The Perfect Letter Page 26

  She was about to start packing up the cottage when she heard Chloe’s orange Karmann Ghia pulling up to the winery once more, the muffler rattling, tires skidding to a halt in a hail of gravel, the car doors slamming. Chloe seemed to be drawing as much attention to herself as was humanly possible.

  “Jesus, Chloe,” Leigh said, coming down the hill in her bare feet, “take it easy! I already gave it to him. He just left.”

  “You didn’t!” Chloe said. “I told you not to! Don’t you read your own damn text messages?”

  “What’s the point?” Leigh groaned. “He’s got me, Chloe. I didn’t have a choice—”

  Then Jake was flinging open the passenger door, a frown contorting his features. Leigh’s stomach tightened. She didn’t want to see him, didn’t want him here. From what Russell had told her, Jake was in on the scheme as much as Russell and Ben; more so, since he’d seduced her and then told the other two where she was. The sight of him there, at that moment, just reminded her of how foolish she’d really been.

  “Where did he go?” Jake demanded.

  “What do you care?”

  Jake gave her a strange look. “Chloe told you not to pay him, Leigh. He’s a dirtball. But don’t worry, I think we can get the money back from him.”

  “Sure,” Leigh said, barely containing her anger. “That part of the plan, too? Pretending you don’t know what he’s up to? Seducing me and then dumping me again so you could scam me for my trust fund?”

  Jake crossed the distance between them in three long strides, grabbing Leigh hard by the shoulders. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Russell told me everything.”

  Jake’s fingers tightened on her shoulders. “What did he tell you?”

  “That you’re in business with him and your dad. That you’re the one who led them to me. And I let you. I even slept with you. Jesus, I’m so stupid. I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”

  Chloe said, “Leigh, hold on—”

  “Stay out of this, Chloe,” she said. “You only know part of it.”

  Jake was breathing like a bronc in a rodeo pen, his skin rippling with anger. “You think that’s why I’m here? To help Russell and my dad rip you off?”

  Leigh was exquisitely angry, filled with a fury towering into a thunderhead; she wouldn’t back down now. “That’s what Russell told me.”

  “And you believed him? I told you he’s a con artist, Leigh! He’d say anything to make you feel like you were out of options.”

  Leigh, didn’t know who or what to believe, she only knew that she’d lost everything, that she’d never felt so alone. Russell had said Jake was involved, and it had sounded like sense to Leigh, who had been bewildered by Jake’s erratic behavior ever since he turned up at the conference, telling her he loved her, he wanted her, then disappearing again in a fit of anger.

  “It sure is a coincidence that he turned up the same time as you,” she said.

  “It sure is a coincidence that he turned up the first time you came back to Texas. You ever think of that?” Jake said. “It’s not like you were in the witness protection program, Leigh! Your face was in every newspaper and magazine for five hundred miles. The governor probably knew you were coming, for God’s sake.”

  “Maybe I want to believe him,” she said, lifting her chin. “Maybe Russell makes more sense than you do, showing up here, telling me you still love me, and then running away again.”

  “I can’t believe you’d think so little of me, after everything.”

  Leigh’s anger, which just a moment ago had burned white-hot, started to collapse on itself. If she was wrong . . .

  “I don’t know what I think,” she said at last. “I only know you left. You could have stayed, but you left me, Jake. You told me it was over, said I should have a nice life. What was I supposed to think?”

  “Hey, Romeo and Juliet, can we talk about this later?” Chloe asked, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other like a junkie waiting for a fix. “Which way did Russell go?”

  Leigh was still looking at Jake, whose eyes were sparking anger. “He took off down the road about five minutes ago,” she said. “Just before you got here.”

  “Which way?” Jake demanded.

  “I don’t know! Left!” Leigh shouted. “What the hell difference does it make?”

  “Get in, Leigh,” Jake said.

  “Why? I—”

  “Leigh, get in,” Chloe said. “We have to catch him.”

