Tall, Dark, and Deadly Read online

  “I know. You’re trying to find an excuse not to call Marnie.”

  “All right, all right. I’ll call her. We could use some free legal help with Aidan’s copyrights and all that stuff. I’ll call her. Maybe she can’t come anyway!” Laura said cheerfully. Then she sobered as she stared at the carrot and dip.

  Sam sighed deeply. “Laura, take a chance. Be daring. The dip isn’t from a health food store, it’s Marie Callendar’s, right out of Publix.”

  Laura looked up guiltily. “All right, all right!” She popped the carrot stick into her mouth and started to dial, then stopped. “Wow! Great dip!”

  “See what happens when you take chances in life?”

  “Yeah, well, take a chance sometimes, and you’ve got a mouthful of jalapeno!” Laura retorted philosophically. “What’s Marnie’s number?”

  Upstairs, Marnie wondered which way to go first… ah, the guest suites. There were two of them to the southward side of the house, the rear of which looked out eastward to Key Biscayne. She walked out on the south balcony of the rear suite. From there she could see Sam’s place. Cute as a button, but nowhere near as nice as hers. Sam didn’t make her kind of money, not to mention the fact that Sam’s family had owned the old place. It needed renovation badly; lots of the real estate people watched her house, waiting for it to go on the market so that a contractor could come in, make it brand-new, and sell it for a fortune over cost. Sam’s folks had never had any money. Her father had been a schoolteacher, of all things. But his father had just happened to have a chance to buy waterfront property after a hurricane—when it was definitely at its cheapest—and so Sam had one of the nicest little places in the world. This kind of waterfront property was dwindling away now; it was almost nonexistent so close to downtown.

  From the guest suites, she walked back down to her own bedroom. She admired the mahogany four-poster bed frame and her matching dressing table and dresser set. They gave the room so much symmetry. All right, she admitted to herself with a smile, so she was an organization freak. It had its benefits. She smiled, walking to the dressing table. A beautifully etched silver tray held her makeup in perfect order. Foundation, blush, liner, shadow, and mascara, all in a line. And to the side of the tray, her lipsticks and nail polishes—reds together, browns, mauves, and so on. She couldn’t help it; she liked order. Order gave her more time.

  The phone started ringing again. She hesitated, then walked over to the bedside table and answered it with a no-nonsense attitude. “Listen, asshole, leave me alone.”

  There was a hesitation. “Marnie?”

  Marnie exhaled on a long sigh. “Laura?” She recognized the voice right away. Sam’s cousin. She made a little face, which, of course, Laura couldn’t see. Laura was sometimes too critical, but Sam could be fierce about the people she cared about. She was a love-me-love-my-dog type person, except that it was the people surrounding her that you had to love—or at least tolerate. And Marnie honestly liked Sam. She was, in her strange way, like a rock; even when they’d been in college, she’d refused to bow to peer pressure. She was a true friend—a rarity in this day and age.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” Laura said, annoyed. “Why’d you call me an asshole?”

  “I didn’t call you an asshole, I—I thought you were someone else. Sorry. What’s up?”

  “I’m over at Sam’s, and we thought we saw some life over at your new place.”

  “Yes, well, obviously, I’m here,” she said, her pride and excitement growing. “Want to come and see it?”

  “Can’t right now—Sam’s in the middle of cooking dinner. She’s watching Gregory so his folks can get out, and I’m waiting for Aidan to show up—he promised to come over for Sam’s fish and chips. Teenagers! I don’t get to see much of my own son. Thought you might want to come over for dinner, too. Maybe fill us in on the tall, dark, and handsome character who just bought the new place on the other side of yours.”

  “How do you know he’s tall, dark, and handsome?”

  “I saw the back of his head the other day when he was going into the house. He’s definitely tall, and dark. I didn’t see his face, so I suppose that he could be ugly as sin.”

  “He’s not.”

  “Have you met him yet?”

  “Oh… yes, of course I’ve met him.” She made her voice sultry and suggestive.

  “And?” Laura responded impatiently.

