AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“By the time the doctors granted the investigators permission to question him, Parker had already been cast in the defensive role. Confronted with these false accusations, Parker, by his own account, played right into Noah’s hands. He reacted like a jealous, envious hothead with violent tendencies. His ranted denials made him appear guilty rather than innocent. From his hospital bed, he threatened to kill his lying friend.”
Mike smiled. “I imagine that he put his command of the English language, as well as his gutter vernacular, to good use. I can imagine him pulling against arm restraints and practically foaming at the mouth.”
“That probably isn’t exaggerating by much.”
“In any case he came across as a raving maniac, dangerous to himself and others. Noah was believed. Parker wasn’t. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter for Mary Catherine’s drowning. When he was well enough to leave the hospital, he was taken to court for his arraignment. He pled no contest.”
“Why?” Maris exclaimed. “He wasn’t guilty.”
“But he felt responsible.”
She shook her head. “Noah was.”
“I agree with you. But Parker blamed himself for being unable to save her. Noah didn’t attend Parker’s sentencing, but he sent a videotaped deposition. He was humble, sorrowful, soft-spoken when he wasn’t openly weeping. He said he regretted having to tell the horrible truth about that day. A dual tragedy had occurred, he said. Mary Catherine’s drowning. And the death of his friendship with Parker Evans. He thought he knew him, but in a matter of hours his best friend had become his enemy.
“He said that he and Parker had been closer than any two brothers. But when Noah succeeded ahead of him, it did something to Parker. Twisted him. Noah looked earnestly into the camera and sobbed. ‘I don’t understand what happened to Parker that day. He turned devious, lecherous, and murderous.’ I think I’m quoting correctly.”
Maris took a deep breath and expelled it slowly. “So Noah went to New York in a blaze of glory because of The Vanquished.”
“And Parker went to prison.”
“Prison? Prison.” She lowered her head and ground her palm against her forehead. “He told me once that he had spent years in rehab hospitals and ‘other facilities.’ I would never have imagined he was referring to prison.”
“Because of the mitigating circumstances of his case and his physical condition, he was sent to a minimum-security prison and allowed to continue with his treatment program and physical therapy. He was released after serving twenty-two months of an eight-year sentence.
“He might have been better off if the state had kept him longer. On his own, he didn’t fare very well.” He looked at her from beneath his eyebrows. “I believe you know that he’d sunk pretty low by the time I heard what had happened to my star pupil and went looking for him.”
She picked up the manuscript pages in her lap and straightened them. “I regret that I ever met Noah Reed. I loved him, Mike. Or thought I did. I was married to him. Wanted to have his children. How could I not have seen what he is?”
“You weren’t looking. You didn’t know to look.”
“But I should have read the signs. I knew this is where he’d attended university, but he never talked about his life before coming to New York. Not even a casual reference. He didn’t have any keepsakes or photographs, except one of his mother and father with him as a boy. He was never in touch with old friends. He never reminisced. He said he preferred living the present to visiting the past, and I stupidly accepted that explanation without question. Why did it never occur to me that he was hiding something?”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Maris. Noah is like two different men occupying one body. You weren’t the only one he hoodwinked.”
“Was it a plot device for Envy, or did you actually write Parker a letter, cautioning him not to turn his back on Noah?”
“I wrote a letter very similar to the one Parker read aloud to us. Almost word for word, in fact.”
“So you saw through Noah, and he was only your student. I was his wife. Not a strong recommendation for my perception skills.”
“Parker lived with him, too, remember. For nearly six years. Here at the university, then in Florida. Occasionally he saw traces of selfishness and self-absorption, but not until he was in the water that night did he realize that Noah is evil.”
“I believe that. Recently I’ve had glimpses of that evil alter ego.” Looking down at the pages still lying in her lap, she ran her fingers across the top sheet in something like a caress. “Parker’s not evil like Noah. But he’s cruel.” Raising her head and looking across at Mike, she said, “Why did he do this, Mike?”
“Revenge.”
“Why did he involve me?”
“I apologize for my part, Maris. I was uncomfortable with it from the start. I certainly didn’t like it once I came to know you.” He eased back in his chair and focused on a corner of the ceiling as he arranged his thoughts. “You see, in that damning video deposition, Noah accused Parker of lechery with Mary Catherine.”
“So he made the accusation a reality. With me.”
“Something like that. Parker’s success with the Mackensie Roone books should have been enough for him. But it wasn’t. The best revenge he could devise was to write his and Noah’s story and write it well enough to captivate you, a respected editor.”
“Who also happened to be Noah’s wife.”
“I think the idea sparked when he read that Noah had married you.”
