Page 115 of Ten Beach Road

Thirty-nine

It said a lot for how desperate they were to get out of the storm and into something resembling safety that no one complained about the room, although as far as Maddie could see it wouldn’t have even qualified as a Motel 6, because six dollars would have far exceeded what it was worth.

While the others stripped out of their wet clothes, Maddie gathered all of the change she’d scraped out of the van ashtray and carried it to the motel’s vending machines, where she used every bit of it to buy a dinner of three Hershey Bars, two packets of peanut butter crackers, and two cans of Coke. Back in the room, where the Weather Channel showed Charlene picking up speed and drawing inexorably closer, Maddie divvied up the meal, changed out of her still-damp clothes, and crawled into bed beside Kyra. Deirdre and Avery lay as far away from each other as they could get on the second bed. Nicole slumped on the rickety desk chair. All of them had their phones out. Maddie couldn’t reach Steve or Andrew. None of them could get a signal.

Maddie lay in an odd state of fear-fueled exhaustion in the tension-filled silence. The only one talking was the meteorologist and nothing he was saying was anything Maddie wanted to hear.

She lay awake worrying for a long time, wishing Steve and Andrew were here—or at least on their way—their life repaired, her family intact. She must have fallen asleep because she woke to a distant siren and Kyra’s hands on her arm. “The right front quadrant of the hurricane is close to shore but hasn’t hit land yet. Do you hear that siren and the beeping from the TV? There’s a tornado warning in the area. They’re telling everyone to go into a small interior room.”

Kyra’s voice caught slightly in fear, and Maddie sat up and pulled her into a hug. “I think I read once that you’re supposed to sit in the bathtub.” Kyra’s voice quivered. “Should we wake everybody up?”

Groggy, the five of them filed into the bathroom. Without asking, Maddie helped Kyra into the tub, propping her up against her pillow, handing her another one to put over her head just in case though she was careful not to add in case of what. Avery was selected to crawl in with her because she was the only one with any chance of fitting.

Deirdre sat on the toilet lid while Maddie and Nicole folded their bedspreads into piles on either end of the tub then sat on them with their backs against the wall. The tiny jalousie window on the exterior wall had a big X of tape across it, which was presumably meant to stop pieces of glass from spraying into the room, but didn’t prevent it from rattling. The sound on the TV was up as far as it would go, but Maddie could only pick out every fourth or fifth word; none of them were reassuring.

“What is it with us and bathrooms?” Nicole asked. “Have you noticed how many of them we’ve been stuck in together?”

Deirdre and Kyra managed smiles.

“I’ve noticed. I had a damned period because of it,” Maddie said, trying for another smile. “Nobody’s carrying, are they? No tampons or Kotex or anything?”

“Mother!” Kyra said and for a moment her embarrassment seemed to cancel out her fear. Which felt like a victory of sorts to Madeline.

Nikki laughed and some of the tension dissipated. But Avery seemed to be looking for something to think about beside the approaching storm. “Where did you go? And why did you come back?” she asked Nicole.

Outside the wind kicked up a notch. The little window rattled more insistently. The warning beep on the TV grew louder, which seemed unnecessary; could there possibly be anyone left who didn’t know a hurricane was coming?

“I’d been trying to find Malcolm for a long time.” Nicole considered them all. “He contacted me on the fourth. When you asked me to leave I went to where he was.”

Avery’s “aha” died mid-syllable.

“I was going to talk him into turning himself in. At least that was my plan.”

“And what actually happened?” Deirdre asked.

“I offered him my third of Bella Flora to turn himself in, so that you and everyone else would get at least some part of your money back,” Nicole said. She shifted uncomfortably on the floor. “He took the deed I’d had drawn up, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to turn himself in.” She hesitated; their gazes were locked on her like an infrared target. “He asked me to get some cash for him that he’d managed to put in our mother’s name and which apparently passed on to me.”

“So you weren’t really broke,” Avery said.

“That money could have saved me from ruin. If I’d known anything about it. But that was the first I’d heard of it,” Nikki replied. “And he only told me about it because he’d set it up so that I could access it when he couldn’t. And because he assumed I’d run to the bank for him, retrieve the money, and then hand it over.”

“And did you?’ Deirdre asked.

Nicole looked away, which wasn’t easy in such a small space crammed with so many people. “I’d always put him first no matter what he did. I guess it never occurred to him that could change. It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment.”

“But why?” Maddie asked, not understanding the sheer one-sidedness of it. “Why would he think that?”

“Because Malcolm and I were raised in what you’d call abject poverty. Our dad died working on the docks and our mother—she had maybe a seventh-grade education—worked two jobs to try to support Malcolm and me. One was nights at a bar. She worked days cleaning hotel rooms, although I don’t think she ever worked in a hotel as nice as this.”

Nicole tried to smile, but her face was stark in the bathroom’s harsh lighting. Her voice matched her face. It was odd how little you could really tell about people.

“Anyway,” Nikki continued when no one interrupted her. “I’m six years older than Malcolm and our mother was always working or trying to sleep enough to go back to work, so I was pretty much in charge of us. We had a pact that we’d work our way out of poverty. I put us both through college and helped fund Malcolm’s first investment firm. It’s crazy, but we both achieved our goals.” She sighed and her shoulders sagged. “I didn’t realize Malcolm built his fortune by stealing from others. I didn’t know. And then when I did know, I just kept trying not to believe it. But the other day at the park, I couldn’t pretend anymore. I knew I had to do something.” Her eyes were bleak. “I turned him in.”

“Who did you turn him in to?” Avery was still skeptical. Madeline wondered if she was going to demand a name and phone number.

“Giraldi.”

“Your friend Joe?”

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