Envy(154)

“Actually, Noah, I didn’t write it for publication. I wrote it for myself.”

“As a cathartic autobiography?”

“No.”

“As a ticket to f*ck my wife?”

“No.”

“You’re stretching my patience, Parker.”

“I wrote it to get you here, on my turf, so that I could be watching your face when you die, just like you were watching me from the pilot’s wheel of the boat that night.”

Noah snorted. “What? You’re going to run me down with your wheelchair?”

Parker merely smiled and withdrew a small transistor from his shirt pocket.

“Oh, I see, you’re going to beat me to death with a remote control.”

“I own this building,” Parker said conversationally. “I like it. Good atmosphere. But some folks think it’s a hazard to kids who might wander in here. That abandoned well and all.” He hitched his thumb in that direction. “So I’ve decided to do my fellow islanders a favor and destroy it.”

He depressed one of the rubberized buttons on the transistor. Out of the shadows in a far corner came a loud pop followed by a spark. Startled, Noah spun around and watched as a flame leaped up against the weathered wood.

Parker gave his chair a hard push toward him. Noah, sensing the motion, turned and lunged at him. Noah’s daily workouts in the gym had kept him trim. His reflexes were good. He landed a couple of good punches.

But Parker’s arm and chest muscles were exceptionally well developed from years of having to rely on them. He staved off many of Noah’s slugs and had enough upper body strength to keep himself in his chair. His real advantage, however, was in knowing how Noah fought. Noah fought dirty. Noah fought to win. And he didn’t care how he won.

When Noah began pushing him backward toward the open well, Parker wasn’t surprised. His efforts became defensive. He took reckless swings that Noah easily dodged. Sensing that Parker was weakening, Noah fought even harder. Parker’s frantic struggling only increased Noah’s determination to defeat him. He came on more ferociously, blindly, the predator moving in for the kill.

Then, at precisely the right instant, Parker jammed down the brake lever of his wheelchair. It bit into the rubber wheel and brought the chair to a jarring stop. Noah hadn’t expected it. Inertia propelled him forward. His Gucci shoes caught the low rim of the well, tripping him. He groped at air. Then he stepped into nothingness.

His startled cry was a hellish echo of Mary Catherine’s scream as she fell backward over the railing of the boat.

Parker’s breathing was harsh and loud. He wiped his bloody nose on his shirtsleeve.

“You son of a bitch!” Noah shouted up at him.

“So the fall didn’t kill you?”

“Motherf*cker!”

“You’re a sore loser, Noah. The cripple outsmarted you. Isn’t that what you had in mind for me? To push me down that well? Why do you think I kept referring to it? Foreshadowing, Noah. Any writer worth a damn should have recognized it for what it was.”

“Get me out of here.”

“Ah, don’t be such a crybaby, Noah. It’s not nearly as deep as the Atlantic. To the best of my knowledge there are no saltwater carnivores in there. Don’t know about snakes, though,” he added in an intentional afterthought.

“What are you going to do, flood it with water and let me drown?”

“Give me some credit. All you’d have to do is keep treading water till it got to the top.”

“Then what’s the point?”

Parker set off another of the charges. “There are twelve more like that, Noah. But long before I’ve set all of them off, you’ll already be choking. Smoke inhalation doesn’t have quite the drama of ocean water flooding your lungs, or being eaten by a shark, but it’s pretty damn effective, wouldn’t you say?”

“Ooh, you’re scaring me, Parker. You expect me to believe that you would let me die down here?”

“Why wouldn’t you believe it? I’m a killer. You said so yourself. Remember? Come on, flex the old memory muscles. I’m sure you’ll remember. After all, you must’ve rehearsed that blubbering speech a thousand times. The tears were a convincing touch, I must say. Even I came close to believing you. We were David and Jonathan until that day on the boat. Then I turned devious, lecherous, and murderous. Does that jiggle your memory?”

“I was… I was…”

“You were sentencing me to prison. Since I did the time, I think it’s only fair that I commit the crime.”

Noah was silent for a moment, then said, “I think my ankle’s broken.”

“You’re breaking my heart.”

“Listen, Parker, I’m in pain down here.”

“Don’t even go there, Noah.”

“Okay, what I did… it was wrong. I got scared. Froze up. Ran away. Once I realized what I’d done, there was no way out for me but to do what I did. I can understand your carrying a grudge. But you’ve made your point.”

“Like you could have made yours by leaving me in the ocean to die. Wasn’t that enough? Did you have to let Mary Catherine die, too?”

“You won’t get away with this,” Noah said in a new tone of voice.

“Oh, I think I will. You did.”