  “Umm. Yes, he’s quite tall, dark, and handsome. Wonderful. And guess what? He’s actually someone we know— from Gainesville. Well, of course, you—being so much older—weren’t really there with Sam and me, but I think you met him as well.”

  “Okay, so—shoot. Who is he?”

  Marnie opened her mouth, then paused. She wasn’t telling Laura yet. Laura would naturally tell Sam. Prepare her. Sam was her friend, honestly. But sometimes she couldn’t help but feel jealous. Sam could accomplish with a word, the lift of a brow, a simple look, something that might take her twenty minutes of flirting to do. Elegance and grace came as naturally to Sam as breathing.

  The new neighbor had changed like night and day, hearing that Sam was just a house away. Something would happen there, but Marnie would be damned if she was going to be the one to get it going.

  “Oh, sweetie, you’ll see him soon enough. Yes, he’s tall, dark, handsome—and charming. I can’t wait to spend more time with him, get to know him all over again.” She hesitated, smiling slightly, determined to tease Laura and get her wondering for the rest of the night. “I’m sorry, can’t tell you, not yet, you’ve got to stew a while. As to tonight, well, I’d love to come to dinner, but I have plans, thanks,” Marnie said. Plans. Did she really have plans? Well, yes, if she wanted. And if she chose to back out on the invitation she had accepted, well…

  She didn’t want to do a boring family thing. And Sam had that strange kid over, too. She understood that he was different, of course, but he unnerved her. He looked at her all the time as if he could see any little evil thought in her mind.

  “Oh, Laura! Honest, you should see my place now, it’s really fantastic. They finished up almost all of the last-minute touches today. Sam needs to come over. I can give her some good ideas for when she decides to redo her place.”

  “Yeah, she’ll come soon enough. Well—”

  A beeping on the line cut off Laura’s voice. Call waiting. Modern technology was just wonderful.

  “Hang on, somebody’s on the line, and come to think of it, it may be my date for this evening—someone tall, dark, and handsome,” Marnie told Laura. She clicked the button on the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Marnie. How do you like the bedroom?”

  That damn voice again, a whisper, but deep and husky. This time the raspy sound of it unnerved her. “How do you know I’m in the bedroom?” she asked before thinking.

  “Oh, I know where you are, Marnie. I know you. ‘Cold as ice, hard as steel.’ What they really meant was that you’re one hell of a bitch.”

  “You call again, and I’ll call the police.”

  “Oh, I won’t exactly be calling again, Marnie. Don’t worry. Because I do know where you are. I know exactly where you are.”

  This time the caller hung up. “Jerk!” Marnie whispered before clicking back to Laura. “Hey, kid, I guess I gotta—” She broke off, this time hearing a knocking sound downstairs. “The workmen are screwing around,” she told Laura. “I’ve got to go scream at someone.”

  She started to put the phone down. It beeped again. Automatically, she clicked it.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, Marnie.” Deep, deep. The voice was chilling, the phone was strange. He sounded close. As if he were in the next room. She was starting to feel scared, and she hated the feeling, so she grew angrier than ever.

  “You said you weren’t calling again.”

  A husky laugh seemed to fill the line, and then the air around her. Then the whisper again, rasping. “I know. I lied.” Like nails raked down a blackboard, the sound of that
voice seemed to rip down her spine.

  “I couldn’t resist. Really, how do you like the bedroom, Marnie? I had to call; I had to come. I had to see you. Here.”

  Marnie’s fingers tightened on the phone. She spun around. The caller had been near all along. And now he was here. Smiling at her, talking from a cellular phone. Why hadn’t she recognized the voice? She knew the caller, all right. Intimately.

  “What are you doing, playing phone games, coming up here?” she asked angrily.

  “Oh, Marnie. I’ve come to talk.”

  “Here? After this ridiculous phone business? Not on your life.”

  “No, Marnie. Not on your life.”

  The caller casually dropped the cellular phone on the bed. Her cellular phone, she realized, as he walked toward her. She saw that his hands were gloved. At first all she felt was an irritated curiosity.

  Then she saw his eyes.

  And then she knew.

  No, Marnie, not on your life!

  She opened her mouth to scream, suddenly, horribly aware that he hadn’t been playing games.

