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Lesley needed to know what was happening. One thing was certain—she wasn’t going to hear it from Zane.
Carrying a glass of ice tea with her, she walked out to the viewpoint and sat gazing at the white-capped swells on Lake Michigan. Zane was gone for the afternoon. She hadn’t a clue where. All he’d told her was that he’d be away for most of the day.
Hearing footsteps behind her, she glanced over her shoulder to find Carl. Zane’s friend had moved into his own house a week earlier.
“Is Zane around?” Carl asked.
“He’s gone. I don’t know when to tell you he’ll be back.”
Carl nodded and would have left if she hadn’t spoken again, surprising herself with the abruptness of the question. “Why’s he doing this?”
Carl slowly shook his head as though he, too, couldn’t understand. When he spoke, his words were heated with frustration and anger. “It’s insane, I tell you.”
Lesley didn’t know what had caused her to blurt out the question, but now that she had, she waited, wondering if she should continue this game of words. Carl seemed to think she knew something, when she didn’t.
“Did he tell you when he’s going?” Carl probed her for information.
“No.” Lesley closed her eyes. Zane was leaving again? He hadn’t said a word to her, hadn’t so much as hinted.
“Soon, I imagine,” Carl mumbled. “I’m sorry, Lesley. Nothing I’ve said changed his mind.” This last part was filled with a baffled kind of anger.
“It’s insane.” She repeated what he’d said earlier, hoping that would encourage the other man to supply the details.
“More than that. It’s suicide.”
Lesley caught her breath. “Suicide?”
“Zane’s no match for Schuyler, not physically. Not anymore. Now that Schuyler knows he’s alive and coming. Zane’s lost his one advantage. Don’t think Schuyler isn’t lying in wait for him. The killer will take a good deal of pleasure in finishing the job he started. He’s going to kill Zane the same way he killed Dan and Dave.”
The glass of ice tea slipped from her numb fingers and toppled onto the thick grass. The breath seemed frozen in her lungs.
“Why is he going?” From some hidden resource she found the serenity to keep her voice calm and even as she bent to retrieve the glass.
“I can’t answer that. I thought he’d come to his senses when he married you.” Carl paced the area in front of her, his short steps revealing his agitation. “I’ve tried to talk some sense into him. I tried to reason with him, but he made a vow and he won’t go back on that—not for anything.”
“What about his vow to me?”
Carl hesitated and looked to her. The intensity of his gaze wavered before he glanced away. “He loves you. He never counted on that…but then, I made the same mistake with Candy.” The first part of his words were brusque, the latter filled with an indescribable thread of pain.
Lesley placed her hand protectively against her stomach. “I’m pregnant.”
Carl looked stricken. “You, too?”
“Too?”
He removed his hat and splayed his fingers through his hair. “Never mind.”
“What about the baby? What about me?” she asked, unable to disguise the swelling panic. Zane was going to leave her A suicide mission?
“I can’t answer that either,” Carl told her wearily, and she felt his frustration as keenly as her own. “He’s going after Schuyler and worse, Zane fully intends to die.”
“No,” she cried, unable to stop herself. She rushed toward the house, fury and panic fueling her steps as she raced across the yard.
Lesley barreled into the kitchen and Mrs. Applegate whirled around. “My heavens, child, what’s wrong?”
“Where’s Zane? I need to talk to Zane.”
“He’s gone, remember?” The housekeeper’s words were gentle, concerned.
