Grave Misgivings (22 page)

Maddie had no idea why he was so upset. “No, it’s not,” Maddie said. “Rosario Torres seduced Jim Denton because she wanted to be the lady of the house. When Rose refused to divorce him without a payout, Jim decided he wasn’t going to divorce her. Rosario had no choice but to kill Rose.”

“Stop saying that!”

“Why? It’s the truth. It’s not like it affects you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Max said. “It affects me very much. You see, I’m not just Aaron Denton’s best friend. I’m his cousin. You’re not maligning some random maid. You’re making up stories about my grandmother. I’m not going to stand for that.”

Maddie shifted her eyes to Rose, things finally slipping into place.

“He has her eyes,” Rose said. “I should’ve seen it a long time ago.”

Maddie knew she was in serious trouble now, and she had no idea how to get out of it.

“Rosario Torres is your grandmother?”

“She was,” Max said. “She died when I was six.”

Maddie rolled the idea through her mind, finally deciding that it actually made sense. Well, it would, as soon as she clarified a few details. “That means your mother was Big Jim’s daughter, doesn’t it?”

“Very good,” Max  said, taking another step into the room and closing the distance between them. “How much of this have you figured out?”

“I know that Rosario came to this house with the express intention to seduce Big Jim,” Maddie said. “She wanted to get pregnant. She thought if she could make sure he was infatuated with her that she would be able to control him.”

“Big Jim seduced my grandmother,” Max countered. “She was innocent until he put his filthy hands on her.”

“That’s a lie,” Rose said. “Rosario was never innocent.”

Maddie ignored her. “When your grandmother found out she was pregnant, she pressured Big Jim about marrying her. He wouldn’t divorce Rose, though. She wanted money to leave and he didn’t want to give her any.”

“My grandmother always said that woman was a bitter shrew,” Max said. “She just didn’t want Big Jim and my grandmother to be happy. That was her way of punishing them.”

“I don’t understand why Big Jim and your grandmother didn’t get married after Rose died,” Maddie said. “Granny told me that everyone in town expected Jim to put on a big show and mourn Rose for a few months before marrying Rosario.”

“That was the plan,” Max said. “Big Jim promised my grandmother the world. He told her she wouldn’t have to wait forever. It was just supposed to be a few months. She was going to get everything she ever wanted.”

“What happened?”

“Because of her fragile condition, my grandmother wasn’t capable of keeping a house this size up,” Max said. “She was put on bed rest in her sixth month. Big Jim hired a new maid to take over her duties.”

“I’m guessing those duties were the same ones your grandmother had been performing for him,” Maddie said. “He cheated on her, didn’t he?”

“He wasn’t even sorry he did it,” Max said, his face twisting. “He told my grandmother that he was going to give her the world and then he yanked the rug right out from under her. She confronted him about all of it. She told him that cheating wasn’t going to be allowed when they got married. Do you know what he told her?”

Maddie had a feeling she did. “He told her he had no intention of marrying her,” Maddie said, glancing at Rose for support. The ghost merely nodded, encouraging her to continue. “I think Big Jim realized that he was finally free of his wife, and despite how attracted he was to your grandmother, he decided he wanted to plow a few other fields instead of settling down.”

“That’s a pretty good guess,” Max said. “Can you believe he did that? He just threw my grandmother away like she was garbage. He even told her she couldn’t have her job back after she gave birth to the baby.”

“Did he ever pay child support?”

“Of course not,” Max said. “You have to remember, this was the 1960s. It wasn’t so easy to demand a paternity test. They existed back then, but they were very costly. Big Jim essentially tossed my grandmother out of this house and never looked back. He didn’t even care about the baby. That was his daughter, and he didn’t care.”

“What happened to your grandmother?”

“She moved to Traverse City and found a job as a secretary after she gave birth,” Max said. “She raised my mother all on her own, and eventually she got married and had another child. She never got over what Big Jim did to her, though. It marked her.”

“Did your mother know who her father was?”

“She found some paperwork in my grandmother’s things when she was cleaning one day,” Max said. “She couldn’t believe what she found. I was only three at the time, and she didn’t tell me any of it until I was much older.”

