Wolf in the Shadows - Marcia Muller [118]
“Didn’t it bother you to kidnap and kill someone?”
“We weren’t going to kill him!”
“Come on, Ann. Mourning might not have known who you were, but he and Stan had been friends.”
“Stan wore a disguise. And I was the one who took food and stuff to Tim. I even wore a wig.”
“Oh, Ann, Ripinsky saw through Stan’s disguise right away, and from a distance. Of course Stan planned to kill Tim. And on some level you knew that.”
She sighed deeply.
“How could you have believed what Stan told you, when you knew he was sleeping with Tim’s wife?”
“… I don’t know. Maybe I thought if I helped him, I could hold him. Stan slept around a lot; I couldn’t believe Diane was that important to him. But I don’t know. My whole life before Stan, I never trusted any man, never gave in to anybody. I didn’t want to be like my mother, you see—always doing for other people, always having babies, always saying yes, yes, yes. But when I married Stan … he was stronger than me, and I just got weaker. The worst of it is, I don’t know why. And now it’s too late.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Hy appeared, moving swiftly. I lowered the window, and he leaned toward it. “We better move now. Salazar was out prowling, but he’s gone inside again. When I left off watching him, he was upstairs.”
I nodded. Hy went around to Navarro’s door, gun in hand. I unlocked it, and she got out.
I started the car and turned it around so it was pointed at the road. Left it with the doors locked, pocketed the keys, and joined Hy and Navarro by the path to the beach.
“We’ll go back the way we came,” I told her. “Ripinsky’ll be in front of you, I’ll be behind. When we get to the villa, you’ll take us to Mourning’s room. Don’t try to warn anybody. If you do, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
Navarro looked more convinced by my words than I was; she compressed her lips and glanced at Hy.
He said, “Don’t look at me. I won’t hesitate, either.”
As he spoke I caught a glimpse of the violence that simmered beneath his civilized exterior. I had no doubt he meant what he’d said. As for myself, I’d never know exactly what I was capable of until I was called to action.
Twenty-Nine
Light still glowed softly in the room off the terrace. Hy vaulted the wall, then gave Navarro a boost up. I followed.
We stood in the shadows for a moment. I could hear nothing but the surge of the tide and the pounding of my own heart, accelerated by the adrenaline flowing through me. Hy tapped Navarro’s shoulder, pushed her forward to the door. She tried to open it, then turned, face set in lines of frustration.
I went over there and tried it myself. Locked. I pulled Navarro back toward the wall and whispered, “Is there any other door that might be open?”
“Maybe off the patio where the pool is.”
“Let’s go.”
She led us across the terrace, down some steps, and along a path bordered by tall agaves. It curved into a walled courtyard with a pool and hot tub. We skirted them in the darkness, and Navarro tried a sliding door to the house. Also locked.
I put my lips close to her ear and asked, “Is that wing to the right where Mourning and the bodyguard are sleeping?”
She nodded.
“What about a window?”
“All barred.”
I looked at Hy. He shrugged.
“You’ll have to wake the bodyguard,” I told Navarro. “Say you were walking on the beach and got locked out.”
Hy was examining the door. He pointed to the side where the opening would be, then slipped behind an agave that grew next to the wall. To Navarro I added, “Ask him to let you in this way.”
“How am I supposed to—”
“Ssh! Knock on his window; say you didn’t want to disturb the others by ringing the bell.”
“I don’t know which—”
“Guess. If you get the wrong window, the only other person you’ll disturb is Mourning.”
She moved toward the wing at the right. I followed, covering her. She rounded the corner, began counting windows. Stopped at the third one, then stepped across a low bed of cacti and knocked. I stopped some five feet away as a man’s voice called out in inquiry.
Navarro replied swiftly in Spanish. I