The Cabin (26 page)

“Why, because we’re not Texas Rangers? Is that what

you tell Mom? Don’t worry, let me handle it, I’m the

big Texas Ranger.”

“You know, Maggie—”

She didn’t back down, not half an inch. “That’s the

thing, Dad. You can’t protect Ellen and me from wor-

rying—you can’t protect us from anything.” She thrust

her chin up at him, defiant even with chattering teeth.

“Not anymore.”

He fought an urge to march her back inside and lec-

ture her about who’d trained at Quantico and who

hadn’t. But he ached, because he knew that wasn’t the

answer. He had no answers. Maybe that was why his

family was in Boston and he was in Texas. He fucking

didn’t
get it.

“Dad,” she said, fighting back tears from the cold

wind, nerves, indignation—and fear.

He loved this kid. He loved her twin sister. And their

mother. He remembered the night his daughters were

born, how helpless he’d felt at the pain Susanna was in.

He remembered holding Maggie and Ellen as they slept,

bundled tightly in their baby blankets.

They weren’t babies or preschoolers or even twelve-

year-olds—those days were over. His daughters were

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strong, independent young women, and they were look-

ing for their father to recognize them as such.

He sighed, feeling the cold now himself. “I never

thought I’d say my life was easier when you and Ellen

were two. Maggie, do you know anything about Beau

McGarrity? Anything at all?”

She shook her head. “No. Why?”

“He’s never come to you, tried to follow you—”

“God, Dad.” Her cheeks were pale now.
“No.”

“Ellen?”

“She’s never said anything. I mean, she would have.

You know Ellen.”

Ellen didn’t keep secrets. It was one of the few things

Jack still knew for sure about his family. Ellen didn’t

keep secrets, and Maggie did. He slung an arm over her

shoulders. “Come on, before you freeze solid. Let’s go

inside and warm up.” And he forced himself to add,

“We’ll talk about Beau McGarrity.”

Alice dreamed about Rachel McGarrity all through

the night and woke up exhausted, wrung out. She’d

stumbled down to breakfast, but couldn’t eat. A piece

of toast, juice. She brought a cup of coffee back to her

room with her. She hadn’t run into Destin. That was

something.

A quiet knock on her door pulled her out of her

thoughts. “Alice? Alice, open up. It’s me, Destin.”

Lie down with dogs, Alice, honey, and don’t be sur-

prised when you come up with fleas.

She should have listened to her grandma. She had

been an uncomplicated woman with a clear sense of

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217

right and wrong. Would
she
ever have befriended Ra-

chel? Done work for her on the sly? Would her grandma

have cut corners to save her own neck and bring Ra-

chel’s murderer to justice?

No. Grandma never would have become a police of-

ficer in the first place. She thought there was only a

hair’s difference between a cop and a thug. Work hard,

keep your head low, save your money. Don’t gamble,

don’t drink, don’t smoke. Pick one man, and make sure

he’s a good one. Then treat him right.

Most of her grandma’s advice Alice hadn’t followed

very well.

“Come on, let me in.”

Destin spoke in a panicked whisper, but that was

Destin. He was highly emotional with a sense of enti-

tlement he’d use to justify anything, provided he got

what he was after. Everyone in the world was supposed

to realize what he wanted was all important. He didn’t

care how they got the money off Susanna. Honest was

good. Dishonest was good. So long as he got what he

wanted.

Then again, he wasn’t a killer. He’d balk at killing.

He might put a knife to Susanna’s throat, but he’d never

cut it.

He preferred to get his money the easy way—for Su-

sanna to recognize his brilliance and give it to him.

Alice had learned a lot about Destin Wright in the

past couple of days.

She dragged herself to the door and opened it for him.

He slipped in like he had the Gestapo on his tail and

quickly shut the door behind him, raking a hand through

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his blond hair as he paced.
“Jesus.”
He stopped a sec-

ond, catching his breath. “Susanna and Iris are here.”

Alice pulled the tie on her robe tight. She doubted

Destin even noticed she was naked underneath it. He

had a one-track mind, and it was on his hundred grand.

“Here at the inn?” she asked, staying calm.

“They’re talking old times downstairs with the owners.”

“I suppose it makes sense if Iris grew up here. We

should have picked a different place to stay, but this is

the closest to Susanna’s cabin.” Alice realized Destin was

too agitated to listen. “Do you think they saw my car?”

“I don’t know. We hid it pretty well. If Jack finds out

I’m up here with you—” He shook his head. “I don’t

know what made me think I could do this shit. Damn.”

Cold feet. Just what she needed. “You believe in

yourself, don’t you? You believe in your company. How

bad do you want that money?”

“Susanna’s just being selfish and short-sighted. If

we can just make her see, give her the right jolt—”

“Fear’ll do that to you,” Alice said. “Give you a jolt.”

He made a face. “Damn right. I’ve been scared for

weeks. Hell, once they took my BMW—that was a jolt.”

Alice didn’t want to think about it. He was willing

to put the screws to Susanna over a repossessed BMW.

That was what had tripped his switch from pleading

with Susanna to hooking up with an ex-con and follow-

ing her to the Adirondacks. Alice’s own reasons

wouldn’t have passed muster with her grandma, she

knew, but at least she was trying to get to a place where

she wouldn’t have to resort to cutting corners. She

would lead a good life once she got to Australia.

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219

She didn’t want to
hurt
Susanna, just get some

money off her. Alice knew she was damn near to pop-

ping up on Beau McGarrity’s hit list. That lent more ur-

gency to her mission with Destin. Get the money and

clear out before McGarrity caught up to her. Susanna

would probably understand, if she knew the truth. A

hundred grand for an idiot like Destin—Alice could see

Susanna not going for that. But for herself? For a

woman who’d only tried to do good and now just needed

cash for a fresh start? Susanna had to understand that.

