“Look, Don,” she said. “You’ve got your money. That’s what you came down here for, right? Take it and go. I’m not going back to Jersey. As soon as I get settled and get a job, I’ll hire a lawyer and we’ll get a nice quiet divorce. You and Tara can sail happily off into the sunset. Just leave me the hell alone.”

“A divorce?” Don tsk-tsked, mockingly placing a hand over the breast pocket of his crisply pressed, pale yellow dress shirt. “Why would I want a divorce? Why can’t we just happy-ever-after?”

“I’m done,” Maryn said, her fingers searching between the layers of foam and batting. She felt crumbs, and was that a dead fly? Where the hell was the revolver? “I’m not going back. I don’t care what you did back there. The money, whatever went on with Prescott’s? None of my business. I don’t want to know it. I don’t know anything. Not really.”

Don sighed. “Oh, Maryn, I’m really disappointed in you. Never bullshit a bullshitter, okay?”

*   *   *

Voices wafted from beneath the door of Dorie’s closet.

“The air shaft!” she whispered, pointing to the door. She tiptoed over and opened the closet door while Ellis closed and locked the bedroom door.

They heard Madison’s voice.

“What happened to Adam?” she asked. “He’s coming down here, you know. He knows I’m here. And he knows you threatened me. If anything happens to me, he’ll go to the police.”

“Don?” Julia whispered. “She’s talking to Don? The husband?” She turned to Ellis. “I thought you said it was Adam up there with her.”

“It was a guy, that’s all I could tell,” Ellis said, cupping her hand over the cell phone. “We were worried about Adam. How the hell did the husband figure out where she is?”

“Oh, bad news,” Don said. “Adam won’t be able to make it, I’m afraid. But he sends his regrets.”

Maryn felt the hairs on her neck prickle. “I talked to him on the phone. What did you do to him?”

“Me? What about what he did to me? Blackmail is a crime, you know. Did you realize your boyfriend was a filthy little blackmailer?”

“Adam is not my boyfriend,” Maryn said through gritted teeth. “I know somebody as promiscuous as you might not believe it, but I never cheated on you. Not with Adam, or anybody else.”

“So you say. But he was under the impression that you were going to cheat on me. And that you were going to run off with him, just as soon as he got this money.” Don patted the briefcase.

“Adam didn’t know about the money,” Maryn lied. “I deliberately didn’t tell him about it.”

“He knew all about it,” Don corrected her. “It was supposed to be his. Do you mean you hadn’t figured that out?”

“I don’t believe you,” Maryn said, but a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach told her Don was telling the truth.

“It was only supposed to be twenty-five thousand dollars, in the beginning,” Don said. “Adam isn’t nearly as smart as he thinks he is, but he was just smart enough to go poking his nose where it didn’t belong. He came to me with his suspicions, and although I didn’t admit anything, I did agree to a payoff. It was supposed to be twenty-five thousand dollars. He was supposed to keep his mouth shut, but the greedy little bastard just couldn’t do it. He had to keep pushing. And then … well, you know what happened then.”

“Adam called in the auditors?” Maryn asked, confused. “Why would he do that?”

Don shrugged. “He was squeezing me for more money, and I really didn’t believe his threats. I guess he decided to show me who had the upper hand. Rookie move.”

“But why tell me?” Maryn asked.

“He probably thought you’d leave me and run away with him,” Don said, chuckling. “Not that it matters now. I’ve got five million dollars stashed away. And Adam? Well, poor Adam won’t be making any more idle threats.”

*   *   *

Dorie looked wide-eyed at Ellis, who still had the cell phone pressed to her ear. “Are you still on hold?”

Ellis nodded.

“We’ve got to do something,” Dorie said. She grabbed a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and started dressing. “This guy is a maniac. Do you hear how calm he is? Discussing bribery and embezzlement? And murder? He’ll kill Madison, I know he will. What can we do?”

*   *   *

“What are you saying?” Maryn asked, horrified. “What have you done to Adam?”

She kept fumbling around with the mattress, trying to keep her expression calm, impassive. Had Don found the pistol and confiscated it? He had to remember he’d given it to her, even showed her how to fire it.

“Adam wanted another hundred thousand dollars after he called the auditors. And you. He said if I didn’t come up with the money, he’d make an anonymous phone call to the state attorney general’s office. They were already sniffing around by then, and so I agreed to the little bastard’s demands. And that,” Don said, patting the briefcase, “is how the hundred thousand dollars came to be in my laptop case.”

“Adam was blackmailing you? I don’t believe it,” Maryn said, stalling, because now, actually, she really could believe Adam was capable of blackmail.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you believe,” Don said. “But since we’re having this chat, you should know that I was going to meet him that morning, the morning you made the unfortunate decision to go snooping around my office.”

“Why? Why would he do that?” Maryn had her hand completely under the mattress, but the pistol definitely was not where she’d put it. Don? No, wouldn’t he have shown her the gun first thing? Slowly, it dawned on her. Julia! She was the only other person who’d been alone in this room. She’d found the money easily enough. Had she found the gun and swiped it? Damn her!

“You can imagine how desperate Adam got when he realized his plan backfired,” Don said. “And that you’d absconded with all his money. Not that I ever really intended to give him a cent,” Don added.

He looked at Maryn with interest. “What are you fiddling with over there?” He stood abruptly and jerked Maryn off the bed.

She cried out in pain as her head hit the sharp edge of the nightstand, and the lamp fell to the floor, its glass base smashing to bits.

Maryn was sobbing softly.

*   *   *

One floor down, Dorie, Ellis, and Julia were riveted to the spot.

“He’s hurting her,” Dorie exclaimed. “Ellis, are you still on hold? Hang up and redial, for God’s sake.”

“What?” they heard Don say, with a low chuckle. “Were you looking for that pistol I gave you? I already looked. It’s not there, is it?”

“The pistol,” Julia whispered. “My God, I forgot to put it back under her mattress.” She sprinted from the room and came back with her beach tote, holding the gun out with a look of horror and fascination.

“What should we do?” Dorie asked. “Y’all, we can’t wait for the cops.”

Ellis clicked the disconnect button. “I’m calling Ty,” she whispered. “He’s out back. He needs to know things are getting hairy in here.”

“Where’d you put the gun, Maryn?” they heard Don ask, and when she kept crying, they heard the sickening sound of a slap, and then Maryn crying harder.

“Do something,” Dorie implored. “He’ll kill her.”

Ellis’s fingers were shaking as she tapped his name on her cell phone. The phone rang twice, three times, no answer. “Come on, Ty,” Ellis breathed. “Pick up. Please, please, pick up.” A moment later, she got his voice mail. “Hi, it’s Ty,” his voice said. “Leave a number and I’ll hit you back.”

“Ty, it’s me,” she said, cupping her hand over the phone, her lips close to the receiver. “The man in Madison’s room is her husband. He’s beating the crap out of her. I still can’t get through to 911. Get your friend, get the cops, get somebody over here now. And hurry.”

“Maryn?” Don’s voice was threatening.

“The gun’s not here,” she cried. “It was stolen from my car the first week I was here. I haven’t had time to get another one. That’s why I put the locks on the door.”