On Shadow Beach (33 page)

Shane drew in a breath. “Good point. Give me some room.” He moved back a few steps, then tackled the door like the linebacker he’d once been. It groaned on the first hit, then snapped open on the second. They stumbled inside.

Lisa came flying out of the kitchen, her dark red hair tangled, her eyes wild, her face white, and her hands covered in dripping wet towels. She saw Lauren and froze in her tracks.

“What happened to your hands?” Lauren asked, but she already knew the truth. She’d been trying to convince herself that the only thing Lisa had done wrong was sleep with her volleyball coach, but that wasn’t the case. “You burned them, didn’t you?” she said. “You burned them when you set fire to my house.”

She moved toward Lisa, who immediately began backing away, but there was nowhere for her to run.

“My God!” Lauren cried. “You could have
killed
me. You could have killed my father! How could you do this to us? We were your family. Abby was like your sister.”

“Abby turned on me,” Lisa said bitterly. “She betrayed me. She was going to ruin everything.”

“You mean she was going to tell everyone that you were having sex with Coach Sorensen.”

“He loved me. He loved me like no one else loved me!” Lisa cried. “You didn’t know what it was like to grow up in this house. You didn’t have to
watch my mother bring men in and out. You didn’t have to lock your bedroom door in case one of those men decided to take a side trip in the middle of the night. You and Abby had the perfect family.”

“Abby
loved
you,” Lauren said, still in shock, even though the truth was right in front of her. “She loved you, Lisa.”

Lisa shook her head. “You’re wrong. She hated me when she found out what I was doing. And you know why? Because Abby wanted him for herself. She didn’t like the attention he gave me. She was used to being the star.”

“That’s not true,” Lauren said. “You’re not going to turn this on Abby.”

“You don’t know what’s true.”

“I know she didn’t have sex with the coach.”

“No, because he was in love with
me.
Tim was the man Abby couldn’t have. He’s the one she wrote about in her diary.” Lisa stopped abruptly, her gaze narrowing. “You found it, didn’t you? That’s why you’re here. I knew it was in the house. I tried to look after she died, but you wouldn’t let me in. You and your parents, who supposedly cared about me, had no use for me after Abby died. I wasn’t part of the family anymore.” She spat out the last part of her sentence.

“So you decided to burn my house down, just in case the diary was there?”

“I figured everyone would think your father had done it.”

“But you didn’t count on burning your hands.”
Lauren saw Lisa’s gaze slide toward the bedroom. Through the open door, she could see the suitcase on the bed. “You were going to run.”

“Who says I still won’t?” Lisa challenged.

“I do,” Shane said, stepping in front of her.

“Always the big hero,” Lisa said sarcastically. “Why would you help her? She didn’t stand up for you when they accused you of murdering Abby.”

“As I recall, you were more than happy to tell the police that I’d been hitting on Abby, even though it wasn’t true,” Shane said. “You wanted me to go to jail for her murder.”

“Better you than—” Lisa cut herself off.

The truth suddenly hit Lauren between the eyes. Tim Sorensen had an alibi. Erica Sorensen was supposedly home with her baby. But Lisa . . .

“You? You
did it? You killed Abby?” She flew across the room and grabbed Lisa by the shoulders, ignoring her scream of pain as Lisa’s burned hands were pinned between them. “Say it! Admit it, damn you!” Furious tears blurred her vision. “How could you kill your best friend?”

“I had to—she was going to ruin everything! I tried to talk to her. I begged her to just leave it alone. We weren’t hurting anyone, it wasn’t her business. And Tim—he would have lost everything. He was so scared.”

“He knew that you did it?”

“He told me to find a way to stop her. He knew she’d caught us because of that damn camera she always had in her hand. She loved sneaking up on
people and taking their picture. That’s how she found out about us.” She drew in a ragged breath. “Don’t you get it, Lauren? I loved him, and he loved me, and he was the only one who did,” she sobbed.

Filled with a violent rage, Lauren wanted to put her hands around Lisa’s throat and strangle her like Lisa had done to Abby. How terrified and angry her little sister must have been when Lisa had gone after her. How betrayed she must have felt.

