Honeymoon for Three (30 page)

“Face front.”

Gary watched the gun swing around until he
felt the cold metal against his own head. He faced away from
Alfred. He wouldn’t be any good to Penny if he were dead.

“Put your hands behind your back.”

Should he duck and roll and try to get the
camper between himself and Alfred? No, because then Alfred would
shoot Penny.

“What are you going to do?”

“Put your hands behind your back.”

Alfred’s voice was more strident, more
demanding. The gun dug into Gary’s scalp. Alfred wasn’t rational.
He couldn’t be reasoned with. Gary could swing his arm and hope to
dislodge the gun from Alfred’s hand, but if he missed, Alfred would
shoot them both. For the moment, Gary had to do what Alfred wanted.
He placed his hands behind his back. He had never been so scared in
his life, but he was more scared for Penny than himself.

With one hand, Alfred arranged Gary’s arms
so they crossed at the wrists. With his other hand, he kept the gun
pointed at Gary’s head. Then Alfred wrapped something around and
around Gary’s wrists. It felt and sounded like tape. Gary tried to
surreptitiously hold his hands so that there would be some play
between them, but Alfred wound the tape tightly enough to nullify
this. He was obviously experienced at taping people. He must have
practiced on Penny.

“Isn’t that enough?” Gary asked. “I can’t
move my hands.”

“That’s the idea. Okay, here’s where you get
to be a hero and save the life of your wife.”

Doing what? Gary didn’t say it out loud. He
waited, hardly breathing, to hear his fate.

“You and I are going to walk out to the
cliff. Then you’re going to be big and brave and jump off. If you
do that, Penny will live.”

The unspoken part of that statement was that
Penny would live with Alfred. She wouldn’t do that. The fact that
Alfred had to tape Penny’s mouth and probably her hands and
feet—she hadn’t moved—was in a way a relief to Gary. It meant that
she hadn’t been seduced by Alfred. It meant that she still loved
him. He had heard of kidnapped persons relating to their
kidnappers, but it hadn’t happened in this case.

Should Gary walk to the cliff or should he
force Alfred to shoot him here? The noise of the shot probably
wouldn’t be loud enough for any cars on the road to hear, and they
were shielded from the road by the body of the camper and some
rocks. If he shot Gary, would he then shoot Penny?

Gary would rather take his chances with the
cliff. When he was mobile, he might be able to do something. Even
with his hands taped behind him, he had some options. The least he
could do would be to take Alfred over the cliff with him. If he
could get in the right position, he could slam his body into that
potbelly. They would die together.

Alfred told Gary to stand. Gary stood
slowly, turning his head a little to glance at Penny. She had a
look of horror in her eyes, but it was more than that. Was she
trying to tell him something? He wasn’t sure what. Then she hummed
what sounded like a few notes of a song.

“Shut up.” Alfred momentarily aimed the gun
at her.

She became quiet. What was the song? Gary
wracked his brain. Penny’s voice had been a little hoarse, and he
wasn’t sure he’d caught the notes. Alfred prodded Gary with the
gun. He closed the door of the camper. Gary started walking slowly
toward the cliff. He had to walk carefully on the uneven surface,
covered with rock and slippery, green ice plant, because he
couldn’t use his arms for balance. If he tripped, he would fall
hard.

“Keep moving.”

Gary could feel the barrel of the gun in his
back from time to time. Just to let him know that Alfred still held
it on him.

“It’s hard to walk with my hands behind my
back.”

“My heart cries for you. Just keep
moving.”

What was that song? Eight notes. That’s what
Penny had hummed. It was like being on the TV show, “Name that
Tune.” He should be able to remember it. He hummed it in his head
as he had heard it. It was coming back to him. It had been popular
in the fifties, when he was in school. They were approaching the
cliff. Gary could see the ocean below. Far below. Much too far to
survive a fall. Especially since he would undoubtedly land on
jagged rocks.

Gary stopped walking and turned to face
Alfred. The words of the song had come to him: “Wait little
darling, wait for me.” Wait for her. But what could she do? Could
she get free? If so, what could she do to help him? She shouldn’t
jeopardize her own safety. She should escape if she had the chance.
But she would try to help him. He had to make sure she got away. He
had to stall.

