Chill Factor (45 page)

"Scott? No."

Wise sensed their alarm. "What's the matter?"

Dora left it to Marilee to answer. "We don't know that
anything is.
Why are you here?"

"Actually, we hoped to find your brother at home," Wise
replied. "We
went to the drugstore first. No one was there."

At the mention of her brother, Marilee felt the muscles of her
face
solidify. She was still trying to absorb the full enormity of his
treachery. His delight in hurting so many people was incomprehensible
to her.

If he'd truly been worried about her moral turpitude, he would
have
confronted her with her transgression privately, encouraged her to seek
help from a counselor or minister, or even threatened her with exposure
if she didn't immediately end her affair with Scott.

Instead, he had harbored the secret, baiting her with
innuendos,
until a time when springing the trap would do the most damage and give
him the most satisfaction. The God Marilee believed in would regard
William's malicious intent a far greater sin than her loving Scott.

The agents were waiting for her answer. "William left about an
hour
ago." She'd waited in her bedroom until she'd heard him leave the house
and his car drive away. "I assumed he was going to the store. If he's
not there, then I can't help you. What did you want with him?"

"Actually, we were looking for customers of his. Your husband
for
one, Mrs. Hamer." Turning to Dora, Wise said, "Can you tell us where he
is?"

"I have no idea."

"He and Dutch were here earlier," Marilee said. "With William.
I
overheard them talking about snowmobiles. William recently purchased
some at auction."

The muffled conversation in the hallway had reached through
her
bedroom door. She'd been too disconsolate over Scott to pay attention
to the raised voices, and she cared little what the three of them had
to talk about, but that word had registered with her. "Now that I think
on it, Wes and Dutch were dressed for skiing."

The look that Begley exchanged with Wise made her uneasy.

"Please, gentlemen, what's this about?"

"Cleary Peak," Begley said.

"And Mr.Tierney?"

"Did they mention him or the peak in their conversation with
your
brother?" Agent Wise asked.

"I don't think so."

"Are you familiar with the peak, Ms. Ritt?"

"Very. I grew up on it, just below the summit actually, on the
western side."

"Western side? How do you get there from town? Does Mountain
Laurel
Road wind around?"

"No. There's another road that snakes up the western face. But
it's
not much of a road any longer. Sections of it were washed away in a
mudslide several years ago. The road is so rarely used that it hasn't
been repaved."

"But snowmobiles could get up it?"

"I don't know anything about snowmobiles, but I suppose it's
possible." She divided a look between the two agents. "You think Wes
and Dutch have gone up there after Mr. Tierney?"

Although Begley didn't answer specifically, he said, "We're
waiting
on a helicopter from Charlotte. Hopefully we'll get up there before
anyone who has a mind to take the law into his own hands."

He looked at Dora. "Would you be willing to call Mr. Hamer and
advise him not to take any foolhardy action?"

"I'd be willing, but I've already tried to reach him on his
cell and
couldn't get through. I was frantic to tell him about Scott,
but—"

"What about Scott?" Begley's piercing stare was so daunting,
Dora
actually recoiled from it. "Mrs. Hamer," he said, "did the questions we
asked Scott yesterday about Millicent upset him to this degree?"

"No."

Her response was weak and had no substance, and Begley seized
on
that immediately. "Frankly, we felt that Scott, indeed all of you, were
withholding information that could be valuable to our investigation."

Wise said, "Perhaps he knows more about Millicent's
disappearance
than—"

"His emotional instability has nothing to do with Millicent,"
Marilee said, interrupting. The men directed their attention to her. "I
can't let you waste time on something that's irrelevant." She
hesitated, then said, "Scott is upset because his father and my brother
have been giving him injections of steroids. He wants to stop taking
them and knows he'll get a fight from Wes if he does.
Further…"

She stopped, took a breath, clasped her hands together.
"Furthermore, Scott and I were caught in bed together this morning."
Reading the shock in their expressions, she added, "Everything you
infer from that is correct. Scott and I are lovers.

