The Darkness Beneath, page 11
She unlocked the front door and stepped inside, annoyed she had forgotten to leave the hall light on. She’d been so certain she had. Flicking the switch, light flooded the passageway. She bolted the door behind her and headed to the kitchen for a bottle of water.
She hit the light switch and let out a gasp, her eyes connecting immediately with the photo frame sitting on the counter.
Lizzie’s smiling face from her sophomore yearbook photo stared back at her.
Nell sucked in a breath, panic rising inside her.
It had to be a joke, a sick joke.
She glanced around the kitchen. Nothing else seemed out of place, no one was hiding in the shadows waiting to leap out at her. On shaky legs, she crossed the room to the back door, tested it, not quite sure if it was relief or another knot of fear she felt when she found it locked.
Someone had been in her house, someone had left this on purpose for her to find.
Her thoughts went to Sam Kent. He was pissed she had come to the island. Had he done this? Her first reaction was to call Alex, but she stopped herself almost immediately. He had already seen her at her most vulnerable and tonight something else had shifted between them. Nell wasn’t ready to acknowledge what it was. Instead she planned to ignore it.
Placing the picture frame face down on the counter, she grabbed a large knife from the drawer. Clutching it in both hands she did a room-by-room sweep of the first floor, flicking on light switches and checking behind furniture and curtains, making sure all windows were closed and locked before exiting each room. Satisfied no one was hiding in the shadows she made her way upstairs and performed the same check on the second and third floors and the attic room, until she was finally satisfied she was alone in the big house.
Her legs still felt like jelly as she returned to the kitchen ten minutes later. She released the shaky breath she was holding, setting the knife down on the counter next to the downturned picture frame.
It was a prank, a stupid prank, she told herself as she got her water from the refrigerator then calmly made her way across the kitchen, leaving the light on and heading back upstairs, the knife back in her hand.
It was a precaution and she refused to let the picture bait her. Lizzie’s death, while tragic, had been a random incident.
You keep telling yourself that. You know it’s your fault she’s dead.
Nell quashed down the annoying inner voice, twisting the key in the bedroom door and locking herself inside. She kicked off her shoes and set the knife and bottle of water down on her nightstand before getting undressed, the whole time feeling as though someone was watching her. Crawling into bed she reached for the lamp, flicked it off then back on.
With the warm glow from the bulb still lighting the room, she closed her eyes and attempted sleep. It was a good hour before she finally drifted off and in her dreams she saw the photo frame with Lizzie’s innocent smiling face. And then her friend was climbing out of the frame, standing before her, her throat slit wide, blood pouring from her mouth and her dark eyes accusing. She pointed a finger.
‘You did this to me, Nell. This is all your fault.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It had been the simplest of things that eventually gave Caleb her location: the laptop.
Caleb and Nell seldom used it these days, favoring tablets and cellphones, and its only real purpose was to store details and transactions for all of Nell’s buyers. Caleb had fired it up in a last ditch attempt, wanting to be sure he hadn’t missed anyone, had pored over the list for the best part of a couple of hours, annoyed when it offered nothing. He had been about to shut the laptop down, when he had on a whim logged online and scrolled through the favorites list, checking every link methodically. Amazon had been her downfall. Nell must have forgotten to log out of her account the last time she had used the laptop and when he checked her most recent purchases, made only days ago, he saw the new shipping address.
It was for a guesthouse on Purity Island.
He googled the place and saw it was a popular fishing and tourist haven off the northeast coast of Massachusetts. At first it made no sense. Why would she run away to a tiny island?
Maybe Amazon had the shipping address wrong.
He made a martini, went back to the laptop and did some more research. The guesthouse had been owned by a woman named Annabella Golding. Perhaps Nell had taken a room there.
Then as he sipped his drink he remembered that there had been an Aunt Bella.
Nell had been distraught when he refused to let her attend the funeral. At the time Caleb had taken little notice, assuming the woman came from her hometown in Ohio.
Had she lived on Purity Island?
More research showed that Annabella Golding had passed away earlier in the year, followed a few weeks later by her son, Clarke. Typing in Nell’s name with Purity Island yielded no results, but it did bring up another familiar name: Michael O’Connor.
It was the oafish brother who had come to visit them with his nerdy boyfriend. He had wanted little to do with either the brother or the boyfriend and, having tolerated a weekend in their company, had put a stop to further visits. Nell didn’t need her past. Only her present and future, which was right here with him.
The hot-white rage he had been experiencing simmered into cold calculating anger and a need for retribution. She had tried to trick him, make a fool of him by throwing him off scent with San Francisco, wasting his time. He had no idea she could be this devious. This island had something of his and he intended to get it back.
Slowly, methodically he began to plot his next move, packing a case on Monday night and making his way to the airport early Tuesday morning. Two flights and a hire-car drive later, he could see the place in the distance through the railings of the ferry: he felt nothing but contempt for what it had stolen from him. He had warned Nell before that he would never let her leave him, but she hadn’t listened, hadn’t believed him.