“She knew who Big Jim was when she took the job as a maid, though, didn’t she?”

“Of course she did,” Max said. “She went to college to be a paralegal, and yet she ended up working as a maid. Do you know why that is?”

“She wanted to get to know her father,” Maddie supplied. “She thought that was the best way.”

“You’re a smart little cookie,” Max said, winking. “It’s the rare woman who has beauty and brains. I’m looking forward to exploring your beauty when we’re done here.”

He was going to be waiting a long time for that. Maddie was just stalling now. She knew Nick would be looking for her. She had faith he would find her. Just like in the mausoleum, Nick would find a way to get to her – even if he had to rely on a little help from a ghostly friend.

“Did your mother tell Big Jim who she was?” Maddie asked.

“She was going to,” Max said. “Then he tried to grope her in the hallway one day. She was … disgusted. Her own father was trying to touch her.”

“I don’t want to make excuses for Big Jim, but there was no way he could know who your mother was if she didn’t tell him,” Maddie said.

“He should’ve known the second he saw her,” Max seethed. “She was his blood. You’re supposed to recognize your blood.”

“You lived in this house for years,” Maddie said, her mind turning as she tried to put the final pieces of the puzzle together. “Your mother made a decision to keep her secret at some point. She decided to stay the course. When did you find out the truth?”

“I stumbled across it by accident really,” Max said. “I was fifteen years old. I found these photos.” He gestured toward the box in the corner. “It took me a little while to figure out what was going on, but when I confronted my mother, she admitted the truth.

“Do you have any idea what that was like? I lived like a second-class citizen in this house for years,” he said. “I was nothing more than the maid’s son. Aaron tried to be nice to me, but I could always see that he was looking down on me. There was no one else for him to play with, so he decided I could be his pity friend.”

“Aaron loves you,” Maddie said. “He doesn’t look down on you. You may have convinced yourself of that, but it’s not true. That’s not who Aaron is.”

“You don’t even know him,” Max said. “He puts on a show for people … just like his mother. He’s a snob.”

“What did you do when you found out the truth?” Maddie asked. She already knew the answer. She’d finally figured it all out. She needed Max to confirm it.

“What do you think I did? I confronted Big Jim.”

“What did he do?”

“He laughed at me,” Max said. “There I was, a fifteen-year-old kid who thought he was about to be embraced by his grandfather, and he laughed at me. He told me my grandmother was a whore and there was no way I was ever going to see a dime from him because he didn’t believe I was his grandson.

“He told me that he didn’t care about my mother, and if he had the chance he would still have sex with her,” he continued, raw emotion pouring out of him now. “He called her filthy names, and he commented on her body. It was disgusting. He knew what he was doing. He was just trying to get a rise out of me.”

“He was an awful man,” Rose said. “Oh, he was so much worse than I realized.”

“You killed him, didn’t you?” Maddie asked, gazing at Max expectantly.

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because only someone killed in a fit of rage could carry that much rage over to the other side,” Maddie said, realizing why Big Jim turned into a poltergeist rather than moving on. “Aaron said his grandfather died when he was fifteen. He didn’t say how he died. How did you get away with killing him?”

“He was walking away from me,” Max said. “His back was to me. I was blind with anger. I couldn’t help myself. He was halfway up the stairs when I caught up with him. I grabbed his shoulder. I wanted him to take it all back. He wouldn’t, though, so I just … threw him down the stairs.

“He kind of bounced his way down,” Max said. “I could tell his neck was broken by the way he landed. I was going to run down to him. I was going to try and help him, I swear I was, but then I heard someone coming from the main hallway and I did the only thing I could do.”

“You ran and never said a thing about it,” Maddie said.

“I made a choice that day,” Max said. “Jim Denton refused to acknowledge me, so I refused to acknowledge what I did.”

“Your mother quit her job not long after the death, didn’t she? I seem to remember you moving to town when you were about that age. Did you tell her what you did?”

