The bench where the man sat was about twenty feet away from my hiding spot. I was completely concealed in the darkness, but if I moved or made any sound at all—a sneeze, a gasp, anything—he would probably hear me.
I had no idea who the man was or why he was here, but I certainly had no intention of alerting him to my presence. For now, we waited. I waited to see if Kat would show up, and he waited for whomever he hoped to see. Maybe he was meeting a lover, or maybe he was a drug dealer waiting for a customer.
Or maybe Kat had arranged for him to be here.
I huddled against the tree, my pulse racing, as I considered what I knew.
Kat had set me up to be here, isolated and alone. This man had shown up at the very time and spot she’d arranged for us to meet. And Kat was nowhere to be seen.
Was it possible that my best friend had sent this man to scare or even hurt me? A week earlier, I would have said no, never. But now I wasn’t so sure. I certainly didn’t know Kat as well as I’d thought I did.
I might not know her at all.
* * *
I didn’t dare look at my phone to see how much time had passed. It could have been anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour. The man occasionally took out his phone and checked it.
Just as I was starting to feel the strain in my muscles from staying so absolutely still, the man stood. He looked around, and for one heart-stopping moment he stared right in my direction. I held my breath. But then he looked away, and I realized that he had not heard me or sensed my presence but had been looking at the waterway beyond.
He turned toward the path. He was leaving. I watched him, backlit by the bright pool of light shining down from the lighthouse, and suddenly had an idea. It might be foolish, and yet I thought it might be beneficial someday.
I slid my phone out of my pocket and, cupping my hands over it so its light wouldn’t give me away, opened the camera app and checked to make sure the flash was turned off. Moving very slowly, I lifted the phone and took several photos of the man in the seconds before he turned and headed back down the hill and into the darkness.
After he left, I checked the time on my phone. It was nearly ten o’clock.
Kat was clearly not coming.
Still, I waited another half hour before texting Ebbie. I wanted to make sure the man was gone before she pulled into the parking lot. Finally I texted,
Can u pick me up now?
Ebbie texted back immediately,
On my way.
I took out my pepper spray, just in case, and crept slowly down the hill. When I reached the gate, I saw that it was unlatched. The chain had been cut and was lying on the ground. I glanced around but didn’t see or hear anyone. Still, I couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t waiting for me somewhere close by. I tried to move as stealthily as possible until I reached the parking lot and saw that it was empty. Relief flooded through me. The man, whoever he was, appeared to have left.
A minute later, Ebbie drove up in my car, headlights shining in the unrelenting darkness. I ran out to it and quickly opened the rear door and got inside.
“I’ve been worried sick!” my mother said. “You were so much later than I thought you’d be! Did you at least get the information you were hoping to find?”
“Not exactly,” I said, tucking the pepper spray back into my bag.
Ebbie looked back at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m fine.”
Or I would be, once I figured out what Kat was up to.
* * *
When we got back to the house, Todd was waiting in the living room, watching the Tennis Channel with the volume off. He had a bottle of beer in his hand, and his wavy dark hair was sticking up on end as though he’d been running his hands through it.
“I’m going straight to bed,” Ebbie said from the doorway. She looked tired, and I felt a stab of guilt at keeping her up so late.
“Good night,” I said. “And thank you again. For everything.”
Ebbie smiled. “Good night.”
When she had left the room, I sat down on the couch next to my husband, tucking my legs underneath me. He was still staring at the television.
“Hey,” I said.
He nodded and took a sip of his beer.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I asked, reaching out to rest my hand lightly on his arm.
“What would you like me to say?” Todd sounded tired and tense, but not mad. I was glad. I wasn’t up to facing his anger.
“I’m sorry I left the way I did. I know that I worried you,” I said. “And I know you’ve been through a lot lately.”
Todd finally turned to look at me. “I wasn’t worried. I was scared out of my mind. Two days ago you were arrested for murder. Tonight you disappeared for hours without telling me or even Ebbie, apparently, what you were doing. What was I supposed to think?”
“I had to do something.”
“So I gathered.”
I knew I couldn’t tell him that Kat had asked me to meet her at the lighthouse or that she hadn’t shown up or that she possibly had sent the tattooed man after me. Todd would insist on going to the police, which I had absolutely no intention of doing. I hadn’t trusted the police even before they arrested me for murder.
Instead I’d have to lie to my husband. If I dressed it up in a half-truth, maybe he’d even buy it.
“I got a text message from someone who said he had information about the witness who claimed to have seen Howard pushed off the balcony,” I said.
“Who?”
“I don’t know, he didn’t give me his name. In fact, I’m not even sure it was a man. But whoever it was wanted me to meet him at the lighthouse after hours, so I went and waited. But he didn’t show up.”
“You did what?” Todd practically shouted.
“Shh,” I said. “You’ll wake up the kids.”
“What were you thinking?”
“Please stop shouting.”
Todd set down his beer bottle with unnecessary force on the side table. “But that’s crazy. It doesn’t make any sense. You were gone for, what? Six, seven hours? Just to meet someone you don’t know?”
“He said he had information for me. I couldn’t just ignore that.”
“Let me see the text,” Todd demanded with his hand out.
We looked at one another for a long moment. Todd was upset, yes, but there was also something in his expression I couldn’t quite read. A wariness I hadn’t seen before. I wondered if he knew I was lying.
“I deleted it,” I said quietly.
“What the hell is going on, Alice?”
“I’ve told you everything I know.”
Todd closed his eyes. “We can’t get through this if you don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
“Then tell me what you were doing tonight.”
“I already told you. I was meeting someone I thought wanted to help me. But I was wrong. That person didn’t show up.” This, at least, was the truth. “If he had, and I could have used his help to clear my name, it would have been worth it.”
Todd shook his head, picked up his beer and took a long drink from the bottle. I knew he still wasn’t sure he believed me, but I could tell he was softening. Finally he reached out and took my hand. “I know you’re scared and worried, but please promise me you’ll never do anything like this ever again.”
“Believe me,” I said, turning to look at the silent tennis match, “I learned my lesson tonight.”
* * *
I didn’t get any sleep that night. I lay in our bed, listening to my husband’s soft snores, while I tried to figure out what Kat was up to. Had she simply been unable to show up? If so, it was an awfully big coincidence for that man to be at the closed and gated lighthouse at the exact time Kat and I were supposed to meet there. But if Kat had sent him in her place, what had she been hoping to accomplish? It was hard to believe that he had been there to deliver a benign message. Had he been sent to scare or even hurt me? And if so, what would Kat do when he told her I didn’t show up?
Finally I gave up on sleep. I crept out of our bedroom without waking Todd and padded to the kitchen. I made chamomile tea and sat down at the table, my hands cupped around the steaming mug, while I tried to think about what I should do next.
I turned my laptop on and opened a blank document.
Then I began to type.