Slow Burn (32 page)

“Her husband?” Oppenheim said.

“Good guess,” Burgess responded.

“Put out an all-points bulletin for Gene Vichy,” Oppenheim told the uniformed officer who had accompanied them. The man quickly left to do as he'd been bidden.

“You were right,” Oppenheim told David ruefully. “But what I still don't get is why he killed Danny.”

“Danny knew.”

“But he didn't tell any of us. And he didn't identify Vichy when he was dying.”

“No, he just kept saying Spencer's name.” David paused, realization flooding his mind. “As if he were warning her…”

A clerk with big horn-rim glasses came up to them. “One of you Mr. Delgado?”

“Me,” David said.

“Your secretary is on the phone, sir. This way, please.”

David answered the phone. “Reva?”

“David, you're not going to believe this. You were right! Audrey is not what she appears to be. Audrey Betancourt was last known as Audrey Highland. Before that, she was Audrey Grant. She went to school as Audrey Ennis, which was a name she adopted from her foster family when she was taken away from her father. She was born as Audrey
Vichy.
I still don't believe this. She's Gene Vichy's
daughter!
”

“Reva, you're a gem. I'm going straight to Jon Monteith's house to find Spencer. I'll keep you posted.”

He said a hurried goodbye to Oppenheim and went out to his car. Rush hour. The expressways were going to be hell.

 

Finally David broke free of the last of the heavy traffic. Just as he did, his car phone started to ring.

“Yeah?”

“David, it's Reva.”

“Yeah?”

“I called over to Jon Monteith's to ask Jimmy if everything was all right. He said it was, but then the line went dead. David I think something's wrong.”

“Shit.”

 

“I'm trying hard to get this,” Spencer said, striding down the slope of her uncle's lawn, her heart sinking as she realized she would soon be out of view of the house. “Why would you kill Danny? What did he ever do to you?”

“What did he do? He wanted to send me to the electric chair!” Audrey exclaimed.

“For what?” Spencer spun around. “Faulty memos?”

“Keep walking, Spencer.”

She had come to the dock. It was surrounded by heavy foliage, and mangroves grew into the brackish water, shadowing everything.

“Audrey, this is insane.”

“Well, they say I'm not quite normal.”

Spencer was halfway along the dock when she turned. “Audrey, I'm a good swimmer. Everyone knows that. I wouldn't go for a walk with you and just drown.”

“I'll be half-dead myself, hysterical. Ready to weep for the rest of my life over how you tried to save me before you died.”

“Audrey, shoot me. I won't drown for you.”

“Yes, you will.”

“Audrey, why?
Why
did you kill Danny?”

“I had to kill Danny because I love my father, Spencer. I loved him when I was little, but they took me away. I found him again as soon as I grew up. But neither of us had anything—I was a secretary. Then Dad met Vickie. The old crone, the bat.” Audrey shuddered. “She was hideous. I cringed every time I knew he was going to be with her.”

“Your dad met Vickie? Vickie Vichy?” Spencer said, suddenly feeling weak.

“She wasn't Vichy then. He had to marry her. For the money. Then she died. I did that, too. Dad tried to poison her, but she wouldn't die. And he was worried. Every time Danny talked to him, he knew Danny was getting close to the truth and that Danny would find a way to make them exhume the old bitch. Danny came to see Dad one day, talking about how people could be poisoned slowly, with such small amounts that they might not be detected. He talked about all the murders throughout history that had been committed that way. He
had
to die. He knew too much. I'd managed to get the job with you by then, and that helped. I knew Danny's habits. and an awful lot about you. I made most of your appointments. It wasn't hard to get to either one of you when I needed to. Once Danny was dead, I thought that was it, Dad and I would be okay. But then, when you came back to town and started getting so nosy, we were in trouble again. I needed to get into your house, because we were certain Danny must have left some papers behind, some clue to what he'd suspected. Then all of a sudden David Delgado got involved…plus I had to sneak around that stupid thug Ricky Garcia hired.” She started to laugh. “You thought it was Jared! What a laugh! I can't tell you how I enjoyed watching you become more and more suspicious of him!”

Spencer wondered if help might eventually come if she could just keep Audrey talking. She had to try.

It might mean her life.

“That beam that fell and made Sly think someone was trying to kill me, was that you?”

“A fine piece of work. Except you didn't die.”

“The car accident in Rhode Island?”

“Assassins work for pay.”

“But he had worked for Ricky Garcia.”

“A job's a job. Money is what matters. Dad has lots of it now.”

“No wonder Ricky Garcia was in such a state.”

