hated her. And don’t tell me I won’t get away with this. I’ve been prepared for years. I have money hidden and false identification documents. I’ll leave this godforsaken place and get a new start just after I’ve killed you and Sharon’s little, sniveling spawn.”

  Teresa almost whirled on the woman, wanting to claw out her eyes, wanting to knock her to the ground and beat her head against a rock, wanting to do something violent to avenge her mother. If Teresa had been alone, she would have, knowing she had nothing to lose. But Carmen still held Daniel, who cried softly, steadily, hopelessly. Poor little Daniel, who would die because he’d been sent to spend the night at Aunt Teri’s house. Teresa closed her eyes again, thinking that she simply could not bear what was happening. She almost wished Carmen wo
uld just raise the gun and shoot her in the head.

  Almost. She could not give up on Daniel.

  Teresa opened her eyes and said in a shockingly steady voice, “What do you want us to do now, Carmen?”

  “I want you to walk straight ahead to that igloo. You can skirt around the bar blocking the road. I’ve done it a hundred times. So did your mother.”

  So did Mom, Teri thought as she began to walk slowly through the grass damp with dew at the edge of the road, hearing Carmen and Daniel trailing behind her. Her mother had walked to that igloo with Carmen. Teresa remembered the photo Carmen had taken of Marielle laughing as she’d stood beside the igloo. She had no idea this was where she’d die.

  Teresa reached the door of the igloo. She didn’t ask what to do next. She grabbed the bar holding the door closed and tugged. It began a slow, grinding movement, then opened.

  A wave of musty air washed over her. The total darkness inside seemed to reach for her, luring her seductively into oblivion. It would be so easy to just walk in, to let the darkness swallow her, to let Carmen fire the gun. Teresa took a step inward, feeling drawn, pulled into oblivion—

  Then a light flashed on. Carmen had brought along a flashlight. Of course. She’d had this whole thing planned, Teri thought. She wouldn’t forget a flashlight, especially since this wasn’t her first time—she’d performed this scene eight years ago with Marielle Farr as her victim.

  Marielle, Teri thought. Not Marielle and another hostage, one whom Carmen held tight while she also aimed a flashlight, not a gun. She couldn’t do both at once. She couldn’t clutch Daniel, a flashlight, and a gun. For just an instant, Carmen was vulnerable.