The Wild Zone (32 page)

No way, Tom thought. Not this time.

“Besides,” Jeff was saying, “I’m sure someone heard that gun go off. We can’t just go sneaking out of here with a body. Odds are people are watching, that somebody’s already called the police.”

Tom digested this latest bit of information, thinking Jeff was probably correct. The police were very likely on their way. Which didn’t leave him much time to finish what he’d come here to do. “So, once again, you come out a winner. The once and future champion.”

“Is something wrong?” Jeff asked.

“What could possibly be wrong?”

“We should call the police.” Jeff reached for the phone, deciding to ignore the nasty undertone in Tom’s voice. “Tell them what happened before they get here. It’ll show we have nothing to hide.”

“I don’t know about that. I’d say you’ve been hiding quite a bit.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jeff was growing impatient. What was the matter with Tom? Yes, he’d probably saved his life by showing up when he had, but his tardiness was what had put Jeff’s life at risk in the first place. And now that he needed time to put his thoughts in order, to prepare his story for the police, now that everything was about to fall into place, Tom was being difficult for no reason. Clearly he was drunk. Quite possibly he was in shock. “Look. Why don’t you sit down?” Jeff said, ignoring his own pain. “You just killed a man. That’s never easy.”

“Easier than you think,” Tom replied cryptically.

“I’m gonna get you a glass of water. Then I’m going to call the police.”

“You’re not calling anybody.” Tom raised his gun, pointed it at Jeff’s head.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

“Okay, I’ve had just about enough of this—”

“When have you ever had enough?” Tom demanded. “Of anything?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact it’s not enough you’re fucking Kristin and Suzy, and probably half the state of Florida, you gotta go after Lainey, too?”

“What? Are you crazy? You think I’m fucking your wife?”

“You’re denying it?”

“Of course I’m denying it. You’re my best friend. For God’s sake, Tom, think about what you’re saying. You know I wouldn’t—”

“I know she was at your place.”

Jeff frantically searched his memory for the last time Lainey had been at his apartment. “She wasn’t . . . Wait a minute. Okay. Yeah. Kristin told me Lainey dropped by the other day. She wanted me to talk to you, but I wasn’t home. I didn’t even see her. Ask Kristin if you don’t believe me. Or Will. He was there. He’ll tell you.”

“He already did.”

“Okay, then—”

“Told me all about you and Lainey.”

“What are you talking about?” Jeff asked again.

There was a loud banging on the door. “Jeff . . . Tom . . . ,” Will called from the other side. “Please let me in.”

“Thank God,” Jeff said with relief. “There’s obviously been a giant misunderstanding. . . .” He was moving to the door when he felt a sharp pain tear through his chest, followed almost immediately by another. “What the . . . ?” he started to say as a third bullet from Tom’s gun burrowed deep into his flesh, spinning him around and lifting him off the floor with a dancer’s languid grace. A fourth bullet sent him sprawling facedown across the bed, his mouth and nose disappearing into the folds of its rumpled white sheets. Suzy’s scent immediately enveloped him, as if she were taking him in her arms.

“I love you,” he heard her whisper in his ear, her words silencing all other sounds.

“I love you, too,” he told her.

Jeff felt her lips soft and tender against his own.

Then he felt nothing at all.

WILL WAS STANDING
outside the motel door when Tom opened it and beckoned him inside.

The first thing he saw was Dave lying facedown on the floor in a dark pool of his own blood.

The second thing he saw was Jeff stretched out across the unmade bed, his face half-buried in the sheets.

The third thing he saw was Tom, now standing in the middle of the room, a self-satisfied smirk on his stupid face, a gun at the end of his outstretched hand. “Look what you did, little brother,” Tom said as police sirens swirled around them.

Will’s eyes filled with bitter tears. His body swayed, his knees buckled.

“Okay. Drop your weapons,” he heard a voice cry out behind him, only then becoming aware of the raised .22 in his hand. “Police. Drop your weapons,” the voice repeated. “Now.” The sound of car doors slamming, of rifles being readied, of footsteps edging closer.