Ranger Jack wouldn’t. No way. Alice would be in

handcuffs and on her way back to prison.

“What’re we going to do?” Destin asked.

“Ratchet up the pressure.”

She sat on the edge of her bed, trying to think fast. She’d

learned to juggle options and pieces of information faster

in prison—it was a matter of survival. But she was still a

plodder. It was in all her fitness reports.
Alice Parker needs

to think faster on her feet.
If she were better at it, she prob-

ably wouldn’t have made such a mess of the crime scene

when she’d seen her monogrammed change purse in

Rachel’s blood and realized Beau was trying to frame her.

Destin resumed his pacing, occasionally raking both

hands through his hair and pausing at the mirror above

her dresser to sigh at his reflection.

“What if you go back to Susanna’s cabin?” she said.

He turned around and shook his head. “I didn’t make

any headway with her out there yesterday. She just said

no, no, no.” He sounded like a three-year-old. “Then

Jack showed up. Man, that guy scares me. He did
not

like me being there.”

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Carla Neggers

Alice stood up and took him by the arm, squeezing

it. “
Listen
to me, damn it. You need to go on over there

and toss the place, make it look as if somebody went

through there looking for something. Make it look pur-

poseful, but leave scars. You know, enough of a mess so

they know someone was there.”

“What the hell for? We found out what we needed

to know at Iris’s place. We
know
Susanna’s worth ten

million—”

“This isn’t for information. This is for effect.”

“For Christ’s sake, if I get caught—”

“You’re Susanna’s friend. You’ve known Iris all your

life. You grew up in her neighborhood. If you get caught,

you just say you stopped by for a visit, heard a noise and

came in to check it out, and here’s the place tossed. You

fall back on your friendship.”

He breathed out, still uncertain. “Do you think

this’ll work?”

“Yes, but I can’t explain why. Susanna’s up here for

a reason, and we can use it to our advantage. She doesn’t

like to be afraid, let me put it that way.” Alice wasn’t

sure she was making any sense, but she couldn’t think

of another option that would both put pressure on Su-

sanna and convince Beau that Susanna did indeed still

have the tape and Alice had gotten it from her. “You’re

the one who said we need to get under her skin. Once

she realizes it’s just easier to give you the money than

have you pestering her—”

“Not give,” Destin said. “She’s investing in a com-

pany that’ll turn her lousy hundred thousand into mil-

lions. She’ll get back every dime and then some.”

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221

“Right.” And her eyewitness was going to put Beau

McGarrity on death row, not land her own butt in state

prison. “I think this can work, Destin. At least let’s give

it a shot.”

“It’s not risk-free, but if I do it right—well, it’s about

as close to being risk-free as anything I can think of

that’d get to Susanna. She’ll bite. I know it. We’ll work

things out between us, too. This’ll prove how commit-

ted I am to this idea.”

It’d prove what a greedy jackass he was, but Susanna

probably already knew that.

“I have to do something dramatic to convince her,”

he went on. “I know she thinks I’m a has-been.”

Alice had known people like him in prison. Blaming

everybody else for why they were serving time. Their

lawyers, the judge, society, the system. At least she

didn’t blame anyone but herself. She’d made mistakes

the night she found Rachel McGarrity, and because of

them, she’d gone to prison and Beau McGarrity was still

a free man.

“You don’t have to steal anything,” she told Destin.

“That’d put you in real trouble with the law. You’d never

be able to explain swiping petty cash off the kitchen

table.”

He eyed her, rubbing the back of his neck. “I hear you.”

“It’s a beautiful day. Everyone at breakfast was ex-

cited about the fresh snow. Iris and Susanna are obvi-

ously seeing the sights, but I bet Jack and the twins are

out, too. You want to be careful, though, and make sure

he didn’t head out on his own and leave Maggie and

Ellen back at the cabin.”

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“Right.”

Destin was with the program, serious now, seeing

the possibilities as his optimism and entitlement

started working together again. Alice was also feeling

better. “We should clear out of here. I’ll check us out

after you leave. You can hike into the cabin again—I

don’t know, say you’re investigating the ice-fishing if

someone asks.”

“We’ll need to meet somewhere.”

Alice nodded. She’d already thought of this. “The

north end of Blackwater Lake is owned by a rich fam-

ily that never comes up here anymore. Iris told me about

them. Anyway, there’s a geological survey map of the

lake on the wall by the front desk downstairs. Take a

look at it on your way out. There’s a house up there, not

right on the shore but close—it’s marked on the map.”

Destin frowned. “You expect me to hike out to Su-

sanna’s cabin, then all the way up to the north end of

the lake?”

“It’s not as far as you might think. It’s shorter, actu-

ally, to go on foot along the lake than to drive. You’ll

see when you look at the map. I can park at the house

and hike down to the lake—there’s a little teahouse on

the shore where we can meet.” She smiled, trying to en-

courage him. “I’ll bring you hot coffee.”

“I don’t know—”

“Destin, if anything happens, no one will think to

look for us there. It’ll buy us time to get out of town.”

She sighed. “Look, it’s the best I can do. If you have a

better idea, now’s the time.”

“No—no, this’ll work. I thought about training for

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223

Everest, you know, back when I had money, so the snow

and the cold won’t bother me.”

Because he’d
thought
about training for Everest.

Alice didn’t say a word.

He headed for the door, his eyes shining again with

enthusiasm. “I think Susanna’ll go for half a million.”