“What happened?” Eliza’s hands began to shake as she held onto the phone in a vice-like grip.
“Not over the phone, okay? Just come home. Now please.” He sounded more serious that time.
“Okay, I’ll be right there.”
“Oh and hey, can you ask your friend to watch the baby for a little while? I want you to come home alone.”
“Um, sure.” Eliza figured there was no point in asking why. She would find out very soon.
She arrived home ten minutes later to find a badly beaten man lying on the floor of their kitchen.
“Who the hell is that?”
She didn’t know if she knew him or not. His face was too bloody and distorted to tell who it was. In fact, his entire body was a mess. He looked bloody and broken from head to toe. And Marshall did not escape unscathed either. He was on the receiving end of a few blows himself. He had a black eye and what looked to be a broken right hand. That last part was probably due to repeatedly hitting the pour soul that lay bleeding on her kitchen floor.
“It’s that nosey nurse from the hospital, that’s who it is,” Marshall replied, holding his homemade icepack, made out of a plastic zip bag and ice, on his right hand. He appeared very satisfied with himself. “I do have to say though, he didn’t go down easily. He fought for his life.” Marshall looked down at the man on the floor. “He lost.”
“Oh no,” was all Eliza could manage to get out of her mouth.
“Now we know we were right. He was the one calling and harassing you.” The smugness came through in his voice.
“What did he say? Did you offer him the money?” Eliza asked.
“No. We didn’t even get that far. He acted like he just stopped by to check on Zach. I don’t know what he was trying to pull, but he wasn’t fooling anyone.” Marshall pulled the ice pack from his hand. “Damn, that’s cold.”
“Really? That’s weird. I wonder why he would do that. I would think he’d just get his money and go.” Eliza tilted her head just a tad as she thought about it.
“I don’t know. Who cares? We need to get rid of him now. My hand is killing me. I’ll need your help.” Marshall held up his hand for her to see. It was red and swollen. It would be of no use to him for a while.
“Is he dead?” She couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not, and didn’t want to get close enough to him to find out.
“No, he’s not dead. But, he probably wishes he were right about now,” Marshall said with self satisfaction.
His wife could see the hardness in his eyes. “What are we supposed to do with him? What if he wakes up?” Eliza was afraid that their predicament was going to get worse than it already was.
“He’s not gonna wake up anytime soon. And if he does, we’ll deal with it then. Go get that tarp we have in the garage. We can wrap him up in that. I don’t want him bleedin’ all over my car.”
When Eliza returned with the tarp, they rolled him up in it, making sure that he could still breathe. That she insisted on. And that was the moment when realization hit her square in the forehead. She had become a willing participant in another man’s destruction. Her body began to shake as they put Nathan in the trunk of Marshall’s car. The car was parked in the driveway, which certainly was not ideal. But their garage was too full of boxes and other junk to fit the car inside, therefore denying them the privacy they really needed in their task. Eliza prayed that none of the neighbors were looking out their windows right about then. She wondered what story they would tell if some nosey neighbor walked over to investigate.
Marshall’s voice snapped her out of her daydream. “Just hang tight here and watch the car while I go wrap up this hand. I need to change too. I don’t want to be out driving around with all this blood on me.”
“But a body in the trunk is not a problem?” Eliza quipped.
Marshall gave her a look that caused his wife to quickly shut her mouth. She watched him as he walked away.
“Hey there. What are you doing standing out here in the dark?”
Eliza spun around to find Sebastian standing in her driveway. Right next to the still open trunk of the car.
Oh my god, stay calm, she said to herself. She looked Sebastian right in the eyes, hoping to keep eye contact with him, so he wouldn’t glance over into the trunk.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him as calmly as she could.
“I just came over to talk to you.” Sebastian crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the side of the car. Eliza thought she was going to have a panic attack.
Taking just a moment to calm down, Eliza nonchalantly walked over and closed the trunk of the car, without taking her eyes off of Sebastian.
“Well, we are kind of busy right now. What do you want to talk about?” she asked him.
“About the kid, what else?” Sebastian couldn’t figure out why she was being so obtuse.
At that moment, realization hit Eliza. And it hit hard. “You are the one that’s been calling me?” Her mouth hung open in shock.
“Yeah, you are just now figuring that out?” A bark of laughter escaped Sebastian’s throat.
Eliza’s shoulders slumped as she looked from Sebastian to the closed trunk of the car, and back to Sebastian again. She thought she was going to pass out and reached for the car to steady herself.
“Hey, are you all right?” Sebastian asked, reaching for her before she fell to the driveway in a heap.
Eliza took a couple of deep breaths before she dared to try and speak. “Yes, I’ll be fine. I just haven’t eaten in a while. You need to go. Marshall’s pissed off and I feel for your safety.”
“Hey, I’m no slouch. We need to get this all out in the open.” Sebastian stood up straight and tall. “If that kid is mine, I need to know it. No matter what you might think of me, I don’t run away from my responsibilities.”
Eliza almost laughed at that last comment. He was the one living in his parents’ basement, and he just told her that he didn’t run away from his responsibilities. Yeah, right. But this night, she couldn’t find anything funny. She only found tragedy in their situation.
