Last Night (37 page)

He lurched sideways, figuring the kitchen counter had to be nearby. If only he could get to it he could get his bearings. His fingers found the cool tile.
Whack.
The second, more vicious blow buckled his knees. A whirling vortex of darkness sucked him under.

"
No-o-o,
"
he heard himself moan.

Someone said something, but despite his best efforts he couldn
'
t open his eyes to identify the person talking. The pain in his head, like a shard of jagged glass slowly being twisted, kept him from thinking clearly. He
'
d blacked out—but for how long? Minutes? Hours?

A tugging sensation, then he felt himself sliding. Someone was slowly dragging him across the floor, he realized. Where was he? Through a miasma of pain and confusion, his scrambled thoughts jelled. He was in Dana s house. Sounds were sharper now, clearer. A voice. If he could just concentrate a little more, he could understand what was being said.

Again he tried to open his eyes, but failed. He was more lucid though, and he decided not to struggle. If they thought he was helpless he might surprise them.

"
Put him on the bed,
"
he heard a voice say.

"
I can't. He
'
s too heavy.
"

Dana! He bit the inside of his lip to keep from calling her name. It was her hands he felt under his arms. She tried to hoist him onto a bed, but all she did was move him into an upright position. His head hung forward, his chin on his chest, and he eased his eyes open just a slit. His belt buckle swam in his clouded vision. A white-hot lance of pain speared through his head.

"Come on, Dana. You can get him onto that bed.
"

Rob recognized the voice. Gwen Sihida. Just as he suspected. With a jolt of self-loathing he cursed himself for getting sidetracked by Big Daddy and Vanessa
'
s problems. He
'
d overlooked the obvious.

The night marchers are coming for you.

Was Gwen capable of murder? Well, hell, she hadn
'
t clobbered him to be friendly. Often the craziest people appeared sane, he reminded himself.

He heard Dana gasp for breath as she tried to lift his shoulders enough to get his torso on the bed. He aided her efforts by slumping in the right direction. She managed to move him by shoving his hips. Again he helped by rolling onto the bed, making sure to tangle hi
s arms and legs to appear uncon
scious.

He knew Dana realized he was conscious. He had
to assume Gwen was armed, or Dana wouldn
'
t be taking orders from her.

Gentle hands straightened his arms and pulled the awkwardly bent leg into position. Her palm touched his brow and smoothed back his hair. "He needs a doctor."

"
Haven
'
t you figured it out yet? You
'
re dead. You
'
re both dead,
"
Gwen said. "Domestic violence. You know how popular it is these days.
"

Rob decided there wasn
'
t any advantage to be gained by playing possum any longer. He levered himself up on his elbows and opened his eyes, ignoring the nauseating explosion of pain that sent a starburst of color across his field of vision.

Someone had turned on a lamp, and its dim light cast shadows across the small room. A blurry Gwen, holding a revolver, stood not far from the bed. Nearby was Dana, concern for him etching her beautiful face.

"It
'
ll never work,
"
Rob said, surprised at how calm and forceful h
is voice sounded despite the de
bilitating blows to h
is head that still had him off-
kilter.

"Prince Charming awakens. How sweet.
"

Dana tried to move to his side. Gwen waved her back with the gun.

"You can kill us, but the police will never chalk it up to domestic violence.
"
He managed to scoot into a sitting position and lock his arms around his knees so he wouldn't topple over. "There won
'
t be
powder burns on my hands. The position of the bodies and dozens of other details will be out of sync."

"That
'
s right,
"
Dana chimed in. "You
'
ll never get away with this.
"

"You both think I
'
m stupid, don
'
t you? Neither of you
ever
gave me any credit for being brilliant. You
'
re just like my father.
"

The look of pure hatred in Gwen's eyes almost made Rob panic. It wasn
'
t going to be easy to reason with her, and he was so woozy that he didn't think he could overpower her without getting killed—or worse, getting Dana killed.

