The House Guests Read online

  “Get in the car,” Roxanne said. “I’m going to see what I can find out. I can peek in the kitchen through the swinging door windows.”

  “I can’t get in the car. He locked it and took the keys. Besides, I’m not going to let you risk your life.”

  “If I thought it was risky, I wouldn’t go. But that’s my mama in there and I’m not taking chances. Everybody can sort this out later on full stomachs.” Roxanne waved down the block. “Stay in sight and don’t go far. Just far enough.”

  Pulling keys from her purse, Roxanne opened the door. Savannah noticed she didn’t lock it behind her. She probably wasn’t taking a chance on being locked inside, just in case. Savannah didn’t debate for long. She eased over to the porch that ran along the sidewalk and hid behind a column where she was least likely to be seen from inside. Then she peered into the room. The glass was lightly tinted and the glare from inside made it hard to make out much. Still, she didn’t notice movement. Roxanne had already disappeared and was most likely in the kitchen.

  She didn’t hear anything, although she expected Roxanne to come out any moment and beckon her inside. Nothing happened.

  Her choices were all bad. She could follow Roxanne’s lead and try to peek through the doors into the kitchen, but that might not have turned out well. She could call the police and tell them there might be a robbery in progress, but what if they showed up with sirens blaring and started a terrible chain of events inside? Or what if they showed up and found nothing more sinister than bottles of cheap ouzo and empty plates of calamari?

  She went with her final choice, slipping away from the windows to follow the path Nick had taken. Once in the back she could shelter behind the dumpster and see what was going on.

  The space between buildings was dark, and she stumbled over a mound of cardboard boxes. Finally in the alley, she started toward the Kouzina, listening carefully as she crept closer. The lot behind the restaurant was crowded, and there was a car parked on the walkway blocking the back door. The driver had backed in, like someone who wanted to make a quick exit. As she edged around it, she recognized the Georgia license plate, like so many she’d seen on her trip with Will, complete with peach. That was suspicious enough. More suspicious was the man on the back steps with his gun drawn.

  Nick.

  He glanced at her, glared and motioned for her to get down. If everything was all right, he would have motioned her inside instead.

  She knew better than to move closer. Nick might waste time trying to protect her. She couldn’t go inside. She couldn’t rescue her mother or anyone else. There was one thing she could do, though. She could make sure the suspicious car that Will’s uncle had driven here was stuck right where it was for the foreseeable future.

  She said a brief prayer of gratitude to a God who had sent Helia into her life, pulled one of the pins out of her hair and silently set to work.

  47

  TRAVIS STILL APPEARED TO be breathing, even though he was unconscious at Darryl’s feet. Amber didn’t know what had happened before she and Cassie were beckoned at gunpoint into the kitchen. She didn’t see blood, and she hadn’t heard shots—even though Darryl was holding a gun massive enough to easily kill everyone in the room. When she had tried to kneel and find a pulse, Darryl had kicked her away.

  The bandanna and the stocking cap didn’t fool her. Darryl had probably planned to pass off his presence at the Kouzina as a burglary. Only Amber would guess his identity, and he could quickly dispense with her. Most likely he already had an alibi. There would be cohorts in West Virginia schooled to say that he had been with them all night.

  The kitchen smelled like smoke and hot grease. Cassie had steadied her after Darryl kicked her, and now Roxanne stood by the swinging doors, like a guard afraid someone else might try to enter.

  “You,” he said, pointing the gun in Amber’s direction. “I’m getting out of here, and I’m taking you and the boy.” He swung the barrel of his gun toward Will. “As hostages.”

  “You don’t need hostages,” Cassie said. “Just leave. You—”

  “Shut up!”

  Roxanne finished Cassie’s thought. “Get out while you can, mister. You haven’t done anything yet, and nobody’s going to catch you.”

  “I’m going to shoot everybody here if you open your mouth again!”

  “Leave my mother,” Will said. “I’ll go with you. This is my fault.”

