Summer Rental (31 page)

“What kind of bad stuff is he into?” Julia asked, her eyes glittering with excitement. “Drugs? Gun running?”

“You watch too much television,” Madison said. “It’s nothing that exciting. He’s … dishonest, that’s all. I should have known better. I did know better, once.”

She stood up abruptly. “Look, my rent’s paid up. I’ll leave as soon as I figure out my next step. Probably by the weekend. In the meantime, could you please keep this to yourself? The less people who know my real name, the better. Don doesn’t have any reason to think I’d come someplace like Nags Head. I didn’t know I was coming here myself until I saw the sign on the interstate for the turnoff.”

Julia followed her to the door. “I already told the girls I know Madison isn’t your real name.”

Madison rolled her eyes. “Another big surprise.”

“You don’t have to go, you know,” Julia said. “Maybe we could help. You know, help get you out of whatever kind of jam you’re in.”

“No!” Madison said quickly. “I don’t want any help. I’ll be out of here by the weekend. Just do as I ask—don’t be running off at the mouth about me, and stay out of my business.”

She left the room as quickly as she’d come, leaving Julia with more questions than answers.

31

Maryn slammed her bedroom door and locked it. There was no getting around facts: she had to leave Ebbtide and Nags Head. What if Julia was lying about her conversation with Don? God knows what she might have told him.

Her mouth went dry at the prospect. But no, she sternly told herself. Julia might be a nosy little sneak, but she was well-meaning. And besides, she had no reason to lie once she’d been confronted. Not that it mattered now. No matter how innocuous Julia’s comments to Don seemed, she couldn’t risk staying.

She took the duffle bag out from beneath the bed, propped it on the wooden chair by the door, and started to pack. She was surprised and irritated at how sad the idea of leaving this place made her. This cruddy little room in this big, crumbling old house had become her refuge, a home in a way that the gaudy, nouveau riche town house where Don had installed her would never be a home. And these women—Ellis, Dorie, and even Julia—they weren’t friends, not really. But they were decent, generous women who might have become her friends if she’d dared to let down her guard. But she could
n’t. And now it was too late.

She had no idea where she would go next, but go she would. Maybe she’d head west? Mexico was too obvious—and anyway, she didn’t speak a word of Spanish. And what about all that money? The stacks of cash terrified her. She was no Pollyanna, but she was sure Don hadn’t earned that money legally. So far, except for her rent, she’d mostly resisted spending it. She’d need money to get as far away as possible.

The ring. Her engagement ring. She dug the black velvet box out of her dresser drawer and flipped the top open. The huge solitaire seemed to wink impishly at her. Don was a phony. Their marriage was phony. She only hoped that the diamond was real, because it was looking like her ticket away from both Don and the marriage.

Maryn was making a mental list of all she needed to do before leaving—gas up the car, find a decent road map, look up a jeweler who might buy, or at least appraise, the ring—when she realized that her cell phone, which she’d tossed onto the bed, was buzzing.

For a moment, she felt paralyzed. But then she grabbed the phone, and when she saw the caller ID on the readout, she could have cried with relief.

“Adam!” she said, fighting back tears. “Where are you? All you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m in Philly. But where the hell are you? I’ve been worried sick about you.”

“Don … he didn’t hurt you?”

“No. Why would he?”

“He caught me, after I left his office. Oh God, you were right about him. I took his key and I went over there, and I found some of the Prescott files. He’s been robbing them blind.” The words tumbling out of Maryn in a torrent. “Don flew into a rage. He … hurt me. And I couldn’t help it, I told him what you’d told me, about the auditors and everything. Of course, he denied everything. He even wanted me to go to dinner with him and Robby Prescott that night. As though nothing had happened. But he told me if I didn’t do exactly as he said, he’d kill me, and hide my body where nobody would eve
r find me.”

“So you ran?” Adam said. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I tried to call you,” Maryn said accusingly. “I left messages, didn
’t you get any of them? I was frantic with worry, afraid he’d come after you next. Where were you?”

“Oh, Maryn,” Adam said. “I am so sorry. I was on vacation. Don’t you remember? I told you I was going hiking with my brother and some friends. I just got back and saw all the missed calls.”

She had no such memory. Adam, hiking? But it didn’t matter now.

“Listen,” she said. “Has Don called, looking for me?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice dripping disdain. “I think he must think I’m hiding you or something. Prick.”

