Out of the Ashes

by Emilie Richards

  "Let's get this over with!"

  Had she ever been such a coward that this kind of bullying would have succeeded? Anger cut through her fear. Charles was underestimating her. Perhaps it might work in her favor. She had taken him by surprise once, knocking the gun from his hand. She could do it again.

  There was a large chunk of limestone at her feet. She bent and lifted it against her chest.

  His next shout was closer. "You're prolonging my fun!"

  She alternately watched both ends of the wall, tensed and waiting for his shadow to appear. If he came around the corner where she stood, she would be ready with the rock. If he came around the other, she would run.

  She heard a noise before she saw a shadow—rocks rolling, soft cursing just to her right. She had no time to weigh her action. She jumped toward the noise, limestone lifted. Charles was only feet away, down on one knee where he had stumbled. Alexis slammed the limestone sharply against the back of his head.

  He fell to the ground with a grunt. In a moment she was running toward the place where she had parked her wagon. She was gambling that he had parked near her and left his keys in the ignition. If not, she had no choice but to chance the run across the peninsula.

  The wagon's windows glinted in the moonlight. Fifty yards behind it was Charles's car. She was running with the wind now, and she reached the car in seconds. Frantically she jerked on the door handle. But the door was locked.

  She turned to start across the road, but the figure of a man blocked her way. He held a revolver in front of him, aimed directly at her heart. His other hand cradled the back of his head.

  "Going somewhere, Dana?"

  * * *

  "THE LIGHTHOUSE OR the ruins?" Matthew asked tersely.

  "We've got no choice but to try the ruins first, since they're on the way."

  "And if she's at the lighthouse?"

  "Then we've wasted precious time," Harry conceded.

  Matthew knew Harry was right, but it horrified him that they might make the wrong choice. Alexis could die because of it. "I'm going to turn off my lights. We'll do a turn through the car park at the cove. If we don't see anything we'll go on."

  "Right-o." Harry punctuated the word with the click of the rifle as he snapped it apart to load it.

  "I want the gun," Matthew told him, accelerating around a turn. "When we stop, hand it to me."

  "No."

  "I won't argue about it, Harry. I'll take it from you."

  "Half deaf I may be, mate, but I'm strong as an ox. You go for me gun I'll slam it into your belly." The rifle clicked as he snapped it back together. "If there's any shooting to be done, it'll be me doing it."

  "This is my fight!"

  "This is the law's fight. I'm the senior here, and I'm as much of the law as we have in this park."

  Matthew cursed and spun the wheel once more. The lighthouse shone in the distance.

  "Ease up or you'll take us over the cliff." Harry braced himself as Matthew made the turn toward Weirs Cove. "There's a car!"

  Matthew had seen it, too. It wasn't Alexis's, but he slammed on his brakes anyway. In a moment he and Harry were both out of the ute.

  The wind howled along the track, covering any trace of voices. Harry put his fingers to his lips. He moved close to Matthew and whispered, "You'll have to be me ears."

  Matthew listened intently. At first there was nothing; then just the faintest murmur was carried over the wind. He pointed toward the cliff. Stooping, they skirted the brush edging the path down to the cove where the supplies had once been hauled up the narrow manmade gorge to the storehouses above. They had gone fifty yards before they got a clear view.

  There were two silhouettes at the guardrail. Matthew recognized Alexis immediately, but he was too far away to help. He touched Matthew's arm. "Alexis, on the left," he mouthed. Harry nodded. "Cover me," Matthew mouthed again.

  Matthew ran beside the bush as far as it extended. Harry followed close behind.

  "You're going to save me the trouble of shooting you." Charles rubbed the back of his neck, as if he still couldn't quite believe Alexis had hit him. "I'm just going to back you off this cliff."

  "I planned it this way." Alexis struggled to sound calm. "If my body is found at the base of this cliff, they'll know it was murder."

  Charles stepped closer, forcing her backward a pace. She had slowly been moving toward the cliff's edge for the last few minutes. "Between the surf and the rocks, there won't be enough of you to identify."

