Carolina Isle Read online

  By the end of the day, David decided that in the morning he would set out to find them. While Ariel soaked in the tub he’d filled a backpack he’d found in Phyllis’s basement. While he was down there, he’d made himself check inside the freezer, and, yes, Nezbit’s body was still there.

  The full pack was now hidden in the closet nearest the door. His plan was to leave about 4:00 A.M. He had an idea what had been in Brompton’s head and where he wanted to go. What no one knew—or did they?—was that David knew a great deal more than they thought he did.

  He went to bed, but he couldn’t sleep. He kept trying to remember a story he’d written when he was in the fifth grade: “What I Did This Summer.” An ordinary assignment, but David had made an extraordinary story out of it. His teacher had liked it so much that she’d entered it in a state essay contest and David had won second place. His mother had been so proud of him that when she got a computer a few years later, she had it posted on the Web. On the Tredwell genealogy site, when one clicked twice on David’s name, up came photos of him and the essay that had won a prize.

  For the last twenty-four hours, David had begun to wonder if that essay was why John Fenwick Nezbit had been killed. The man had been safe as long as he alone knew where his treasure was. But if someone else knew, then Nezbit would become redundant, unnecessary. Maybe the someone else who knew where his gold was was David.

  “David,” he heard Ariel whisper. “Are you asleep?”

  He looked at the clock: 1:23 A.M. He needed to get up in just two and a half hours. He was tempted not to answer, but he couldn’t. “I’m awake. The storm scare you?”

  “No,” she said, then to David’s disbelief, she came into the room, pulled back his blanket, and got in bed with him. “Ariel, you can’t do this,” he said, moving as far away as he could get from her. If the bed weren’t up against the wall, he would have gotten out. But what was he to do? Climb over her?

  “I was good today, wasn’t I?” she asked softly.

  Her arms were behind her head and she was staring at the ceiling. Light came in from the hallway and made her face look like that of an angel’s. “Ariel …”

  “Yes, David?” she said, turning and looking at him.

  David’s back was slammed against the wall. There was about two inches of space between their bodies. “Exactly what are you playing at?”

  She turned over on her back again. “Remember the day you took me out on the motorcycle?”

  “Yeah. Could you move that way a bit and give me some room?”

  Ariel didn’t move. “Why didn’t you kiss me that day? We were sixteen and alone and—”

  “Untouchable,” David said, beginning to become annoyed. “You were and are the ice princess. No one dares touch you.”

  She turned her head to look at him. “My mother is the ice queen so that makes me the ice princess?”

  “Ariel, you may think I’m just your boy companion, but I can assure you that I’m a man.”

  “I know,” she said softly. “I am at last beginning to realize that.”

  “Ariel …” David said as he reached out his hand and touched her cheek.

  In a second, she was in his arms.

  David held back. He looked into her eyes and said, “Are you sure?”

  “Totally,” she said. “Completely.”

  Smiling, he kissed her lips gently, knowing how innocent she was, how completely untouched she was.

  Ariel drew back. “Is this how you feel about me? Is this all there is?”

  “Ariel,” David said softly, “you’re a virgin. You’re—”

  Frowning, she sat up in bed, then grabbed the front of the nightgown with both hands and pulled. Fabric tore; buttons went flying. “I’m a woman!” she said.

  Laughing, David grabbed her. “Yeah? Are you?” He put his hand behind her head and pulled her down on the bed. When his mouth came down on top of hers, all Ariel could do was murmur yes.

  Chapter Twenty

  STRETCHING, ARIEL OPENED HER EYES slowly. So that was what it was all about, she thought. “And well worth all the fanfare,” she said aloud, smiling. She turned to share the joke with David, but he wasn’t there. Still smiling, she listened for the shower, but heard nothing.

  During the night they’d moved from his narrow bed to the two beds in the other bedroom. In between, they’d made love on the two couches and the rug in the sitting room. At 3:30, they took a shower together, soaping each other’s bodies, Ariel’s hands exploring every growing inch of David’s anatomy. They’d made love for the fourth time in the tub.

  At 4:30, David said he couldn’t do any more and had begged for sleep. Ariel had called him a wimp, but she’d happily nestled in his arms and fallen asleep. “I didn’t know we fit together so well,” she said.

  “I did,” David whispered. “I always knew.”

  Smiling, more content than she’d ever been in her life, Ariel fell asleep.

  Now, awakening slowly, she listened for David. No sounds. She looked at the clock: 7:14. It was still early yet, the stores were closed today, so maybe they could…. Dreamily, she thought of their night. “Make love all day long,” she whispered.

  She waited for David to return, but she still heard no sounds. Did he go downstairs to make breakfast to serve it to her in bed? A fitting ending—or beginning, she thought.

  She waited another fifteen minutes, then got up. David wasn’t in the apartment. Good, she thought. She’d have time to make herself pretty. Yesterday she’d asked for and received a whole new, clean outfit, plus cosmetics. With forty-five minutes and a good hair dryer, she knew she could look like herself again.

  An hour later she was clean, dressed, madeup, and her hair was as good as she could get it since her styling brush was at home. But David still hadn’t returned to the apartment.

  Frowning, she went downstairs. Phyllis was standing in front of the coffeepot. “Where is he?” Ariel asked.

  “David?” Phyllis had on an ancient chenille bathrobe, a guarantee that no man was within three miles of her.

  “Yes, David,” Ariel said, her hands gripping the back of a chair. If she’s touched him, I’ll murder her, she thought.

  “I heard him leave about five,” Phyllis said.

  “Five? This morning?”

  “It wasn’t last night, was it? Not from what I heard upstairs. David may have come, but he didn’t go.”

  “There’s no need for vulgarity,” Ariel said haughtily. “What David Tredwell and I do is—Bugger it! ”she said and dropped the attitude. “Where’d he go, and if you tell me you don’t know I’ll tell you the truth of what’s going on, then you’ll be an accessory.”

  “Eula Nezbit,” Phyllis said quickly.

  “Nezbit,” Ariel said, blinking. She knew without a doubt that David had gone to help R.J. and Sara. Without me! she thought. “What did he take with him? And don’t you dare tell me you didn’t spy on him. If you were sober enough to eavesdrop on us, and you were awake enough to hear him leave, then I know you spied on him.”

  “Yesterday, I liked you,” Phyllis muttered. “He had on an old backpack he stole out of my basement. I wonder what else you people have stolen? I’m going down there and—”

  “Don’t,” Ariel said quietly as Phyllis started toward the door to the basement.

  Turning, she looked into Ariel’s eyes, then sat down at the table. “Something awful has happened, hasn’t it? I knew it would. When Larry came to me and said he and Fenny were going to do it again and I had to take you in, I begged him not to.”

  “Why do they do it?”

  She shrugged. “Larry needs the money. Fenny enjoys making people miserable, and the judge likes the power. It’s just a game.”

  “Not to us it wasn’t and it’s not a game anymore.”

  “What’s happened?” Phyllis asked, then raised her hand. “No, don’t tell me. What do you want from me?”

  “Do you have another backpack?”

  “Yeah. A cute li