“He’s more than just a prick,” Maryn said. “He’s a lunatic. A dangerous lunatic. And what’s worse is, I married him.”

“So … what are you gonna do?” Adam asked. “Get a lawyer and divorce his ass?”

“Eventually,” Maryn said. “But right now, I’ve got to get as far away from him as I can.”

“Aren’t you being a little overly dramatic?” Adam asked.

“You didn’t see the look in his eyes when he was threatening me,” Maryn said. “I did.”

“Okay,” Adam said quickly. “I get your point. What can I do to help? Where are you, anyway? You still haven’t told me.”

Maryn hesitated. But Adam was her best friend. He’d tried to warn her about Don, but she’d refused to listen. And look what had happened.

“I’m on the Outer Banks,” she said. “Nags Head.”

“That’s in North Carolina?” Adam asked. “What made you go all the way down there?”

“Nothing in particular,” she said. “After I ran, I’d been driving all night, and I was exhausted, and I saw a billboard, so I just headed east and ended up here.”

“Here, where?” Adam wanted to know. “Are you in a hotel or something?”

She looked around the barren little room and laughed ruefully. “Not hardly. I’m renting a room in an old house, right on the beach. I’m sharing it with three other women. It’s too long a story to go into right now. Doesn’t matter, anyway, because I’m leaving here just as soon as I can.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s not safe,” Maryn said. “One of the women happened to pick up my cell phone, and Don called, and she answered it. She swears she didn’t tell him anything, but I just can’t risk staying here.”

“Just what is it that makes you so terrified of him?” Adam asked. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t be afraid, but you just sound … so … unhinged. Why not just come back home, get yourself a good lawyer, and proceed to take him for every last dime?”

“You don’t get it,” Maryn said, her voice growing shrill. “Don is a criminal. And no, I am not overreacting. Adam, when I left the house, I was terrified. I threw some clothes into a suitcase, grabbed my laptop case, and got the hell out. When I got down here, I went to unpack my laptop, and that’s when I discovered it—I’d grabbed Don’s computer instead of mine.”

“Did you find any secret documents or smoking guns?” Adam asked.

“Not really,” Maryn said. “Don’s too cagey for anything like that. I didn’t find anything on the computer—it’s what I found in the computer case that’s got me nervous.”

“Like what?”

“Like a hundred thousand dollars,” Maryn said. “Neat little bundles of hundred-dollar bills.”

“Holy shit,” Adam breathed.

“Now do you get why I can’t come back there?” Maryn asked. “That money is dirty. It has to be. And Don knows I have it. And his computer.”

“So … give the money back,” Adam said. “Tell him you don’t want it, and you don’t want him, either.”

“You make it sound so easy, so rational,” Maryn said. “But Don’s not rational. And I don’t think he’ll just let me walk away—not from any of it. I don’t know where I’m going next, but the one thing I do know is that I’m not coming back there, or anywhere near where Don can find me.”

“Where will you go? And what’ll you do?” Adam asked.

“I don’t know,” Maryn repeated. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. Somewhere. I’ll get a job again. Earn my own keep. I did it before I met Don Shackleford, and I’ll do it again.”

Adam laughed. “You’re telling me you’re going to go back to driving a ten-year-old Honda and wearing markdowns from Loehmann’s? Living in some cruddy studio apartment like that dump you were in when you met him? All just to prove you don’t need a sugar daddy?”

Maryn’s eyes rested on her Louboutin sandals, which she’d found outside her bedroom door when she’d gotten up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. They’d cost eight hundred dollars, and she’d bought them without a second thought after Don gave her the American Express Black Card. She wished now that she’d told Ellis to keep them.

“I damn well don’t need somebody like Don!” Maryn cried. “I don’t understand why you’re talking to me like this, Adam. You’re the one who always accused me of only dating Don because of his money. I thought you were my friend.”

“I
am
your friend,” Adam assured her. “But I just want you to stop and think things all the way through before you do anything else drastic. Why spend your life on the run if you don’t have to?”

“I don’t see any other way,” Maryn said, rubbing her eyes. She was suddenly exhausted, physically and emotionally. And now, damn it, she was crying. And she’d never, ever been a crybaby.

