The cab pulled forward, then stopped, because a black Explorer with tinted windows had pulled into the other side of the drive, blocking it.
Now the cab was backing up, but the driver had paused long enough for Mary Bliss to catch up to it.
She wrenched the back door of the cab open. Parker was huddled in the backseat, his hand on the door handle.
“Where are you going?” she demanded, sliding into the seat beside him.
He shrank away from her. “Back to the hotel. I had to get out of here.”
“Is that true?” she asked the driver. “Were you taking him to a hotel?”
The driver, an emaciated-looking Ethiopian man, shrugged. “Hotel at airport?”
“You were running away again, weren’t you?” Mary Bliss said.
Parker stared out the window.
“Weren’t you?”
Finally, he turned to face her. “All right,” he snapped. “You’re right again, Mary Bliss. Yeah, I’m leaving, if you’ll get the hell out of this cab.”
“No,” Mary Bliss said. “Not again. Not before you talk to your daughter. And me. You owe us that much.”
“Come on,” Parker said, his voice wheedling. “Those guys in the house are gonna notice I’m gone pretty soon, and they’ll come looking for me.”
Mary Bliss pointed at the Explorer. “Too late,” she said. “That’s a private detective. He was hired by one of the companies you bilked. He’s not about to let you waltz away from here. And neither am I. I want some answers, dammit. I want to know why.”
“Why not?” he countered. “You can take care of yourself. You’re the most competent person in the world, Mary Bliss. And I was entirely superfluous to your existence.”
“That’s not true,” she said.
“I had to get out,” Parker said, ignoring her. “I was buried alive here. I was going crazy, day by day, and you never even noticed, you were so busy being the world’s most perfect wife and mother and neighbor.”
“Why?” Mary Bliss pleaded with him. “Why did you leave like that?”
“Because I could,” he said simply. “Once Mama was in the nursing home, once I knew she’d be taken care of for the rest of her life, I knew it would be okay. It was like I had the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders. That’s when I started tunneling my way to freedom.”
“You mean stealing,” Mary Bliss corrected him.
“I didn’t hurt anybody,” Parker said. “A little money from a lot of people, that’s the way it worked. Nobody went out of business, nobody went hungry. But I got a new life.”
“What about us? Erin and me? We nearly lost the house. You could have talked to me, told me you wanted out. I would have given you a divorce.”
“You would have wanted half of everything, and I couldn’t afford that,” Parker said. “It was my money in the first place. I was entitled to it. All of it.”
“We would have been homeless!” Mary Bliss said. “I couldn’t pay Erin’s tuition. All those bills you left. I was wild with worry. And what was I supposed to tell Erin?”
“You figured it all out,” Parker said, laughing. “I gotta hand it to you, M. B., killing me off was brilliant. I never figured you’d pull a stunt like that. Of course, you forgot to take Mama into account. You should have known she’d never accept that I was dead.”
“And you drove me to it,” Mary Bliss said, clenching her fists in rage. “I’ll never forgive you for that. I lied to my daughter to protect you. We nearly lost her, did you know that? She ran away because she thought she might be pregnant. She was scared to death, and you turned her away. Do you have any idea of what she’s been through this summer?”
“She’ll be fine,” he said. “She’s upset about Mama, sure, a little angry with me, maybe, but Erin’s a great kid. Nothing fazes her. She’s like you that way.”
Mary Bliss hauled off and slapped him then.
“Christ!” Parker exclaimed. A trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his lower lip. “You see? I could never talk to you.”
“Why don’t you talk to me now?” Mary Bliss asked, her eyes blazing. “Tell me about your new life that you bought for yourself. You were living in Key West, right?”
“That’s right,” Parker said. He reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and brought out a neatly folded handkerchief. At least that hadn’t changed about him. He was still meticulous with his appearance. He dabbed at his lower lip.
“I’ve got a new business. A bed-and-breakfast. That’s why I needed all that money. Real estate prices are astronomical in the Keys. But I don’t care. This is something totally new for me. A real adventure. Something you’d never understand.”
“An adventure.” Mary Bliss stared at him. “What makes you think I wouldn’t have wanted an adventure?”
“You? No way. There’s no way you would have picked up and moved down to Key West. No way you would have left dear old Fair Oaks. Uh-uh,” he said, shaking his head vigorously. “Anyway, it was over between us.”
“I saw the pictures of your girlfriend,” Mary Bliss said. “You didn’t think I knew about her, did you?”
“What are you talking about?” Parker asked, clearly stunned. “What pictures?”