“You can’t do this. You can’t kill me in
cold blood. It’ll be on your conscience forever.”

“I’ve already killed two people. Another one
won’t make much difference.”

“I’ll make you a deal.”

Alfred spoke with a sneer. “You’re really in
a position to starting making deals.”

CHAPTER 32

As soon as the door closed, Penny set to
work. She got up on her knees, shaking free of the blanket. She
took a look at the tape on her wrists. She had managed to unwind
much of the tape in the dark. She had been afraid Alfred would
discover this when he uncovered her but, fortunately, he uncovered
only her head. And she had had time to retape her mouth.

Now that she was able to see, she could go
much faster. She untaped her mouth again, and used a combination of
her teeth and her fingers, tearing and pulling at the tape like a
lion tearing meat from its prey. She applied herself to the task
with feverish fervor, but she progressed much too slowly.

She had to save Gary. It was her fault that
Alfred had been able to take him captive. She should have been able
to stop it. She hadn’t known about the gun, but even so… She was a
bad person. First she had catered to Alfred’s bizarre sexual
proclivities and now this. If she could, she would sacrifice
herself for Gary. He deserved to live.

She had reacted too slowly when Alfred
produced the gun. If she had yelled, Gary could have gotten away.
But he wouldn’t have run as long as he thought she was in danger.
So it was probably just as well that she hadn’t yelled and revealed
the looseness of her gag. It would have brought Alfred’s attention
to her, and he would have found out that she was in the process of
freeing herself.

At least Gary hadn’t deserted her. She hoped
he understood the words of the song she had hummed. Wait. Stall.
She would get to him. She ripped off the last vestige of tape from
her wrists and shook them in relief, feeling her skin tingle. Now
for her legs. They were much easier to free because she had both
hands to work with. She was running out of time. It wasn’t far to
the edge of the cliff. Gary and Alfred would be there by now.

She finished the job and flexed her toes.
She had feeling in them; she could walk. Where were her shoes? Not
in the storage cabinet. She didn’t have time to look for them. She
opened the camper and jumped to the ground in her sock feet. She
started for the cliff.

A rock wall, green with plant life, hid Gary
and Alfred from her sight. The uneven, rocky surface cut her feet,
slowing her down. She tried to ignore the pain. She trotted with a
sort of hobbling gait. Once she slipped and stopped her fall with
her hands. Ouch. Then she saw them. Standing close to the edge of
the cliff, facing each other. Alfred was holding the gun on Gary.
He gestured toward the cliff and she felt sick.

“Alfred,” she called.

That distracted him. They both turned and
saw her. She continued to approach. She was within thirty feet of
them.

“Don’t come any closer,” Gary said. “Get
away. The keys are in the car. Go get the police.”

“I’ve got a deal for Alfred.”

***

When Alfred heard Penny call his name, he
was surprised. And angry. Was this the way she repaid him for being
lenient with her? The bitch. He hadn’t taped her arms and legs
together. He had even taped her hands in front of her instead of
behind her. Now she had escaped.

She must have been working on the tape while
they were driving. He had watched her in the mirror and seen her
moving around under the blanket, but he hadn’t guessed that she
would actually try to take the tape off. She had betrayed him.

He was ready to shoot her. Except that he
didn’t know whether he could hit her at this range. If he aimed the
gun at her, he knew Gary would attack him. He had to deal with Gary
first.

“A deal,” he said with the sneer he had used
on Gary. “You and your…husband must read the same book. He just
offered me a deal.”

“Let us go,” Penny said, “and we’ll let
bygones be bygones. We won’t go to the police. Live and let live.
We can coexist.”

Her voice had a note of desperation in it.
He didn’t like that. It sounded like she was still in love with
Gary.

“Amazing. That’s almost identical to the
deal Gary offered me. Unfortunately, I can’t accept. Even if I
trusted you, I couldn’t accept. For you see, you belong to me now.
Last night proved it.”