Will’s finger twitched over the trigger, his whole body aching to pull it. Could he do it? he wondered, thinking that no jury in the world would convict him for shooting the man who’d murdered his brother. Although he was guilty of a crime far bigger than that, he acknowledged silently, his shoulders slumping forward in defeat.
Look what you did, little brother,
he heard Tom repeat.

Tom was right.

It was because of him that Jeff was dead.

Will dropped the gun to the floor, raised both hands in the air in abject surrender.

“Now isn’t that a surprise?” Tom said, laughing as he raised his own gun and fired the remaining bullet into Will’s chest.

He was still laughing when the sound of rifle fire filled the room.

THIRTY-TWO

T
HE
MIAMI AIRPORT
was as busy as she’d ever seen it.

“God, where’s everybody going?” Kristin asked.

“They can’t all be going to Buffalo,” Will said, a slow smile creeping onto his lips.

Kristin put her hand carefully through the crook of his arm, helping him maneuver his way through the crowd toward the proper gate. It’s good to see Will smile again, she was thinking, however tentatively. It had been a long time since she’d seen even a flicker of a grin register on his sweet face. “How are you managing?” she asked. “Am I walking too fast?”

“No, you’re fine.”

Even so, she slowed her pace, listening for the soft shuffle of Will’s left foot as it dragged behind his right, the result of police bullets to his knee and thigh. The bullet from Tom’s gun had missed his heart by inches, knocking him to the floor and ironically saving his life when the police opened fire. Tom hadn’t been so lucky. He’d died instantly in the hail of rifle shots that followed.

Will had spent the better part of four weeks in the hospital, enduring several painful operations, followed by almost two months in a convalescent home. He’d lost weight, maybe ten pounds, and his skin was still very pale, almost translucent, although the faintest of blushes had returned to his cheeks in the last week. His mother had visited often, even staying with Kristin on several occasions. His father had managed the trip down only once, too busy with his new girlfriend and the baby they were expecting early next spring. “Looks like I might be getting a little brother of my own soon,” Will had confided during one of Kristin’s last visits.

“I wish you were coming with me,” he said now.

“I can’t,” Kristin said. “You know I can’t.”

They stopped walking.

“Why not?” Will asked, as he’d asked at least a dozen times already this morning. “There’s nothing keeping you here.”

“I know.”

“Then come with me.”

“I can’t.”

“My mother will be so disappointed not to see you get off that plane.”

“Your mother will be thrilled. She thinks I’m a bad influence.”

“Nonsense. She loves you.”

Kristin resumed walking, leaving Will no choice but to follow. “She
tolerates
me,” she corrected.

“And what is love if not just a higher degree of tolerance?” Will asked.

Kristin laughed, loud and long. “Careful,” she warned him. “The philosopher in you is starting to show.”

“Oh, no, not him again.”

“We can’t help being who we are, Will.”

“Now who’s the philosopher?”

Kristin smiled, stopped walking. “I’m going to miss you.” Her hand reached up to stroke his cheek.

“You don’t have to. Come with me,” Will said again, grabbing her hand with his own, placing it directly over his heart. “We could start fresh. We don’t have to stay in Buffalo. I don’t have to go back to Princeton. I can finish my dissertation anywhere.”

Kristin turned away, her eyes filling with tears. “I can’t,” she said again.

“Because of Jeff?”

Kristin felt her body deflate at the sound of Jeff’s name, like a tire punctured by a nail. She was losing air, she thought, struggling to remain upright. It hurt to breathe. “Maybe. I don’t know.” Even after almost three months, it was hard to accept that Jeff was really dead. That was never supposed to have happened. Kristin shook her head, her long ponytail slapping at the sides of her neck.

“I like your hair like that,” Will told her, trying to prolong their good-bye, still hoping he could find the magical combination of words that would make her change her mind and come with him.
So what would you clowns wish for if a genie offered to grant you one wish?
he heard his brother ask that fateful night in the Wild Zone. The night that had set everything in motion.

“Will?”

“Hmm? Sorry. Did you say something?”

“I said, I’m thinking of having my implants removed. Do you think I’d look all right?”

“I think you’ll look great no matter what you do.”

“You’re so sweet.”

“I’m not,” Will said.

“Yeah, you are.”

They approached the long lineup for security.

“Is all the hardware in your body going to set off a bunch of bells and whistles when you go through the X-rays?” Kristin asked, only half in jest.

