Chapter 14
A few days passed; nothing worth mentioning happened. Pearl phoned Mason every night, but he had little to report. Elena was seen and photographed while talking to various people; Mason looked at the pictures but recognized none of the people in them.
So, in a few days Elena phoned Mason in his office. Fortunately, it was afternoon and he was alone there, so he could talk freely.
“Hi Mason,” she said without preliminaries. “I just do not know what men find in Eden.”
Mason smiled. “Want me to tell you? I’m her brother if you remember; but okay, well, Eden is an attractive woman. Just as you are.”
“Yes,” Elena said giving little heed to his reply. “Actually what I wanted to say is why men get obsessed with Eden. She’s not that bright or beautiful; if you ask me, she’s really hysterical. Still, men would get crazy and blow up houses in the mountains--”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why, don’t you remember. There was a woman you loved and a man you loathed, and they went to the Capwells’ little house in the mountains to have a romantic weekend, or not so romantic, and there was a man who was obsessed with Eden and he arranged for this explosion because he thought it was Eden with her lover. You almost lost the only woman you ever loved; doesn’t that make you hate Eden?”
Mason grew pale. Elena knew far too much. She knew things she shouldn’t have known, couldn’t have known.
He almost lost Mary due to that explosion, not because she was hurt so badly but because Mark was, and as he was at death’s door Mary accepted his proposal and married him right there in the hospital. How did Elena know – how did she know who was behind it? How did she know about the accident itself; Mason was sure Pamela had no idea about it?
“Why,” he said, trying to control his voice. “Eden had nothing to do with it.”
“Of course she had; I know from—But it’s not the point. Really; and an explosion of a boat is much more picturesque than that of a mountain hut. What I mean is that – why should people get obsessed with this Eden. It’s much more natural if it’s with Kelly. Right, there was this carnation killer – and then this unfortunate brother of her fiancé, right – and--”
“I am not sure I understand,” Mason said slowly.
“No; and there was a time you used to think you did; you thought you understood me better than anyone else in the world, eh?”
There was this short laugh so characteristic of Elena’s manner; now Mason was sure she was playing with him, and the game was rather wicked.
“Ok, I do not understand you, I admit this; what do you mean?”
“Kelly, she’s so tender and beautiful, fresh as a daisy, isn’t she?”
Mason was thinking feverishly: had he made a mistake? Was Elena going to attack Kelly instead of Eden?
“And now if Eden has Cruz, doesn’t Kelly have Jeffrey?”
“Are you jealous of Jeffrey, too?”
“Why should I be?”
“Elena,” Mason started, but she hung up the receiver.
He leant back turning the talk over and over in his mind. Of course he could not understand the workings of the sick mind, it was high time he admitted this; but she was playing with him, this was clear, and she counted on him to pick up the clue. In the talk there was a logic of a kind, and there was one thing that sounded absolutely illogical and insane, Mason told himself, dialing Kelly’s number hastily.
He was in luck: it was Jeffrey, not Kelly, who picked up the phone.
“Oh hi, Mason!” he seemed glad to hear his brother.
“Jeffrey,” Mason said urgently, “where is Kelly?”
“Taking a shower – want to talk to her?”
“No, not really. Jeffrey, are you going on a boat trip or something?”
“Ah, yes, tonight; just how did you learn, because it’s a surprise I’ve prepared for Kelly and even she does not know yet--”
“Don’t go.”
“Mason--”
“Jeffrey. Do not go. I’ve got a tip it’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous – what do you mean?”
“Jeffrey.” Mason paused. He did not want him to know too much; Jeffrey was not Cruz, he was Mason’s younger brother. Just like Elena, his younger sister.
‘Too many siblings,’ Mason thought to himself. ‘Too many siblings spoil the--’. He couldn’t think of a suitable completion that rhymed with ‘broth’, and had to add, in temper, ‘spoil everything.’
“Listen, brother,” he said aloud. “You saved my skin, remember?”
“Oh I--”
“Let’s say it’s my turn to save yours; I think from the same gang; you see what I mean now?”
Jeffrey hesitated.
“Jeffrey?” Mason pressed.
“Yes. Okay, Mason. What shall I do?”
“Nothing; just keep by Kelly’s side and be on the alert. I’ll try to settle it. What’s the boat called?”
“ ‘Juno’.”
“When were you planning to cast off?”
“Tonight at eight.”
“Was there anybody else to be on board but for you two?”
“No; I ordered dinner and candles and flowers – Mason--”
“Please don’t ask me questions. I do not know what I am going to do about it. I will take care of it; you take care of Kelly.”
Here Mason was cunning: he knew that if Elena chose to give him the clue he would choose to go there alone. Elena was playing her cat-and-mouse game with her own brother, and she knew it perfectly well what he was to her; so Mason only had to trust his instincts and try to protect his sister from herself if that was possible. If both their parents refused to be responsible for the monster they had formed, well, someone had to take the responsibility.
TBC
Chapter 15
Pearl did not know what was going on, but his heart of a guardian angel told him something was very wrong. He called Mason, but Mason was not to be found either in his office or at home. No one knew where he was.
Pearl couldn’t find any peace, and he was just hanging around his own office, waiting for something to happen and praying to have enough time to prevent it from happening, whatever it was.
The phone rang, and Pearl flew onto it like a hawk. “’The Last Resort.’”
“Pearl?”
“Jeffrey?”
Pearl was not the biggest fan of Kelly’s luckier suitor, but he felt the call had something to do with his premonition that tied his heart up in a bundle of barbed wire. “Jeffrey, is anything the matter?”
“I – I don’t know. Is Cruz in?”
“No – but you can tell me.”
“I’m not sure – I’d rather phone later.”
“Please tell me, Jeffrey. What’s wrong?”
Not Kelly, Pearl was praying silently. Oh God please not Kelly.
“It’s Mason – he called me in the afternoon and – as good as ordered – to cancel the boat trip I’d planned.”
“So?”
“So I did, and it was a good thing Kelly did not know, so she does not feel disappointed.”
It was a catastrophe that [i]some[/i] people could not keep to a point, Pearl said to himself, annoyed. “And?” he prompted. “You said you were not sure…?”
Jeffrey sighed. “Mason said the trip could be dangerous – he said it was the same gang that had kidnapped him.”
‘Damn you Mason, why didn’t you tell me,’ Pearl thought angrily.
“And--” he said aloud.
“And just now I went out to pick up a bag from the car, and it seemed to me I saw a man near who looked like an Indian.”
“Indian?” Pearl jumped off the desk he’ d been sitting at. “Where are you know, inside the house?”
“Yes.”
“And Kelly?”
“In another room right now.”
“Disconnect now and join her. Do not go out, either of you. We’ll get him and ask him questions later.”
*
The boat was really a luxury little yacht; it looked like a toy rather than a ship. It was not surprising Jeffrey thought he could manage it alone; but, after all, he was not going to cross the ocean, he was just planning a romantic getaway.
Mason was looking at the yacht from the shore. It was not too late to turn to Cruz and Pearl for help, but he knew he wouldn’t. Maybe he was making a fatal mistake; well, it was his life and his decision to make.
He’d thought that Elena would be waiting for him there, and now, for the first time, it occurred to him what if that was the Indian there rather than his sister. He wished he’d taken a gun with him; but for this, it really was too late.
Mason exhaled loudly and got on board the boat.
“Elena?” he called.
Swinging graciously, the yacht cast off.
TBC
Olga Lissenkova