“No,” Max said. “I never told anyone … until now. She had her suspicions, though. That’s why she insisted on getting me out of this house. She never understood, though. This house should’ve been mine. I should’ve grown up here. I should’ve had my own room on the second floor. I shouldn’t have been hidden in the basement like some dirty little secret.”

“What happened to your family wasn’t right,” Maddie said. “Jim Denton was a particular kind of animal. That doesn’t mean what you’ve done is okay. You killed him. You kidnapped Cassidy. Why did you do that, by the way?”

“I couldn’t have her telling Nick that I was watching the two of you,” Max said. “You see, the thing is, I didn’t just come back to this house to see Aaron. I didn’t come back because of the memories. I came back because of you, too.”

Maddie’s heart lodged in her throat. “What do you mean?”

“When Aaron told me you were back in town I realized I had a shot at claiming more than my birthright,” Max said. “I knew I had a shot at making you mine, too. I always wanted you. I always knew we were supposed to be together. Nick was the one standing in our way. He ruined our chance back then, but he’s not going to ruin it now. We’re going to have a good life together, Maddie. We’re going to make this house our own.”

“You’ve lost your mind,” Maddie said. “If you think for a second that I would ever touch you, you’re crazy.”

“I just told you that I’m entitled to half of this fortune,” Max snapped. “I’m going to be a rich man. Don’t you want to live this life with me?”

“I already have a life,” Maddie said. “It’s with Nick. It’s never going to be with you.”

“You say that now,” Max said. “Once I take care of the Nick problem, though, you’re going to change your mind. I can guarantee it.”

“How are you going to take care of Nick?”

“It’s easy,” Max said. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill Cassidy, too. Once they both disappear, people will think they took off together. It’s perfect. You’ll be left behind, and you’ll have to pretend you’re broken-hearted for a few weeks, but after that people will be thrilled that we found each other.”

He was delusional. There was no way around it. He honestly believed she was going to fall in love with him after he admitted he was a murderer. “I’m never going to be with you, Max.”

“Never say never. There’s nothing standing in our way now, Maddie. We can have everything.”

“There’s one thing standing in your way.”

Maddie had no idea how long Nick had been standing there, but the look on his face told her he’d heard at least a portion of Max’s story. Max jumped when he saw him, fear flitting across his features as he realized his happily ever after was about to take a turn. “How did you find us?”

“I had a little help,” Nick said, his gaze touching on Maddie before returning to the threat in the room. “How do you think you’re going to get away with this, Max?”

“I’ve got it all planned out,” Max said. “I’m going to kill you and Cassidy and bury your bodies in the woods. I had to keep Cassidy alive long enough to kill you together, just in case your bodies were discovered. Once that’s taken care of, I’m going to tell Aaron the truth and if he refuses to give me what’s mine then I’m going to sue him and take it.”

“You can’t sue Aaron because your grandfather refused to acknowledge you,” Nick said, forcing himself to remain calm. “Big Jim had an ironclad will. A judge isn’t going to overturn that.”

“I have biology on my side.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nick said. “People leave blood relatives out of their wills all the time. It doesn’t mean a thing. You’re not going to get a piece of the Denton pie. You’re not a Denton. You never were.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Max said, his mind clearly working overtime. “I … no … I have this all planned out.”

“Well, you’re done,” Nick said. “You’re not going to hurt Cassidy, and I can guarantee you’re never going to lay a hand on Maddie. I’ll kill you first.”

“You’re going to have to,” Max said. “This is the life I’ve been dreaming of for as long as I can remember. No one is keeping me from it.” Max moved quickly, launching himself at Nick. Nick must have been expecting it, though, because he caught him in midair and slammed him into the wall behind him.

Maddie glanced over at Cassidy, finding the woman much more alert than she had been a few minutes before. “Get up,” she instructed. “Move over by that wall.”

Cassidy didn’t argue. Maddie followed her away from the fight, knowing she couldn’t help Nick. She was a distraction, and she wasn’t going to put him at risk. Rose was still hovering in the corner, her face a mask of horror and sadness as she watched the two men grapple with each other. She seemed lost in thought until a high-pitched keening shattered the tableau.