Now when he found his fiancée he would make her pay.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Luke had been looking forward to his dinner date with Nell all day, relishing the opportunity to get to know her better. After a full day in the office he caught the ferry back to Purity letting himself back into his empty house and getting ready, trying his damnedest to forget the last bitter argument he’d had with Stacey.
‘You’re never here. You pretend you’re working late, but I know what you’re really doing. How many women have there been, Luke? How am I supposed to forgive you for what you’ve done?’
He had tried to reason with her, to rationalize, but she was verging on hysteria and there was nothing he could do to calm her down.
When Newt had shown up unexpectedly on Monday evening and found him on his couch, a glass of scotch in his hand, Luke had told him that Stacey had walked out. Truth was he didn’t know if he would ever see her again and he wasn’t sure if that left him devastated or relieved. He pushed thoughts of her from his mind as he dressed in a pair of black jeans and a blue shirt. Dabbing cologne and slicking his hair back, he glanced in the mirror and smiled to himself. He was back on track and everything was going to work out fine. Collecting his keys he let himself out of the house.
He stopped by the grocery store en route to Nell’s, picking up a bottle of white wine and a colorful bouquet of flowers. Turning the aisle to the checkouts he stopped short, spotting Jenna Milborn up ahead. Luke would have liked to turn and sneak off in the opposite direction before she clocked him, but she was too close, her cart filled with beer – no doubt for her loser husband. As he stood debating over whether he should acknowledge her, Jenna glanced up and made eye contact, a wide smile stretching across her face before tears filled her eyes.
‘Luke?’ she murmured, as though barely daring to believe he was there.
His heart sunk, knowing the charade they were about to go through.
Jenna had been his high school girlfriend and had never accepted the fact they were no longer together. She seemed to forget the things that had come between them and had worked some romantic notion into her head that everything would be okay if they were still together.
‘I tried to call you,’ she told him, one big wet tear spilling down her bruised cheek, pulling a line of inky mascara with it.
He knew; had ignored her, knowing he had nothing to say to her and not wanting to give any kind of encouragement. He had enough on his plate at the moment without having to deal with Jenna. ‘I’ve been busy,’ he said instead, knowing he couldn’t tell her the truth.
‘We need to talk.’ She bit into her bottom lip. A long time ago he had found it sexy, now he found it irritating.
They didn’t need to talk. The past was the past and he had told Jenna this so many times he couldn’t understand why she was unable to get it into her stupid head.
‘We’ve been over this, Jenna. You need to get past this.’
‘I try, I do, but it’s so hard.’
More tears spilled down her cheeks and Luke glanced around, worried she might make a scene. He looked at his watch, annoyed she was holding up his evening plans with Nell and also edging him into a corner.
‘Look.’ He softened his tone. ‘I have some place to be, but come over tomorrow after work and we’ll talk, okay?’
It would be the quickest way to get away from her. Every so often he had to go through this merry dance with her.
She looked hopeful. ‘You promise?’
‘Yes.’ He doubted, hoped even, that Stacey wouldn’t be around; he didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. ‘Come over about six, okay?’
‘Okay.’ She reached out, squeezed his arm and he clocked the fading bruises all the way from her wrist up to her elbow.
‘I have to go. I’m running late.’
He hurried away, the cloying scent of her cheap sweet perfume lingering behind him. Quickly he paid and left the store. As he made his way back to his car he wondered for the hundredth time how he had gotten himself into this mess. They had been so young at the time. Jenna had been the prettiest and most popular girl in high school and that had attracted him, but he had never really felt anything more for her than lust, and although she put out for him, her lack of willingness to try anything new had eventually killed what few feelings he did have for her and he had grown bored.
Biting down on a sigh, he climbed into his car, dumped the flowers and wine on to the passenger seat. He had been looking forward to dinner tonight, but his run in with Jenna had ruined his mood.
Pull yourself together, he ordered, glancing in the rear-view mirror.
Telling himself everything was going to be okay he pulled out of the parking lot and hit the coast road, heading up to the guesthouse.
*
The day had started early for Alex with Hunter Stone bringing Penelope Maher’s next of kin over on the first ferry. It was never an easy task meeting with relatives of a murder victim. They reacted in many different ways, but every one of them was bound by an overwhelming grief and a need for answers.
Penny Maher’s family were no different. Both parents were a mess, blaming themselves and holding out hope the police had gotten it wrong. Their daughter, Claire, was the strong one. Despite her young age she was the glue holding her family together, the one who was alert enough to focus and ask the right questions as her parents crumbled. Alex wished he had more he could tell them. The investigation was still in an early stage and without the rest of Penelope Maher’s body the medical examiner was limited on information.
Stone had been investigating Penny’s last movements and the dating website angle. He had managed to locate Dan, the guy Penny was supposed to have a date with, but found out it had been cancelled last minute. He had a solid alibi and the restaurant where they had reservations claimed no one ever showed up for the table that had been booked. Stone was working on the assumption Penny may have gone on to a bar after being blown out, but still had several on his list to check.
