Terminated (31 page)

It took her a moment to realize Ingram was still talking to her. “What?”

“I said, where’s Parker?”

Gwen bolted and Ingram chased after her. She clambered onto the rocky shore expecting to find Parker face down in the water, but he was lying on his back at the water’s edge, holding his stomach. She dropped down at his side.

“I thought you were dead,” Gwen said.

Ingram barged past her and lifted up Parker’s sweatshirt. It had turned red from where he’d been stabbed. Ingram examined the wounds.

“It looks bad, but it’s not serious. Gwen, keep pressure applied.” Ingram went for his cell phone off his belt. “We need to get you to a hospital.”

Parker grabbed his wrist. “No hospitals. If they see a stab wound, I’m finished. I’m back in prison.”

Ingram jerked his hand free. “That’s not my problem.”

“You call the cops, it’s not just me who goes
to prison, she does, too.”

Ingram looked at Gwen. She said nothing. She let the weight of her fate press down on him. She believed he’d do the right thing.

Ingram flipped open his phone, but his fingers made no attempt to hit any of the buttons. He closed the phone. “You’re in luck. It’s fried from being wet.”

He moved Gwen’s hands from Parker’s wounds and pressed them hard to stanch the bleeding. “I can patch you up and get you out of here. I’ll give you the address of someone who can take care of this properly. No questions asked.”

“Thank you,” Gwen said.

Ingram looked grave. “Don’t thank me yet. After we’ve got him out of the way, we’re calling the police.”

I
ngram’s car pulled up outside. It had been
a month since Gwen had last seen him in the days after Tarbell’s death. He had been working hard with the police investigation to keep Gwen out of jail. Tarbell’s death seemed like a lifetime ago. Gwen went to the door to let him in.

“You’re in the clear, Gwen,” Ingram said.

She smiled. “Come in.”

She took him into the kitchen. Paul and Kirsten were waging a losing battle with Kirsten’s puppy, Hugo, trying to teach obedience to the ten-week-old Jack Russell terrier mix.

“Paul looks good,” Ingram remarked as Gwen handed him a cup of coffee.

“He’s coming along.”

Paul had emerged from his coma the week after she’d returned from Fort Richardson, and the hospital released him the following week. He still looked like Frankenstein’s monster, but he would mend with time. The only lasting effect from his coma seemed to be amnesia. He’d forgotten certain things, and he had problems with his short-term memory, but the prognosis was that the amnesia would pass. He wouldn’t necessarily make a full recovery, but he was expected to regain his short-term memory. Regardless, it was good to have him home.

“So what happened with the
investigation?” Gwen asked.

“The overwhelming evidence points toward Stephen Tarbell, so the police are satisfied and won’t be seeking any charges elsewhere.”

She owed Ingram her life, although she felt it was his penance to help her. Together, over the last month, they’d bent the law, concocted stories, omitted facts, and changed details. Yet in the end, so many big things had played in Gwen’s favor that they’d only falsified smaller details. The finding of Petersen’s body on Tarbell’s family property in Vallejo explained why the gun in Tarbell’s hand belonged to Tom Petersen. Paul reinforced the case against Tarbell. He might have lost a lot of memory, but he hadn’t forgotten who’d beat him almost to death. Some memories just couldn’t be destroyed. Examination of Tarbell’s laptop revealed the stolen breast cancer research from Pace. Phone records showed that Tarbell had called Gwen on repeated occasions. The only thing the police had on Gwen was going to Fort Richardson. She admitted it was her idea to lure Tarbell there to sacrifice herself to save her daughter. With no one else to dispute her claim, the police had nothing to charge her with.

“So it really is over.”

Ingram smiled. “It is.”

Now she could rebuild a broken life and move on. The idea of it excited her, but her joy lasted only a moment. She could move on, but that wasn’t true of everyone else. Tom Petersen couldn’t and neither could his wife. Gwen hadn’t attended Petersen’s funeral, but she and Lynette had seen each other once after she returned from Fort Richardson.

