Shadow of Doubt (22 page)

“It fits perfectly,” I said.

“Happy Valentine's Day,” he said. He leaned over the table and kissed me lightly on the lips.

I reached behind me and undid the clasp on the chain that Nick had given me. I removed the intertwined hearts from my neck and dropped them onto the table.

“Happy Valentine's Day to you too, Ben,” I said.

We held hands until our hot chocolate arrived.

I

stayed home from school the next day and spent almost all of it sleeping. That night, for the first time since my parents had divorced, the two of them sat at the same table and shared a meal. Not alone, of course. Ted was there. So were Melissa and I. And Ben. We were all gathered in one of the private dining rooms at La Folie. By then my dad had worked his contacts and gotten all the details, and Ted had taken Melissa to the hospital to see Mikhail Mornov.

“I can still barely believe that Nat did all those things. I really trusted her,” Melissa said. “I knew that she and Mikhail had gone out briefly. He told me. But I never knew she was in love with him. He told me it was just casual.”

“She resented the way he fell so fast for you,” my dad said.

“But I didn't know,” Melissa said. “No one told me. The whole time she was pretending to be supportive of both me and Mikhail—the whole time—she was doing everything she could to make sure we stayed apart. And it worked. She scared me so badly that I left town.”

“But Mikhail refused to give up,” Ted said gently. “He really seems to love you.”

Melissa's eyes glistened with tears. “He told me that today. He said he was so confused. He couldn't understand why I had treated him the way I did. Before, when Nat told him about my mother...” Her voice trailed off. “Some guys would have been scared off, but not Mikhail. He said it made everything come clear to him. He wanted to talk to me, to try to reassure me he wasn't like James.”

“When he finally located you, he wanted to come and see you himself,” my dad said. “Natalie convinced him that was a bad idea. But she offered to help him.”

“He trusted her too,” Melissa said bitterly.

My dad nodded. “After Mikhail told the police what really happened, Nat came clean. According to Charlie, she told Mikhail that she'd come here ahead of him—to talk to you, see how you were doing. That's why she was suddenly interested in working here in town. She told Charlie she arranged a job for herself so that she could be close to you.”

“What do you mean?” Melissa said.

“Natalie Rachlis is responsible for the regular art teacher's ‘accident.' She did everything she could to put herself in close contact with you.”

Melissa's face turned white. “I recommended her to the principal.”

“She's a master manipulator,” my dad said. “But she must have known that Mikhail wouldn't wait forever, that he'd eventually turn up here.”

“That's why she started scaring me again,” Melissa said. She shook her head. “She wanted me to run and hide just like my mother did.”

Ted reached across the table and laid one of his hands on hers.

“She also used Ted,” my dad said. “She told Mikhail that you'd met someone else. She said that you were going to marry Ted. It nearly worked. Mikhail was happy for you, but he wanted to talk to you one last time. And when Ted reacted the way he did, he wanted to set things straight. He didn't want you to be afraid of him.”

“Meanwhile, Natalie was terrorizing me and pretending it was Mikhail,” Melissa said. “I almost ran. I was so scared of everyone.” She looked at my father. “The first time I saw you looking at my car in the parking lot at school, I thought you were working for Mikhail.” My dad shrugged apologetically. “But then I thought about my mother. She ran. She hid. And for the rest of her life she was afraid to go out, afraid to be herself, afraid of everyone. I didn't want to live that way.”

“The night you decided to confront Mikhail, you called Natalie from your car and told her you were returning to your apartment, didn't you?” my dad asked.

Melissa nodded. “She didn't pick up, so I left a message. I told her that I wasn't going to let Mikhail scare me anymore. That I was through running.”

“According to what Mikhail told the police, Natalie was downstairs when you called. When her voice mail picked up the message, Mikhail heard what you were saying. I'm not sure how much he figured out, but it was enough to make him confront Natalie when she came back upstairs. They got into a fight.”

“We heard them when we got back to the house,” I said.

“Mikhail saw you drive up,” my dad continued. “He wanted to go down and talk to Melissa, but Natalie tried to stop him. With a knife.”

I shuddered when he said that. I remembered the feel of that knife against my neck.

“Natalie turned the tables on him. She started screaming that he was trying to kill her.”

“And when I saw him holding that knife...” Melissa said.

“He'd wrestled it away from Natalie. He was afraid she might try to hurt you.”

“And I rewarded him by shooting him,” Melissa said in a whisper.

“You thought you were saving a friend's life,” Ted said.

Melissa looked at Ben. “If you hadn't been there—”

“His doctor says he's doing well,” Ted said, reaching for her hand.

“But if Ben hadn't done what he did...” Melissa whispered.

My father looked directly at her. “Natalie didn't know you had the gun, did she?”

Melissa shook her head. “She tried to make me leave it at Ted's. And she never thought I'd go back to the apartment.”

“But you took the gun with you.”

“Yes.”