  "There'll be enough. And my car will be here. You can't drive it out. It won't run."

  "You never understood, did you? I can't be beaten." His eyes glittered with madness. "I can do anything I want. I can do anything to you that I want." Charles lifted his gun and motioned her over the metal guardrail that protected tourists.

  She turned her shoulder toward the wind, praying it wouldn't sweep her over the cliff before she had the chance to lunge for Charles. If she was going to die here at the cliff's edge, he would die with her. She put one leg over the rail. "You can't make me afraid of you."

  "No?" He cocked his revolver.

  The guardrail was between them. She gripped it as the wind tore at her. "You're a coward, Charles," she taunted. "You're too much of a coward to get close enough to see if I'm afraid. You've put a fence between us."

  Smiling benignly he stepped over the rail. "One step backward, Dana. Just one, maybe two. Look at me and tell me you're ready to die."

  "Alexis!"

  Charles raised his gun, and an explosion rocked him backward. He screamed, and the gun fell from his hand. He lunged toward Alexis.

  "Get under the rail!"

  Alexis dove under the guardrail as another explosion sounded. She knew the voice issuing the command. It had been Matthew's. The explosion could only have been a gun. She waited for a jolt of pain, waited for the world to go black.

  Behind her Charles was screaming curses. She struggled to crawl toward Matthew; he was beside her in a second, kneeling to embrace her. She felt no jolt except relief.

  "You're all right," he said, rocking her back and forth. "Oh God, tell me you're all right."

  She threw her arms around him, unable to speak.

  "Matthew!"

  Alexis looked up to see Harry standing beside them, a rifle pointed toward the cliff. Matthew kissed her forehead, then thrust her aside as he stood. She turned and saw Charles rising from the ground.

  "Just step over the rail nice and easy," Harry shouted.

  Matthew started toward Charles.

  "Stay back, Matthew," Harry warned.

  Matthew ignored him.

  Alexis found her voice. "Matthew! No! You'll go to prison!"

  Harry cocked the rifle. "I'm warning you, Matthew," he shouted.

  Matthew stopped just short of the rail. The tensed lines of his body proclaimed his struggle. Then he stepped back. "Over the rail, Cahill." He motioned to the ground in front of him. "Try anything at all and I'll take pleasure in finishing you off."

  Charles clutched his bleeding arm. "This is your fault, Dana!" he screamed. He backed away from Matthew toward the cliff's edge, one step, then two. For a moment he teetered there, fighting the wind as if his mind wasn't made up. Then, with a twisted, maniacal smile that would be burned in Matthew’s mind forever, he turned and plunged to the surf and rocks below.

  Chapter 18

  ALEXIS STOOD ON the deck of the ferry, her arm lightly draped around Jody's shoulders.

  "I remember the first time we came to the island," Jody said, watching the ferry glide up to the dock. "That was before my father died. When we were still running away."

  Alexis didn't doubt that in the future Jody would have more questions, more doubts, about Charles and the "accident" that had taken his life. But for now the little girl seemed to understand and accept the facts as she knew them. Her father had come to Kangaroo Island looking for them. He had gone sightseeing and fallen from a cliff. His body had been recovered the ne
xt day.

  With Matthew, Harry and Alexis as witnesses to Charles's jump from the cliff, there had been no problems with the Australian or American authorities. Officially the death was listed as accidental and the case closed. Alexis felt that "accident" was a fair assessment. Gripped by insanity, Charles had believed he was invincible. He had not committed suicide. She knew that when he had jumped, he had believed that he wouldn’t die.

  The day after his death, Alexis had gone to Adelaide to begin the long bureaucratic procedure to fly the body back to Michigan. She and Jody had flown back, too, so that Jody could put this chapter of her life to rest.

  Charles's death hadn't been so much a loss for Jody as a gain. Both his family and Alexis's had missed the child who had disappeared so precipitously from their lives, and they had welcomed her with an affection that had soothed her sorrow.

