Murder in Nice (36 page)

“
How…how did you know about
Connor?” Maggie asked, her eyes on Haley.

“
What? Well, your parents
were here when it happened, weren’t they? You don’t think they’re
not scarred for life when someone is murdered on the floor below
them on Thanksgiving Day? You don’t think they don’t still talk
about it?”

“
Well…I don’t appreciate
the ghost reference,” Maggie said haltingly. “Connor was a friend
and it was horrible.”

Haley scraped up the bigger pieces of glass
and dumped the wine-soaked towels in the kitchen garbage. Maggie’s
eyes went to the sight of the broken glass on the kitchen floor
sitting in a brown and red puddle.

“
Well, excuse me,” Haley
said sarcastically. “I had no idea you took it so hard. That’s
hardly the impression we hear of you back home. Do you want
me
to go down and get the
damn wine?”

“
I’m out of the mood for
wine,” Maggie said, bringing her lips together tersely to keep them
from trembling. “And I shouldn’t be drinking anyway.”

She shouldn’t have said that. She knew as
soon as the words were out of her mouth that she shouldn’t have
said that. The look on Haley’s face was one of shock, then
revelation and finally…hatred. The evolution of expressions chilled
Maggie, and when she looked down at Haley’s hands she saw she
gripped a large shard of broken bottle.

“
You’re pregnant?” Haley
said, her eyes wide and boring a hole in Maggie’s
midriff.

“
I…no,” Maggie said,
hurriedly. “No, but we’re trying again. So I shouldn’t be
drinking.”

“
You
are
pregnant,” Haley said. “I can see
it in your face. You’re lying to me.” Suddenly her face opened up
and she narrowed her eyes. “Did Ben tell you about
Lanie?”

Oh, this isn’t
good
. Maggie’s eyes darted again to the
shard in Haley’s hand.
This is not what I
want to happen right now.

“
He told you, didn’t he?
That I killed her? That slut? Well, did he also tell you that he
screwed her the night of my reunion? Did he happen to leave that
little bit out?
And
that she got pregnant by him?”

It was the one piece of
evidence that never fit, Maggie realized, the one piece she had
deliberately chosen to ignore—the fact the killer had
written
slut
on
Lanie’s forehead. There was no way Ben would have done that. He
didn’t have that kind of passion.

“
You wrote on her,” Maggie
said, her eye on the large shard still in Haley’s hand. Suddenly,
she became aware that there was something different about the
house. Something she’d noticed in the back of her mind but couldn’t
put her finger on. Something stridently wrong—
wrong
in-her-bones
wrong
—that she couldn’t
place.

“
I did,” Haley said.
“There’s nothing like old-fashioned cursive to get your point
across. Lanie was always the master of the snarky text, the ace of
the bon mot. It wouldn’t have been right not to give her the last
word. So I did.” She shrugged. Maggie watched in horror as blood
dripped from Haley’s hand onto the floor and she realized Haley was
squeezing the shard in her fury…and didn’t even feel it.

Haley noticed where Maggie
was looking and glanced down at her hand. She looked back at
Maggie. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Maggie,” she
said. “Getting pregnant again. You can’t even take care of the
child you have. Plus, you’ll be a single mother. And
that
is a scary
thought.”

Maggie felt a strong chill invade her chest.
“What are you talking about?”

Haley affected a patient tone, but Maggie
saw the gleam in her eye that showed her excitement. “I’ve got
proof that shows Laurent was a conman operating on the Côte
d’Azur,” Haley said. “Your husband is going to prison.”

Was she lying…or crazy?

Maggie licked her
lips.
I’m going to go with
crazy.

Haley idly scraped her foot in what was left
of the glass and wine puddle on the floor. It made a loud and
discordant grating sound that seemed to echo through the kitchen.
The second Maggie heard it, she realized what was wrong. The house
was too quiet. She looked in the direction of the baby monitor.

The power light wasn’t on.