"Now my father—the almighty Boss Sihida— thinks I'm wort
hless because some bimbo was ap
pointed to superior court instead of me.
"

"That
'
s why she was blackmailing me,
"
Dana told Rob. "Gwen lost the election to superior court last year. She claims she
'
ll never be able to muster the political backing to run again.
"

Rob tried to placate her. "I
'
m sure your father—
"

"I had to beg my father for help last time. He said that I
'
d never win unless I was the incumbent judge. Islanders don
'
t vote for pushy women. But if I
'
m appointed to fill a vacancy and do well, I
'
ll have no trouble being elected.
"

Rob couldn
'
t argue with her logic. "Is a seat on the court worth killing for?"

"
I tried to get rid of Dana, to make this easy, but she refused to leave.
"

Rob couldn
'
t help saying, "She doesn
'
t scare easily.
"

Gwen huffed her disgust.
"
Dana could fall in a cesspool and come out smelling like a rose. Binkley calls for a judicial review. What happens? She beats the charges. And everyone rallies around the golden girl. Well, I'm sure it's going to be a touching funeral. I can hardly wait.
"

"
Gwen,
"
Rob said, "we can work this out. Let
'
s—
"

"
Don
'
t patronize me! I
'
ve gone this far. There
'
s no turning back.
"

"
Okay, just how do you plan on getting away with murder?
"
Rob asked just to keep her going. With each passing second he was feeling stronger. He was going to have to rush her and risk being killed —or die anyway.

"
During the fight a lamp will tip over. The fire will destroy enough evidence so that the police won
'
t look for powder burns.
"

Rob opened his mouth to say the angles of the wounds might tip them off, but the doorbell rang. It had to be Zach looking for him. Gwen aimed the gun at Dana.

"
I
'
m not expecting—
"

"It
'
s probably one of those drunk kids from that brawl across the street,
"
Rob said, cutting Dana off.
"
They
'
ll go away in a minute.
"

Please God, he prayed silently, get Zach out of here. He was certain Gwen hadn
'
t seen Zach at the party. He'd spent most of the time on the lanai off the kitchen with that mouthy parrot. If Gwen discovered it was his son at the door, she
'
d kill Zach too.

The bell rang again, then there was a long silence during which Gwen never lowered the gun. Now Zach was punching the bell, the chimes echoing through the house like a death knell.

34

T
he doorbell stopped ringing as suddenly as it had begun. The silence
was as unsettling as the noise,
and Dana sensed that Gwen was on the brink. Any second she could squeeze the trigger. Dana had been shaky since she
'
d accepted Gwen
'
s offer to drive her home from the party and Gwen had pulled a gun. But now, having Rob with her and seeing he wasn
'
t too badly hurt, she felt calmer. They couldn
'
t die like this. They had too much to live for. Together they could outsmart Gwen.

Those thoughts uppermost in her mind, Dana began to talk, hoping to distract Gwen.
"
Why don't you tell Rob how you knew he
'
d come over, how you watched as his car drove up the street.
"

"
Who could miss a silver Porsche?
"
Gwen asked.

Dana noted the way Rob's eyes narrowed slightly at this information. What was wrong, she wondered. Then it hit her. Zach. He
'
d been at the party with Rob. There hadn
'
t been enough time to take him home and return.

Gwen must not have seen Zach. That wasn
'
t surprising. Dana had watched Rob prowling around Garth's place, but she hadn
'
t seen Zach until he walked up to her. Zach had to have been the person ringing the doorbell. Would he think to call the police? Or would he go back to the car and turn on the radio full blast? With teenagers you never knew.

"
What made you think I
'
d come over?
"
Rob asked Gwen.

"Because you
'
re crazy about
her."

There was such fur
y in Gwen
'
s voice that Dana decided there was an element of jealousy behind Gwen
'
s actions. Granted, Boss Sihida
'
s expectations were at the root of Gwen's problems, but she'd gone out with Rob and must have been upset when he hadn
'
t called her again.

"
Now the two of you can be together through eternity.
"
She raised the gun, pointing at Dana
'
s heart.

"
Wait a second!
"
Rob yelled, and Dana felt the blood surge to her temples as she anticipated the shot.
"
I understand how you bribed an evidence clerk to frame me. Clever. Very clever.
"
Gwen beamed despite the sarcastic tone in his voice.
"
How did you know about the man who raped Dana and Vanessa?
"

"
I should let you go to your graves wondering,
"
Gwen said, but Dana realized she wanted to brag. She was relishing every moment, letting them suffer with the knowledge she was going to kill them.