  Cold as steel, hard as ice, she was frozen with horror. She could still bleed like a stuck pig. And like a hog going to slaughter, she discovered, she could certainly know fear, smell danger. She wasn't so hard at all, she was…

  Going to die?

  No. It couldn’t be. He was threatening her, trying to scare her…

  Trying? Doing a damned good job of it.

  She opened her mouth to scream. Oh, God! It was like a nightmare. She couldn’t force sound from her throat.

  He reached her. His hands—gloved hands—touched her. He was pleased, so pleased. His eyes mocked her, even as she heard the sound of his laughter again, rasping…

  She never managed to strike him. As she struggled, he slammed her against her dressing table.

  The silver tray went down. Lipsticks, polishes, liners, shadows… scattered. “Bitch!” he told her softly. “Now I’m going to have to pick that all up!”

  He dragged her away from the table. His hands tightened upon her. Finally, she gurgled out something of a sound. A shooting agony brought it forth. It was almost a scream…

  “Oh, yeah, sweetheart, you’ve got a date tonight. A date with me,” he told her softly. It was amazing how sensual his voice sounded.

  Next door, at Sam’s house, Laura waited, tapping her foot impatiently—eating another carrot.

  “What’s up?” Sam asked, leaning over and opening the oven door. A sweep of honey-brown hair fell forward as she did so, and she quickly caught it and tossed it back over her shoulder—barely saving it from landfall in the oven. She could imagine the flash fire that might have ensued, and the possible morning headlines—FITNESS THERAPIST INCINERATED WHILE COOKING HEALTH-CONSCIOUS MEAL! There could be a new show. The Burning Gourmet, or The Blazing Gourmet.

  It was only dinner, she reminded herself. She didn’t usually obsess over food or cooking. But Laura was excited that her son was coming to dinner. He was twenty-one, living at home on paper, almost never there in fact. Lacey, Laura’s daughter, was twenty and enrolled at the University of Miami. Sam loved her young second cousins, and she knew how much the evening meant to Laura. Plus, Sam had never had a large family, and especially since she’d lost her father, every member of her small clan had become very important to her.

  “Laura, what’s up, is she coming?” she asked, pulling the fish out of the oven and glancing at her cousin.

  “I don’t know!” Laura said impatiently, shaking her head at the phone. “Marnie said wait, then she put me on hold… I think the line is open again now, I heard her screaming at someone—it’s amazing that she’s kept a contractor and workers. I’d have killed her for sure, if I’d been that Phil—but… oh, damn it!” Laura stared at the phone and shook it. “Leave it to Marnie. She got distracted and just left me hanging here. I think she must have a hot and heavy date tonight. Maybe he showed up for her.”

  “And she was screaming at her hot and heavy date?” Sam asked, grinning.

  “Hell, who knows, with Marnie!” Laura said.

  “Oh, well, give her another minute. And if she doesn’t come back on—well, at least we tried to get her over here,” Sam said. “She’ll know we wanted her.”

  “Yeah. Sure,” Laura said, making a face.

  Sam gave her cousin what Laura called “the look.” It was meant to chastise; Laura wasn’t always particularly patient with Marnie.

  Laura shook her head. “Don’t go getting mad at me when I say this, but sometimes Marnie is just downright rude. She wanted you to come see the house. I think she just wanted you to see that it was much nicer than yours. She’s jealous of you.”

  “Marnie never really had her own money until now; she grew up dirt-poor.”

  Laura made a face. “We were all poor.”

  “We weren’t rich, but our folks had jobs. Marnie’s mother deserted her, and her father was a bum.” She hesitated. “Maybe he even abused her, Laura. We never dealt with anything like that. No matter how tough she seems, I feel sorry for her. She needs to prove things, to others and to herself,” Sam said simply. “You and I don’t need to do that.”

  “Right. Well, she has a lot to live down.”

  “We’ve all done things we’re not proud of.”

  Laura arched a brow. “Mary Poppins, do get serious here! Some of us more so than others. Like Marnie. You do realize she was out to get Joe.”

