James Patterson - Lifeguard

Her cardigan fell off. Stratton had her by the arm, a grin on his face she didn’t like, staring at her shape and her bare shoulders. “You must look cute in a wetsuit, Ellie. Maybe I’d like to see some more of you myself.”

WHAT WAS THIS ?

I was out on the jetty, overlooking Stratton’s house, when I saw it all unfold. I’m not sure why I was even there. Maybe because that was where it all began; where Mickey and Bobby and Barney had been set up – and I was out of answers. Or because it burned me that Stratton could be in there celebrating about something while my life was falling apart.

Or maybe because it seemed that I’d been watching parties like this from the outside my whole life.

Whatever it was, I watched this guy in a navy blazer dragging a girl onto the terrace, maybe fifty yards away. He forced himself against her on the stone ledge. Shit, Ned, you’ve hit the bottom now , I groaned. I figured I was in for some peep show of the idle rich doing it under the stars.

Suddenly I realized the girl was Ellie.

I went closer. It was Ellie ! And the guy in the blazer, Dennis Stratton. I’d seen his picture in the papers. But I was wrong. There was nothing amorous going on. He had her by the arm and they were arguing. Ellie tried to pull away.

I inched closer, crouching near a rock wall. Their words started to come clear. Something about Tess… something about this being a private matter. Was I hearing this right? What did Tess have to do with Stratton?

Then Ellie said, “I’m going to nail you for fraud – and murder!”

That was all I needed to hear, but the bastard started threatening her. Ellie was trying to twist away. “You’re hurting me.”

I hoisted myself up the concrete seawall and onto the ledge of the terrace.

Then I jumped down off the ledge onto the terrace a few feet behind the two of them. It all happened quickly after that. I jerked Stratton away and nailed him with a solid right. He went down hard on the terrace.

“You want to put your hands on somebody,” I said over him, “c’mon, how ’bout me?”

Stratton looked up as if he were dreaming. He rubbed his jaw. “Who the hell are you?”

I turned to Ellie and did a double take. She was beautiful. In a cute black dress, shoulders exposed. All made up. And diamond studs sparkling in her ears, nice ones. She was staring at me with her mouth open.

I was hoping I hadn’t shocked her so much that she’d say my name.

She didn’t. Instead, Ellie took hold of my arm. “I was wondering where you were. Let’s get out of here.” She looked at Stratton, who was slowly getting to his feet. “Love your party, Dennis. I’ll be seeing you soon. Count on it.”

“THAT WAS BAD, NED,” Ellie said, hustling around the side of Stratton’s house. “You could’ve been caught.”

“I thought that was the plan,” I said, guiding her past a couple of parking attendants at the front gate. “I get caught.”

She made a right turn onto the beach. I was half expecting her to stop, pull out her gun, and arrest me right there. Then it hit me, what I had heard up on the terrace.

“You think it’s Stratton?” I looked at her, a little dazed.

Ellie didn’t answer.

I stopped walking. “You said you were going to bust him for murder and fraud. You think it’s Stratton?”

“You got a car, Ned?” Ellie said, ignoring me.

I nodded vacantly. “In a manner of speaking…”

“Then go get it. Now. I don’t want to know you here. Meet me back in Delray.”

I blinked. She wasn’t arresting me.

She glared impatiently. “I don’t think you need directions, do you, Ned?”

I shook my head, and as I started down the street, a grin spread across my face. “You believe me, don’t you?” I called.

Ellie stopped at a navy sedan. “You believe me,” I called again.

She opened her car door. “That was stupid, Ned. What you did.” She softened. “But thanks…”

The whole drive to Delray, I wasn’t sure what Ellie really meant back there. The new, paranoid me was sure I was going to come face-to-face with a roadblock of cops and flashing lights. All she had to do was turn me in and Ellie could make a career for herself.

But there were no roadblocks. No cops jumping out at me when I pulled around the corner from her house near the beach in Delray.

By the time I knocked on the front door, Ellie had changed. Her makeup was off, the diamond earrings gone. She had on a pair of jeans, white tee, a pink waist-length sweatshirt. You know what, though, she still looked beautiful.

“Let’s get one thing straight, ” she said as I stood in the doorway. “You’re going to jail. You were involved, Ned, whether you killed those people or not. I’m going to help you with the guy who killed your friends, and then you turn yourself in. You understand? You got it?”

“I understand,” I said. “But there’s something I have to know. You and Stratton on the terrace…You were talking about Tess.”

“I’m sorry you had to hear that, Ned.” She sat on a stool at the kitchen counter. She shrugged. “She and Stratton. They were seeing each other. They were lovers.”

Those words slammed into me.

Tess… and Dennis Stratton . A hollow feeling rose in my chest. I guess I’d kidded myself a bit. Why someone like Tess would want someone like me. But Stratton ? I sank onto the couch. “For how long?”

Ellie swallowed. “I think until the day she was killed. I think he was with her after you.”

The sinking feeling was starting to simmer now – into anger. “The police know this? They know, Ellie, and they’re after me ?”

“Seems nobody wants to take on Stratton. With the possible exception of, say, me .”

All of a sudden things started to become clear. What I’d heard up on Stratton’s terrace. Why Ellie hadn’t turned me in. Why I was there. “You think he did it, don’t you? You think he set up my friends? That’s he’s Gachet?”

Ellie came over and sat on the coffee table in front of me. “What I’m starting to think, Ned, is if your friends didn’t steal Stratton’s art, who did ?”

A smile crossed my lips. I felt this weight draining out of my shoulders. For a moment I wanted to take Ellie by the hand, or hug her. But the joy quickly faded. “But why Tess?”

“I don’t know yet.” Ellie shook her head. “Did she ever say anything to you? Maybe she knew about you and your friends beforehand. How did the two of you meet?”

“On the beach. Near where I worked…” I thought back.

I was the one who had gone up to her. Could it be possible that she was in on it? That I’d been set up? No, that was crazy. It was all crazy. “Why would Stratton want to steal his own art?”

“The insurance maybe. But it’s not like he needs the money. Maybe to cover up something else?”

“But if that’s the case, where was the art when Mickey and the guys went to take it?”

A light blinked in Ellie’s eyes. “Maybe someone beat them to it.”

“Someone else? Who? Tess?” I shook my head defiantly. “No way.” But one thing I couldn’t put away, and it didn’t make any sense to me. “If Stratton set up his own heist, if he has the paintings – why did he need to send a guy to kill Dave? Why is he still coming after me?”

We looked at each other. I guess we came to the answer at the same time.

Stratton didn’t have the art. Someone had double-crossed him .

I HAD A SUDDEN sinking feeling. This was going to be bad. “Listen, Ellie,” I said, “I haven’t been entirely truthful with you.”