“How’s Lynette?” she asked.

“Doing about as well as you’d expect. She’s put the house up for sale. She’s already moved out to live closer to her grandchildren.”

Gwen wished she’d gotten to say good-bye, but maybe it was for the best they didn’t speak. They only had tragedy in common. It wasn’t the basis for a friendship.

“Have you seen Parker?” Ingram asked.

She hadn’t seen him since she and Ingram
had carried him across the causeway to his car. It had been hell getting across the submerged causeway. Ingram assured her it was a hell of a lot easier getting him across when the tide was in than when it was coming in. The real miracle was that he’d gotten himself patched up and back home before his next meeting with his parole officer. She’d gotten the remaining five thousand to him through a trusted intermediary. She’d attached a note: “All sins forgiven. Start fixing bikes and never look back.”

“No, and I won’t,” said Gwen.

“I suppose you wouldn’t under the circumstances.”

She’d spent a couple of sleepless nights thinking about Parker and what he’d done to her in Davis and what he’d done for her in Fort Richardson. Forgiveness was a hard road to travel. Sometimes, she felt ready to forgive Parker. Other times, she wished Tarbell had finished the job and Parker had bled out on that beach. But as the weeks after Fort Richardson passed, she finally felt reconciled. Parker had served his time, and he’d tried to save her from another monster. It was penance enough. They would never have a relationship, but she could forgive him. Time served, she decided.

“I want to apologize to you,” Ingram said.

“For what?”

“I should have done more.”

“You came through at the end.”

“That’s not good enough. It never should have gotten to where it did. I should have seen how Tarbell manipulated the situation. I should have prevented it from escalating.”

Yes, you should have
, she thought, but if she could forgive Parker, she could forgive Ingram. If he hadn’t seen the truth and come after her, she would be dead.

“I’m just glad that you did what you did. Let’s leave it at that.”

“OK.”

They toasted with their coffee
mugs.

“I do have one more piece of business, and that’s bringing you a message from Pace Pharmaceuticals,” Ingram said. “They understand that you were an innocent party, and they want to offer you your job back.”

The job offer came as no surprise. Since the truth had come out, Pace had picked up Paul’s medical expenses and indicated they would continue to do so until he was fully recovered. It was a slice of charity Gwen didn’t turn down.

“Tell them thanks, but no thanks.”

“There are no strings attached.”

“I realize that, but I can’t go back now. It will be a constant reminder of what Stephen Tarbell did to me. I want to move on and put everything to do with that man behind me. I already have a couple of interviews lined up.”

“OK. I’ll let them know. Just know the offer is always open to you. Also, should you have any expenses, Pace will cover them.”

She saw Ingram out. They shook hands on the doorstep.

“Good luck, Gwen.”

“Thank you.”

She closed the door and joined her family on the patio. They meant everything to her, and Stephen Tarbell meant nothing.

The End

M
y thanks goes, yet again, to my wife, Julie, for all her hard work and the help from her gang of poisoners. Special thanks goes to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for their help and generosity, and please forgive me for any and all artistic license taken. And a big thank you to Judy Brent for outbidding everyone to win the right to have her name used as a character in the book.

Photograph by Barry Evans Studio, 2003

A
nthony Award–winning author of a dozen books as well as over 150 published stories and articles, Simon Wood is an ex–race car driver, a licensed pilot, an animal rescuer, an endurance cyclist, and an occasional private investigator. Having dealt with dyslexia from an early age, Wood’s ambition has been met with rave reviews for his previous publications, including
Accidents Waiting to Happen
,
Dragged into Darkness
,
Working Stiffs
,
Paying the Piper
,
We All Fall Down
,
Asking For Trouble
,
The Fall Guy
, and numerous others published under his horror pseudonym, Simon Janus. Originally from the UK, Wood moved to the US in ’98 to share his world with his American wife, Julie—and a longhaired dachshund and four cats.