Gertrude Payne finished her laps in the indoor pool. She had been doing forty-five minutes of pool laps every day for the past thirty years. She mostly stayed here in Newport, but her mansion in Palm Beach and the ranch in Jackson Hole also had both indoor and outdoor pools. They were important to her. The exercise was great, of course. She swam slower than she used to, which was hardly a surprise at her age. When she was young, she had wanted to be a competitive swimmer, but she’d been maddeningly caught up in a time when her father still believed “girls’ sports” were a waste of time. Still, she loved the water, the quiet of it, the utter stillness in your head where the dominant sound was the steady rhythm of your own breathing.
One of her great-grandsons called it “Pixie’s little mental health break.”
He wasn’t wrong.
As she slipped out of the water, Stephano was holding a towel for her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Rachel Anderson has just arrived.”
He filled her in on Hayden’s call with his old college chum. They’d been monitoring Hayden’s calls since Burroughs had broken out of prison. Hayden could be irrational and childlike. He worked off emotion and could vacillate with the best of them.
When he finished, Pixie said, “What should we do?”
“This is spinning out of control,” Stephano said.
“You don’t buy that she wants his help identifying someone in the photograph?”
Stephano frowned. “Do you?”
“No. Do you have a plan?”
“According to the news reports, Rachel Anderson is aiding and abetting a convicted child killer with his escape from a federal penitentiary,” Stephano began in his customary matter-of-fact way. He never raised or lowered his voice. He was always calm, always in control, never flustered or ruffled, no matter how dire the situation. “I will put this coldly. We should grab her when she is here. We find out where David Burroughs is hiding. She has to know. We find him. We make them both vanish. For good. I get one of my people to drive her car out so if the police find out she was here, we have evidence she drove out. If asked, we say she asked to see some photographs.”
“So they just…vanish?” Gertrude said.
“Yes.”
“The police will think, what, that they escaped?”
“Probably. They will continue their search, of course.”
“But they will never find them.”
“Never,” Stephano said.
“Suppose they told someone already.”
Stephano smiled. “No one would believe it. And even if they did, between your attorneys and my work, we would shut it down hard.”
Gertrude thought about it. In a way, this was not unique. The best way to get rid of any problem is to get rid of the problem.
“There really is no other way, is there?”
Stephano did not reply. There was no need.
“So when does Rachel arrive?”
“She’s just pulled in,” Stephano said. “I’m just waiting for your approval.”
“You have it.”
* * *
Hayden stepped outside and hugged Rachel. She let him, doing her best not to squirm away or even cringe. But now she knew. There was no question about it. She could feel it in him now—the lies, the deception, the evil. He had hinted at it to her so often over the years. His propensity for violence. The times his family had covered it up. She had accepted it, embraced it even, because it had benefited her. He had saved her that night. She knew that. And so her vision of him became skewed. Part of her knew that. Part of her could feel something wrong in him, but she’d allowed herself to be deceived. He had helped her. He was also rich and powerful and in truth, being around that was fun and exciting.
“It’s good to have you here again,” Hayden said, still holding her against him. “It’s been too long since you’ve been to Payne.”
When he backed away and looked at her face, she tried to smile through it.
“What’s wrong?” Hayden asked.
“Can we just take a walk through the gardens?”
“Of course. I thought you had photographs you wanted to show me.”
“I’ll show you in a bit. I want to talk first, if that’s okay.”
Hayden nodded. “That would be nice.”
They walked in silence toward the side yard. Up ahead, Rachel could see the mirrored-head fountain and hear the ocean in the background.
“Beautiful, isn’t he?” he said.
“Yes.”
“You are seeing it the same as I am, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sure what you mean, Hayden.”
“We both see this beauty. We both experience the same thing. We have employees here. We have people who work inside the house and outside the house. They have eyes, just like mine, and see the same view I do. We experience it the same. There’s no special platform here just for the rich. So why are they so envious? We see the same thing. We can experience the same pleasure.”
Hayden liked to do this, she knew—justify his wealth in various ways. This was not a rabbit hole she wanted to go down right now. She scanned down the row of hedges looking for David, but he was either well hidden or not there.
