Mechanically, Michael did as he was told. He returned with a stack of towels, took one for himself, and offered them to Stuart and me.
“Why don’t we all sit down?” Stuart made himself comfortable, spreading a towel on the easy chair next to the fireplace. He blotted his face and hair with another towel and warmed himself by the fire.
Michael took a place on the loveseat and drew me down beside him. Kate arched an eyebrow in my direction, and then tilted her head at Michael.
“She stays,” Michael said. He didn’t raise his voice to his mother, but his tone was layered with steel. She didn’t challenge him.
Colleen faded in, on the floor at my feet.
Michael stared at his mother. “You knew he was alive?”
“Of course I knew it,” she snapped. “Your father and I came to an agreement—”
“Hold on there,” Stuart said. “If we’re going to tell this story, we’re going to tell it honestly.”
The fire crackled. Thunder, more distant now, rumbled low and long. “Why don’t I start?” Stuart’s eyes dared Kate to object.
She stared him down for a moment, and then averted her haughty gaze to the fire.
Stuart spoke to Michael. “The sad truth is I married your mother on the rebound, forty-six years ago last spring.” A range of emotions struggled on his face. “I was desperately in love with someone else. We were young and foolish. I made some bad choices. She married someone else. Life went on.”
I slid closer to Michael. Stuart could be telling our story. How had I not known Gram had made the same mistakes I did?
For a few moments, the only sound in the room was the crackling fire.
Stuart leaned forward in his chair. “After college I came home and tried to rebuild my life. I threw myself into work and efforts to protect this island. Your mother and I became friends.” He stared at Kate hard. “She was very different then. Perhaps she was adept at playing a role.”
Kate sniffed.
“Maybe I fooled myself into believing I loved her. Not the passionate, all-consuming kind of love I’d let slip through my hands, but a companionship. A partnership. I thought it would be enough.”
Kate radiated hatred, but remained silent.
“We went about the business of building a family. We were happy enough, or so I thought. We shared our love of our beautiful children. We both loved this place, this island. It could have been enough for a lifetime of contentment.”
Were these the kinds of things Michael had told himself after he married Marci the Schemer?
Restless now, Stuart stood to pace. “But it ate at you, didn’t it, Kate, that I had loved someone else? I never deceived you. But you just couldn’t stand it, could you?”
“I loved you, you sonofabitch,” she lashed back at him, her voice dripping venom. “I loved you the way you loved her,” Kate said. “I thought you would grow to love me the same way. I deserved that. I picked up the pieces of your broken heart. I gave you sons. Me, not her. But it meant nothing to you. I meant nothing to you.” Kate glanced at me with loathing, as if I were my grandmother’s proxy.
I snuggled up to Michael. Colleen wrapped her arms around my legs. I could almost feel the embrace.
Kate ranted on. “And she was right here. Always right here. Always a part of our lives. It was too much.” Kate’s anger had built to a crescendo. Abruptly she fell silent and sat back on the sofa, as if the wind had gone out of her. She averted her eyes and seemed to withdraw inside herself.
“In time,” Stuart said, “it became obvious we were never going to be anything but miserable. The envy ate at your mother. Day by day, she hated me more. It was corrosive. As you boys grew older, it became harder to keep up the façade. Divorce was inevitable.”
Stuart stopped pacing. “But I was certain she was devoted to you children. I couldn’t conceive of taking you away from her, even if that had been an option in those days.”
He took a deep breath, and looked at Michael, beseeching him to understand what would come next. “I decided to take some time alone to sort things through, figure out how to proceed. I was going to spend a few weeks on the sailboat. It turned into six. I called home and she told me what she’d done.”
A satisfied smile crept up Kate’s mouth.
Stuart’s voice grew ragged. “She told everyone I’d gone out for an afternoon sail and never returned, that I was missing at sea. After the Coast Guard searched for several days in the wrong direction, I was presumed dead. She told me you boys thought I was dead. Had adjusted to it, she said. What’s more, she’d already filed a life insurance claim. I was worth more to all of you dead than alive. God help me, I let her convince me to leave it alone. I just never came back. I have regretted that decision every day for the past twenty-five years. Whether or not you can ever believe me or forgive me, I love you very much, and I loved your brother.”
Kate turned bright red and appeared to be literally seething. “All you ever cared about was that two-faced whore Emma Rae.”
