“I really think it’s going to be all right,” he assured her again. “Sorry, but I really do need some paperwork. Are you up to it?”
“Yes, of course. Thank you. Thank you so very much.”
So she filled out papers. And it wasn’t until she had answered all his questions about Sam—about where they had been, what he might have eaten—that he nodded slowly, staring at her again.
“You’re the soap star. Working on the big video deal, right?”
When she nodded, he told her quietly. “This was possibly a case of willful poisoning.”
“But…he’s going to be all right?”
“I will do everything in my power to see to it.”
“I should just stay here, stay with him,” she said numbly.
“Miss Trent, I promise you, if there’s any change, I’ll call you immediately.”
She managed a wry smile. “You can’t. I lost my cell phone somewhere.”
“I know the number to the resort. Really, there’s nothing you can do. And you look like hell yourself. You need to get some rest. For the moment, Sam is out of the woods. He needs rest.” He frowned suddenly. “If you’re not feeling up to driving, I can have someone take you back to Vinnie’s.”
She shook her head. She meant to get Jane’s car back. And she was very anxious now to find O’Casey.
“I can drive. If Sam is going to pull through, I can do anything.”
“I can’t give you any guarantees, but I think we got to him in time,” Dr. Garcia said. He smiled. “I’m serious. He’s a strong, healthy dog.”
He escorted her out to the waiting room, where the number of people and pets had grown.
“I think we’ve pulled him through, folks!” he said.
There was a round of applause, and a woman with a fluffy mutt rose, coming to Kelly. “Oh, there, darling, it’s going to be all right! Thank God. We’re all so happy for you.”
She smiled her thanks. And when she finally left, she was almost feeling good.
The sun was setting, the sky streaked with stunning colors. Even as she clicked open the car door, the colors were changing before her eyes. She had noticed that about the Keys. The sky would be touched by brilliant, glorious colors, and then they would deepen to richer hues of mauve, crimson and magenta. Then, with little warning, those colors would blend to darkness—true darkness.
She had never seen it this dark in L.A., or Miami, or any major city for that matter. The lights of man’s existence were simply too strong. But here, the darkness was complete. And she was glad that there was only one road, because she was pretty certain she knew just how far she had to get and where she was going.
Exhausted, she revved the engine, fought the temptation to go back in and look at Sam one more time, and moved the car out of the drive, ready to enter the road.
There were a number of people either seated at little shanty tables or milling around dockside at Vinnie’s when Doug crawled out of the water. He was soaked and shoeless. They all stared at him, but he walked past them and headed for his car. He crawled into the front seat, then pulled his keys out of his soaking pocket. It was already dark.
As she drove, Kelly’s mind was on Sam. Had someone actually poisoned her dog? And if so, her claiming that she wasn’t Marla Valentine hadn’t meant anything. And not only that, there were surely a number of advice therapists out there—qualified and self-proclaimed—who remained in danger, as well. No one should have to live like that—ever.
She was deep in thought, the only illumination the pool of light created by her car’s high beams. She had on her brights, but not even that power could illuminate the deep pitch darkness of the world around her.
Suddenly she winced, narrowing her eyes. There was someone behind her, someone with their high beams on. Since there were no cars coming in the opposite direction, she flicked her lights, indicating that the driver should pass. But the driver didn’t.
The blinding light came more fully upon her and she realized that the driver at her rear was tailgating terribly. Again, she flicked her lights, but the car came closer. She sped up and it did the same.
For the first time, fear gripped her. She was on a lonely stretch of highway, in pitch darkness and the person behind her was not just an irate and careless driver in a hurry. Whoever it was meant to drive her off the road.
She wondered just how fast Jane’s car would go. She needed to speed up, drive like a maniac until she could reach a gas station or any little piece of civilization where she could turn off.
The car behind her came closer, then revved up on her side. She was terrified of a crash. Instinctively and foolishly, she jerked her own wheel. Her scream pierced the night as her vehicle went shooting off the pavement and into the utter and absolute darkness.
Doug pulled into the vet’s parking lot. The office lights were still on, and as he reached for the door, he noted that the vet was open until seven several nights a week, probably to accommodate the clients who worked nine to five.
He realized he must have been a sight when he burst through the door, barefoot and in soggy cutoffs. The few people remaining in the waiting room chairs stared at him as if he were a madman. And he probably looked like one.
He strode to the reception window. “Kelly Trent? Is she still here? She came in with a sick dog named Sam.”
“Yes, just a bit back.”
“Is she still here?”
The girl didn’t seem alarmed by his appearance. They were in the Keys after all. Shirtless, shoeless guys in soaked cutoffs actually weren’t that rare. It wasn’t his mode of dress that had alarmed the others; it was his manner of pure panic and tension.
“I’m sorry, she left just a few minutes ago. But the dog is doing very well.”
“She left?”
“Yes.”
“In a car?”
“I am assuming so,” the girl said politely.
He should have checked on Sam, but he was still feeling too uneasy about Kelly. Of course she had driven. She’d had Jane’s car. It must have been one of the cars he had driven past to get here. He thanked the girl, nodded to the people who looked as if they wanted to inch away from him and headed back out.
