"Rex?"
She kept going. She wanted to scream, and she wanted to stop--and she could not. She set the kitten down in the kitchen and stepped out onto the back porch.
The huddled form was a body. She began to shake, terrified. She had to touch it.... Someone was hurt; someone needed help.
She went down on her knees, and her eyes widened. She saw a patch of blond hair.
"John!" She gasped. She touched his shoulder nervously. "John?" She pulled her hand away and began to shake in earnest. There was blood all over her hand.
"Oh, my God!" she breathed. She heard the front door slam. Then she heard footsteps racing through the house. A scream of terror rose to her throat.
Rex. Rex had come here, and Rex had killed John. It was her fault. John was dead. She'd hated him; she'd feared him--but, oh God, she'd never expected this....
She screamed as a figure burst out upon her.
"Alexi!"
It was Rex. He raced over to her and paused, staring at her, then at the body. He dropped to his knees beside the body and pressed a finger against John's throat. He looked at Alexi again.
"This is Vinto?" His voice had a harsh, strangling sound. Alexi gazed at him blankly. He knew this was John. He had done this thing to him.
"You...you..."
"We've got to get help out here right away," he muttered.
"Oh, Rex! Oh, God!"
"Alexi, you're going to have to tell the police everything that happened between you. Everything. From before."
"What?"
"I love you, Alexi. Whatever happens, I'll be by your side."
"What?" she repeated, amazed and ready to burst into tears. She'd fallen so in love with him. She should have known it was too good to be true. This morning they'd sailed a turquoise sea under a golden sun, and now they were sitting here, drenched and ashen, staring at each other over the body of a man....
"Samson!" he said suddenly. "I hear Samson."
She looked up. He was right. The shepherd was racing toward them, skidding across the kitchen floor so fast that he nearly flew into Rex's arms once he'd left the doorframe behind. He barked excitedly, jumping over John's body to crash into Alexi. She burst into tears, hugging the shepherd. It was too much. “Alexi--'' Rex began.
"There you are!"
Rex turned to the doorframe and distractedly noticed Emily standing there in her trench coat. “Emily, thank God you're all right," he said. He reached out for Alexi. She winced, jerking from his touch. "Alexi, it's going to be all right!"
"Rex!" Emily said in a strangled voice. She'd seen the body, Rex thought.
"Emily--" He began to turn.
"Oh, my God!" Alexi shrieked. "Rex--she's got a gun."
But somehow that fact didn't quite penetrate Rex's mind. "Emily, what in God's name are you doing?" He started to walk toward her. She raised the barrel so it was even with his chest. "Stop where you are, Rex."
He knew from her tone that she meant it. "Emily--"
"Back up, Rex--now. I mean it. I--I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt either of you. I've got to figure this out now. You'll all have to be found together. A love triangle. I don't know. Maybe you found the two of them together, Rex. Then shot yourself."
Fingers were touching him. Reaching for his arm. It was Alexi. Numb, Rex encircled her with an arm, drawing her tightly to him.
"Why?" Alexi whispered. Emily looked at her and spoke as if she was trying to explain things to a half-witted child.
"Why, the treasure, child, of course. I finally found it. Today."
"It's worthless, Emily!" Rex thundered. "It's worthless paper! It's not--"
"It's not paper at all, Rex Morrow!" Emily corrected him. She sniffed. "No one knew Pierre Brandy wine--not even his beloved Eugenia! It was gold he left her. Gold bars! A fortune. A real treasure. And it's been in this house all these years because some foolish little maid didn't bother to forward a letter." Emily smiled. "I found it, you see. I was cleaning up in the old kitchen before Gene had them put the new stuff in. I found Pierre's letter. Telling Eugenia he left her gold. Only Eugenia knew where it was hidden. I didn't. I had to search and search."
Alexi's fingers were a vise around Rex's arm. He could feel her trembling, but she was determinedly standing there--buying time.
“You tried to scare me out, right, Emily?'' she said shakily.
"I tried."
Alexi kept stalling. In the terrible dark of the night, against the endless monotony of the rain, she was desperately stalling for time.
"You had no reason to ever be afraid of Samson. Samson was your best friend. You could search and search-- and he wouldn't bark."
"It was easy before you came," Emily agreed. "I went through the house at my leisure. I looked and looked and couldn't find it, but I knew that gold was here somewhere. I followed you when you first came. You ran right into Rex. I slipped into the house. I thought you might believe in ghosts. I had to knock you out the other night. And now this man found me. I had to shoot him. It's your fault-- you just wouldn't leave. And Rex... I am so sorry. Really."
He was going to have to jump her, Rex decided. Throw himself against her to at least give Alexi a chance to run. Alexi's fingers tightened around his arm again. She was thinking the same thing!
"Oh!" Emily let out a startled little scream. The gun raised for a split second. "Oh, you damned dog!" Samson had nudged her with a cold nose. Maybe he wasn't her best friend after all.
"Get down!" Rex shouted to Alexi. She dived for the porch just as he threw himself at Emily and knocked her down, sending the gun skidding away along the old wood of the porch. Emily screamed then, striking out at Rex with her nails. "Stop!" Rex commanded her. Alexi was there then, drawing her belt from her shorts, then slipping it around Emily's wrists. Rex caught hold of it and tied it securely.
Lights suddenly appeared, blinding them at first. A car stopped; they could hear the doors slamming. "Alexi! Rex!" It was Gene.
"Rex? Miss Jordan?"
"We're here, in the back!" Rex called out. "Mark Eliot," he told Alexi. She smiled.
"If you can give that nice boy any bit of help, you do it," Alexi said.
"I will," Rex promised. He glanced over at John's body. "He might still make it."
"He's alive?" Alexi demanded.
"Just barely." He smiled at her ruefully. "I thought you had tried to kill him."
"And I thought you had!"
"He hurt you so badly."
"You once said that you would kill him," she reminded him.
Rex groaned. "Alexi! That was a term of speech!"
"Well..." she murmured.
Emily was swearing viciously, but by that time, Gene and Mark had reached the porch. They both stared at John and then at Emily. It seemed to Alexi that everyone was talking at once. Gene looked so white that she quickly put her arms around him, anxious to assure him that she was fine. Rex was trying to explain the situation to Mark Eliot. Mark took one look at John Vinto's body and hurried to the car, calling for an ambulance. Then he returned and checked the body. "There's still a pulse--just barely," he said grimly, staring at Emily.
"Come on, Mrs. Rider. Let's go to the car." Mark exchanged the belt around her wrists for handcuffs. By then they could hear the ambulance's siren. A moment later, two paramedics were carefully working on John Vinto. Alexi stared at her ex-husband's features. She was shivering, but her fear of him was completely gone. She prayed that he would live. Rex slipped his arms around her as they took John away. "I wonder what he did want," she murmured.
"I don't know," Rex said.
"Why on earth did she shoot him?" Gene murmured.
“He just happened to come upon her when she had discovered her stash of gold at last," Rex wearily told Gene.