  Joe was a personal trainer, a partner with Sam in a gym and physical therapy studio they had purchased together when the original owner had decided to head back up north. Joe was devastatingly good-looking, muscled to the nth degree. He and Sam had been friends, they had gone out, and Laura had thought they almost had a thing going. Then Marnie moved in. Laura just couldn’t believe—as Sam insisted—that Sam and Joe had been friends and no more. But then, Laura was her cousin, blindly defensive for her, no matter what. Sam had tried to tell Laura that she had never been really interested, and she’d been glad of Marnie’s interest in Joe, because her business partnership had meant more to her.

  “Laura, please listen and please believe me. I was relieved that she liked Joe. To work with, he’s just fine. I need him. Badly. To keep things running. But to date… I could never actually have dated him. Joe’s a nice guy, but he can’t tear himself away from the mirror.” She grinned. “Didn’t I tell you about the time when we were just reopening, and I nearly lost the entire maintenance crew? One girl was in tears—he kept harassing her because she just couldn’t get all the streaks off the main mirror in the weight room?”

  Laura shrugged in acknowledgement that Joe might be a wee bit on the narcissistic side. “Yes, but Marnie was still right there to scoop him up.”

  “Ah, but poor Marnie! She realized that his ego outweighed his other assets, and I do admit they are formidable!”

  “Do you know what she told me once?” Laura murmured.

  “No, what?”

  “She said she loves to hang out with you. She assessed you as if she were keeping a scorecard. She said you’ve got great amber eyes, rich, beautiful hair to match, and a compact five-foot-five body that is both perfectly lean and perfectly shapely. You could be a bit taller, but then, good things do come in small packages. You’re quick-witted, and charming, and she loves to meet people through you.”

  Sam laughed. “She actually said all that?”

  “You’re not offended?”

  “I think she was complimenting me.”

  “But she admits she uses you to meet people—”

  “Laura, she’s beautiful and talented and has a great job where she meets a million people—”

  “A million crazy criminals! Murderers, rapists, thieves.”

  “Maybe some of them aren’t crazy—or even guilty. Laura, try yelling into the phone. Maybe she got distracted and just forgot you were there.”

  “All right, all right. It’s your call. Just remember that I warned you when your sweet, beautiful
friend next door accidentally slips a knife into your back!”

  “Laura, be nice.”

  “Oh, God, I’ll try,” Laura said, rolling her eyes, her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. Then she yelled into the handset, “Marnie, dammit! Marnie! Pay attention to me, answer me!”

  While trying to reach Marnie, Laura noted that Gregory was standing, staring out into the darkness of the night. Watching the bay? No, he was in front of the glass that faced Marnie’s house, just standing there, swaying slightly back and forth. He was a beautiful child with those huge blue eyes and dark hair. His physical therapist had instilled excellent manners in him, and he was precise with his napkin, his fork, his spoon. He was fastidiously clean too, brushed his hair, cared for his teeth. He was quiet and sweet. And in a different world. Laura bit her lip for a moment, suddenly thanking God that her own two children were healthy and well. Her heart went out to Gregory’s folks. His parents had often despaired. Everything he had learned had taken tremendous time and patience. Except for his music. His music came from within.

  “Gregory, is the video over?” Laura called. Then she thought she heard something on the line. “Marnie! Marnie, answer the damned phone, Marnie, please?”

  Marnie didn’t respond. Neither did Gregory.

  Marnie heard her name. It seemed to come from far, far away, somewhere out of a dark tunnel. It seemed to pull her back.

  Back… to horrible sensations of pain.

  And him! Oh, God, he was still there. Now he was busy by her dresser, picking up all the things that had been knocked over. Her head hurt. She felt a trickle of blood by her eye. She’d slammed against the dresser, he’d nearly throttled her, and then…

  She must have fallen and struck the bottom of the bedpost, near where she lay now. Maybe he was finished with her…

  No. He was finished at her dresser. He was looking at her again, gloating, smiling. Why hadn’t she known, why hadn’t she seen…?

  “Marnie!”

  She tried to reach the phone.

  She twisted, praying she was able to move. Inch by inch. She crawled. She almost made it. She tried to scream again. But now her throat was too raw. On fire. No sound would come at all—nothing, nothing, just breath…