Envy(155)

“People will see the smoke, call the fire department.”

“It’s on the other side of the island. You’ll suffocate before they get here.”

“And you’ll be blamed.”

“I don’t think so. Everyone inside Terry’s heard your cruel remark. They know your wife’s been living under my roof for a couple weeks. They’ll figure you came down here from Yankeeland to bust my ass. But to them I’m the poor crippled man who lives down the lane. Now, who do you think they’re going to believe? Who do you think they’ll choose to believe?

“All I have to do is tell them the truth. We had words. You attacked me, and I’ve got the bloody nose to prove it. You lost your balance and fell into the well. Unfortunately, I had already set off the charges and couldn’t stop the inevitable. I tried to save you, but it was no use. I’m a cripple, remember?”

He peered over the rim and smiled down at Noah, whose face was a pale oval looking up at him from the bottom of the dry well. “It’s as plausible as the story you told the Coast Guard, don’t you think?”

“Parker. Parker. Listen to me.”

“Excuse me just a moment.” He depressed a button and another charge sparked. By now flames were eating the wood on the outside walls in two places, working their way up toward the loft.

“Stop this, Parker.” Noah cried.

“No.”

“For God’s sake!”

“For God’s sake? Don’t you mean for your sake, Noah? I think even God would understand and forgive anything I did to you. I thought of shooting you and getting it over with. I’d’ve pled self-defense and would have gotten away with it.

“But then I thought about the hours I flailed about in that f*cking ocean before I was rescued. I thought about the hours I spent in excruciating pain in rehab hospitals. Somehow shooting seemed much too good for you. I had to wait fourteen years for this. If you met death quickly, it wouldn’t be nearly as gratifying. I considered cutting off your balls and letting you bleed out, like I nearly did. But that would have been messy and I couldn’t think of a reasonable defense.

“Then one day I was in here plotting a Deck Cayton novel, and I happened to catch myself staring at this well, and just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers, “the idea came to me. I got a mental image of you struggling for air, your eyes streaming tears, your nose running snot. I got so aroused, I nearly came inside my shorts.

“By the way, the equipment works just fine, thank you. And Maris might have been married to you, but she was never your wife. You don’t know her. You never even came close to knowing her.

“Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, I got an ol’ boy who lives on the island to set these charges for me. Simple. Like automatic fireplace starters. I sent out notices that I was going to burn the place down. A controlled fire, you see. Like they once used to burn the sugarcane fields right here on the island. Not much flame. Lots of smoke.”

By now the smell of it was strong.

“Parker, you’ve got to get us out of here.”

Parker laughed. “I won’t have trouble getting out. I’ve got wheels. You, by contrast, are screwed.”

Noah tried another tack. “Okay, you want me to beg. I’m begging. Get me out of here.”

Parker coughed on smoke. “Sorry, Noah. Even if I wanted to, it’s too late. I’ve got to save myself. I’ll be depriving myself the pleasure of watching you die, but—”

“Parker! Don’t do this.” Noah sobbed. “Please. Don’t let me die. What can I say?”

Parker stared down at him, his features turning hard, all traces of humor vanishing. “Say you’re sorry.”

Noah stopped sobbing but remained stubbornly silent.

“Did you even know Mary Catherine’s real name?”

“What difference does it make?”

“It was Sheila. You should’ve at least known the name of the girl who miscarried your baby.”

“It wasn’t a baby. It was a female trick. A trap.”

“So you did know,” Parker murmured. “I wondered.”

“Ancient history, Parker.”

“Wrong. It’s very timely. If you want to get out of here alive, Noah, admit that you knocked Mary Catherine overboard and did nothing, f*cking nothing, to try and save her.”

Noah hesitated. Parker placed his hand on the wheels of his chair and started to turn it around. “See ya.”

“Wait! All right! What happened to Mary Catherine—”

“Sheila.”

“Sheila. What happened to Sheila was my fault.”

“And me. You deliberately ran that boat over me.”

“Yes.”

“Say it.”

“I deliberately ran that boat over you.”

“Why?”

“I… I was trying to kill you and make it look like an accident. I wanted you out of the way.”

“Of your career.”

“That’s right.”

“Was that also why you killed Daniel Matherly?”

“Damn you!”

“You did kill him, didn’t you?” Parker shouted down at him. “Admit it or you suffocate, you son of a bitch. If you don’t drown in your own nervous piss first.”