  “You shut up, too!”

  Amber knew Darryl didn’t want to kill anybody right there in the kitchen. He wanted to get rid of his two problems outside of town, where no one would find them.

  “This is between you and me,” she said. “Leave them out of it.”

  “You come over here.”

  She didn’t move. “Nobody here knows you. We can settle things, but just us. You can tie up the others. It will be a long time before anybody finds them. We’ll be gone.”

  She couldn’t see his expression behind the bandit bandanna, but his eyes were shining, as if the whole scene was feeding something inside him, the same dark, twisted impulses that had made it easy for him to kill his brother.

  He swung the gun toward Will. “Want me to shoot the boy? You think I won’t? You don’t think I’ll kill this little bastard if you don’t get over here, Heather? I killed his father for less.”

  There was a loud screech near the stove. Yiayia put her hands over her mouth.

  “I’m not in the habit of killing old ladies.” Darryl swung the gun toward her. “But I will just the same if you make another sound.”

  Hands raised, Yiayia backed closer to the stove, and Amber realized that Darryl intended to kill all of them anyway. She doubted that multiple deaths had been his intention, but now everyone in the kitchen knew this was something far more personal than a robbery. Even fake alibi witnesses wouldn’t save Darryl if anyone in the kitchen tonight lived to tell the tale.

  Cassie had obviously reached the same conclusion. “More people are on their way here.”

  “Then we’ll need to act fast, won’t we?” He motioned with his gun toward Will. “Get your ass over here, boy, or I’ll shoot your mother to hurry you along.”

  “You go, Willy,” Yiayia said, giving him a little push. “Hold on tight to your mother.”

  Amber shook her head at Will, but he came anyway. “Just take me,” he told Darryl.

  Darryl moved closer to the stove to shove the boy toward Amber with the barrel of his gun. “Now you two put your arms around each other’s waists, nice and cozy like. That’s how I want you to go out the door together. Don’t either of you try to run. I’ll be right behind you, and even if I miss one of you, I’ll shoot the one that’s left behind.”

  Will fell against Amber, and she slipped her arm around his waist. “We’re doing—”

  Darryl took a step toward her. “Shut up!”

  There was a loud clang from the stove, pan against metal. Yiayia, brandishing the industrial-size frying pan that had been heating on the front burner for the calamari, threw the contents at Darryl’s head. He screeched and fell backward, directly on top of Travis, who had risen to a crouch. Travis grabbed for his legs to bring him down, but Darryl fired wildly as he tried to wipe the smoking grease from his eyes.

  The back door flew open. Nick was silhouetted against the outside lights with his service weapon aimed straight at Darryl. “Drop the gun! Now.”

  Darryl, still pawing at his eyes, fired wildly again, and Nick flattened himself to the side of the doorway. Darryl stumbled past him, firing blindly as he went. Nick followed, but didn’t shoot.

  “Lock the door!” Yiayia shouted.

  “Savannah!” Roxanne yelled. “Savannah’s probably out there somewhere.”

  Amber grabbed Cassie, who leaped forward to go after Darryl. Travis stumbled to his feet, and Amber saw blood soaking through the side of his shirt.
/>   She launched herself at him to catch him if he fell. “He shot you.”

  “Sure tried.” He sounded shaky.

  Outside they heard a man screaming obscenities, and another shot.

  Then there was silence.

  Everything had happened so quickly no one had managed to lock the door. Roxanne threw herself across the room to do it now, but it opened before she could get there.

  Savannah stepped into the kitchen and closed it behind her. They heard sirens coming down the alley and saw the flash of lights.

  “Nick’s okay. The...” She paused as if she couldn’t think of the right word. “The other guy’s in handcuffs now. He was trying to leave.” She turned her palms up.

  “Travis...” Amber had to let go of her son, knowing he was all right, and lifted Travis’s shirt. The bullet had grazed his side, and it was bleeding, but she thought maybe the bullet had kept going. She grabbed dish towels from the counter and wadded one against the wound.

