Riptide

here to Riptide because of what you'd
    told me about it. I was here to hide out. This was sanctuary for me.
    You helped me, so very much. You don't know how much I appreciate
    that." Were his eyes calmer now? Maybe, but he frowned
    and she tried to still her fear, said quickly, "That madman was trying
    to kill both me and my father. The last thing I wanted to think
    about was falling in love with anyone. I never meant for you to believe
    there was more to it than friendship."
    His eyes were darker now, a barely leashed wildness that scared
    her to her soul. He said, his voice sarcastic, "You didn't want to fall
    in love, Becca? Then why are you marrying that bastard Carruthers?"
    For a moment, her brain refused to work. He was right, oh God,
    he was right. She had to think, she had to do something. She was
    alone in the basement with a man who wasn't sane, a man who was
    somehow twisted, a man who had murdered his wife and buried
    her in Jacob Marley's backyard. Sheriff Gaffney had been certain
    that Tyler had murdered his wife. Everyone believed that the skeleton
    that fell out of the basement wall had been Ann McBride. But
    it wasn't.
    She couldn't bear it, just couldn't. She had to know, all of it.
    "Tyler, the girl in the wall. Was it Melissa Katzen?"
    He said, his voice indifferent, bored, "Yes, of course it was."
    "But she was young, not more than eighteen when someone
    killed her. That was more than twelve years ago. Did you kill her,
    Tyler?"
    He shrugged. "Another faithless bitch, little Melissa. Everyone

thought she was so sweet, so giving, so yielding. And she was with
    me, at first. I gave her attention, small presents--lots of them, all
    clever, imaginative. I told her how pretty she was and she soaked it
    up until one day she turned down my latest gift to her. It was a
    Barbie, all dressed to travel, ready to elope.
    "She didn't want to tell anyone about us, and that was okay by
    me. I was going to laugh my head off when we came back married.
    She called me that night, asked me to meet her. She gave me back
    the Barbie, then told me she didn't want to run away with me after
    all. She whined that she was too young, that her parents would
    be hurt if she ran off with me. I told her that she had to marry me,
    that no one else would, that I was the only one who really loved
    her." He shook his head then, frowning at something he was remembering,
    at what he was seeing. He said slowly, "She became
    afraid of me. She tried to get away from me, but I caught her."
    She could see him with Melissa in her Calvin Klein white jeans,
    the cute little pink tank top, see him, hear him trying to convince
    her, then screaming at her, then killing her. She knew she had to
    keep him talking. She couldn't let him stop now. When he stopped
    talking, he would kill her. She didn't want to die. She remembered
    then that Sheriff Gaffney was coming over, at least he'd told her he
    was. Sometime during the evening. Dammit, it was evening, right
    in the middle of evening. Where was he? What if he just left when
    no one answered the door? She was so afraid, she stuttered. "B-but
    Jacob Marley was here, wasn't he?"
    "True enough." He shrugged. "I put her in the shed out back,
    and then the next day, I got Jacob Marley out of the house with
    a phone call. He had a very old sister who lived in Bangor. I
    called and told him she was dying and asking for him, begging
    him to come to her. The old jerk left and I dug out the wall and

put Melissa behind it. Then I bricked it back up. My dad was in
    construction before he fell off a building and he taught me a whole
    lot. I knew all about bricklaying. Then I left. You want to know
    something funny? Jacob Marley's ancient sister died the very day he
    showed up at the old folks' home in Bangor. He never even realized
    that it had been a fake call."
    "Tyler, why did you bury Melissa in the basement wall? Why Jacob
    Marley's house?"
    He laughed, and that laugh chilled her. "I was thinking maybe
    I'd call in an anonymous tip, tell everyone I saw Jacob Marley kill
    Melissa, then saw him with cement and bricks."
    "But you didn't."
    "No. Maybe I'd left fingerprints somehow on her. I couldn't
    take the chance." Then he slashed his hand through the air. His
    voice lowered, his eyes darkened, became as intense as a preacher's
    in a revival tent. "I wanted you to marry me, Becca. I would have
    taken care of you all your life. I would have loved you, protected
    you, kept you close forever. You could