  “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Leigh demanded.

  “Leigh,” Jake said, “we got the letters. The copies Russell made of your letters. We found them. We took them.”

  “What?”

  “Look.” Jake held up a fat manila envelope. Leigh opened it to see a stack of photocopies, four years’ worth of letters written in her own hand. “Where did you find these?”

  “Ben’s truck,” said Chloe.

  “He’s been leaving it parked behind Dot’s Diner lately, since he’s been sleeping with Dot,” Jake said. “When you first told me what Russell was up to, I started looking through my dad’s apartment, his office, but I never found any of the letters, nothing but his phone bill with a bunch of calls to Russell’s cell. I knew he wouldn’t let Russell keep the only copies of the letters. He never trusts other people with something this important. When Chloe found my place and told me Russell was coming back for the money this morning, I remembered to look in the truck. He had them in the glove box, same place he stashed the drugs.”

  “The man’s consistent,” Chloe said. “You have to give him that.”

  Jake never took his eyes off the envelope in Leigh’s hands. “You’re safe,” he said. “My dad and Russell, they can’t touch you, not anymore. It would be your word against theirs.” He raised his chin, giving her a grim look. “Unless you think I’m still part of my father’s scam to get my hands on your trust fund.”

  Leigh was completely, thoroughly rattled. She wanted to believe him. She wanted it more than anything, but the sands had shifted under her feet so many times the past few days that she always felt like she was about to fall. Wrung out, on the brink of tears, she asked, “Is this the truth, Jake?”

  He crossed the distance between them and kissed her, deeply and firmly, so there could be no doubt any longer of his heart. “I couldn’t hurt you,” he said. “I never would. I swore to protect you my whole life, Leigh. That hasn’t changed.”

  She felt like weeping, but she wouldn’t—she was spent. She looked at the spot in the middle of his chest, the place where she always used to rest her head. She wanted to do so again now, but she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t, she absolutely would not.

  She said, “I don’t know who I can trust anymore.”

  “You can trust me,” he said. “You know me. You know it’s never been about the money for me, Leigh. I just wanted you. That’s all.”

  Leigh felt like she could hardly breathe. After everything she and Jake had been through—after everything they had put each other through—he had still helped Chloe find the letters and bring them to Leigh. He had still rushed right out to find out where Russell was and what he was up to. That had to count for something, especially against the word of a con artist. If Jake were in it with Russell and Ben, he wouldn’t even be standing in front of her now, would he? He’d be off spending her money, celebrating with them. There was no reason for him to be here anymore, none but one—that he still loved her.

  She took a deep breath and blew it out again, slowly. “Okay,” she said. “I believe you. You’re not involved with Russell. I believe you, Jake.” It felt good to trust him again. She took a step toward him. “You might be the most stubborn man who ever lived, but I know you’d never deliberately try to hurt me.”

  “Thank you,” he said. His voice was low and husky with emotion. “That means a lot to me. I know my dad hasn’t made it easy for you to believe in me, but I hope I can prove to you that I’m not a part of his sche
mes. That I never will be, not again.”

  “Aw, ain’t that sweet?” Chloe said, stepping between them before they could embrace. “But can we get going before Russell gets away? This is the most fun I’ve had in years, and I am not letting you two spoil it for me.”

  They were less than a mile outside the town limits of Burnside when they spotted the taillights of Russell’s brown Chevy up ahead, braking as he turned off the highway and into the dirt driveway of an abandoned homestead. As they pulled up, they saw the drive lead through an overgrown green pasture to a small wooden house faded to a peeling salmon pink. Out back an old dairy barn had collapsed like a diseased lung, and a series of small outbuildings with broken windows showed spaces filled with rusted-out farm equipment, old oil-company signs, a creaking windmill leaning at an impossible angle. An old hardware-store sign staked next to the drive read NO TRESPASSING in bright orange letters.

  Chloe drove past the driveway a little ways, then pulled up and stopped along the grassy ditch, pulling to the side away from traffic. She left the engine running.