“Look,” Adam was saying, “I’ve still got a few days of vacation left. I’m not due back at work ’til Monday. Why don’t I come down there? We’ll have a couple of drinks, take a walk on the beach, and talk. We can figure it out together. Okay? What do you say?”

“I don’t know,” Maryn said, feeling her resolve weakening. “What if Don figures out where I am? He talked to Julia. She swears she didn’t tell him anything, but now she knows my real name. It just doesn’t feel safe anymore.”

“You’re giving Don too much credit,” Adam said soothingly. “He’s just not that smart, Maryn. You say you’re not staying at a hotel, so you’re not registered anywhere, right? How’s he gonna find you?”

“He is that smart,” Maryn retorted. “You don’t know him like I do.”

“Whatever,” Adam said. “Will you do that for me? Just hang for another day or so. I can drive down there tomorrow. We can hang out, talk. And if you still feel like you’ve got to take off, fine. I can help you figure that out. I kno
w you, Maryn. You put on that tough girl front all the time, but at some point, you’ve got to quit being a loner. You’ve got to trust somebody. Right?”

“I guess,” Maryn said, relenting. Maybe Adam was right. Maybe it was time to lean on somebody else. At least for a little while.

“Okay,” she said, sniffling. “I’ll wait here. You’ll leave tomorrow?”

“First thing,” he assured her. “But you’ve got to tell me the address there.”

“You know, I don’t even know the address,” Maryn said. “Just the name of the street. South Virginia Dare. Oh yeah, and the house name. All the beach houses down here have names. It’s Ebbtide.”

“Ebbtide,” Adam repeated. “I’ll leave here first thing in the morning, and I’ll call you when I’m about an hour away. Get some sleep, okay?”

“I’ll try,” Maryn promised. “See you tomorrow.”

32

When she got back from her morning run shortly after nine, Julia walked, breathless and sweat-drenched, into the kitchen, where she found Dorie and Ellis already dressed for the beach, loading ice and cold drinks into their cooler.

Julia helped herself to a bottle of water, gulping it down so fast it splashed onto her tank top. She sank down on a kitchen chair and rolled the icy bottle across her forehead and neck. “Cute suit,” she said, eyeing Ellis’s midriff-baring coral tankini. “Is that new?”

“Kinda,” Ellis said, as she smeared sunscreen on her chest and arms. “I bought it in Rehoboth Beach last summer, but I never wore it because I wasn’t sure I really liked it.”

“You mean you were too shy to wear it out in public,” Julia said bluntly. “Ellis, this is the perfect suit for you. The top’s not too low cut, but it shows off your nice flat tummy and that cute little booty of yours. Now, promise me you’ll throw out that hideous black one-piece you’ve been wearing. I mean, my nona had a suit just like that one.”

“It is not an old-lady suit!” Ellis protested. “Is it, Dorie?”

Dorie wrinkled her nose and helped herself to the bottle of sunscreen, squiggling lines of lotion up and down her arms and legs.

“Really?” Ellis sighed. “Dorie, I thought you were on my side.”

“I’m not on either side,” she said. “I’m neutral. Like Switzerland. I will say, however, that I like this bathing suit a whole lot better than the other one.”

“Yeah,” Julia said. “That black suit looks like something out of the 1968 Miss USSR pageant.”

“Fine,” Ellis said, slipping a cover-up over the pink suit. “Go ahead, gang up on me. I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

She picked up her beach towel and tote bag, and grabbed the handle of the rolling cooler, heading for the back door. “Are you coming down to the beach with us, Julia?”

“After I shower,” Julia said. “Have you guys seen Madison this morning?”

“Nope,” Dorie said. “And I’ve been up since seven. I went out to the store at eight, to pick up more cereal and orange juice, but her bike was already gone.”

“Her car’s still parked in the garage,” Julia said. “So that’s good.” She walked to the front of the house and peered out the living room window, then came quickly back to the kitchen.

“Listen,” she said, lowering her voice. “I’m going up to Madison’s room to check things out. One of you go out front and watch for her. If you see her coming, give me a signal, okay?”

“Julia, no,” Dorie said, her voice sharp. “You’ve got no right.…”

“Madison admitted to me last night that she’s been lying to us,” Julia said. “Her real name is Maryn. That guy who called her cell phone? Don? He’s her husband. She’s terrified of him, you guys. She told me last night that she found out he’s into something bad, and she ran away. That’s how she ended up here, on Nags Head.”