"I
'
m sure it
'
s a very simple explanation—
"

"It wasn
'
t simple.
"
Gwen raised her voice an octave. "This was brilliant, and it would have worked until you snooped around.
"

"Okay, what was so brilliant?
"
Rob asked. "You didn
'
t know the whole stor
y. You thought Hank died.
"

Gwen shrugged off this oversight.
"
When Dana was medicated, having her wisdom teeth removed, she blabbed. My brother said that she
'
d killed what
'
s-his-name."

Dana couldn
'
t help gasping. Never—ever—had she thought that she
'
d been the source of the infor
mation. But now that she looked back to the ordeal at the dentist
'
s, she remembered how oddly Gwen
'
s brother had acted. Well, no wonder. He thought he'd just treated a cold-blooded killer.

"Gwen's extremely resourceful,
"
Dana said, praying Zach had called the police. "She made certain Binkley found out about the so-called murder, but she managed to shift the blame to Big Daddy.
"

"It was easy. Once I found out about the divorce I made an anonymous call to Thornton Coltrane. He took it from there.
"

"You made lots of anonymous calls,
"
Rob said.

"I just played on people
'
s fear and greed.
"

Rob
'
s brow furrowed and he shook his head derisively. "I really did underestimate you, Gwen. I never even suspected—
"

"Meeeee-ooow!
"
Molly screeched from the hall as if her tail had been caught in a door. The cat bolted into the room, shot across Gwen
'
s feet, and vaulted
onto the bed, landing on Rob. Right behind her barreled Zach at a dead run.

"
Christ!
"
Gwen screamed, seeing the maroonhaired kid with the weird earrings appearing out of the darkness like a swamp monster.

If Dana hadn
'
t been so terrified she would have laughed. Until she saw the tire iron in Zach
'
s hand. Gwen cocked the gun.

"Dana! Zach! Hit the floor!
"
yelled Rob, jumping off the bed.

Dana didn
'
t have a second to think—she just acted, hurling herself at Gwen. She pivoted, leveling the gun at Dana
'
s chest. Dana ducked, trying to fling herself at Gwen
'
s waist and take her down before she fired. Suddenly, Dana heard a pop like a twig snapping, a deceptively soft sound.

Searing pain ripped through her torso. She careened to the right, bumping into the bed, then reeled backward, clutching her chest. Dimly, she heard a
thwack
and saw out of the corner of her eye that Rob was tackling Gwen just as Zach hit her with the tire iron.

Gwen was out cold; they were safe. Dana stared at the blood dripping from her fingers, the pain spiking suddenly, stealing the air from her lungs, keeping her from crying out. Her blood? Couldn
'
t be, she thought, as the room cycloned around her, then mercifully cloaked her in darkness.

"
D
ana! Dana!
"
Rob yelled as he saw her slump to the floor.
"
Oh, God, no!
"
He huddled over her limp
form, saying her name over and over and over as he ripped off her blouse to check the wound.

"I
'
m calling nine-one-one!
"
Zach cried.

Rob tore part of the sheet off the bed and tried to stanch the blood flowing from her chest. "You
'
re going to be fine, darling. I promise.
"

Her lids fluttered, slowly opening. She gazed at him with eyes so dilated and unfocused that he wasn
'
t certain she could actually see him.

"Cold,
"
she whispered, her voice weak. "So cold.
"

She was going into shock. He grabbed the comforter and tucked it around her. "Better?
"

"You
…
you didn
'
t give me a chance. I loved you, but you didn
'
t give me a chance.
"
Her lids slammed shut and her head lolled back against his shoulder.

He cradled her in his arms.
Don
'
t let her die without letting me tell her I love her.
"I love you, Dana,
"
he whispered, even though he knew she couldn
'
t hear him.

He didn't know how long he'd sat there, holding her, whispering his innermost feelings until the piercing wail of an ambulance broke into his thoughts. He looked up and found Zach hovering over Gwen, the tire iron raised in his hand even though she was out cold. Seconds later police and med techs rushed into the room.

"We'll take her now,
"
one of the med techs said, and Rob surrendered Dana's lifeless form.