“Probably. Maybe they won’t let me leave,” Will said almost hopefully. Then, “I don’t have to go, you know.”

“We’ve been through this.”

“I know.”

“You have to go, Will. You don’t belong here.”

“Do you?”

She shrugged.

“You’ll call me if there are any problems?” he asked.

“There won’t be.”

“The police could have more questions. . . .”

“They won’t.”

“They won’t,” Will repeated.

The police investigation had concluded that Dave Bigelow had found out about his wife’s affair with Jeff and had gone to the Southern Comfort Motel to confront him, and that Tom, high on dope and drunk on beer, had shown up soon after, shooting to death both Dave and Jeff. Their report further stated that Tom Whitman was already well known to the police and that he was prone to random and unprovoked acts of violence. This scenario was given further credence by the statements of Tom’s estranged wife, his former boss, and a girl from an escort service whom he’d recently assaulted. Suzy Bigelow had been brought in for questioning and quickly cleared of any involvement in her husband’s death.

“Have you heard from Suzy at all?” Will asked now.

Again Kristin shook her head. “She kind of dropped off the radar after the funerals.”

“I guess Dave’s death left her pretty well-off.”

“I guess.”

“Do you think she ever really loved Jeff?”

“I think she did,” Kristin acknowledged sadly. “At least a little.”

“May I see your ticket and boarding pass, please?” a uniformed guard demanded.

“Looks like this is where I get off,” Kristin said as Will showed his ticket and boarding pass to the stern-looking woman, who examined both closely.

“There’s nothing I can say . . . ?”

Kristin leaned forward and kissed Will gently on the lips. “Have a good life, Will,” she said. “Be happy.”

“Sir, I’m afraid I have to ask you to move along,” the guard urged.

Kristin pulled back, stepped out of the way. Reluctantly Will moved forward, pushed along by those behind him. “It’s not too late to change your mind,” he called back, stopping abruptly, deciding to give it one last try.

Will saw her standing off to the side, leaning against a pillar. He saw the final shake of her blond hair, the blinding flash of her smile as she waved good-bye. Then he watched her disappear into the crowd.

THE SKY HAD
turned cloudy by the time Kristin pulled her car to a stop in front of 121 Tallahassee Drive. The sixties music blasting from the stereo immediately fell silent.

Kristin looked toward the front door of the tan bungalow with the white slate roof and smiled. Suzy was sitting on the front steps, her tanned feet bare, her toenails painted bright pink, her sandals resting on the step beside her. Soft waves of brown hair cascaded past her shoulders, framing a face that was blissfully free of bruises. A few yards in front of her, leaning up against the prominent
SOLD
sign in the middle of the front lawn, was her overnight bag.

“Hey, you,” Kristin said tenderly, opening the car door and climbing out as Suzy jumped to her feet.

“How’d it go?” Suzy asked, slipping quickly into her sandals.

“Pretty much like we expected.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there with you.”

“It’s better that you weren’t.”

“Did he ask about me?”

Kristin nodded. “I lied, said you’d pretty much dropped off the face of the earth after the funerals.” She reached for Suzy’s overnight case, prepared to hoist it over her shoulder. “My God. This weighs a ton. What have you got in here?”

“Dave’s ashes,” Suzy said matter-of-factly.

“What?” The bag dropped from Kristin’s hand.

“Careful. You’ll break them.” Suzy laughed. “And I want everything to be perfect when I feed the bastard to the alligators.”

“I don’t think there
are
any alligators in San Francisco.”

“We’ll make a slight detour,” Suzy said. “Would you mind? I’ve been dreaming about this moment for years.”

“Everglades, here we come,” Kristin said, picking up the bag again and tossing it in the backseat of the car.

“How old’s this car anyway?” Suzy asked, climbing into the passenger seat and once again removing her shoes. “Remind Dave to buy you a new one.” She laughed again, the laugh dying in her throat when she saw the look of reproach on Kristin’s face. “Sorry. I guess that wasn’t very funny.”

“Oh, God, Suzy,” Kristin moaned. “How did everything get so screwed up?”

“Things happen,” Suzy said. “Things you don’t expect. Things you can’t always plan for.”