  Alexis knew that Jody mourned a father she had never had, but she let Jody mourn, just as she let her parents try to alter the mistakes they had made so long ago by showing their granddaughter a warmer, more accepting part of themselves than Alexis had ever seen. The trip had been a healing one for the little girl.

  "We aren't running anymore." Jody lifted a hand to wave to the strangers at the dock.

  They weren't running anymore. In the month they had been in Michigan, Alexis had wondered if she would ever get used to not looking over her shoulder. She was free now, free to go anywhere she wanted, to live anywhere she wanted, to be anyone she chose to be.

  "No, we aren't." Alexis squeezed Jody's shoulder. They had come back to Kangaroo Island because they weren't running anymore. They might not stay, but if they didn't, it wouldn't be because they had run again.

  Jody looked up at Alexis. "I wonder if anybody missed me?"

  "I'm sure your friends did."

  "Do you think Matthew missed me?"

  Alexis tried to smile reassuringly. "Of course he did."

  "Can I still go to school this afternoon?"

  Alexis nodded. She had called the school officials from Adelaide that morning to make the arrangements. "I've got to drop off the rental car and pick up our wagon in Parndana, anyway. You can ride the school bus back to our house."

  There was a thud as the ferry docked; then Alexis led Jody by the hand to the area where their suitcases were stored. In a short time they were in the rental car they had reserved and on their way toward Parndana.

  The trip from Michigan had been an exhausting one, even though they had stopped for several days to rest and sightsee in Sydney. Now, with the adaptability that had gotten her through the last months, Jody closed her eyes and fell instantly asleep. Alexis wished she could do the same, but even if she hadn't been driving, sleep would have eluded her.

  She was going to see Matthew. Today, while Jody was in school. The last time she had seen him was a month before, the day after Charles leapt off the cliff. That morning he had accompanied her to the Kingscote hospital to identify Charles's body, and he had held her hand as she made the identification. There had been no time to talk about their relationship, nor had the timing been right. He had comforted her, just as he had so often done, but there had been no words of love.

  There had been no words of love the night before, either. After Charles had jumped to a certain death, Matthew and Harry had taken her directly to Kingscote, where they had spent the remainder of the night telling the whole story to the police. Then she had fallen into a bed at the Queenscliffe Hotel in the early hours of the morning and slept until Matthew had called to tell her that the body had been recovered.

  There had been few words at the airport after the identification had been completed. Matthew had held her as if he didn't want to let her go, and she had clung to him. "Come back," he had said. "If you don't, I'll come for you."

  Now, a month later, she still didn't know what he had meant. She had heard nothing from him, and her confidence was shaken.

  Jody was ravenous when she woke up from her nap. They picnicked by the side of the road on meat pies they had bought in Penneshaw, then continued on to Parndana.

  As they came to a stop at the school, Jody gazed out the window, as if she were assessing the building. Then she turned to her mother. She spoke as if she were telling a secret. "Grandma took me back to the Academy one day. She wanted me to stay in Michigan and go to school there again."

  "I know. She told me." Alexis could almost hear her mother's voice droning on and on about duty. Just as clearly, she could hear her own answer. She had gently but firmly explained that she would tolerate no interference in her life, and she would never again listen to any discussion designed to make her feel guilty. There had been a shocked moment of silence, then a brief nod. In the years to come they might fight the same battle again, but after everything Alexis had been through, she knew that she would score the victory.

  "I liked the Academy," Jody said, looking back out the window.

  "I know you did."

  "But I like it here, too."

  "You can like both places."

  "Here I can just be me. There, I was special. I didn't like being special."

  "All kids are special."

  "But here I'm special because I'm Jody, not just because I'm smart."

  Alexis gazed past Jody's head to the school where the little girl might spend the rest of her formative years. It wasn't new, and it wasn't large. It didn't incorporate the latest in educational philosophy or design, but it was a comfortable place, filled with laughter and the murmur of childish voices as they learned the things they needed to equip them for a changing world. "I'd say this is a pretty good place."

  "Yeah." Jody turned to give her mother a hug. Her eyes twinkled. "G'day, mate."

  "G'day." Alexis watched Jody open the door and run up the sidewalk. If speed were any indication, Jody was glad to be back.