  The door opened, and Nick came in, along with a second cop, a woman who took in the scene, shaking her head.

  “He needs to get to the hospital,” Amber said, motioning toward Travis. “He was hit.”

  Travis looked embarrassed. “I’m going to be fine. It’s already stopped bleeding.”

  Nick pointed to the chairs around the table. “EMTs are on the way. You sit, and we’ll get someone to check you out. Anybody else hurt?”

  “Mama threw hot grease at his head.” Roxanne circled the crowd and went to Yiayia, making her show her hands. “With or without the calamari, Mama?”

  “You think I’d waste fresh calamari?”

  Roxanne gave a shaky laugh. “Nick, the EMT needs to look at her, too.”

  Yiayia scoffed. “I get worse burns every day I cook. All these years my hands are like leather.”

  Cassie grabbed Savannah and the two were hugging each other tight.

  “Helia’s a good friend to have in a situation like this one,” Savannah said.

  Cassie held her away, frowning. “Helia’s out there? She brought you here?”

  “Not exactly.” Savannah paused, but then she sighed. “Nick will explain.”

  “You explain.”

  “I kind of drove myself. Then...well, when I realized what was happening in here, I kind of let the air out of that guy’s tires.”

  “You did what?”

  “Helia showed me how, but she doesn’t do it anymore.” She looked over to Will, who was being hugged hard by his mother. “That guy? He’s who I think he is?”

  Amber answered instead. “That guy’s name is Darryl Hawken. His brother, Billy, was Will’s father.” She thought of everything she would have to explain, all the years of running, of hiding, of giving up a normal life to keep herself and her son safe. She wondered how their lives would unfold now. If the law did its job, they would never have to hide from Darryl again, but she wondered if she would know how to live a normal life. In one place. With real friends. With Travis. With Cassie.

  Most of all, she wondered if Billy could finally be put to rest.

  “There’s so much to tell you.” She embraced Will again, and then she let him go. “But this is most important. Your father was nothing like his brother. He was a wonderful young man, and you are every bit Billy’s son. He would be so proud of you.”

  “This is all my fault.”

  “No, it’s mine,” Savannah said, slipping her arm around Will’s waist. “I’m the one who couldn’t leave well enough alone.”

  Amber spoke for everyone else in the room. “There’s only one person at fault. The one who is out there in police custody. And if there’s any justice in the world, he’ll never interfere in our lives again.”

  * * *

  Finally back at home for the night, Cassie handed Amber a mug of herbal tea, since that was all the liquid comfort she had in the house. Savannah and Will were in Savannah’s room, probably conferring about everything that had taken place.

  “Travis is sleeping?” Cassie asked. They had given Travis painkillers at the emergency room, and afterward Will, who felt responsible for his injury, wouldn’t let him go home. He had given Travis his bed and intended to sleep on the sofa in the sitting room tonight where Will could hear him if he woke and needed anything.

  “The pills knocked him out. I’m going to sleep in the den.”

  “No, you sleep in my suite. My futon is great.” Cassie flopped down on the sofa beside Amber. “Heather? Your real name?”

  “Heather Parsons. I had to change it after Billy was killed.”

  “Amber suits you.”

  Amber sipped the tea, although her stomach was still tied in knots. “I’ve told Will enough to satisfy him, at least for tonight. I don’t have photos or mementos to pass on, just memories. There’s probably nothing left of Billy’s back in Chaslan, except maybe school yearbook photos. We can call the library and high school to see if we can find those when things settle.”

  “His parents?”

  “His mother died a few years after Billy did. His father’s been gone awhile, too. I’m sure they thought Billy left town with me. According to Betsy, that was the story that went around. I’m sure his mother was so disappointed he didn’t get in touch, just to tell her he was okay. His father may have suspected the truth or worse, he might have known. But he wouldn’t have done anything about it.”