"He left a disturbing note in his room this morning." Marilee
didn't
ask Dora's permission before passing the note to Begley, who read it,
then handed it over to Wise. Begley's expression wasn't encouraging.

Wise was the first to regain his voice, and even then he
cleared his
throat delicately before speaking. "Do you think it's your, uh,
relationship with him to which he's referring in the note?"

"I assume, but I don't know for certain."

"Suicide is implied, but…" Dora was unable to
continue. She began to
cry softly.

"We'll put out a bulletin on his car," Wise said. "He can't
have
gone too far on these roads."

Dora shook her head. "He didn't take the car."

"Are you saying he's on foot?"

"He's an avid hiker. He even hikes on Cleary Peak."

Begley and Wise exchanged a significant look, then the senior
agent
addressed Marilee. "How long have you and Scott been in this
relationship, Ms. Ritt?"

She appreciated him for not posing the question with censure.
In
fact, he seemed halfway apologetic for asking. "Since September."

"And during that time, did Scott ever confide in you why he
broke up
with Millicent Gunn?"

"He never talked about his former girlfriends, and I never
asked."

"You didn't?"

"No."

"Never?"

"No."

"You weren't in the least bit curious?"

"No."

"Then you are truly a remarkable woman."

Or a liar
. That was what Begley was
implying. Oddly, it was
less his hard stare than his soft voice that broke her restraint. Her
shoulders slumped, and she let go a long sigh. "Last night. We talked
about it last night for the first time. He told me why he and Millicent
stopped seeing each other."

They waited, but when she said nothing else, Begley prodded
hen
"Well?"

"I won't tell you that, Mr. Begley. Not at the present time.
I'll
tell you only if and when it becomes necessary for you to know."

"We need to know now," Wise said.

"I'm sorry."

Wise was about to say more, but Begley held up his hand.
Mar-ilee
listened and identified the sound at the same time Begley said,
"There's the chopper." He headed immediately for the door.

"Wait!" Dora cried. Begley came back around. "If Scott's up
there—"

"I'll do everything within my power to return him to you safely
,
Mrs. Hamer. I give you my word."

The room felt very cold after he and Wise closed the door
behind
their hasty departure. Marilee went to the fireplace, rearranged the
burning logs with a poker, then sat down across from Dora, who said,
"They're convinced Scott had something to do with that girl's
disappearance."

Marilee hugged her elbows to ward off the chill. Perhaps it
was also
a subconscious gesture, an attempt to hold on to her flagging hope that
Scott's note didn't imply suicide—for reasons she didn't
allow herself
to contemplate.

"From Millicent to you," Dora said scornfully. "I don't know
which
of you is worse."

"I don't expect you to understand."

"Well, thank you," Dora said with a bitter laugh. "Because I
don't
understand how a decent and responsible person, which you've always
seemed to be, could seduce a boy. You're an authority figure. He looked
up to you. Admired you."

"He still does."

Dora didn't acknowledge that. "You're the reason he's been
sneaking
out of the house at night. He came to you."

"Yes."

"Do you realize the danger you placed him in?"

"Yes," Marilee replied, her voice soft with contrition.
Staring into
the flames, she added, "The risks were incredibly high for both of us."

"Yet you lured him into your bed."

Marilee raised her head and looked across at Dora. "Do I look
like a
femme fatale capable of luring any man, Mrs. Hamer?" She smiled with
self-deprecation. "Hardly. Scott responded to me in the same way I
responded to him. We recognized a matching need."

"For sex."

"Yes. There was passion." Ignoring the other woman's wince,
she
continued. "But we were drawn together by more than that. Both of us
lacked something essential that the other was willing— no,
glad—to
provide."

"Oh, I'm sure you gladly provided an outlet for my
eighteen-year-old
son's lust."