“Hayden?”
“Yes?”
“I know.”
“Know what?”
“You have Matthew.”
“Pardon?”
“Can we just skip the denials? I know, okay? You made up the Italian actress. You moved overseas so no one would see the boy. Your family is uber rich, but you’re not gossip fodder, so it isn’t as though paparazzi are dying to take pictures of this son you’re supposedly raising.”
Hayden walked with his hands behind his back. He looked up at the sky and squinted.
“I was able to get the digital file of that photograph and blow it up,” she continued. “The boy in the picture is holding a man’s hand. The hand is yours, Hayden.”
“And you can tell that how?”
“Your ring.”
“Do you think I’m the only one with a graduation ring?”
“Were you at the amusement park? Yes or no?”
“And if I say no?”
“I won’t believe you,” Rachel said. “Whose body was in Matthew’s bed?”
“You sound crazy, Rachel.”
“I wish I was. I really do. David came up with a theory.”
“David Burroughs,” Hayden said, forcing up a chuckle. “The escaped convict you’re abetting.”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I’m dying to hear it.”
“He thinks you were in love with me.”
“Does he now?”
“I saw it somewhat. I mean, that you had a crush on me in college. I figured it was because we bonded over something so awful.”
“By ‘so awful,’” Hayden said, with just a hint of steel in his voice, “do you mean when I saved you from being raped?”
“Yes, Hayden, that’s exactly what I mean.”
“You should be grateful.”
“I was. I am. But we handled it wrong. We should have reported it. Let the chips fall where they may.”
“I would have ended up expelled or worse.”
“Then maybe that’s what should be.”
“For saving you?”
“Yeah, well, if that’s the case, then the powers that be would have understood. But we will never know. Instead, we kept it a secret. And that’s what always happens with the Paynes, isn’t it, Hayden? Your family uses its resources to bury what they don’t want to see.”
“Oh yes,” Hayden said. “The rich are bad. What an intriguing insight.”
“It isn’t a question of good or bad. There is no accountability.”
“Do you believe in God, Rachel?”
“What difference does that make?”
“I do. I believe in God. And look what He gave me.” He spread his arms and circled. “Look, Rachel. Look at what God gave the Payne family. Do you think that was just happenstance?”
“Actually, I do.”
“Nonsense. Do you know why the rich feel special? Because they are. You either believe in a just God that rewarded us—or you believe the world is chaos and random luck. Which do you believe?”
“Chaos and random luck,” Rachel said. “Where’s Matthew, Hayden?”
“No, no, I want to hear David’s theory. You were saying that he felt I was in love with you. So go on from there.”
“You were, weren’t you?”
He stopped, turned toward her, spread his arms. “Who’s to say I’m not right now?”
“And when I asked Barb Matteson to make an appointment for Cheryl at the fertility clinic, she told you, didn’t she?”
“And if she did?”
“You would have been upset. You wanted me for yourself. Now suddenly I’m going to have a baby with donor sperm. That made no sense to you, did it?”
Hayden grinned. “Do you have your phone on you?”
“I do.”
“Let me have it.”
“Why?”
“I want to make sure you’re not recording this.”
She hesitated. He was still grinning like a crazy man. She glanced around again, trying with as much subtlety as she could to see David. No sign of him.
“Give me your phone, Rachel.”
His voice had an edge now. No choice. She reached into her pocket, hoping to find the red hang-up button so she could disconnect the call before he saw it, but he grabbed her hand to stop her.
“Ow! What the hell, Hayden?”
He reached into her pocket, took the phone from it, looked at the screen.
“What kind of phone is this?”
“It’s a burner.”
He stared down at it. “I want to hear the rest of your theory, Rachel.”
“How did you feel when you heard I was getting donor sperm?” she asked.
“The same way I felt whenever you got some contemptuous, pathetic new boyfriend. What a waste.”
“It should have been you,” Rachel said.
“It should have been me. I rescued you, Rachel. You should have been mine.”
“Your family owned the fertility clinic.”
“Go on.”
“So it would have been easy to set up. Did you threaten someone or pay them off?”