She grabbed Lisa’s throat, saw her eyes widen in shock. “How does it feel?” she asked, squeezing her fingers around her neck. Lisa tried to struggle, but her hands were too burned to fight.

“Stop her,” Lisa begged Shane.

Shane moved toward her. “Lauren, let go,” he said firmly.

“Why do you care what happens to her? She wanted you to go to prison,” Lauren said.

“I don’t care about her—I care about you. The police are coming. They’ll arrest her. ”

Lauren didn’t
want
to let go. She wanted Lisa to suffer the way Abby had.

“Lauren, your dad needs you. He can’t lose another daughter,” Shane told her.

His words finally got through to her. She let go and Lisa slumped to the ground, crying hysterically that it wasn’t her fault.

Then Joe Silveira and two uniformed cops came
in.

“Lisa killed Abby,” Lauren told him. “She did it to save herself and her lover, Tim Sorensen. Abby was going to reveal their affair.”

She looked back at Lisa, who was being hauled to her feet by one of the officers. “Do you know what Abby wrote in her diary, Lisa? She said she was worried about you—that she loved you, and that she didn’t want you to ruin your life. She didn’t want to hurt you; she wanted to save you. And you killed her.”

“I’m sorry,” Lisa whimpered. “I’m sorry.” The officers led her away.

“You found her diary?” Joe asked, a somber expression in his eyes.

“Tonight. I forgot to tell you earlier. Lisa guessed it was in the house; that’s why she set the fire. She was going to leave but she hurt herself, and that delayed her escape.” She looked around. “Where’s my purse?”

“It’s here,” Shane said, retrieving it from the floor where she’d dropped it.

She pulled out the diary and handed it to Joe. “I’d like to get it back when you’re done with it. It’s the only thing of Abby’s that I have left.”

“No problem. Are you all right?”

She let out a sigh. “No, but I will be. I just want to make sure that Lisa pays for what she did.”

“She will,” Joe promised.

“Let’s go, Lauren,” Shane said gently. “You’ve done all you can do. The rest is up to the police.”

*   *   *

Before going to the boat, Lauren went to the medical center to check on her father. He’d been admitted for observation and was dozing in his room. Oxygen tubes ran into his nose, but he seemed to be breathing normally. The nurse had told her that barring any unforeseen developments, he’d be released in the morning.

Lauren studied him quietly for several minutes and was about to leave when he opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, then his gaze settled on her face.

“Lauren,” he said, relief in his eyes. “I couldn’t remember what happened to you. I was afraid. No one knew where you were.”

“I’m here.” She smiled at him. “Are you doing okay?”

“I was dreaming about the old days in the house, when we were all together—you, me, your mother, David, and Abby. We had some good times.”

“We did,” she agreed, battling a surging wave of emotion. She didn’t know how much more she could take tonight.

“Your mother loved that house. I remember when we first moved in, we painted all the rooms together. She’d get more paint on her face and clothes than on the walls, but she didn’t care. She was so happy then.”

“Dad, let’s not do this now.”

“I want to tell you everything,” her father said.

His words echoed Shane’s from earlier that night. “We can do that later. You need to sleep.”

“I don’t know how much time I have left.”

“Don’t talk like that. You have more good days than bad.”

“That could change at any moment. I know you don’t want to talk about the past—”

“Yes, I do,” she said. “I want to hear all of your memories. I want to write them down and pass them on to my kids and David’s kids.” She saw happy tears gather in his eyes, and it was all she could do to hang on. “I know it’s important to you, and it’s important to me. Even if you forget us, we’re not going to forget you.” She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Get some rest, Dad. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Shane was waiting for her in the hallway. When they walked down the quiet corridor and out of the hospital, she stopped in the front courtyard and drew in a deep breath of fresh air. A million stars surrounded a brilliantly full moon that was dipping toward the horizon. Dawn was approaching.

“Let me take you to my boat or wherever you want to go,” Shane said.

“I just want to sit for a minute,” she said, walking over to a nearby bench.

Shane took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders.

“Now you’ll be cold,” she said with a smile.

“I’m a man. I can take it.”

“You never told me why you came back to my house tonight,” she reminded him.

