'Who are you?'
The same question kept being asked of me. I suppose this time I owed more explanation than simply giving my name and that I was there to help. Marianne deserved as much.
'My name is Joe Hunter.'
'So you weren't lying.' I didn't quite catch her meaning, and she went on. 'Yesterday when you introduced yourself, you told me you were called Joe.'
'I wasn't lying about the rest, either.'
'That you were there to help?'
We were in a room adjacent to the library. Rink was keeping Bradley, Seagram and the third man company. I only hoped his surliness didn't provoke a confrontation before I could reassure Marianne of our good intentions.
She'd changed since I saw her last.
She had on black trousers and pumps, a pale cream blouse. But that's not what I meant.
She looked different.
Her light brown hair was loose, full of body as though recently washed. Her skin was pink and she wafted a scent that was more delicate fragrance of soap than expensive perfume. I guessed her shower had been long and very hot. Her flight from the house on Baker Island would have meant her clothes were tinged with the reek of smoke and dust and debris. But that wasn't what she was trying to scrub away. You could wash all you wanted, but you also had to expunge the memories from your mind. It sometimes took that to remove the stench after witnessing violent death.
She was perched on the edge of a desk, her feet swinging in space. Her arms were crossed beneath her breasts. Her body language was in conflict. The swinging feet were those of a young innocent girl, but the folded arms said she was now much wiser than her years, and understood the need to protect herself. She'd experienced something that most adults never have to go through, never mind a child. She had survived where she should have died, and she was suddenly feeling her mortality weighing on her as heavy as the collapsed house she'd so narrowly escaped.
'How did you know that… that monster was coming?'
'I didn't,' I said. 'I was there for another reason.'
She stared down at her feet. They were still now.
'My father?'
'Yes. Your father asked me to bring you home.'
'I don't want to go home.'
'I understand. You're an adult now. You want to live your own life.'
She shook her head slowly. 'That's not what I meant. I don't want to leave. My life is here now. With Bradley.'
'You don't have to be afraid of him. If you want, I'll take you away from here now.'
Marianne gave a small laugh. It wasn't humour, though. Not relief. 'Afraid of him. Yes, you could say that.'
'I won't let him hurt you again,' I promised.
'If you take me home, there will be no way to stop him. You couldn't be there all the time. He'd get to me sooner or later.'
'What has he done to you, Marianne? To make you so afraid? I saw the police photographs of your assault. Why didn't you go through with an official complaint then? This would all be over now. You'd be free of him.'
Marianne gave me a look that assured me that she had grown way beyond her years even before the terror at Baker Island.
'Love,' she said. 'It doesn't matter that he hurts me, I love him. How could I have him arrested and charged? It would destroy him. I couldn't live with that.'
'Men who hurt women don't deserve your love.'
'No, maybe they don't. But I can't help my feelings. I can't turn my back on him.'
There was a knock at the door. Jorgenson entered without waiting for a reply. When he saw my face he faltered. It took all my will not to grab him by the throat and throw him through the nearest wall. As it was I clenched a fist, considering that a gut punch wouldn't be out of order. Marianne saved him from punishment.
She hopped down off her perch and went to him. She hugged him, tilted up her face and he kissed her sweetly on the tip of her nose.
'You OK, babe?' he asked, giving me a hooded glance over the top of her head.
'I'm fine, honey.'
I had to turn away.
Love's blind, they say. Must also be an anaesthetic.
Rink came in the door, followed by Seagram.
'What's going on, Rink?'
'Been explaining to Bradley what we think is going on. About who could have sent the hit man after him. Bradley has agreed that we could be helpful in stopping him.'
'We're here for Marianne,' I reminded him.
'Marianne's with me,' Jorgenson said.
I nodded once, a curt lifting of my chin. He could see the anger in my face and wasn't so sure that it would be a good idea to piss me off.
He went on, more conciliatory, 'But Mari's safety is everything to me.' He said to her, 'If it's OK with you, babe, I'll let them stay.'
Marianne looked at me. Her confidant. 'I trust them.'