“I rarely see a need to threaten. Money and NDAs are usually enough.”
“You made sure that they used your sperm for the donation.”
Hayden closed his eyes and smiled and lifted his face toward the sky.
“It’s only you and I here, Hayden. Might as well come clean.”
“I wish you hadn’t done this.”
“Done what?”
He shook his head, the smile gone now.
“What did you think would happen, Hayden?”
“I thought that you’d have my son. That I’d tell you about it later.”
“And that would make me fall in love with you?”
“Perhaps. Either way, we would be a family, wouldn’t we? At worst, you’d push me away and raise my child. But chances are, you’d let me in your life. You’re not immune to my family’s influence. Remember that spring break when we took the family plane to that mansion in Antigua? Your face, Rachel. You loved it. You loved the parties. You loved the power. It’s part of why we became close. So yes, my plan was to impregnate you. Why would you want some anonymous donor sperm when you can have mine?”
“Someone special in the eyes of God,” she added.
“Exactly. Great genes. Someone who cares about you. It made perfect sense.”
“Except, of course, I never went to the clinic.”
“Yes. Your charade fooled everyone at Berg. It’s ironic when you think about it. Here you are, talking about how destructive my family was with burying secrets—”
“—when my sister and I were doing the exact same thing.”
“Yes, Rachel.”
“When did you figure out it was Cheryl and not me?”
“When you never got pregnant—and Cheryl did. So I went to the Berg clinic you supposedly visited. I showed the doctor your photograph. She didn’t recognize you. Then I showed her Cheryl’s photo…”
He shrugged.
“And then?”
“Then I waited. I planned. I watched. David was falling apart anyway. You know that, don’t you? The marriage wasn’t going to last. What Cheryl did. That lie ate him up. I think he always knew the boy wasn’t his. So I kept an eye on them. I remained patient.”
“You killed another child.”
“No, Rachel.”
“Someone was murdered that night.”
“That was part of the delay. I waited. I gave that child a spectacular life.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It’s not important.”
“It is to me.”
“No, Rachel, all that concerns you is the little boy whom I rescued that night. My son.”
“You set David up for the murder.”
“Not really. When that old woman testified at the trial about seeing him with the baseball bat, I confess that I was shocked. Do you know what I thought?”
“Tell me.”
“That he started to believe he had done it, so he buried the bat himself. Later I learned there was some grudge against his father. But no, I didn’t intend to send David to prison for life. None of this was his fault. He had done his best in raising my son. I didn’t want to hurt him more than necessary.”
“Why such extreme measures?”
“What else could I do, Rachel? I couldn’t admit I had made my clinic use my sample.” He held up his hand. “And before you get all high and mighty, let’s remember who started all this. You and your sister. Your lies.”
There was, Rachel knew, some truth to that. “So who knows?”
“Pixie, of course. Stephano. That’s about it. I brought my son here when I made the switch. I confess I was in a panic. I worried I had made a terrible mistake. Pixie ran a paternity test. It came back that the boy was mine. We stayed at the Payne estate for almost six months. I never left the property. The boy was upset at first. He cried a lot. He didn’t sleep. He missed his mother and…and David. But kids adapt. We named him Theo. We came up with the cover story about the Italian actress. Eventually I took him overseas. I put him in the most exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. And I waited for that damn birthmark to fade away. The doctor said it would. But it didn’t. It stayed there, stubbornly. And yes, no one was looking for Matthew. He was dead, not missing. But the resemblance between him now and the boy taken…”
“Hayden?”
“What?”
“We can still make this work.”
“How?”
“Give Matthew back.”
“Just like that?”
“No one has to know where he was or who had him.”
“Oh, come on. Of course they will. And you can’t prove any of this, Rachel. You know that. You’ll never get your hands on the boy, and if you do, do you really think you’ll be able to compel a Payne to take a DNA test? Besides, the DNA test will show what? That I’m the father and Cheryl is the mother. I’ll say Cheryl and I had an affair.”
It was then that David stepped out from behind the shrub. The two men just stared at one another.
Then David said, “Where’s my son?”