"I did," she admitted without a qualm. She wondered how much
she
should say. Should she tell her that she had become Scott's sounding
board last night when he finally opened up to her and railed against
the steroids Wes had forced on him?

That was the least shocking thing he'd told her, but wouldn't
it be
cruel to tell Dora about Wes's treachery concerning Millicent? Perhaps
she already knew. But if not, she was in no state of mind to hear the
story now.

Besides, Marilee wasn't a hypocrite. Who was she, having been
caught
in bed with her student, to cast stones at Wes or anyone? She stuck to
the facts but veiled them. "I also gave Scott relief from the pressures
imposed on him by your husband. I listened to his opinions, his
thoughts and dreams, where—"

"Don't whitewash it, Marilee. Priests who abuse young boys
also hear
their confessions and give absolution. You're nothing,but a sexually
repressed old maid who finally found a willing partner."

"You're right, of course," she admitted sadly. "On every
point. My
only saving grace is that Scott is beyond the age of consent. So far as
the law is concerned, I didn't have sexual congress with a child. But
from an ethical standpoint, it was…" She wouldn't say it was
wrong. She
would never think of it as wrong. She finished by saying "Unacceptable."

They stared into the fire for several minutes. Then Dora
leaned
forward and placed her elbows on her knees. She rested her face in her
hands and remained that way for a long time, time enough for the logs
to burn down to charred sticks that needed stoking.

Then she lowered her hands and turned her head toward
Mar-ilee. "You
love my son, don't you?"

"With all my heart," she replied quietly. "But don't be
distressed,
Dora. You don't have to worry about me ruining Scott's life. Before it
started, while he was still just a lovely daydream, I knew that if
anything were to develop between us, it would be temporary. I
recognized that it couldn't, and wouldn't, and shouldn't last. I
planned all along to quietly exit his life one day so that he would be
spared any embarrassment or guilt over us."

She turned her head and looked wistfully into the fire. "I
knew this
day would come. I knew it would break my heart in two, and possibly
break Scott's as well, although I hoped to avoid that.

"In anticipation of this day, I treasured every moment we were
together. I knew that if our affair was discovered, I would be reviled
for the rest of my life. I didn't care. For once in my life I disobeyed
the rules. I lived in the moment and tried not to let the dread of the
inevitable outcome spoil the time I had with him. I gave him everything
I had within me to give." She shifted her gaze back to Dora. "And I
would do it again, without a grain of regret."

The two women looked at each other with complete
understanding. It
was hard to say who moved first because it seemed that they
simultaneously reached across the space between the two chairs and
clasped hands. They clung tightly to each other, because neither had
anything else to which she could cling.

CHAPTER
30

WINDOW PEEPING ON MY FANTASIES.

He closed his lips around her nipple and
sucked it

into his mouth, rubbing his tongue against
it until she
thought
she would
die of the
pleasure.
As he
moved to
the
other
breast, he whispered, "Naked is so
much better than through clothes."

"But even fully dressed, you managed to find
everything."

"I
have a built-in
heat-seeking device
."

"
You certainly do
."
Smiling
seductively, she slid her
hand down
his belly, closed her
hand around him, and began to massage. "I saw you washing," she
confessed
in
a whisper
.

He looked at her inquisitively.

"
In the window glass. Your reflection.
It was only an accidental
glimpse, but
…"

Placing his lips against hers, he murmured,
"But what?"

"I
got all hot and
fluttery
."

"What you're doing now has got
me hot and fluttery."

Squeezing and stroking, she had brought
him to full erection
again. As
she rolled her thumb over the smooth tip, pressing it where it was most
sensitive, he groaned, "Christ, Lilly."

"This is a lovely device."

"It's not the only one."

In the tangle of blankets, she lost track of exactly
how he came
to be lying between her thighs, his hands beneath her hips, tilting her
up toward his mouth and that other heat seeker, his tongue. It treated
her to carnal sensations she didn't know were possible and acquainted
her with a level of intimacy she hadn't realized two separate
individuals could
share.