'Then we'll stay.' I looked across at Rink. Concern for his ailing mother must have been gnawing at him, but he agreed with a lift of his shoulders. Then I studied the room, the huge windows. 'This place isn't safe. We should move somewhere less vulnerable.'
Jorgenson followed my gaze. The view was phenomenal. Open sky and open sea. 'What's to fear?'
'Boat out on the water. Any half-decent sniper could shoot you from half a mile out,' I explained. 'But that isn't what I was meaning.'
'So what do you mean?'
Flicking a glance over Seagram, I said, 'Not now. We'll speak again later. First I want to get Marianne somewhere a little safer.'
'My room would be OK, wouldn't it?' Marianne volunteered. 'I've things I can be getting on with.'
'How many men have you got in the house?' I asked the question directly of Seagram.
He didn't have to think long. 'Eight including myself. Then there are five staff members.'
'Unlucky thirteen,' Rink offered.
'Round them all up, Seagram. Tell them that no one goes near Marianne until this is over.'
'Wait a second,' Seagram said. 'Who put you in charge? I'm head of security here. I decide what happens.'
'No,' Jorgenson put in. 'I decide what happens. Hunter is right. The man who tried to kill us last night was in disguise. He could be anyone. Who knows? He could already be in the house.'
'I know all of my men personally,' Seagram said in outrage. 'I can vouch for each and every one of them.'
'You care for your men,' I said. 'That's good. If you want to save their lives, you keep them the fuck away from Marianne's room. That goes for you as well.'
There wasn't anything subtle in the threat. It was a full-on challenge. I expected him to back down, and he did. He turned and walked away quickly. Back in the hall, I could hear him shouting angrily at his men. I paid him no further concern. Seagram was an asshole, and things would be much better if he kept out of the way.
'He can see to your personal safety, Jorgenson. I have no objections to that. But where Marianne is concerned, it's down to us. If you happen to be with her, then, so be it. We'll protect you too.'
'I'm seeing my legal advisers in an hour,' Jorgenson said. 'They've arranged a meeting with the police. I have to explain what happened at Baker Island.'
Complication.
'It's up to you, but I'd deny that I was there. You were here on Neptune last night, and Marianne was with you.'
'You expect me to lie?'
'For the time being.' Marianne was looking at me with her mouth partly open, wondering if she'd made the wrong decision in trusting me. I said to her, 'If the police believe that you were here, their investigation will be hampered, sure. But they aren't going to stop this killer. They aren't going to stop the person who hired him. All that will happen is that more strangers are allowed into your home. The killer could infiltrate the building and get at you. Also, it will be impossible to keep you out of harm's way if you have to go into Miami to be interviewed.'
Jorgenson jammed his hands into his trouser pockets. 'My father died. Shot dead in cold blood. How do you expect me to lie about that? I was there and saw the man who did it. So did Marianne. You did. We're all witnesses.'
Jorgenson stared at me, almost a mirror image of Marianne in his open-mouthed incredulity.
'You're right. But our eyewitness testimony isn't worth shit. The killer was in disguise. He will look nothing like the man we describe.'
'How do you know it was a disguise?'
'Something I saw but didn't realise at the time. There was a pale smear on his chin. At first I thought that it was dust, but I've been thinking about it since. I now think that he had darkened his skin. The pale patch was his natural colour. His hair isn't black either.' I remembered the person in the dark blue suit stumbling away from the wreckage of the house. At the time I thought it was an innocent caught up in the blast. I'd held back from shooting him for that very reason. 'The killer had black hair, but it had to have been a wig. Really he has longish blond hair.'
'So tell the police that.'
'Won't help.'
'The police will give us all the protection we need.'
'No, they'll only give the killer more opportunities to get at you. It's better that we do it my way. This man doesn't know that I survived the blast. He doesn't know about Rink. He isn't expecting us. We'll be able to get him.'
'What if you don't?' Marianne asked. 'What if he gets you first?'
'That's when you go to the police and tell them everything.'