Subj: Secrets and Alibis 5
Date: 3/28/00 8:37:33 PM Central Standard Time
From: KimD
The next evening there was a knock at the door of the old house. Barnabas opened the door to find William Haynes standing there. “What do you want?” Barnabas said remembering their last conversation.
“Why Mr. Collins, I thought you’d at least invite me in,” William said and pushed his way inside the house.
“Say whatever it is you came to say and leave.”
“I’ve come to make a proposition to you.”
“What makes you think that I’d be interested?”
“But you haven’t heard it yet. You’ve seen what I can do. All I want is $500,000 and I’ll leave you alone.”
“You were behind this?” he said with concealed rage.
“Yes I was. What do you say to my proposition?”
“You destroyed my life. I’m not going to give you anything.”
“I can make your live worse. You can consider this a warning. You can meet me at the Blue Whale in 24 hours with the money.”
“What’s to stop me from doing away with you instead?”
“I didn’t come here blindly unprepared Mr. Collins. I’ll leave you now to think about my request,” William said and left. He knew when he left that Barnabas wouldn’t be giving him the money. But he would wait for him at the Blue Whale anyway.
It had been two days since the party, and Vicki hadn’t seen Barnabas since he turned away from her. She thought about that and tried to think of anything that she could have done wrong. When she couldn’t think of anything that she had done she decided that they would have to talk.
It was just before dusk when she went to the old house. Willie answered the door, and seemed surprised to see her. “Is Barnabas in?” Vicki asked.
“No, he isn’t. He out of town.” This sounded very familiar.
“Will you tell him I stopped by?” she asked with a feeling of disappointment.
“Yea, I’ll tell him,” Willie said relieved that she was going away so easily. As Vicki turned to leave a door creaked open, and Barnabas appeared.
“Vicki, it’s wonderful to see you.”
“I almost left. Willie told me that you were out of town.”
“I was,” he said hating to lie to her. “I just returned a short while ago.”
“You were so distant at the party, and you been staying away from me since then. What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you right now. Just give me some time.”
“How much time do you need? When are you going to tell me what’s happened?” There was a long pause. Barnabas looked away from her. “Oh, I see,” she said feeling hurt. “You not planning to tell me at all. You were going to avoid me and hope that I wouldn’t find out.”
“I’m only trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what? Or is that something else you don’t want to talk about? I know that something’s happened to you and you chose to exclude me. You’d let what ever this is come between us rather than tells me. Don’t you trust me?”
“Vicki, I’m only concerned about you. I’d never let anything come between us.”
“It already has,” she said thinking of the two lonely days that she just spent. “I have a lot of thinking to do. Maybe you should keep this until I ’ve come to a decision,” she said and handed him her engagement ring. She turned and ran out the door and into the night before he could stop her. He clutched the ring that was in his hand, as if it were the only part of her that he had left to hold.