“The pictures of you, at the ATMs. Of your new car, and the blonde, sitting in the front seat of the Range Rover. So don’t give me any crap about wanting a new life and a new adventure. You just wanted somebody new to screw, you shit!” She was screaming again, and striking out at him. He put his arms up, batting away her blows.
She saw the glint of gold at his neck then, and she reached out and yanked, as hard as she could. Mary Bliss held up her engagement ring, the broken gold chain dangling from it. “You took everything else. I’m taking this back.”
“You’re crazy,” Parker yelled. Now he dabbed at his neck, and the handkerchief came away bloody. “Look what you did. You ruined my Escada suit.”
“Uh-oh,” the Ethiopian said, looking at them in the rearview mirror, his high, bald forehead knit with worry. “I don’t want any trouble. Maybe you get out now.”
“Shut up!” Mary Bliss snapped.
“A girlfriend?” Parker said, his laugh nasty. “That wasn’t a girlfriend in the Range Rover. That was Russell.”
“Russell?” Mary Bliss was remembering the photos. The blonde shoulder-length hair nearly hidden by the baseball cap.
“My business partner,” Parker said smugly. “I met him in the real estate office. He’s the one that found the bed-and-breakfast for me.”
“Russell?”
“You talked to him when you called down there the night Mama went in the hospital,” Parker said impatiently. “He was sitting in the pew right behind you in church today.”
“Your partner? Parker, are you telling me you’re gay now? Is that what this is all about?”
“Uh-oh,” the Ethiopian said quietly. “This is very bad. You get out now. No charge. Okay?”
“Shut up!” Parker screamed. “Turn around and shut the fuck up.” His tan had turned to a mottled purple. “You see!” he yelled at Mary Bliss. “That’s why I had to get out. You take things and you just twist them around. You have no idea who I really am.”
Mary Bliss clenched and unclenched her fists. She was angrier than she’d ever been in her life. But she spoke calmly, quietly. She didn’t want to spook the cab driver again.
“I think I deserve some answers here, Parker. I was married to you for twenty years. Just tell me the truth. I deserve that. Which is it? Did you leave me because you hate me, or did you leave me because you found out you’re gay?”
“I am not gay!” Parker shouted. “Did you tell Erin that? Did you tell my daughter I’m gay? Is that why she’s so angry with me?”
“I told her nothing,” Mary Bliss shouted back. “I hid everything from her until after your mama died.”
“You’ll turn her against me. She’ll think I’m a fag.”
“No,” Mary Bliss said. “She’s just going to think you’re a sorry excuse for a man. I think she could deal with your being gay, if you could be honest about that.”
“I am not gay!” Parker screamed, pounding the back of the driver’s seat.
The Ethiopian turned around. “No more hitting seat. Okay?”
“I was so dumb,” Mary Bliss said, shaking her head in wonderment. “So dumb. I tried to keep Erin from learning the truth about you. But she’s going to be eighteen pretty soon. She’s a woman. She’s loved a man and been left brokenhearted. She found out all by herself how sorry a man can be. And I hate that. Not all men are like Isaac Brownlee. Or even like you. There are fine, decent men in the world. I know that now. That’s one favor you did me, Parker, by leaving. You didn’t leave me any options. I had to find out about myself. And about you. I had to find out what marriage really was and wasn’t. I got smart in a hurry. You forced that on me.”
“Hooray for you!” Parker said, clapping his hands in mock glee. “Hooray for brilliant, wonderful Mary Bliss McGowan. But don’t think I haven’t heard what’s been going on around here while I’ve been gone. I heard you found a new man already.”
Mary Bliss pressed her lips together to keep from screaming again.
“Okay,” the Ethiopian said. He’d turned all the way around and was facing them now. “Everything settled. You go, lady. I take man to airport. Okay?”
“No,” Mary Bliss said. “We’re not done here yet.”
“What do you want?” Parker asked, staring nervously at the Explorer, whose motor was still running.
“I want the title to the house,” she said. “I want you to pay it off with all that money you stole. It’s the least you can do. I’ve got lawyer’s expenses, and I’m still paying off all that debt you’ve saddled me with. But the most important thing is Erin. I need money to pay her tuition. You owe her that.”
Parker laughed. “Money. I should have known that’s what it all comes down to. Well, you’re shaking the wrong tree, Mary Bliss. I’ve sunk every damn dime into the bed-and-breakfast. And it’s all in Russell’s name. So even if I do get arrested, you won’t be able to get your hands on it.”
He laughed again. He was actually enjoying himself. “But don’t worry, there’s always good old Meemaw.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mary Bliss asked. Her head was starting to pound. She shouldn’t have chugged that Bloody Mary.
“Charlie called me this morning. About Mama’s will.”
“Let me guess. She left me the dusting powder and Erin the martini shaker.”
