by Amy Vansant
“Maybe. She could be guilty of fraud and I’ll look into it, but it doesn’t mean she killed him.”
“Who else could have killed him?”
Carter frowned. “I don’t know, that’s the point. I need you to stop snooping around there before you blow the case.”
“Blow the case?”
“Sure. You could tip her off we’re on to her.”
“Are you?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“And I’m not snooping around like Scooby-Doo’s crew. I was hired to do a job.”
Carter grinned. “Sure. I understand that. Just maybe let the big boys handle the murder.”
Charlotte felt her anger rising and motioned to the papers in his hands. “Would you like to at least make a photo copy of these?”
“Sure. Tiffany!”
He shouted the name past Charlotte and she winced at the volume so close to her ear. A girl of maybe twenty-one stuck her head into the office.
“Yes, Sheriff?”
“Can you make a copy of these two pieces of paper?”
He handed her the sheets. Smiling, the girl took them and then walked two steps to a large copier in the corner of the room.
Charlotte watched as the young assistant made the copies, handed them to Carter and then returned the originals to her.
“Anything else?”
“That’ll be all.”
Tiffany flashed the sheriff an adorable, lovestruck grin and bounced out of the office.
Oh brother.
Charlotte squinted at the sheriff. “You couldn’t walk the two feet to that machine?”
Carter shrugged. “I don’t want to put the girl out of a job.”
Charlotte set her jaw. “We have proof Lyndsey was lying about going upstairs, too.”
“I’d like to see that.”
“I’ll get Mina to get it to you.” She moved to leave.
“Hey,” called Carter.
She turned.
“What are you doing tonight?”
“You’re afraid I’ll be meddling in your case?”
“No, I mean, do you want to go get some dinner?”
“To talk about the case?”
“To talk about dinner. And maybe get some drinks.” He grinned. “I want to see if you’re this much of a spitfire when you’re off the job.”
Charlotte winced.
Ew.
“I have a boyfriend, remember?”
“Oh, you were serious? Like a real boyfriend. Not someone you just sorta date?”
“Like a real boyfriend.”
Carter bobbed his head to one side and shrugged. “Ah. Well, keep me updated on his status.”
Charlotte felt her lip twitch. She might need the sheriff’s help with the case at some point, so she restrained herself from explaining to him Declan wasn’t the only thing standing between them.
“Will do.”
She left without saying another word and drove the paternity tests back to Mina, marveling how the evidence that should have cracked open the case instead ended up turning into a date proposal.
“What did he say?” asked Mina as she answered the door.
“He said he’ll look into it.” Mina looked as if she’d been crying. She’d been crying during so many of her visits she almost didn’t notice and had chalked her red-rimmed eyes up as normal. “Are you okay?”
Mina nodded. “This is all so awful. I love all the girls.”
“Is there anything about Lyndsey’s past that makes it believable she doctored the will and maybe killed your brother, too?”
“I can’t picture her killing Kimber, but—”
“But?”
“But she’s always been a little, I don’t know… jealous?”
“Jealous of who? The twins?”
“Yes. She’s nice to them around me but I’ve heard she can be sarcastic and a little sneaky.”
“How so?”
“Oh I don’t know. Little things I’ve wondered about. Twice Payne’s been up for a big award only to have her horse suddenly seem incapable of clearing the jumps.”
“Like it had been drugged or something?”
“Maybe. Gemma talked to me about it once. She said when it happened, she saw Lyndsey laughing. I didn’t believe her, but now I wonder.”
“Anything else?”
“She drinks a lot. In fact, I heard her on the phone today. Tonight she’s going to that club that just opened just outside of town with a friend. Something to do with cats.”
“Alleycats?”
“That’s it. She made it sound like some kind of celebration.”
“I don’t think we can get her arrested for going to a club and being in a good mood. I’d be in a pretty good mood if I inherited that much money.”
“No, but when she drinks she gets chatty. I was thinking maybe I could wait up for her and get her to confess.”
Charlotte thought about Mariska’s attempt to get Crystal to confess. “That’s a lot harder than you think.”
Mina chuckled. “Probably. I’d be the last person she’d tell. Too bad I’m not a handsome stranger.”
Charlotte perked. “What’s that?”
“That’s who she’s going to find, right? At the club? A handsome stranger? Isn’t that why girls go to dance clubs?”
Charlotte grinned. “Mina, you’re a genius.” She turned and called over her shoulder as she headed for the door. “Call me later and let me know when Lyndsey goes out.”
Charlotte practically jogged to her car. Inside, she texted Declan.
I have a job for you.
He sent back a video clip of a baby with terrified eyes running away that made her laugh out loud.
She pulled out of the driveway and headed home. She had planning to do. Hopefully, it would be easier to pull a confession out of Lyndsey than it was to get one out of Crystal.
And this time, I won’t mess it up.
She was feeling hopeful about Lyndsey, but she still didn’t know what to do about Crystal. In her mind’s eye, she saw Crystal curled on her bed, snoring after crying herself to sleep.