“He's scum. I'm a class act, Spencer. Just like you. Let me see, what else? I did try to break into your house, but that bumbling detective stopped me. Really, though, everything was easy once Dad got his hands on Icky Vickie's money.”

“Great father. He let his little girl do all the killing for him.”

Audrey quit smiling. The look she gave Spencer was purely vicious. “You wouldn't understand. We have a relationship, my father and I. You just don't know, you don't see how close we are to one another. He loves me. He has always loved me.”

Audrey had changed, subtly. As if she was trying to convince Spencer—and herself—of her words. “Don't you dare talk about my father! You just don't understand a man like him, you don't understand—us!”

“Oh, my God!” Spencer breathed, realizing as she looked at Audrey, as she listened to her, that she was describing much more than a customary father-daughter relationship. She thought about Vichy, the suave, arrogant man she had met at the club. A man who seemed to think anything he did for his own gratification and material reward was all right.

“Spencer, don't give me that look!” Audrey commanded. “You don't understand—”

“I suppose not,” Spencer said, “but I think I'm beginning to. I'm imagining how it all began. He abused you, probably from the time you were very young.”

“He never abused me—”

“Rape is abuse, Audrey.”

Bingo. Oh, God, that was it! He'd raped her, he'd turned her into his little puppet. His own daughter.

“Bitch. I didn't actually want to kill you, Spencer. I thought I liked you. But I was wrong. You think you know everything. You're just like the others. Judgmental. Well, you're all wrong. I love my father, and my father loves me. You deserve to die.”

Spencer saw movement over Audrey's shoulder. Someone was coming through the bushes.

“Audrey,” she said, hoping to keep the other woman from hearing help approach.

But her ploy didn't work.

Audrey swung around. Still Spencer felt hope rising in her heart. Jerry Fried was there. Danny's old partner.

“Jerry!” Spencer said, hope and relief evident in her voice.

But Audrey started to laugh, watching her. “Oh, Spencer, for such a smart little cookie you can be so damned dumb! Why do you think Danny never trusted Fried? Danny was no idiot. His partner was on the take. And now poor Jerry just has to keep on taking and taking. He's really not happy about it, Spencer, but guess what? He's the one who actually gets to drown you.”

Looking at Jerry as he walked down the dock, Spencer realized that Audrey was telling the truth. Jerry Fried wasn't happy about it, but he was coming to kill her.

She spun around and starting running toward the end of the dock.

“Son of a bitch!” Audrey cried.

She fired her gun. The shot whizzed past Spencer's head. Spencer didn't know how deep the water was here, but she had to chance a dive. She plunged into the ocean, swimming hard, down, down….

A hand snagged her foot and she was twisted around. Far beneath the depths, she saw Jerry Fried's face. She tried to shoot upward, but she was dragged ever downward….

 

David burst into the house. “Where's Spencer?” he demanded.

Everyone was watching the game, but when they heard the fear in David's voice, Sly leaped up and Jimmy spun around. Jon Monteith was calm at first. “She's just outside, turning the burgers, chatting with Audrey.”

Audrey…David's blood ran cold.

Then Ashley ran in screaming.

 

Spencer twisted, pulled and writhed for all she was worth. She broke the surface and gasped in a breath just as Fried's hand found her again. This time he grabbed the top of her head to push her under. He was being careful. He didn't want any bruises to show.

Audrey was in the water, too, yelling at Fried. “God damn it, kill her! Get it over with!” Audrey raged. “Someone will be here any second!”

Spencer broke free again and surfaced, breathing deeply. She started to stroke away.

Once again a hand found her, this time clutching her shoulder. She went down. Fought her way up.

She gasped for air. Gulped water. Oh, God, she was losing strength….

 

He couldn't see them at first. Then something in the water caught his attention. A head bobbing up.

Spencer's head.

He ran.

 

Suddenly she was free. Free because Jerry Fried had been dragged away from her to battle fiercely with someone else.

David.

David had Fried's head beneath the surface. He meant business.

Audrey suddenly leaped atop David with a wild cry. He went under, and Fried came up.

Fried caught hold of Spencer again and again. She gasped for a deep breath just before he dragged her beneath the surface. Deep in the water, she struggled furiously against him. Pelting her fists against Fried each time she could, she banged against something hard. It was his gun, encompassed by a shoulder holster. She caught hold of the weapon and pulled it from the holster, but she couldn't shake Fried's grip to manage any kind of aim. She could no longer bear it, she was going to gasp for desperately needed air; water would fill her lungs. The world was beginning to spin. She vaguely heard a thud. She was only dimly aware that Audrey went floating by her. She was going to drown.