Fear ratcheted up her spine until she was
sure it was showing in her face. The monitor was always on. Haley
was anal about it being on so she could hear every gurgle, every
cough, every potential call.

What reason would she have for deliberately
turning it off? Because there could be no doubt it was
deliberate.

Haley still held the bloody shard. There was
also no doubt in Maggie’s mind that was deliberate, too.

Maggie forced herself to
appear calm. She stood with her back to the dining room, facing
Haley, who stood with her back to the open
cave
door. Between them on the floor
were the remaining bits of glass from the broken bottle. Maggie
forced herself not to telegraph her intentions by looking at
the
cave
door.

Her sling kept her arm pressed tightly to
her chest and she leaned a hip against the counter to help support
her.

“
You’re wrong, Haley. Ben
confessed,” Maggie said. “He’s turning himself in for Lanie’s
murder as we speak.”

Haley jerked her head back.
“You’re lying,” she said in a high voice. Her eyes flicked away
from Maggie for a moment as if trying to digest this. The second
she looked away, Maggie pushed herself off the counter and shoved
Haley hard in the chest. Haley shrieked and grabbed for Maggie but
she was off balance and went easily through the
cave
door, falling backward down the
first few steps.

Maggie slammed the door shut, knowing she
only had seconds before Haley would be up and wrenching at the
doorknob. Even if Maggie had two working arms, Haley—a tennis
player—was much stronger. Maggie grabbed the latch, her fingers
slick with sweat and her injured wrist screaming in pain. She slid
the latch shut just as she felt the door jar under her hands.

“
You bitch! Open this door!
I’ll kill you, Maggie! Open it!”

Maggie backed away, watching the door
vibrate and jump with every blow from inside, then turned and ran
up the stairs. She fell once on the smooth, slippery stairs and
instinctively put out her injured hand to catch her fall. The pain
shot up her arm and she cried out, then jerked the sling off and
threw it down. The screaming and pounding on the door behind her
was growing louder.

Dear God, don’t let her have hurt him.
Please God, kill me now but please don’t let her have hurt him.

The door to Jemmy’s bedroom was shut but not
locked and Maggie flung it open and ran inside. It was dark, but
moonlight peeked in through his curtains providing a shaft of light
that dimly lit the room. Downstairs, she heard the distinct sounds
of wood splintering as Haley battered at the door with her shoulder
or whatever she was finding in the basement.

Maggie ran to Jemmy’s crib, fighting to keep
her sobs of terror from overtaking her, trying to think of where
she would go, how she would get him and Zouzou out and away. She
jerked back the covers.

The crib was empty.

Twenty-two

Maggie flung the covers out of the crib, her
mind was racing, refusing to accept what her eyes were seeing.

The baby monitor was off to
hide the fact that there was no baby upstairs.
She looked around the room in building hysteria, knowing he
wasn’t there.

This can’t be
happening
.
He has
to be here. He has to be.

A half empty bottle of Maggie’s allergy
medicine, diphenhydramine, sat on the nightstand. Her skin crawled
as she turned and ran out the door and down the hall toward
Zouzou’s room. As she ran, she realized she wasn’t hearing any
noises from downstairs.

Maggie tore open the bedroom door and
froze.

Haley straightened up over the small bed
with Zouzou in her arms…and an eight-inch chef’s knife pressed to
the baby’s neck.

Maggie’s heart pounded. Zouzou was still
half-asleep, providing no resistance, thank God. Maggie scanned the
room in case…

“
He’s not here,” Haley said
calmly.

“
Where is he? What have you
done with him?” Maggie’s voice sounded strong and menacing. Not at
all how she felt.

“
Let’s just say he’s
safe…for now.”

“
What did you do with him?”
Maggie took a step toward her and Haley pressed the knife against
Zouzou, pinching the child until she whimpered and tried to shake
her head and move away from the knife.