I should have found a way to read that pink paper in her hand.
At the time, she’d been in a hurry to escape the room and gather the ladies.
Something on that paper had made Crystal cry. It even made her kick out her dirtball boyfriend. A horrible man she’d defended at the Hock o’Bell.
She’d found the note while retrieving drugs from her closet, so chances were good it had been stuffed in her stash.
Who would know about her hiding place but her? Maybe Mark, but if he’d left it there she would have confronted him, not thrown him out.
Who else knows about hidden stashes?
Friends? Parents?
Parents. That’s it.
The note had to be from Alice.
But if she’d left a note…
Chapter Twenty-Eight
One Week Ago
“Mina!”
Lyndsey stopped spreading mayonnaise on her sandwich, the knife hovering over the bread as she listened.
“Mina!”
The roar came from upstairs. Uncle Kimber was on a rampage. Lyndsey sighed. This was the first Wednesday in months she was going to have her day to herself.
Everything had gone so well.
She’d been spending her Wednesdays ingratiating herself with the old bastard, fawning over him, telling him everything he wanted to hear, listening to his intensely boring business stories. He seemed to enjoy their time together, and he was so out of it he didn’t even notice she’d come upstairs behind Mina’s back. But every time she brought up his will and her plans to open a true equestrian center on the property, he’d shut down and start babbling about the twins.
She’d told her mother, who told her to start looking through his stuff to find something on him.
Well, her mother’s first suggestion had been to show him her tits, but she thought she’d try finding something to black
mail him with first.
She had her doubts. He seemed too out of it to understand any new threats. But she’d started rooting through his drawers searching for anything useful or valuable. If she couldn’t talk him into leaving her the property, she needed to get something out of him. She needed a leg up in life and she deserved it. He’d never paid her any attention. He always favored the twins.
It was time to pay.
She found the key to success in the back of his sock drawer. A piece of white paper, half in and half out of the back of the drawer, crumpled from being opened and closed for who knows how many years.
A paternity test.
Uncle Miller wasn’t the twins’ uncle.
He was their father.
She’d stood there with the ragged paper in her hand, gaping at the snoring old bastard. Furious at him. Furious at the twins.
Those spoiled little…
What a piece of trash he was. Not only was he the world’s worst father figure—a self-centered ass to the end—he’d had an affair with his brother’s wife.
She’d always wondered why he’d let those stupid twins into his home. Now it made sense. Of course he’d take in his own daughters.
But why had he taken her? The daughter of the woman who’d killed his brother and sister-in-law? Lyndsey had always assumed it was because Mina had demanded it. Maybe it was. But maybe he was grateful. Maybe not having to worry about his brother discovering the affair had been a relief to him.
Maybe I’m his daughter too?
She tore apart his drawers that day, pulling them out like weeds, searching behind them for more tests, but she found none. Later, she asked her mother if there was any chance Kimber was her real father too, only to hear, again, the story of how the old man had broken her mother’s heart by ending their affair. This time the story had a twist. He’d dumped her because the twin’s mother told him to.
Lyndsey asked again if she might be the old man’s kid, but she hadn’t taken up with Kimber until Lyndsey was seven. It would be difficult for her to be his baby. Then Lyndsey got to hear, again, that she was the product of a booze-soaked bar fling. The child of a one-night stand.
The night her mother went to jail, she’d been at yet another bar, where she’d gotten it into her head she wanted to confront Kimber. On the road to the farm, she spotted them leaving Kimber’s. She recognized that bitch’s car, coming from some holiday party her mother wasn’t good enough for any more.
That’s when she jerked the wheel into their lane with only one thought in her whiskey-sodden brain.
To end that bitch.
And so she did. She hadn’t planned to survive the accident, and ended up doing twenty years in prison instead of ending her misery.
It wasn’t fair Kimber had treated her mother like trash.
He’d driven her to do it.
He’d ruined her mother’s life.
I am here to set things right.
I am an avenging goddess.
Lyndsey knew her new problem was blood. It was one thing to talk the old man out of giving his house to Mina. It was another to keep him from handing it down to his kids. His real kids.
That’s when it hit her.
Uncle Kimber is nuts.
Not only was he losing his mind, but her mother had had an affair with him. He’d seduced her at work. She’d gotten drunk at an office party and they had sex in the copy room. That’s how it started. She’d heard that story a million times, too.
Uncle Kimber wasn’t great at times and places any more.
Lyndsey had started a new plan.
She’d doctored the paternity results so they pronounced her his biological daughter. She’d showed the modified document to him and asked if he remembered when he’d found out that she was his daughter.
He did.
Thank god I never showed him my tits.
After that she helped him call his lawyer to request a will edit. He’d done that part very well. He’d sounded very business-like explaining the mistake and that he’d been confused about the identity of his daughter. All she had to do was give him a storyline about business and set him loose—he was terrifying. The lawyer did as he was told.
“Mina!”
Lyndsey put down the mayo-covered knife.