After Stone and the Maher family left Alex spent the rest of the day out on the water, working alongside the coastguard as they widened their search area, looking for the rest of their victim. It wasn’t until dusk that the search was finally called quits for the day and he returned to shore tired, frustrated and in need of a drink. He called up Michael, agreed to meet him in one of the harbourside bars, where they spent a couple of hours drinking beer and shooting pool, talking about anything that wasn’t murder related. Michael’s enthusiasm about the guesthouse was palpable and he was keen to share his ideas. Alex guessed his excitement had as much to do with having his sister back on the island and going into partnership with her as it did for the fancy pool and hot tub he had planned.
‘She stopped by to see you last night, right?’
‘Yeah.’ Alex lined up his cue, pocketed a red ball. ‘I keep telling her she needs to get the locks sorted on the house.’ He glanced over at Michael as he moved round the table selecting his next shot. ‘You’ll get onto it, right?’
‘Yes, yeah, of course. I didn’t realize it was an issue. Leave it with me and I’ll make sure it’s done tomorrow. Dammit. She’s so certain that Caleb won’t find her here, that she’s covered her tracks well enough. The guy’s intense though and I’m worried he’s not going to give up until he’s tracked her down.’
Alex could see Michael was concerned. Nell too, even though she was reluctant to talk about it. He guessed things had been bad in the relationship, didn’t think she was the kind of woman who would go to such effort to cover her tracks unless she was really scared. Each time their paths crossed he saw a different side to her. Saturday night after her gruesome find, she had been shaken to the core, the panic attack he had witnessed leaving her vulnerable and exposed. Then last night she had shown up at his place and the air had taken on a different edge. Alex hadn’t pushed her, knew she had felt it as clearly as he had, but he also understood she was fragile and needed space.
He had already decided he found her intriguing; vulnerable yet tough, friendly but guarded, those amber eyes giving little away yet at the same time revealing more than she wanted to show. Last night that intrigue had spilt over into attraction and he was still figuring out how he felt about that. For the past five years he had kept his romantic liaisons short and sweet, cutting things off if they ever threatened to get serious. It was easier that way, less complicated, and the reason why he had made the move out to Purity, needing to regroup and rebuild his life after it had been ripped apart. Nell had only been there a week and had somehow managed to knock the simple everyday order of his life onto its ass.
He didn’t need the hassle of falling for his best friend’s sister, knew that because of who she was and what she had been through, it couldn’t ever just be sex, which was a problem as it made things complicated. He no longer had the energy for complicated.
The Caleb angle bothered him too. Alex tried to convince himself it was purely because Michael was worried, that he was concerned in his role as police chief for one of the island’s citizens. He knew only what little Michael had told him, that the guy came from money and had made a name for himself in the art world, that he had tried to cut Nell off from her family, attempting to control every aspect of her life.
‘You think he would actually hurt her?’
Michael shrugged, the frustration clear on his face. ‘I don’t trust the guy – I know from what little I’ve managed to pry out of her he’s got a mean temper. And he’s got these dead-looking eyes. She tries to make out she’s okay, but I’m not so sure. My sister’s no pushover, but she stayed with him for a long time and the one time I saw them together she didn’t seem happy – looked frightened even. So I’m figuring he had some kind of hold over her. He’s the kind of guy who likes to own things and I can’t see him letting her go without a fight.’
‘Get the locks changed,’ Alex urged, missing his next shot and stepping back to let Michael have his turn at the table. He picked up his beer, took a healthy swig. ‘If this guy does show, you don’t want him walking straight into the house.’
Meanwhile he intended to do his own checking up on Caleb Sweeney, to find out exactly who he was dealing with. If this asshole did ever wind up on the island, he’d be ready for him.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was a warm evening for late September and Nell set the table on the balcony leading out from the main living room overlooking the ocean, hoping the temperature would hold up while they ate. With an abundance of fish in the refrigerator she had made a clam bake and the baby clams, along with mussels, lobster and crabs were boiling away in the pot on the stove when Luke showed up, full of apologies for being late.
She had kept herself preoccupied in the kitchen, fighting her nerves over the dinner, promising herself she wouldn’t cancel, so she hadn’t even noticed the time, but it was irrelevant anyhow. It was a casual dinner and there were no hard or fast rules. Caleb had been big on timing and her life had been governed by a clock for long enough. She’d taken back control, intended to have a fresh start – and that meant no more rules and no more rigid time-keeping.
‘It’s fine,’ she insisted. ‘It’s just dinner – and it’s not even ready yet.’
‘I brought wine,’ Luke announced, handing her the bottle. ‘And these are for you.’
Nell glanced at the colorful posy, sickness in her belly. She had received flowers from Caleb over the years, but always as an apology when he had gone too far. When things had been really bad the reparations had come in the form of an expensive gift: a piece of jewelry or a new purse. The flowers Luke presented her with were simple and inexpensive compared to the elaborate bouquets from Caleb, and she wanted to believe in the sweet innocence of the gesture, chiding herself for even considering he might expect something in return.
‘You didn’t have to bring me flowers.’