***

Last night? What had happened last night?
What had Alfred done to her? He looked so smug. Of course, when you
had the gun you could afford to be smug. Gary had an urge to smash
his body into Alfred’s regardless of the consequences. If only
Alfred were closer to the cliff, Gary could knock him over, but
Alfred was being very careful about keeping Gary between him and
the edge.

Alfred was focusing some of his attention on
Penny. He couldn’t look at both of them at the same time. Gary took
a couple of steps away from the cliff, intent on getting behind
Alfred.

“Stop right there.”

Alfred glared at Gary. He walked over to him
and gave him a shove toward the cliff. Gary stumbled backward, fear
gripping his stomach like a constricting vise. With his hands
behind his back, he couldn’t get his balance. He was going
over.

***

Penny closed her eyes for an instant, but
she couldn’t not look. She screamed as Gary fell hard on the rocky
surface. The terror stayed with her, even after it was apparent
that he had managed to stop himself from going over the cliff, at
least for the moment. He was hurt perhaps, but at least he was
alive.

She found that she had taken a couple of
steps toward Alfred, ready to rush him—ready to try to push him
over. She backed up and tried to will her heart to slow down so she
could think.

Gary rolled away from the edge and
laboriously got to his knees, wincing in pain. Penny knew how
difficult it was to accomplish that with his hands taped behind his
back. He stayed in a kneeling position. She hoped he could stand.
She had to distract Alfred.

“Alfred,” she said in a high-pitched voice
that sounded as if she had been inhaling helium, “we know you’re
not really a killer.”

Alfred backed away from Gary a few steps so
that he could more easily watch both of them. That was a positive.
He even looked a little shaken that Gary had almost gone over.
Maybe he had a heart after all

“Let’s go back to the camper and talk about
this.” Penny tried to sound matter-of-fact, as if this were the
reasonable thing to do. “You both must be getting hungry. I’ll make
sandwiches for lunch.”

She half-turned, willing Alfred to follow
her. He looked undecided. She fixed her eyes on his. He wouldn’t
look at her. She glanced at Gary, hoping he would be quiet, but he
didn’t appear to be very talkative. The seconds ticked by, and the
silence became painful. Penny had an urge to say something, perhaps
repeat what she had just said. The pressure was on Alfred, so she
forced herself to keep her mouth closed.

The engines of the cars on Route 1 hummed
behind her, far away, in a different world. A safe world, without
guns and maniacs. Could she ever return to that world?

Alfred raised his eyes and looked from one
of them to the other. His gun was pointed down, not at Gary. Gary
didn’t pose an immediate threat to him. Maybe the situation could
be defused.

Alfred mumbled, “It’s too late.”

“What did you say?” Penny pretended she
hadn’t heard him.

“It’s too late. We have to get on with
it.”

“You know if you kill Gary, I will never be
yours.”

Alfred looked at her again, hesitating for
another few seconds. Then he started walking toward Gary, saying
“On your feet. It’s time to get the show on the road.” He lifted
the gun and pointed it at Gary.

Her comment had backfired. The gun gave him
false confidence. Penny felt the horror of what was about to happen
well up inside her.

“Wait!”

Alfred stopped and turned his eyes to her.
She backed away a few steps. By the way he handled the gun, she
guessed that he was a neophyte and probably couldn’t hit her at
this distance. She also thought she could beat him back to the
cars, shoeless though she was.

“If you kill Gary, I’m going to the police.
I’ll also tell them you killed the clerk in the market. That will
make two people. How do you think you’ll like the gas chamber at
San Quentin?”

That had an effect on Alfred. He hesitated.
Behind his back, Gary stuck out three fingers. It took a second for
her to understand his meaning.

“Three people.” The words spilled out. “That
would make three people you’ve killed. You killed Emily. I see it
now. Did you follow her the way you followed me? She was getting
married, which meant that she was rejecting you, so you strangled
her. Then you took off her bracelet and put it in Darren’s
apartment to frame him. He never locked his door. You knew that.
You said it was a wonder his bicycle wasn’t stolen.”

Penny stopped for breath, trembling. She had
an overwhelming desire to attack Alfred. There was complete
silence. Penny wondered whether she had said too much. Had she
sealed Gary’s fate? If Alfred took one step toward him, she was
prepared to charge.