  At the garage in town she traded the rental car for her wagon, pleased to see that all the damage had been repaired. The ride to the house on Hanson Bay seemed uncomfortably silent. Silence gave Alexis time to think—and to admit she was afraid. She drove the final miles down the track to the house, and she remembered the last time she had traveled this road. She had been frightened then, frightened she might die. Now she was frightened again. In less than an hour she would drive to the park to see Matthew. And then she would know what the future held for both of them.

  She could tell the moment she pulled into the clearing that the repairs had been completed. There was a new porch, wider and more ornate than the one that had burned. More surprisingly, now it wrapped around the side of the house facing Hanson Bay. There were even wooden rocking chairs with bright plaid cushions and a table covered with a cloth of the same plaid.

  The burned skeletons of the shrubbery had been replaced by a garden of bushes and blooming summer annuals. She parked and opened the door to stare. New grass had been sown and a stone walkway installed.

  Peter Bartow had promised repairs; he hadn't promised a facelift. Alexis got slowly out of the car and noted more changes. There were shutters on the windows, forest green shutters surrounding windows with new burgundy trim. The house was newly painted, too. It was a white so bright she wanted to blink.

  Then she did blink, because tears had suddenly filled her eyes. The house spelled welcome. It told her she had come home, and there was nothing she wanted more. She was afraid to hope it could be true.

  The front door creaked, and she saw Matthew standing in the doorway. For a moment she wasn't sure he was real. He seemed part of the dream, a fantasy that only her deepest desires could have created. Then he started toward her, and she knew he was flesh and blood.

  "How did you know I'd come today?" she asked when he was only an arm's length away.

  "Peter rang me this morning."

  "Peter called you?"

  "I suppose he was tired of me ringing him."

  She tried to smile, but there were too many fears, too many unanswered questions, in the way. "So you've been getting reports?"
<
br />   He extended his hand. "Come inside."

  She wasn't sure she was ready to go with him. She had expected another hour to prepare for this meeting. "Have you had anything to do with all these changes, Matthew?"

  He smiled, a warm, natural smile that blasted away her hesitancy. "Come inside."

  She slipped her hand inside his. Immediately she knew that touching him was a mistake. She wasn't sure she would ever find the strength to let him go again. His palm caressed hers; their fingers intertwined. The sense of homecoming overwhelmed her.

  He led her up the porch steps. They were bedecked by pots of blooming red and white begonias. "You planted the garden and the pots, didn't you?"

  He gave her the same, heart stopping smile. "Will you let me answer all your questions in my own way?"

  She nodded.

  Matthew pulled her over the threshold. The wooden floors in the hallway had been refinished, and they gleamed like satin. The hall itself was freshly painted and decorated with photographs. Alexis recognized many of them. There were Jody's baby pictures, framed now in dark wood frames. There were other pictures of her family, too, that had been in her lockbox, and some of her as a child. Interspersed with them were similarly framed photographs of Matthew and, more touching, photographs of Todd that she had unpacked from Matthew's attic and placed on his walls. The photograph that she had placed at Matthew's bedside, the last photograph that had been taken of the Haley family, was on the wall with the others.

  She couldn't speak. But Matthew was able to.

  He cleared his throat and began. "I remember when Jeannie tried to take this photograph of Todd." He pointed out one of a chubby, frowning baby. "He had just gotten up from a nap. He was always a happy little boy, but that day she couldn't get a smile out of him. She said she took this to remind us he had a darker side when we started feeling too smug." He touched the frame. "Later all we had to do to get him to laugh was show it to him."

  Alexis swallowed. She knew what the explanation had cost him. "He was beautiful, even when he was angry."

  He nodded. "Yes, he was." He was silent for a moment; then he pointed to another photograph. "This was his first day of school. And this—" he pointed to another "—was the first time he rode a horse. We loved him dearly. We wanted more children, but Jeannie wasn't able to have them, so we poured all our love into Todd. I suppose we spoiled him a bit, but he didn't show it. He was a son to be proud of."