  The whole thing made Leigh nervous—the situation, the scene. It was Russell’s place, Russell’s advantage. They had no idea what the inside of the house looked like, but if the outside was any indication, it would be a hoarder’s paradise, probably covered in boxes and crammed with old newspapers and overrun with mice. Even now Russell was probably stashing the money someplace deep inside the house. It was possible they could tear the house apart and never find it. Not a good situation in the best of circumstances. In these circumstances, well . . .

  “What do we think, kids?” Chloe asked. “Do we go in or not?”

  But Jake already had his hand on the handle of the door. “I’m going,” he said. “You two stay here.”

  “No way,” said Leigh. “I’m not staying in the car.” She was thinking of all the ways this situation could go wrong, not to mention that she was terrified of what might happen to Jake in that house, with that man. What would Russell do when he realized his back was up against a wall?

  But Jake was having none of it. “He might have a gun, Leigh. In fact, I’d be shocked if he didn’t. I don’t want you risking yourself again over my father’s stupid schemes.”

  “Russell won’t shoot me,” said Leigh. “He’s having too much fun ripping me off. You should have seen him gloat this morning.”

  Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “What happens when he stops having fun?” he asked. “You think of that?”

  “You said he was in prison for fraud,” said Leigh. “You really think he’d risk a murder charge?”

  “He might,” said Jake, “for a million dollars. A lot of people would.”

  “Then he’ll have to shoot all three of us at once,” said Chloe. “Come on. We can’t let him get away with it. At least not without trying. Let him see he’s outnumbered.”

  Jake groaned, but Leigh was already halfway down the driveway. Chloe got out and slammed the car door. “Quietly,” Jake said. “We don’t want to make him more nervous than he is already. And let me go first, at least. Give me the letters, Leigh.”

  “Why?”

  “I think I have an idea how I might get him to talk to me.”

  She handed over the envelope. They went silently through the tall grass, the grasshoppers leaping whenever they came near, the buzz of cicadas rising and falling in the heat. The grass and the numerous outbuildings hid their approach from the road, but they kept their eyes on the front door the whole time.

  The house looked like it had sat abandoned for some time until Russell decided to make it his place. Leigh wondered briefly if the place was in fact his or if he’d just started squatting there after he got out of Huntsville. Out front, the porch was covered with lawn chairs and empty paint buckets and maybe two or three years’ worth of dust. The screen door was open in the heat, and a scrawny cat scratched at it forlornly, begging to come inside. In the corner of the eaves, an enormous yellow spiderweb flickered in the breeze. The smell of old motor oil and creosote clung to everything.

  “Adorable,” said Chloe. “It looks like a serial killer’s hideout.”

  “Quiet,” hissed Jake.

  Behind the screen door someone was whistling. Russell’s car was the only one parked outside. The three of them, Leigh and Chloe and Jake, stood behind a cluster of sumac bushes and an old bur oak, half hidden from the front of the house.

  Then they heard Russell talking to someone. “Hey,” he said. “I got it. You coming over?” Silence. Then, “Well, don’t keep me hanging, buddy. You want your share, you better come get it.” Then more silence. “All right. See you in a bit.”

  “You think that was Ben on the phone?” Leigh whispered.

  “Yeah,” Jake said. “He’ll probably be here any minute.”

  “When he gets here, it will be two against three,” said Leigh. “I like our chances better now.”

  “Then let’s go,” Chloe said.

  Leigh started toward the house, but Jake held her arm. “Wait,” he said. “Let me go first.”

  “No way.”

  “You and Chloe wait here. Let me talk to him. I have an idea how I might find out where the money is. If things go wrong, though, I want you two to get the hell out of here.”

  “No,” she said. “I won’t leave you.”

  “You will, and you won’t tell anyone you were here, Leigh. Promise me.”

  “If he hurts you . . .”

  “I can protect myself, but I can’t protect all three of us. Promise me you will not go in that house.”