Getting into his car, all he could think about was the information his brother had given him. Quinn! Quinn would be at Vinnie’s now, wondering where the hell he was. If he’d passed Kelly, she should be at Vinnie’s by now.
He reached into his pocket for his cell phone, then cursed himself as water drained from it. He tried pressing the digits. Nothing.
The car seemed to plunge through a mire of grass, brush and slush forever. When it came to a halt, the jerk sent her flying forward, then backward. She tensed, waiting for a terrible bang, but there was none. The car had simply come to a halt. And by the grace of God, it hadn’t gone into the ocean.
She listened and could still hear a wheel spinning. The blaze of her lights revealed nothing but brush and grass ahead, trees all around her. She sat there stunned for several seconds, not hurt, just sore from the tension that had seized her and the jerking around. Her heart was thundering in her chest.
Then, after a moment, she jumped to life, exiting the car as if she had suddenly been set on fire. There might be a gas leak, she thought. The vehicle might be ready to explode.
She had traveled deep into the embankment, and though it had appeared to be solid ground from the road, she was ankle deep in water. She was on the Atlantic side of the island, and the road, she was certain, had been built up. Therefore, here, on the embankment and in the shrubs and growth, she was caught in a mire of seeping ocean water and fill.
The road seemed a long way away. There were lights, she realized. Not just cars that were passing by, but lights that belonged to a car that had parked. Despite her absolute physical misery and her fear of things that might be beneath her feet, she felt the urge to move back. Then a rustling, sloshing sound caught her attention. Someone had indeed parked up on the road and was now walking
toward the car. Someone…who had forced her off the road?
She turned away from the car, looking into the darkness of the overgrowth around her, wincing as she wondered about snakes. Terror drove her onward. She tried very hard to move silently through the darkness, but her heart was too loud. It, alone, could surely be heard.
Move, move, move! Trying not to slosh, she headed toward a mangrove. Someone was coming, that was for certain. She could hear the sound. But could the someone hear her as well?
Doug shot down the highway at the safest speed he dared, his feeling of anxiety growing all the while. He saw the skid marks on the road first, then the trail that stretched into the foliage. His heart seemed to leap to his chest. It wasn’t necessarily Kelly. People in a hurry wound up in accidents all the time. No, it wasn’t necessarily Kelly…but instinct forced him to slow down.
He jerked his car to a halt and leaped out, eyeing the car down the embankment, alive with lights, mired in the muck. He stood there, every muscle screaming as he recognized that it was, indeed, Jane Ulrich’s car deep in the foliage, as if it had shot right off the highway to land hundreds of yards away.
Kelly.
The front door of the car was open and lights blazed, clearly showing that the car was empty. He nearly cried out her name, but then he shut his mouth. There was another car besides his own, pulled off the road. Someone who had stopped to help? Or maybe someone who had driven her off the road? He didn’t know.
He did know that it was a dark green Buick sedan, the same car he had seen Mel Alton enter just hours ago. Alton, whose ex-wife was suing him for more money.
He couldn’t take a chance. No matter what his fear that she might be lying dead or dying in a pool of marsh and water, hurt, dazed or worse, he had to stay quiet.
He couldn’t see her anywhere in the area illuminated by the still-blazing car lights. She had to have moved on her own. Or…she had been moved. But the other car remained on the embankment. So he started to move carefully into the wet, mucky ground.
Kelly strained to see the trees ahead of her. The beams from the car were so bright they made everything not in their path twice as dark. But the sloshing had come from a different direction. She had to get into the trees.
There was an eerie glow coming from the limbs of the gnarly tree. The thing was fantastic, with roots crawling above the water-logged earth as well as below it. She winced as her footsteps caused her to splash through a puddle, and reached out for the trunk of the tree, slipping around it.
A scream nearly tore from her throat as a hand came out from behind the trunk, catching her around the face and neck…clamping over her mouth.
CHAPTER 26
Quinn looked at his watch with growing impatience. Doug wasn’t picking up his phone and Kelly wasn’t picking up hers. He’d ordered tea at first, then when more time had gone by he’d decided he was starving and ordered something to eat. He’d even studied the papers in front of him until his eyes were swimming, hoping to make some connection between numbers.
The launch from the islet wasn’t at the dock and there wasn’t a single soul around that he knew. Finally he let out a sigh of impatience. As his waiter strode by, he reached out and caught the fellow by the wrist.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” the fellow returned, stopping short and eyeing him uneasily.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to grab you like that.” Quinn released the fellow’s arm. “Do you happen to know who Kelly Trent is? Would you recognize her if you saw her?”
The man’s eyes widened. “Oh, sure! Yeah.”
“Well? Have you seen her?”
“Oh, yeah! I saw her. I helped her!” he said proudly.
Quinn shook his head. “Helped her with what?”
“Her dog. She got off the launch with her dog, who was in a really bad way. Looked as if he might have gotten hold of one of those toads, you know? Really lethal creatures. Anyway, he was foaming, lolling in her arms. I saw her get off the launch and I opened up her car for her. She was real nice, even though she was in pretty bad shape, too.”