Leaning in to make sure there was no mistaking her meaning, Eliza continued. “No, Sebastian. I don’t think you understand. You don’t want to deal with Marshall when he’s like this. Let’s just wait until he has calmed down some. I’ll call you tomorrow. Okay?” She hoped that the seriousness in her voice and the look on her face would get her point across.
Sebastian could see the fear in her eyes and relented. “Fine, okay. I’ll go. I guess one more day won’t matter.” Sebastian turned and walked away.
Eliza stood, still leaning on the car for support, and watched Sebastian walk to his car. She didn’t know if she could trust her own legs to keep her upright. Relief washed over her as he started up his car and started backing out.
Marshall walked out the front door just as Sebastian’s car pulled out of the driveway.
“Who was that?” Marshall asked, eyeing the back end of the car.
“It was Sebastian. He is the one that has been calling me. Not Nathan.”
Eliza looked Marshall right in the eyes, and watched his face as it all came together for him. “Oh crap.”
“Yeah,” she replied.
They both looked at the closed trunk.
A half hour later, Marshall, who had been silent on their drive, finally spoke. “So why has Sebastian been calling you?” Marshall asked her as they drove down the winding dirt road toward their destination.
Eliza stared off into the distance ahead of them. The night was pitch black, and she thought it was like driving through ink. She had no idea how Marshall managed to stay on the road.
“Because he is the one,” she said, without taking her eyes off of the road.
“The one what?” Marshall asked.
“Can you please slow down? I don’t want to end up in a ditch out here in the middle of nowhere.”
Marshall hated it when she commented on his driving. He was always
driving too fast for her taste. He thought she drove like a little old lady. But he obliged anyway, lifting his foot slightly off of the accelerator.
“What do you mean ‘the one’?” he asked her again. Then, before she had a chance to answer him, he understood. “Wait. You don’t mean the guy that could be Zach’s father, do you?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.” Eliza still could not bring herself to look directly at Marshall.
“Oh my god! You know that guy has slept with just about every female on the island, don’t you?”
Eliza could hear the agitation in Marshall’s voice, and instantly regretted her decision to reveal Sebastian’s role in their lives.
“Don’t exaggerate, Marshall. Most of that is just gossip. He’s actually a really nice guy.”
“Are you seriously defending him right now?!” As his anger rose, his right foot became heavier, and the car started barreling faster and faster down the dirt road.
“Marshall! Slow down!” Eliza screamed at him.
In response, he slammed the brakes so hard that the car began to fishtail. Eliza grabbed onto the door with one hand, and the dashboard with the other, in an attempt to keep herself upright. She was thankful that she had remembered to put on her seatbelt before they left.
A few seconds later, the car came to a complete stop, with dust and sand flying everywhere. When it all cleared, they were turned sideways, across the dirt road. Eliza opened her door and climbed out, saying nothing to her husband. He followed suit.
“Well, it looks like we’ve arrived at our destination,” Marshall announced.
Eliza just glared his way. She looked around to see that they were in a hilly, interior section of the island that only hikers ever saw. And that was even rare. It was at least five miles from any civilization, off of the main highway, and down a long dirt road that was rarely used.
“What if he wakes up and tells someone that you are the one that beat him?” Eliza was worried.
“He is not going to tell, I promise. He won’t be blabbing any of our secrets to anyone, ever. I made sure I was really clear about that. He knows that if he ever blabs, he will not be so lucky next time.”
“Yeah, lucky,” Eliza repeated.
He seemed so certain of the nurse’s cooperation. Eliza wasn’t so sure. If Nathan survived this, and that was a big IF, then she would expect him to go straight to the cops. She would if it were her that had been left there for dead. Eliza did her best to not let it get to her that her husband very nearly beat a man to death, even if that man was threatening them. Or so they thought.
Eliza had to do most of the heavy lifting involved in disposing of the nearly beaten to death full grown man, because Marshall only had one good hand. During the ordeal, her heart beat was like the roll of a marching band snare drum, and she thought she might pass out from the exhaustion.
Once they dropped Nathan off in the hills, they parked their car in the driveway and made plans to take it to get detailed the next morning. In case there was any evidence that they couldn’t see, they wanted to be smart about it.
Chapter 18
“I think we should tell Frankie what is going on. She can help us,” Mary said quietly to her sister when they were alone. “I mean, she’s already involved.”
Mary peered her head out of the bedroom door, looking left and right down the hall. When she was satisfied that no one was within earshot, she closed her bedroom door and walked back over to where Piper was standing.
“Really, Mary, don’t be so paranoid. No one is standing outside with a glass to the wall, listening to our boring conversation.”
“Don’t be spikey,” Mary replied, glaring at her sister.
“Anyway,” Piper resisted the urge to roll her eyes, “back to what we were talking about. You are right. Frankie is involved. That’s the problem. The sheriff is pissed off at her and I don’t want her getting into anymore trouble because of us. We can tell her about it later,” Piper replied. “Come on, let’s go find her.”