“Natalie told the police she knew she was never going to win him back,” my dad said. “Once she knew you were on your way back to the apartment, her plan was to accuse him of trying to kill her. She knew you'd back her up. He'd go to prison. She wouldn't have had him, but neither would you. When you shot him, she was stunned. At first, she said, she couldn't believe it.”

“I should have trusted him. I shouldn't have been afraid,” Melissa said, tears glistening in her eyes. “I'm never going to run away again. I saw what it did to Mom. That's not going to happen to me. I'm going to trust people. I'm going to trust Mikhail.”

“You may need help, Melissa,” my mother said delicately. “It's hard trying to break the habits of a lifetime.”

Melissa nodded. But she looked determined.

. . .

After the meal was over, Ted flagged down a taxi for Melissa. I walked Ben to the door and said good night to him. He promised to call me the next day.

After he'd driven away, my mother pulled me aside.

“Do you mind staying with your father tonight?” she said.

“How come?”

“Ted says he wants to talk to me about something. And after everything that's happened—”

“No problem, Mom,” I said.

. . .

The next morning when I got up, I found my father sitting on the sofa, staring out the window and sipping coffee. He glanced at me, but he didn't say anything.

“You okay, Dad?” I said.

He nodded, but the gesture was stiff. Something was wrong.

“You sure?”

“Your mother called while you were in the shower.”

The phone rang.

“Maybe that's her now,” I said. I headed for the phone.

“She called
me
,” my father said. “She said she wanted to tell me before I heard it from someone else.”

“Heard what?”

The phone rang again.

“She's getting married,” my father said. He swallowed a mouthful of coffee. He looked miserable. I felt sorry for him.

The phone rang yet again. He glanced at it.

“Get that for me, will you, Robbie?” he said. “If it's Vern, I'll take it. Otherwise...”

I picked up the phone on the next ring. “Hello?”

“I've been calling you and calling you,” Morgan said. She sounded breathless. “You don't answer your cell. I finally called your mom.”

“I lost my phone,” I said. I had no idea what Ms. Rachlis had done with it. The police hadn't found it. “I—”

Morgan cut me off. “Guess who Billy swears he saw Sunday afternoon after we got back into town?” She answered before I could say a word. “Nick. He swears he saw Nick.”

My heart started to pound.

“Is he sure?”

“He says he is. After we got off the bus on Sunday, I went home and Billy went to the DARC office to drop off some things. He was walking down the street, and he says he saw you and Ben in the window of a restaurant. He says he waved at you, but you were too busy talking to Ben and you didn't see him. He says he caught a reflection in the window and turned and there was Nick, standing right across the street.”

I felt cold all over. “What was he doing?”

“The same thing Billy was doing. He was staring at you. Billy says he waved to him, but Nick just turned and walked away.”

CHECK OUT THE NEXT BOOK IN THE
ROBYN HUNTER MYSTERIES
SERIES:

NOWHERE TO
TURN

Nick's thick black hair was longer than it had been the last time I'd seen him. He looked thinner, too, and tired, as if he hadn't slept in days. His first words were: “What's the point? They caught me with some of the stuff on me. They have the crowbar. I'm screwed.”

ROBYN HUNTER
MYSTERIES

	#1 Last Chance Robyn's scared of dogs—but she agrees to spend time at an animal shelter anyway. Robyn learns that many juvenile offenders also volunteer at the shelter—including Nick D'Angelo. Nick has a talent for troublemaking, but after his latest arrest, Robyn suspects that he might be innocent. And she sets out to prove it . . .
	#2 You Can Run Trisha Hanover has run away from home before. But this time, she hasn't come back. To make matters worse, Robyn blew up at Trisha the same morning she disappeared. Now Robyn feels responsible, and she decides to track Trisha down...
	#3 Nothing to Lose Robyn is excited to hang out with Nick after weeks apart. She's sure he has reformed—until she notices suspicious behavior during their trip to Chinatown. Turns out Nick's been doing favors for dangerous people. Robyn urges him to stop, but the situation might be out of her control—and Nick's...
	#4 Out of the Cold Robyn's friend Billy drags her into volunteering at a homeless shelter. When one of the shelter's regulars freezes to death on a harsh winter night, Robyn wonders if she could've prevented it. She sets out to find about more about the man's past, and discovers unexpected danger in the process...
	#5 Shadow of Doubt Robyn's new substitute teacher Ms. Denholm is cool, pretty, and possibly the target of a stalker. When Denholm receives a threatening package, Robyn wonders who's responsible. But Robyn has a mystery of her own to worry about: What's with the muddled phone message she receives from her missing ex-boyfriend Nick?
	#6 Nowhere to Turn Robyn has sworn that she's over Nick. But when she hears he needs help, she's too curious about why he went missing to say no. Nick has been arrested again, and the evidence doesn't lean in his favor. When Robyn investigates, she discovers a situation more complicated than the police had thought—and more deadly...