I shouldn’t go up there. Just ignore him—
“Where’s my will?”
The blood drained from Lyndsey’s face so quickly her cheeks prickled.
She looked towards the stairs.
What does he want?
That was the problem with his brain. Every once in a while he’d have those moments of clarity. She lived in fear he’d have another moment like that, one that didn’t work in her favor.
One where he realized what she’d done.
Maybe this is it.
Lyndsey went up the stairs and peeked into Uncle Kimber’s room. He was standing in front of his closet. A collection of papers covered in light blue paper dangled in his hand.
“You,” he growled upon spotting her.
“What is it? You should get back in bed,” said Lyndsey, entering.
“You’re not my daughter.”
“Yes I am. Of course I am. I’ve been here forever.”
“You’re that whore’s daughter!”
Lyndsey gasped. “What?”
Kimber raved. “I remembered. I remembered, you little bitch. This is all wrong. I never should have let Mina bring you into this house!”
He took a step forward and shook the will in her face, spit from his sputtering lips striking her on the cheek.
“Mina!” he screamed, trying to push past her toward the door.
Lyndsey wasn’t sure what came over her. It might have been the way he’d spoken about her mother or the insults he’d thrown at her. It could have been fear that her plan was about to unravel. Mostly, she thought it was the paper. The way he rattled the pages so close to her face.
I am an avenging goddess.
She swung at him, clocking him on the side of his head with a closed fist.
He crumpled to the right. The will flew from his hands and landed on the bed. His head struck the side of his night table and bounced, the sound hollow.
Lyndsey stood there, breathing, her fist still balled at her side.
Uncle Kimber didn’t move.
“Uncle Kimber?”
She knelt down and shook him. She rolled him on his side and his mouth hung open.
Not breathing.
She put her head on his chest to listen for a heartbeat.
“Kimber?”
It’s Mina! She was calling from downstairs.
She’s home. She must have heard something.
Terrible luck. She never came home from mahjong this early.
Lyndsey jumped to her feet and grabbed the will from the bed. She smoothed the ruffled pages and refolded it before slipping it back into the lockbox at the top of the closet. The key was sticking out of the top of it. She locked it and panicked.
Where does he keep the key?
She didn’t know where to hide it. She tossed it in his bedside drawer and hoped Mina wouldn’t notice it out of place. She’d probably blow it off as him losing track of things.
She sprinted into the hall.
That’s when she heard Mina’s thumping footsteps on the stairs.
She’s coming.
Lyndsey opened the nearest door and slipped inside.
Puppies swarmed around her ankles, yapping.
No!
This is where they keep the puppies? In the spare bathroom?
She tried to crawl into the closet and shut the door to keep the puppies out, hoping they’d settle down, but as she cowered inside, they threw themselves against the door like a zombie hoard, trying to reach her.
Shut up!
That’s when Mina found her. The puppies gave away her location as easily as if she’d worn a blaring siren around her neck.
When Mina agreed to help cover her presence, she thoug
ht she’d won the lottery. It was stupid to take the puppies—Mina’s stupid idea. She didn’t fight her because all that mattered was that she got out of there and let Mina clean up the mess and hide any trace of her. Plus, her mother had been bothering her for a dog and she figured she’d kill two birds with one stone.
Everything was turning out well until she put the puppies in the Jeep. She was about to hop in the front and drive away when she heard Mina calling.
“He’s alive!”
No.
No, no, no, no.
Lyndsey shut the Jeep’s front door quietly and stood staring at the ground.
He can’t live. He can’t tell Mina what happened.
She ran around the house to the back door and slipped inside. She heard Mina and the twins talking in the kitchen.
She tiptoed as fast as she could to the servant stairs and crawled upwards to the hall across from Kimber’s room.
Why didn’t I pick this door instead of the puppies door? She’d forgotten which door was which. She could have gotten away clean. If I’d just grabbed this knob instead I wouldn’t be in this mess.
She bolted into Kimber’s room to find him still on the ground.
“Mina?” he croaked without looking. He seemed unable to move except for a slight rocking of his torso that made him look like a weary turtle after a week of trying to flip back to its feet.
Lyndsey looked down at the carpet, her mind racing with panic.
The iron rabbit doorstop stared back at her. The ears looked very much like a handle.
She stooped and grabbed it. In two strides she reached the old man.
I am an avenging goddess.
Lifting the rabbit above her head she swung down and struck his skull with all the force a lifetime of hate could build. She swung again before she realized his skull didn’t offer the same resistance it had the first time.
Too much. Stop.
She panted, taking a moment to catch her breath.
Mina will be back.
She scurried toward the servant stairs. A drop of blood dripped to the hall floor as she paused to open the door. She looked down at the rabbit in her hand. Its butt was smeared in blood and other bits she didn’t want to think about.
If I carry this to the car there will be a trail leading right to the Jeep.
She set the rabbit on the top stair, wiped away the blood drip and rubbed the ears with her shirt to remove her prints.