Mary dutifully followed her sister down the stairs and to the cafe.
They found Frankie clearing the dirty dishes from one of the tables. She picked up a handful of dollar bills from the table and they watched as she smiled and tucked them away for safe keeping down the front of her shirt.
“Frankie, can you give us a ride somewhere?” Piper asked her, very sweetly, with wide questioning eyes. She knew Frankie wouldn’t turn her down. “I already asked my dad.”
“Okay, sure. When?” she asked, walking toward the kitchen and placing the dishes in the sink for the dishwasher to take over.
“Now?” Piper gave her a toothy grin.
“Yeah, I suppose. I’m just finishing up here anyway. Where do you want to go?” Frankie was more than happy to take a little time off, away from working at the cafe.
“We’ll give you directions. It’s not far,” Piper replied. Not really an answer, but Frankie didn’t seem to notice.
“Let me go change first. I’ll meet you out front in about ten minutes?” Frankie didn’t wait for an answer and headed toward the stairs to her room.
A few minutes later, Piper, Mary, and their dog, Sparkles, all piled into their father’s car. He let Frankie drive it pretty much whenever she wanted, as long as she stayed in town.
“Why are you bringing the dog?” Frankie asked the twins. “You never bring him anywhere.”
“Oh, I don’t know. We just thought he might like to go for a ride,” Mary explained. And we need the protection, Mary thought to herself.
Piper gave Frankie detailed directions to their destination. When they arrived, Piper instructed her to park about a block away. She didn’t want anyone to see their car in the driveway of the Porters’ house.
The twins knew that the Porters were not home. Marshall was at work and Eliza was at her yoga class. She went to the class every day, like clockwork, which was something that Mary found out pretty easily. She was quite the investigator. Who knew? A few discreet questions here and there and they knew Marshall and Eliza’s routine, almost by the minute.
They didn’t know if there was anything suspicious going on at the Porter house, but they needed to find out. It seemed to them that everyone was acting so strangely lately. There had to be more to the story than just the fact that baby Zachary did not belong to Marshall. Having heard the rumors about Marshall and his dealings with the woman next door, especially the chicken incident, the girls had to get involved. They just couldn’t help themselves.
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” Mary whispered to Piper as they were walking up the street to the house.
They had told Frankie that Piper accidentally lost her bracelet at the house when she was there visiting a friend recently. Frankie had no idea that the Porters were not home. In fact, she didn’t even know whose house it was. She bought the story and said she would just wait in the car for them. The second they were out, Frankie called a friend and forgot all about the twins. They would be back soon enough.
“We are only going to be here a few minutes. Stop worrying about everything. No one will ever know we were here.” Piper was frustrated with Mary and her scaredy cat ways. “Come on, hurry up.”
Just as they walked around to the side of the house and reached up to open the side gate, Harley and her friends rounded the street corner right next to the house. They had been spotted and had nowhere to go. The twins had no choice but to acknowledge the snotty girls, as they called them.
“What are you guys doing?” Harley asked, as she and her cohorts all walked up to the gate.
Sparkles bared his teeth at the approaching girls. Mary reached down and patted him on the head. He laid down on the pavement in response.
“Nothing. Mind your own business,” Piper replied, knowing full well that wasn’t going to happen.
“Are the Porters home? Do they know you are snooping around their yard?” one of the other girls asked them. “I live right there,” she said, pointing to a cute
yellow and white house, with a picket fence in front. Everyone turned to look.
“So?” Piper replied. “I just dropped my bracelet over here the other day and came to get it.”
Mary hadn’t said a word up until that point. She hoped desperately that no one would notice her trembling hands.
“You know my dad is the sheriff, right?” Harley announced, hands on her hips.
“Of course we know that,” Piper replied. “Everyone knows that. You remind us constantly.” Piper scrunched her nose in Harley’s direction. “But I don’t see him here. Do you?” Piper made a show of looking all around them, and then turned to her sister, who just shook her head in response. Turning back to Harley, “So, why don’t you just go away and mind your own business?”
Mary’s eyes became as huge as saucers when she heard how brazenly her sister was speaking to the snotty girls. Still, she couldn’t summon the courage to chime in.
“When they get home, I’m going to tell them you were here. You’re gonna get in so much trouble,” the girl with the picket fence told them.
“Do what you want. I don’t care. Eliza knows we’re here. She told us to come over and look around for my bracelet in the backyard. She’ll be home any minute anyway.” Piper waved her hand dismissively, and prayed that the girl wouldn’t call her bluff.
“Whatever,” Harley said. “Let’s go. It smells around here anyway.” The girls all giggled.
As they walked away, Mary let out a breath of relief. Piper didn’t seem to care at all that they had almost been busted. She opened the gate, quietly closing it behind them. The twins and Sparkles walked around to the backyard to have a look around.
Over the next several minutes, the girls searched the entire backyard and side of the house. Piper even tried to open the sliding back door, but it was locked.
“What are you doing?” Mary whispered, when she saw Piper trying to get into the house.
“Why are you whispering? No one can hear you,” Piper replied in her normal voice.
Thorns on Wildflower Island Page 12