The Cove

me?"

    "No, dear," Amabel said, rising to go to him. She hugged him, then kissed him on the mouth. "Oh, no. Poor Sally thinks just because you hit me this one time you'll do it again and again. I know you won't, will you?"

    "Of course not. I'm sorry, Ammie, I've been under so much stress, and you were arguing with me. Please, forgive me. I won't ever touch you again."

    "He's lying," Sally said. "If you believe him you're stupid, Amabel. Yeah, come on, you lousy human being, come on over here and hit me again. I'm tied, so I can't hurt you much. You're safe. Come on, you pitiful excuse for a man, come and hit me."

    He was heaving with rage, the veins in his neck red and thick. "Shut up, Sally."

    "Look at him, Amabel. He wants to kill me. He has no control. He's crazy."

    Amory turned to Amabel. "I'll take care of her. I know what to do. I swear I won't kill her."

    "What are you going to do?"

    "Trust me, Ammie. Can't you trust me? You have for the past twelve, years. Trust me now."

    "You think he won't kill me, Amabel? He's a filthy liar. Do you want to be an accessory to murder?" Her words swallowed themselves. God, Amabel was already an accessory to murder maybe sixty times over. Maybe she'd even killed some of the people. Sally shut her mouth.

    Amory St. John laughed, low and mean. "I see you understand, Sally. Ammie belongs with me. We're two of a kind. Now, Ammie, untie her feet. I'm taking her out of here."

    She couldn't stand up because her legs were numb. Amabel dropped to her knees and massaged her ankles and calves. "Is that better, Sally?"

    "Why didn't you just kill me before? Why go through this charade with Amabel?"

    "Be quiet, you little bitch."

    "You swear you won't hurt her, Amory?"

    "I told you," he said, so impatient that Sally wondered how Amabel couldn't hear it, couldn't know that he was ready to strike out. "I won't kill her."

    When she could stand and walk, Amory took her arm and pulled her out of the small bedroom. "Stay here, Ammie," he called over his shoulder. "I'll be back shortly and then we'll leave."

    Sally said, "While you're waiting, Amabel, call Noelle. Tell her how you let him kill me. Yeah, tell her that, Amabel."

    He pulled her out of Amabel's sight, then sent his elbow into her ribs. She doubled over, gasping with the pain. He yanked her back up.

    "Keep your mouth shut, Sally, or I'll just keep hurting you. Do you want that?"

    "What I want," she said when she could finally speak, "is for you to die. Very slowly and very painfully."

    "Not in your lifetime, my dear," he said, and laughed.

    "They'll get you. There's no way you can escape, not with the FBI after you."

    He was still laughing softly, highly amused with her. It made no sense. Then he walked beneath a strong light at the head of the stairs and stopped. He laughed again. "Look, Sally. Look at me"

    She did. It wasn't Amory St. John.

    The phone service was still on. Thomas called the Portland office. When he hung up, he said, "They're bringing a helicopter up here. Thirty minutes, tops." "What about David?" Corey said.

    "Jesus," Quinlan said. "Here, let me call his wife." David's lovely sweet wife, Jane, who'd taken him in when they cracked him over the head, who'd fed him soup. He prayed David was alive. Please, let him be alive.

    When she answered, Quinlan said, "Hi, this is Quinlan. Please tell me David's there. What? Oh, no. Shit, I'm sorry. Tell his doctors that he was drugged. That's why he banged himself up. No, no, things are under control here. No, I'm going to call his office and get his three deputies here. Yeah, I'll speak to you soon. Sally? I don't know. We're going to hunt for her now."

    He hung up the phone. "David's in a coma. They medi-vaced him to Portland. His condition's stable so far. Nobody knows anything yet, just that he ran off the road into the only oak tree in his neighborhood. His wife was the first person to get to him. She said the doctors told her that if he hadn't been transported so quickly to the hospital he probably would have died."

    "This is a nightmare," Corey said. "The whole damned town, all of them murderers. I want to get them, Quinlan."

    "I sure want them to lose their Social Security," Thomas said. "No means testing."

    "That wasn't funny," Corey said, but she laughed.

    "It's Shakespearean. You know, comedy mixed with tragedy."

    "No," Quinlan said, "it's evil. It didn't start out evil, but they've made it all the way, haven't they? Let's go find my