“
You don’t need to know
that,” Haley said, shifting the weight of the child in her arms,
but keeping the knife to the child’s throat. “All you need to know
is that he’ll die if I don’t get back to him soon.”

“
Why are you doing
this?”

“
You really don’t know?
God, I knew you were clueless in high school.”

“
I don’t know what you
think you’re doing, Haley—”

“
I’m righting a few wrongs
here, Maggie, okay? A few
life
wrongs. A few universe wrongs. You think you can
break the law and then enjoy a charmed life after that? Is that
fair?”

“
What in the world are you
talking about?”

“
Your husband. He’s a felon
and thanks to me, he’s going to jail. And you? God, where do I
start? You don’t deserve Jemmy. Until your little performance today
I was half convinced you’d let me just take him, but okay, so you
want the world to think you’re a loving mother. Whatever. It won’t
do you any good. You know that, right?”

“
I know you’re going to let
Ben go to prison for what you did.”

Haley made a snorting sound of derision.
“Ben is going to prison one way or the other.”

“
Is this payback for how
he’s hurt you?”

Haley grinned. “I love that. Everyone thinks
he hits me. That’s hysterical.”

“
You…your black eye when
you came last week…”

“
I got that wrestling with
Lanie before I bashed her brains in. Ben’s never raised a hand to
me. God, you don’t know him at all do you?”

Maggie’s mind raced, but all she could see
in her mind’s eye was Jemmy sleeping…somewhere in the dark.

“
Why did he
confess?”

“
I don’t know. He loves me?
Go into the hallway, Maggie. I’d like to get this over with. As I
said, Jemmy doesn’t have unlimited time where he is and I need to
get to him soon.”

“
Please, Haley. For the
love of God, you acted like you cared for him. I’m begging
you—”

“
I
do
care for him,” Haley said fiercely.
Zouzou, now fully awake, squealed in Haley’s arms. The knife had
made a bloody line on the baby’s throat. “More than
you
do. I’m ten times the
mother you are. In fact, if you really want to help him, you’ll do
what’s necessary to keep him alive.”

“
Anything. Tell me.” Maggie
watched Zouzou arch her back; her whines were full-blown cries
now.

Haley pointed to the top of
the stairs. “Stand over there. And do not think about charging me.
I will kill Zouzou and you’ll never, and I mean
never,
find Jemmy and then he’ll die
too. Is that what you want?”

Maggie backed away, her hands up, and walked
slowly to the top of the stairs. The bottle of diphenhydramine had
to mean Haley drugged Jem to keep him quiet. Calling for him would
be futile.

“
You’re not afraid Zouzou
will tell everyone you cut her with a knife?”

“
Nobody believes children.
I’ll say she was upset and got it all wrong. Stop right there,”
Haley said as Maggie went to the top of the stairs. “Okay, so
here’s how this next part goes. I can personally name three people
who will swear that you habitually leave laundry baskets at the top
of the stairs just waiting to be tripped over. Believe me, it will
not be a surprise to anyone who knows you.”

“
You’re going to push me
down the stairs?”

“
I’m hoping I won’t have to
touch you. See, there’s only one way for you to save Jemmy and
that’s by killing yourself, Maggie. You should be glad you have
such a wonderful way to prove how much you love him.”

Maggie could hardly hear Haley over Zouzou’s
screams. She watched the child wriggle to get away from the knife
but Haley held her firmly, her eyes glued to Maggie’s face.

“
You’ll have the accident
that nobody will be surprised happened, and with Laurent in prison,
I’ll end up with Jemmy.” She laughed. “Think of it; I’ll have
everything you have. And believe me, I’ll do a better job with it
than you ever could.”

“
I’m surprised you don’t
want to steal my husband. You’re going after everything else I
have.”

“
The last thing I want is
another husband. I’ll settle for your house, your life, your child
and your best friend—oh yeah, and your parents. With you, Ben and
Elise gone, I’m looking pretty good. A far cry from where we were
in high school, huh, when you weren’t interested in being
pals.”