  She would promise no such thing. “You don’t have to do this, Jake.”

  He gave her a grim look. “Yes, I do.” Then he stood and went up the drive toward the house, his white T-shirt shining in the sun like a flag of surrender.

  Leigh watched him go with a measure of trepidation and not a little breathlessness. What did Jake think he was going to do, going in there alone? It was unlikely Russell would tell him where he’d hidden the money, but maybe Jake knew something that would trick Russell into admitting it. Jake had known Russell for years; they’d been cellmates, and probably Jake had more insight into Russell’s way of thinking than just about anybody, including Ben. If anyone could talk him into revealing where he’d hidden the money, it might just be Jake.

  She and Chloe held back and waited, bracing themselves when they heard Jake knock on the screen door three times fast.

  “Hey, Russell,” he said. “Russell. It’s me, Jake.”

  Russell’s dusty form appeared behind the screen door. From where she stood behind the sumac, Leigh couldn’t see his face, but she could hear a certain amount of hesitation in his voice as he said, “Jake. Hey, buddy. Long time no see.” His body language, even through the screen door, looked tense, almost hostile, belying the politeness of his tone. “What’re you doing here?”

  Their voices carried easily across the slight distance to the place where Leigh and Chloe were hiding. Leigh was immediately afraid. Be careful, Jake. Please, be careful.

  “My dad sent me. Said I was supposed to talk to you about a bit of business you got going on.”

  “Did he now.” Russell’s tone was flat. “Did he tell you what business?”

  “Nope. Just that I was supposed to come on over here.”

  Russell still looked suspicious. “How’d you get here so fast?”

  “I was in the neighborhood.”

  He must have seen the envelope in Jake’s hand, because he said, “What’re you doing with that?”

  “Old man said to bring it with me.”

  “He did, huh?” Russell held the screen door open for Jake. “You better come in, then.”

  Jake disappeared inside the house. Leigh and Chloe could still hear the two of them talking, more faintly now. Murmurs from inside. Some sounds of shuffling, then a door opening. Leigh’s heart hammered at her ribs.

  “Want a beer?” Russell asked.

  “Isn’t it a little early?” asked
Jake.

  The sound of a can hissing open. “Never too early.”

  They were moving around from room to room inside the house, so that their voices sometimes came a little more clearly, sometimes a little less. Now there was a murmur Leigh couldn’t quite make out, followed by Jake saying, “That’s right.”

  Ben was going to be there at any moment. Jake had to find out where the money was before he got there, before the odds turned against them.

  Leigh turned to Chloe and whispered, “I’m going to go closer. It’s safe.”

  “It’s only safe because he thinks Jake’s on his side.”

  “Stay here, then,” Leigh answered. “I’ll go.”

  “The hell you will.”

  “Seriously, Chloe. Stay hidden. If there’s trouble, call the police right away.”

  “You sure about that?”

  Getting the police involved in this situation would be a big problem for Leigh, but that didn’t matter anymore. They had to be safe about it. “Absolutely,” she said. “I don’t care what happens to me, no one else dies. If things start to go bad, you call right away. Got it?”

  “All right,” Chloe said, pulling out her cell phone. “Though I can’t say I’m happy about it.”

  Leigh stepped behind the sumac and walked slowly up to the front door, her vision narrowing to the screen, the shapes of Jake and Russell moving around in the shade inside, their voices coming to her in a murmur, her steps thick and slow and difficult. The front door of the house gaped like the mouth of a tomb. It took everything in her not to turn around and run.

  But if Jake was right—if the copies of the letters in his possession were the only ones—she could destroy them, she could burn them up and never have to worry again about Russell Benoit or Ben Rhodes coming after her. She’d be free. If they weren’t the only copies, it wouldn’t matter if she burned them. She had to be certain—she couldn’t face the rest of her life wondering if Russell and Ben were going to be behind every corner, under every rock. She had to know exactly what they had to keep her in line.