“That and the house down in Griffin, a trust fund for Erin, and some assorted stocks and bonds. In short, everything.”
“I don’t believe you,” Mary Bliss said, her head throbbing. “Eula was broke. She ran through her granddaddy’s money years ago.”
“Actually, she was loaded. Charlie says there’s a couple million just in mutual funds. Mama was just testing us. To see if we really loved her. If we’d take care of her ’til the end. Another one of her goddamned games.”
“So you’re a rich man,” Mary Bliss said. “How does it feel?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Parker said, his smile bitter. “She left me exactly zip. Nada. It all goes to you and Erin.”
“You’re such a liar. I was just with Charlie. He never said a word.”
“Mama’s instructions. He only broke the bad news to me today when I asked him for an advance on my inheritance. To pay for my lawyer. Charlie says Mama called him late last week, insisting he come over to the nursing home. She wanted to amend her will. Up until then, I was her sole beneficiary. Right up until last week. She told Charlie she’d changed her mind. She told him as far as she was concerned, I was dead.”
“But she knew you weren’t dead,” Mary Bliss said, interrupting. “She never believed me. She kept all your postcards. I found them in her room, after she’d gone to the hospital.”
Parker kept dabbing at his lip, even though the blood had dried now. “Control. Mama was all about control. She called me, to tell me Erin was in trouble. ‘You’ve had your fling,’ she said. ‘You’ve had three months now to get it out of your system. Come on home, boy.’ That’s what she called me. Boy. ‘I’m sick. I’m dying,’ she said. ‘Erin’s in trouble. Time to do right by your family.’ ”
“Why didn’t you come?” Mary Bliss asked wearily.
“Mama didn’t sound all that sick. And as far as I could tell, you were handling things just fine. Anyway, she was wrong about me. It wasn’t just a fling. I’d changed. I couldn’t be married anymore. I couldn’t even be the old Parker McGowan. I tried to tell Mama that, but she wouldn’t listen. She pitched a hissy and then she hung up on me.”
“And then she died,” Mary Bliss said. “She died alone. Erin ran away to look for you, and I went after her, and Meemaw died while we were both gone. Did you know that? She died wondering when you were coming home.”
Parker smiled. The purple rage was gone. He was tan and poised again. “It won’t work. No more guilt. Mama’s dead. You’re fine. Erin’s fine. And I’m out of here.”
He pounded on the driver’s seat back again. “Let’s go, buddy,” he called. “Time to move out.”
The Ethiopian’s war-weary eyes lit up. “What about that car? He’s blocking the way.”
They both looked at the Explorer. It had pulled within inches of the cab’s front bumper.
“Your boyfriend, there,” Parker said. “The detective. Is he gonna arrest me?”
“Eventually,” Mary Bliss said.
Parker reached into his breast pocket and brought out a wad of bills. He peeled off some twenty-dollar bills and handed them to the driver. “Back up. Lose him, and you keep the money.”
“Good deal.” The driver gestured to Mary Bliss. “You go now, lady.”
Parker sat back in his seat. “Tell Erin I’ll call her.”
“When?”
He looked annoyed. “On her birthday. September fourteenth, right?”
“Fifteenth,” Mary Bliss said, opening her door. “What about the rest? I want a divorce, you know.”
“Fine. Talk to my lawyer. He’ll know where to find me.”
Parker glanced at the black Explorer, and then at the house. The plainclothes cops began spilling out of the Weidmans’ front door, running now, dropping the pallbearer’s ruse.
From off in the distance, she heard the wail of police sirens. The cab’s motor raced, and it jerked backward. Mary Bliss had to jump for the curb to keep from being run over. The Ethiopian gunned the motor again, and the cab shot backward out of the Weidmans’ driveway, grazing the rear fender of Charlie’s Cadillac.
Out in the street, the driver threw the cab into gear and screeched off in a cloud of burning rubber. The Explorer roared to life and went careening out of the driveway and down the Weidmans’ street, in hot pursuit of the cab. Three police cruisers joined the race.
Mary Bliss stood in the driveway, watching until she could no longer see any of the cars. She was putting her engagement ring on her right-hand ring finger when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders.
She looked up. Matt Hayslip stood beside her.
“I thought…you were in the Explorer. Going after Parker.”
“No. Not my job. Not anymore.” He squeezed her arm, kissed the top of her head.
“What is your job?”
“Taking care of you. And Erin. If you’ll have me.”
She looked down at her engagement ring, the diamond sparkling in the late afternoon light.
“Guess what? I’m an heiress. Eula left us two million dollars.”
“All right,” Matt said agreeably. “Then you can take care of me.”