“Haven’t you had enough talk for tonight? You must be a little overwhelmed right now.”

“That’s an understatement. But I don’t think I could sleep even if I tried.”

“Did you tell your father about Lisa?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. I still can’t believe she’s the one who killed Abby. I never in a million years would have thought it was her.”

“She was a mixed-up girl, desperate for love,” Shane said. “The most ironic thing of all is that the man who’s responsible for all of this is going to lose the least.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Tim Sorensen had sex with a fifteen-year-old student. But it was Lisa who killed Abby, because she wanted to protect him and their relationship. And it was his wife who ran down Mark Devlin, because she also wanted to protect him. Erica knew her husband was having an affair; she was just mistaken in thinking it was Abby and not Lisa.”

“So Lisa gets tried for murder and Erica for attempted murder—and what happens to Tim?”

“I’m sure he’ll lose his job.”

Lauren shook her head in disgust. “That doesn’t seem right. He should go to jail, too. He had sex with an underage minor.”

“Thirteen years ago. I wonder what the time limit is for statutory rape.”

“Lisa would probably say it was consensual just to save him. I can’t believe that Abby felt sorry for her. I wanted to kill her. I’ve never felt such rage before. Were you worried you were going to witness a murder?”

“Not in the least,” he said with a small smile. “I know you, Lauren.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Maybe you should start believing it.”

For a moment there was nothing but easy quiet
between them. Lauren couldn’t remember when she’d felt so at peace, with so many questions finally answered—except one. She turned to him, drawing his gaze to hers. “Shane, you still haven’t told me why you came to my house tonight.”

“I wanted to tell you that I love you,” he said simply.

Her heart skipped a beat. “I think I must be high from smoke inhalation. Could you repeat that?”

His smile broadened. “I love you, Lauren. I’ll say it as many times as you want. And I’ll say it for the rest of our lives, if you’ll let me.” His gaze turned serious. “I knew you were the one for me the first time you got on my bike and slid your arms around my waist. You hung on like you weren’t going to let go, and it was the first time I’d ever
wanted
someone to hang on. It scared the hell out of me. The only person I ever wanted to commit to was you, and I couldn’t have you. After I left I tried to forget you, but it didn’t work. No one else ever came close.” He let out a deep breath.

She could see the worry in his eyes that his declaration wouldn’t be enough, that it was too late. Silly man. “I love you, too, Shane. I always have.”

“Thank God!”

His heartfelt relief made her smile. “So what are we going to do about this?”

“Whatever you want, Lauren. I can move to San Francisco if you want. I can move anywhere, as long as you’re with me.”

“That’s one good thing about loving a man with
a boat,” she said lightly. “But I think I want to stay here for a while. I want to get to know my dad again, while he’s still well enough to know me. Except we don’t have anywhere to live now.”

“So we’ll buy a place.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You mean a house on dry land?”

“I can live on dry land.”

“Without the waves rocking you to sleep?”

“I guess you’ll have to rock me to sleep,” he teased. “I do love you, Lauren. God, it feels good to say that out loud. I don’t know why it sounded so scary in my head.”

“Because you’ve been hurt by love—but that’s going to change,” she promised. “We have our second chance, just like Leonora and Tommy.” She gave him a tender kiss. “Let’s go home.”

“To
our
home,” he said.

She smiled. “I like the sound of that.”

Two days later, Lauren entered the Bayview Care Center with Shane, Kara, and her baby, now named Faith.

Kara paused in the hall outside Colin’s room. “The days I spent in the hospital are the longest Colin and I have ever been apart. I know I need to do this, but I’m a little scared. Her eyes filled with tears. I have to tell Colin that while I love him, I have to put our daughter first. I have to say good-bye.”

Lauren blinked back her own tears. The love between Kara and Colin was so powerful, so deep, and she couldn’t imagine having to go through what Kara had been through.

Before Kara could open Colin’s door, Charlotte, Joe, and Jason stepped off the elevator and came toward them.

“We thought you might want a little more support,” Charlotte told Kara. “If it’s too much, we’ll wait outside.”

Kara smiled. “Thanks, but you can come in.
You’re all Colin’s friends. You’re all my friends.” She pushed open the door and walked over to the bed.