I've Got You Under My Skin

23

Alex Buckley rushed to Nina and knelt over her, checking her heartbeat, making sure she was breathing.

After their initial shocked silence, the others pushed back their chairs. Muriel, genuinely pale, clutched Robert Powell’s arm, then leaned over her daughter.

Nina’s eyes fluttered.

“She’s all right,” Alex said. “But give her air.”

“Betsy,” Nina moaned. “Betsy.”

Laurie’s eyes turned to look at Claire, who had not moved from the doorway. It seemed to her that there was something of a triumphant expression on her face. Laurie had seen enough pictures of Betsy to guess that Claire had deliberately done everything possible to enhance her startling resemblance to her mother.

Alex picked Nina up, carried her into the den, and laid her on the couch. The others followed him as Jane came running in with a cold towel, which, with expert fingers, she folded on Nina’s forehead.

“Someone call a doctor!” Muriel screamed. “Nina, Nina, talk to me.”

“Betsy,” Nina murmured. “She came back.” Then, as Nina looked around, Muriel swooped down and clasped her face with both hands. “Nina, baby, it’s all right.”

With a sudden, violent motion, Nina pushed her mother away. “Take your hands off me,” she snapped, in a voice that was trembling with emotion. “Take your miserable hands off me!” And then she began to sob, “Betsy came back from the dead. She came back from the dead.”

Blue Eyes watched with avid interest as Laurie Moran, clearly in charge now, directed the sequence of the filming.

She’s very efficient, he decided, watching her check the cameras to see if the angle was what she wanted.

At one point she beckoned to him, and Bruno went scurrying over.

She smiled briefly and asked him to remove the extra plants he had put in early this morning.

“They’re lovely,” she said, “but they weren’t here when we photographed last week.”

Bruno apologized profusely, even while he felt the thrill of being so near his prey. She’s so pretty, he thought. It would be a shame to spoil that beautiful face. He wouldn’t do it.

But, as he was standing so close to her, a new and wonderful plan began to form in his mind.

Five months earlier he had hacked into Leo Farley’s computer and phone, and since then he had known everything there was to know about his, Laurie’s, and Timmy’s activities. The computer courses he’d taken online had really paid off, he thought now.

He knew that Timmy was now in Camp Mountainside in the Adirondacks. And that it was only a four-hour drive from here.

Timmy’s entire schedule of activities at the camp was on Farley’s computer. And what was most interesting was that the hour between 7 and 8 P.M. was free time, when the campers were allowed to make or receive one phone call.

That meant that after 8 P.M., Laurie would not expect to speak to Timmy for another twenty-three hours.

How could he get the director of the camp to let him take Timmy away without arousing suspicion?

Blue Eyes pondered that question as he kept himself in the background, always ready to repair the slightest hint of damage to the lawn or shrubbery.

He even chatted a bit with the man and woman who were always close to Laurie.

Jerry and Grace. Young, both of them. The world ahead of them. He hoped for their sakes that they weren’t too near Laurie when her time to die arrived.

Which it would. Oh, yes.

It was with regret that Blue Eyes watched the equipment be put away for the day. From the talk around him, he knew that they’d be back at eight o’clock tomorrow, and at that time they’d start filming the graduates.

Always anxious to stay under the radar, as instructed, he phoned the office of Perfect Estates and gave the secretary fifteen minutes’ notice to pick him up.

When the van arrived, Blue Eyes was not pleased to see that Dave Cappo was behind the wheel. Dave was too nosy. “So, Bruno, where’d ya come from? Wuz ya always in landscaping? The wife and I would like to have you over for dinner any night at all. Up to ya.” Big wink from Dave. “You and I know she’ll squeeze your brains to hear everything about those four grads. Which one do you think did it?”

“Why don’t we make it a day or so after they wrap up here?” Blue Eyes suggested.

By then, he thought, with any luck, I’ll be gone, and you and your wife will have plenty to chew on.