“The only one who was supposed to get hurt was Dave. Will wasn’t supposed to get shot. Tom and Jeff weren’t supposed to die.”

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Suzy agreed. “You think you have everything all worked out, and then something happens, somebody says something that isn’t in the original script, and it changes everything.”

“Three people end up dead.”

“
We’re
alive. I’m finally free of that monster.” Suzy took Kristin’s hand in hers, brought it to her lips.

Kristin glanced quickly out the side window. “We shouldn’t. Not here.”

“It’s okay,” Suzy said. “Nobody can hurt us anymore.”

“I’ll never let anyone hurt you ever again,” Kristin said, studying Suzy’s lovely face, the blue eyes she’d first looked into as a frightened young girl of sixteen.
I can’t find my wallet,
she’d said to Suzy, baiting her, during one of their early encounters.
You have something to do with that?

Suzy is right, Kristin was thinking as she pulled the car away from the curb. Things happened that you didn’t expect, that you couldn’t always plan for. Who could have predicted that two lonely girls, living in a group home under the indifferent auspices of Child Services, would not only fall in love but forge a bond stronger than any relationship either would ever have again, that their love would survive separation and distance, husbands and lovers, disappointment and disillusionment, time and circumstances?

That they’d found each other again was a miracle in itself. Suzy had just moved to Coral Gables with her abusive husband. On a whim, feeling desperate and lonely, she’d looked Kristin up on the Internet and discovered she was working in South Beach at a bar called the Wild Zone. One afternoon when Dave was at the hospital, she’d stopped by, not sure Kristin would even remember who she was.

They’d recognized each other immediately, the years disappearing like fading old photographs as they brought each other up to speed, confiding the intimate, occasionally heartbreaking details of their lives since they were last together. Kristin told Suzy about Jeff; Suzy told Kristin about Dave. It wasn’t very long before they came up with a plan to use one to get rid of the other.

Dave’s attacks were getting worse, increasing in both frequency and ferocity. They couldn’t afford to wait too long.

And then suddenly, everything had fallen into place. Will had turned up on Jeff’s doorstep, bringing with him unpleasant memories, enhancing long-standing rivalries and creating new ones. Old grudges resurfaced; new alliances were forged.

Time for Suzy to make her entrance.

It had taken just a few choice words to get the ball rolling.

Then Lainey had walked out on Tom, leaving him even angrier than usual, and Ellie had called Jeff with the news of their mother’s imminent death, rendering him vulnerable and confused. After that it was a question of knowing when to advance and when to fall back, of knowing what buttons to push and what strings to pull, how hard to provoke and how lightly to tread. A lethal combination of cunning and spontaneity, of feminine wiles and male willfulness, of opportunity and the luck of the draw.

Both women had played their parts beautifully. And while it had been difficult, sometimes almost impossible, for them to stay away from one another once their plan had been set in motion, they’d agreed to keep their contact to a minimum until the deed was done.

Of course, neither could have predicted the speed with which everything had progressed, how fast the stately waltz had degenerated into a spastic jive, how quickly the slow merry-go-round began spinning out of control, morphing into a wild and deadly roller-coaster ride.

And no one could have foreseen that Jeff might actually fall in love.

Kristin shivered with the memory of those agonizing moments when she feared his feelings for Suzy might actually be reciprocated, that Suzy might be falling for Jeff as hard and unexpectedly as he’d fallen for her. And maybe she
had
fallen in love with him, Kristin thought now. At least a little, as she’d said earlier to Will.

Just as Kristin had fallen at least a little in love with Will.

“You cold?” Suzy asked now, reaching out to stroke Kristin’s arm.

“No, I’m fine.”

And she was. Dave Bigelow was dead. The money from the sale of his house and luxury automobiles would go a long way to ensuring a comfortable future for his widow. Will was on his way back to Buffalo. Kristin had quit her job at the Wild Zone. In a matter of minutes she and Suzy would be on the highway, and after a slight detour to give Dave the send-off he well deserved, they’d be heading across the country for their new life in San Francisco.

Suzy tugged gently on Kristin’s ponytail. “I love you,” she said. “So much.”

Kristin smiled, feeling the smile spread from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet before it settled in comfortably around her heart. “I love you, too.”

This is how it ends.