  “Everyone heard Darryl say he killed him.”

  Amber was silent a moment, remembering the full horror of the night it had happened.

  “You okay?” Cassie asked.

  “Nick says he’s going to work with the authorities in West Virginia, hopefully get cadaver dogs out to the Hawken property to see what they can find. Maybe now that Darryl’s safely in jail, somebody will come forward. His uncle’s still alive, so maybe if the law goes after him, he’ll save himself and tell them what they want to know. Loyalty’s never been much of a prize in the Hawken family.”

  “I’m glad Travis is going to be fine. Yiayia told me that when he saw Darryl holding a gun on Will, he jumped him. They fought, and Darryl managed to hit him with the gun and knock him out,” Cassie said.

  “My hero.”

  “Everybody’s.”

  Amber still couldn’t find the strength to smile. “Do you know why Nick didn’t fire at Darryl when he pushed past him?”

  “Because Savannah was out there, where she wasn’t supposed to be, of course. He was afraid he might hit her. Otherwise, I’m guessing Darryl would be dead. As it is, he wounded him once he tried to get in his car. Not that getting in would have done much good.”

  “With everything that was going on, Savannah still managed to let the air out of his tires.”

  “She’s a natural for a life of crime. She told me how. Twist the cap off the valve stem, put something sharp into the hole, push. She used her hairpins.”

  “She gets all kinds of points for quick thinking under pressure.”

  “Do you know what happened before we got there?”

  “Will told me. He was taking garbage out to the dumpster for Yiayia. Darryl was waiting in the dark beyond the lights at the back. He came out of nowhere and told Will he was his uncle, but Will had the good sense to realize he must have tracked him down for some other reason. He told Darryl he was going to go inside and get me—I think Darryl asked him to. But when he got close to the back door he took off. Darryl got inside before Will could lock the door. Apparently Darryl had hoped to grab us both and disappear.”

  “How did he trace Will to Tarpon Springs?”

  “When the kids were in Georgia looking for Roger Hart’s grave, Will had to hand over his license a couple of times. Nick thinks Darryl flew to Atlanta and rented a car because Will said he lived in the town of Blayney. Will had sent him a photo of himself in front of the Blayney library. So he probably showed
it around and ended up with Will’s address from his license.”

  “Both Will and Savannah were so sure they’d covered their tracks.”

  Amber couldn’t stop thinking about the past. “And now you know why I had to run. He wanted to silence me in the worst way, and once he knew I had a son, he thought he was in twice as much danger. I’m not sure how I managed to stay ahead of him. Luck, some. A desire to live, more. And I had to do it without explaining the truth to Will.”

  Cassie covered her hand. “Will’s been through a lot. He’s going to feel guilty and angry at everybody for a while. He could probably use some help working through this.”

  “Spoken like the psychiatrist’s wife. Help me find somebody good, okay? You’ll know what to look for.”

  “You may need help, too, so you can put the whole story to rest.”

  “Nobody knows the whole story.”

  “Have you told enough of it to start healing?”

  Amber wasn’t sure. She felt her way, ready to stop if Cassie resisted. “There was something else. Something even Betsy doesn’t know.” She turned to see Cassie better and measure her expression. “How much do we have to tell, do you think, to find peace?”

  “As much as feels right.” Cassie squeezed her hand. “Are you asking if I want to hear the rest?”

  “You may not want to.”

  “I do if you want to tell me.”

  “I never...” Amber drew a deep, shaky breath and her eyes filled with tears. “The night Darryl killed Billy...” She tried again. “You remember what I told you?”

  Cassie nodded, as if she didn’t want to interrupt.

  “I told you I got away. And it’s true. But...” She covered her mouth with her fist until she could speak again. “Not soon enough, Cassie. Darryl saw me when I tried to run, and then he grabbed me. It was clear he was going to kill me. But before he did...” She shuddered. “He was high on adrenaline, or maybe something worse. He had just killed his brother, but...”