But she didn't drown. She saw a pair of hands set down on Fried's shoulders, ripping the man away from her. She broke to the surface and gasped in lungfuls of air. Audrey floated at a distance from her. She realized that David had freed himself from Audrey to wrench Fried away from her. The men were engaged in fierce battle. Fried was big, but David was stronger. It didn't matter. Spencer didn't want to take any chances. She treaded water furiously, pointing the gun at Fried's head.

“Let him go! Let him go! I'll shoot, you bastard. You killed Danny as much as she did, and
I
won't hesitate to kill
you!
”

Fried looked like a mad man. He turned to David, leaping from the water with his weight. Both men went down.

Spencer swam to them in the murky depths and found them far beneath the surface, locked together.

David motioned her to go up. Fried turned, ready to reach out and grab her again.

In the dephs of the water, the shot was not very loud at all.

“Y
ou didn't have to shoot me,” David complained.

“I
didn't
shoot you. I shot
him.
The bastard isn't even dead. You were just grazed.”

“Yeah? Well, my calf is bleeding like a mother.”

“You're acting like a two-year-old.”

They were seated together out back, still at Jon's, big towels wrapped around then, mugs of hot coffee in their hands. The sirens had ceased shrilling; Jerry Fried and Audrey Vichy, alias Betancourt, had been taken away.

Audrey had been half-drowned, just as she predicted.

Spencer had shot Jerry through the shoulder. He would live, as well.

Cecily had been at the dock when Spencer had crawled out of the water, tears streaming down her cheeks. Jared had been there, too, and Uncle Jon and Sly—who worried Spencer more than anyone, because she was so afraid he was about to have a heart attack. But Sly was built of stern stuff; he quickly regrouped his forces and hugged her, as did the rest of the family.

Her family. The kids, Cecily, Jared, Jon. They were sinners, all of them, one way or another. But they did love her. And it was so incredibly good to know it.

“I'll never quite understand it,” Spencer murmured.

“It was incredibly simple. Danny suspected Vichy. But he couldn't prove he was a murderer, because Vichy didn't do the killing himself. Audrey did. And she was nuts, Spencer. I'm sure the psychologists will have to work it all out, but apparently he abused her as a child. She couldn't allow herself to hate her own father, so she fell in love with him instead. And she was willing to do just about anything for him.”

“But Jerry…”

“Jerry took money from Vichy for information on Danny. And then he wound up in deeper shit than he wanted. Once he was on the take, he had to keep on it or else go down big-time himself. I almost feel sorry for him. I can't begin to tell you what cops feel for one of their own who helps kill an officer like Danny.”

“I was shaking when I shot him.”

“You didn't have to do that,” David said a little indignantly. “I would have won the fight.”

“I'd already lost Danny. I wasn't taking any more chances. One husband is enough to lose to a bastard like that.”

David looked meaningfully at her. “I'm not your husband.”

“Not yet.”

“Oh?”

“Well, you
are
going to marry me, right?”

He hesitated. Then he smiled. “Hell, yes! A wife who doesn't even cry after sex anymore. How in God's name could I turn down an offer like that?”

“David…” Spencer warned.

But he leaned over and kissed her. “I love you, Spencer. I always have. I always will.”

She leaned against his shoulder. “We've set Danny to rest at last, haven't we?”

He nodded, his chin against the drying softness of her hair. “He whispered your name when he was dying, Spencer, because he was so afraid for you. And he wanted me to help you. I'm sorry it took so damned long.”

“But it's over.”

“Yes, it's over.” He stroked her hair gently. “We really should get married pretty soon. Let your mother get over the shock before the baby is born.”

Spencer smiled. “Just think. Mrs. D.A.R. is going to have a half-Cuban grandchild.” She giggled.

“Don't you be cruel to my mother-in-law.”

She started to laugh again. And it felt good. So good. She set down her coffee, stole his, wrapped her towel around them both and sat on his lap.

“David, I love you. I was so horrible to you because I was afraid I'd still loved you when I was married to Danny. But now I know that I loved you both. And I learned tonight that I want to live, and that living means loving and everything else that's a part of that. You've been right all along. Danny would understand that. Danny would
want
that.”

His eyes sparkled. Deep. Cobalt blue. When he spoke, his voice was husky, deep, rich. “Say that again.”

“All of it?”

“Just that you love me.”

She smiled. “I love you. Oh, God, David, I love you. For all of my life.”

And she started to kiss him.

She was his, David thought, holding her. And this was the best damned kiss ever….

The kiss was still going on when Sly saw them on his way outside. He veered quickly, still watching them.

Hot damn, he was good! Old, but good.

He chuckled and walked away quietly, leaving them to their kiss.