Accidents Waiting to Happen (19 page)

Squealing, Abby came down the slide, her dress riding up and wedging under her bottom.
 
Wagging his tail, Wiener waited at the bottom of the slide and barked in time to Abby’s squeal.
 
She ran back to the steps to climb up for another go.

Josh and Kate occupied two of the swings.
 
The adults looked like giants on the swing set designed for children.
 
Josh stretched out his long legs far in front of him, his heels digging into the sand.
 
Kate rocked slowly back and forth.
 
They watched their daughter at play.
 
Neither said anything to the other.

Low in the sky, the sun cast shadows in the narrow streets that hid the heat from the people in the playground.
 
A gentle breeze ruffled the trees producing a sound similar to waves lapping a sandy beach.

Kate shuddered.
 
“I’m getting cold.
 
What time is it?”

Josh looked at his watch.
 
“Just after five.”

“I think we’ll go in a minute.”
 
Kate said to Josh then called to Abby, “Another five minutes then we’re going, sweets.”

Both Abby and Wiener looked Kate’s way at the bottom of the slide.
 
“Oh, mom!
 
Can’t we stay longer?
 
I’m not tired or anything,” Abby whined, as only kids can.

“We’ll have five minutes to think about it and let you know.
 
Okay?” Josh said.

Abby nodded happily and ran off towards the monkey bars, Wiener bouncing after her.

“Why the delay?” Kate asked.

Josh went to speak but the words didn’t come.

Kate turned in the swing, twisting the chains above her.
 
“Come on, Josh, spit it out.
 
You brought us here and you haven’t had two words to say in the last hour.
 
I’ve talked and you’ve stared into the distance.”

Josh took a breath and released it as a sigh.
 
After Bell’s visit yesterday, he knew it was better he told her now rather than Bell telling her later.
 
He turned to face Kate.
 
“There’s something I want to tell you.
 
It’s something I should have told you a long time ago.
 
It’s something I did.
 
Something that I think is coming back to hurt me and indirectly can hurt us.”

Fear passed across Kate’s face like a shadow and the sparkle in her eyes dulled.
 
He saw her mind working, trying to second-guess what he’d done.
 
Would she be close?
 
Could she imagine the things he’d done?
 
If she couldn’t, he would hurt her with his next statement.
 
If she could, what did that say about them?
 
Either way, it made this confession all the more difficult.
 
Josh wrung his hands together and looked at them.

“Remember when Abby had that kidney and liver infection after she was born?
 
She was in the hospital for such a long time and you didn’t leave her side.
 
You were with her virtually day and night.”
 

Memories of that time bombarded him, cutting short his explanation.
 
He relived those terrifying weeks seeing his first child fight to survive and him powerless to do anything to save her.
 

“Yes, of course I remember,” she said softly.

“You’ve got to understand I did it for the right reasons and I didn’t want to worry you.”

Fear forced Kate to squirm.
 
“Josh, tell me.
 
Please.”

“You were so scared for Abby.
 
Worried whether she would pull through.
 
I don’t know what I would have done if she’d died.”

Kate grabbed his wrist.
 
“Jesus, Josh, don’t say that.
 
Don’t even think things like that.”
 

Josh stopped rocking on the swing and he stared into her eyes for recognition.
 
“But I did and you can’t say you didn’t think the same either.”
 

She looked away from him.
 
“Oh, Josh.”
 

“It’s okay to admit it.
 
Look, she’s okay, there’s nothing wrong with her and she’s great.”
 
He lifted Kate’s face so she looked at him then turned his gaze to Abby.

Red faced, Abby hung upside down from the climbing frame, her hair hanging down.
 
Her arms outstretched, she stroked Wiener standing beneath her.
 
She spotted her parents looking at her.
 
“Are my five minutes up?”

“No, not yet,” Josh said.

“Cool.”

Josh couldn’t help smiling.

“What did you do, Josh?”
 

His smile melted.
 
“She wasn’t getting better and the medical bills were piling up.
 
The insurance was stretched to the max and Medi-Cal couldn’t help us.”

“Josh, you said the insurance would cover it.”

“It didn’t.”

“What did you do?” she repeated, dread eating up her face.

“I remember the crying.
 
I couldn’t bear to listen to it.
 
It was like listening to fingernails being drawn down a blackboard.”
 
He shuddered at memories of years past, the despair rising to the surface.
 
“The insurance was saying they wouldn’t pay out any further and the doctors said they needed to carry out more procedures.
 
I didn’t know what we were going to do.”
 

Kate placed a comforting hand on Josh’s knees.
 
“Tell me.”