Quinn rose. “Where was she going?”
“To the vet?”
“Where?”
The waiter told him. And Quinn threw way too much money on the table, gathered his papers and headed for his car.
“Kelly!” She heard her name shouted almost the second the hand came over her mouth. “Shh!” she heard then, and in a split second she realized it was Doug who had stopped her because she knew his touch and scent.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he eased back, drawing his fingers to his lips. He mouthed words to her anxiously. “Are you all right?”
“Kelly!” They heard her name again, called with anxiety.
She started to ease from his hold, a sigh of relief leaving her. “It’s just Mel!”
“Stay!” he told her.
“But it’s just Mel! I know his voice.”
“Stay here!” Doug commanded, shoving her back toward the tree. He moved out, in silence. In the stygian darkness, he disappeared almost instantly.
She silently cursed him. At first, she was just alone in the darkness. Then there were the sounds. Grass-moving footsteps.
Her breathing, loud as a windstorm. More shuffling in the foliage, closer and closer to her. Then…a howl. And then…
“O’Casey! It’s me! Mel Alton. What the hell is the matter with you?”
Kelly couldn’t stand it any longer. She could suddenly see both men emerging into the dim light cast from the car headlights. They’d been down on the ground; O’Casey had tackled Mel. Then he had helped him up and was frisking him, as if he were still a cop and Mel a tried-and-true offender.
“Hey!” Mel protested again. “Would you stop it! Jesus, what’s the matter with you! Kelly was in that car. We have to find her.”
“I’m here, Mel! I’m right here and I’m fine!” Kelly cried out, sloshing her way back from the mangrove tree.
O’Casey was glaring at her, obviously irate, but Mel looked at her with such relief that she wanted to go hug him.
“Kelly!” he cried, sounding just like a father.
Screw O’Casey. She ran to Mel and stared at the other man, defying him to suspect her agent of any foul play.
“Kelly, what happened?” Mel asked anxiously. “Some guy at the restaurant said that you’d taken Sam to the vet in Jane’s car. I was trying to get to you when I saw the car in the marsh.”
“Some guy told you about the vet?” O’Casey said skeptically.
Mel brought Kelly closer to him, frowning. “Yes, and if you don’t believe me, we can go back and find the guy!”
“How long have you had that car, Mel?” O’Casey demanded.
Mel never answered. There was another shout from the road, loud and menacing. “Doug! Kelly!”
“Quinn,” O’Casey muttered. “Over here!” he shouted.
A moment later, Quinn had reached them. He looked over the situation. “What the hell is going on?”
Kelly realized that she wasn’t sure anymore. Had it just been a bad driver? Or had she purposely been forced off the road? She winced, afraid that it was the latter and that someone really had tried to poison her dog. But if she acted afraid, God knew what these two would think she should do next.
“Quite frankly, I’m not certain. I was forced off the road.”
“Interesting,” Doug said. “Mel, did you force Kelly off the road?”
“You son of a bitch!” Mel began. “How—”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Quinn said. “We’ll get to the bottom of the situation. First off, everyone all right?”
“I’m fine,” Kelly said quickly, but she wasn’t. Every muscle and joint in her body now seemed to be screaming.
“Look,” Mel said, “I parked—get that, I parked!—up on the road when I thought it looked like Jane’s car down here. You know you’ve got some nerve!” he told Doug angrily. “Who the hell do you think you are? I’ve worked with Kelly for years
. Years! You’re an upstart. I don’t care who you were…are. Right now you’re just the hired help, the dance instructor! I would never hurt Kelly. Never!”
They could hear the sirens then.
“I called the cops,” Quinn said.
“Well, for your information, I called the cops, too—911!” Mel said.
A second later, a Monroe County sheriff’s car pulled onto the embankment. A flashlight bore down on them. “Anyone hurt?” an officer called out.
“No!” Quinn called back. “But there has been an accident. This lady was sideswiped.”
“Well, then, let’s get everyone up here and start finding out just what we can, all right?” the deputy shouted down to them. Obviously he wasn’t alone. His partner was walking through the marsh to the scene.
“Let me see your phone,” O’Casey asked Mel.
“What?”
“Your phone. You said you called 911. I want to see your call history.”
“Fine. Go ahead!”
Mel handed O’Casey his phone. O’Casey opened it, hit a number, looked at it, then snapped the phone shut and returned it.
“How about an apology?” Mel demanded.
“Hey, folks!” the deputy called. A young man in his early thirties, he had a pleasant but solid attitude about him. “Let’s talk. Who was in the car?”
“I was,” Kelly said.
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
“And no one’s hurt?” the officer asked.
“No.”
He turned his flashlight beam on the car, then looked at them all. “Let’s go up and sort this out.”
And so they did. Kelly explained what had happened, where she had been. Doug explained that he had followed her. And Mel explained that he had been due to leave but had decided to stay another night. At the restaurant he had heard about Kelly rushing to the vet with Sam. As her friend, he emphasized, and not just as her agent, he, too, had followed. Then Quinn explained that he had been waiting for his brother so long that he, too, had asked questions and heard about Kelly’s trip to the vet.