“I was carrying out building inspections on an apartment development in Dixon.
 
The construction company had cut corners to make a profit and they knew it would never make the grade.”
 
He stopped looking at Kate again and stared into the sand at his feet

“What did you do?” she whispered.

“They offered me ten thousand to sign the development off as safe.

“And you took it.”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Josh.”
 
Her hand slipped from his knee.

“I took it happily,” he blurted.
 
He needed her to understand.
 
“I saw it as our way to save Abby.
 
You’ve got to understand I didn’t do it for greed.
 
I did it out of necessity.”

Kate’s face said it all.
 
Disappointment scarred her expression, but Josh expected that.
 
This kind of news didn’t come with a round of applause and a ticker tape parade.
 
He was just glad she wasn’t angry.

“How dangerous is the development?”

“Not very.
 
The owners are likely to have problems with subsidence or structural integrity over time.
 
I don’t know how well it would hold up in earthquake conditions, but it would have to be a very large quake to have an effect in Dixon and that’s very unlikely.”

“Josh, why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“I couldn’t.
 
You were too preoccupied with Abby at the time and too happy when she was well.
 
I didn’t want to burst your bubble.
 
But I promised myself I would tell you when the time was right.”
 
He paused.
 
“I never found the right moment.”

“Until now.
 
Why?”

“Someone knows and they used it against me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Blackmail.”

“How much?”

“Fifty-five thousand, so far.”

“Fifty-five thousand?
 
Where did that money come from?
 
You haven’t been taking more bribes, have you?”

Josh recoiled.
 
“Christ, no.
 
I only did it the once.
 
They did try me again but I left rather than be in someone’s pocket.
 
That’s why I got out of the construction business all together.
 
I didn’t want to get involved again.”

“So how did you pay the blackmailer?”

“With a life insurance policy.
 
I sold it.”

“You sold your life insurance?
 
What if you’d been killed last week, what would have happened if you had no insurance?”
 
Kate’s temper began to slip.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got insurance.
 
I started a new policy after I sold the other one.
 
It was a quick way to raise money.”

Kate calmed down.
 
“So why the big confession all of a sudden?”

“I think what’s been happening to me recently has something to do with it—the car accident, the wreath, the guy at the party.
 
I think the blackmailer is calling in the marker.
 
I think someone is going to release my part to the press.”

“Do you know who’s doing this?”

“Yes.”

“Was it the man with Bob?”

“No.
 
I think he’s a hired hand.
 
We checked him out and he doesn’t work for Pinnacle.”

“Who is it?”

“I don’t want to say.”

“I think it’s a bit late for what you want,” Kate said, sternly.

Josh had hoped to keep this detail from Kate.
 
“It’s Belinda Wong.”

“Your secretary?”
 
She was incredulous.
 
“How did she find out?”

“She overheard a phone call,” Josh lied.
 
He couldn’t bring himself to tell her about their affair.
 
He would, but just not now.
 
Neither of them could handle the enormity of it all.
 
That was what he told himself.

“Go to the police.”

“I can’t.”

“I don’t care.”

“I’ll be ruined.”
 

“You don’t have a choice.”

“Let me deal with it.
 
I’ll finish it.”

“Abby, we’re going,” Kate fired across the playground.

“Oh,” she whined.

“Now, Abby,” Kate snapped.
 
She stood up from the swing and walked away from her husband.

“Kate, tell me what you’re thinking.
 
Kate, Kate, please,” Josh called after her.

Kate didn’t answer.
 

Chapter Fourteen

Sitting at the front desk, two security guards occasionally glanced at the security monitors.
 
The main focus of their attention was on the fourteen-inch portable television perched on top of the bank of monitors.
 
One guard got up from his seat and changed channels.
 
The other guard checked his watch.

“Patrol time.”
 
He picked up his walkie-talkie and set off for the elevator.
 
“Tell me if anything good happens, eh?”

“Sure,” the other guard said, without taking his eyes off the screen.

At seven p.m., they were only two hours into their shift and a shitload of television would be watched before their time at Pinnacle Investments was over at seven the next morning.
 

The building was quiet in its slumber.
 
The burble of activity of buying and selling investment interests was on hold.
 
The only sounds came from the television and its bored viewers, the hum of the fluorescent strip lights and the bleeps of a phone being dialed from an office on the top floor in the east wing.

In his office, Dexter Tyrell tapped a number into the cellular phone.
 
The phone was neither registered to him nor to Pinnacle Investments, per the professional’s instructions.
 
He was contacting his hired killer.
 
He wanted a progress report and more importantly, he wanted results.
 
He needed results.