I jerked back, as if slapped.
“Mamma,” Michael said.
“I did my best to raise these boys by myself. Perhaps you should have been here to help. Perhaps Adam would have been a better man if he’d had a father.”
“You didn’t give me that choice now did you?”
“You should have loved me. I earned that.”
Stuart looked at her sadly, and not unkindly. “Love isn’t something you earn, Kate. It’s something you feel.”
“I once loved you as much as I hate you right now.”
Stuart shook his head. “After the children came, you became indifferent to me. Children require a lot of attention, I know. But you were obsessed with them, to the exclusion of everything else. You pushed me away.”
“You were too hard on them. You expected too much.”
Stuart turned red and raised his voice for the first time. “That’s what was wrong with Adam, don’t you see that? You never expected enough. You gave him everything. He never worked for anything his entire life. And what did he turn into?”
“Don’t you dare sit here in this house after all these years and attack my son. He isn’t even buried yet. Our son is dead.” She approached a screech.
“I knew the minute I read the account of Emma’s death in the paper that Adam had a hand in it. As much as he was given, it was never enough. Always scheming, always trying to make that big pile of money he thought would make him happy.”
The smug look on Kate’s face struck me as odd.
“Now, hold on just a minute,” Michael said. “How do you know anything about us?”
“That was the one condition I gave your mother, the cost of my absence. She wrote me weekly, for twenty-five years. I still have every letter. I know about every touchdown you ever made. And every time she bought Adam’s way out of trouble.”
Kate sat mute, her gaze averted.
Stuart sat back down. “And then Emma discovered my secret, quite by accident. Or perhaps providence. It was through Emma I knew Adam was trying to wrestle the family land away from you.”
“That Jezebel,” Kate spat. “How dare she criticize my son? It’s her fault he grew up fatherless.”
Colleen sensed my growing anger. “Keep quiet,” she said. “Let her talk.”
And then I knew.
Stuart said, “You can’t lay that one at Emma’s feet, Katherine. That was your choice and yours alone.”
“I guess you’re completely innocent, aren’t you?” Kate asked. “That’s just like you. You abandon your children and make it my fault.”
He met her gaze. “Well, I could have come home, I guess. But if I had, my children would have grown up without a mother instead of without a father, because you, my dear, would have gone to jail for insurance fraud.”
Kate glared at him defiantly. “If you had wanted to come home badly enough, you would have found a way.”
“Perhaps.” Stuart looked at her for a moment. “Lord knows my hands aren’t clean. If Adam had been raised differently, he might still be alive. He didn’t understand actions have consequences, he never had to face any. His obsession with the almighty dollar led directly to his death, to the death of the finest woman I’ve ever known, and to that of two of his co-conspirators.”
“Do you know who killed Adam?” Michael asked. “What makes you think he killed Emma Rae?”
“When I arrived home shortly after Emma’s death, I started investigating. I wanted to verify my suspicions. I felt honor-bound to stop Adam from doing what he seemed determined to do, destroy the quality of life on this island.
“My worst fears were confirmed. I overheard enough of the conversations between him and his partner, Scott Andrews, to know they conspired to either kill or blackmail everyone who stood in their way.”
I couldn’t help myself. “It was you who broke out of the hardware store, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. When you and Deanna left, I was locked in.”
“And you broke in to Gram’s, looking for the letters.”
“I’m sorry I gave the dog Benadryl. At first I wasn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t bite. But I’d never hurt him.”
Michael asked, “How is it Adam never recognized you hanging around?”
“It’s been twenty-five years, son. I’ve changed. Would you have recognized me? If you didn’t know first that I was alive? If you weren’t looking for me?”
Michael shrugged, then looked away.
“As far as those two were concerned, I was just a scruffy old man in a ball cap hanging around The Pirates’ Den. John’s a different story.”
“John knows you’re alive?” Michael asked.
Stuart nodded. “He pegged me the second time I showed up at The Den.”
“They talked about this scheme of theirs in public?” Michael asked.
Stuart shrugged. “Some. Sometimes I slipped into the backroom at the hardware store. Sometimes I listened when they talked on Adam’s boat. Got me one of those earpieces they give to old people that helps pick up conversations. Like I said, they were going to kill or blackmail everyone who stood in their way.”
He leaned back in his chair and watched Kate’s face. “Even your mother.”
Kate gasped. “How can you say such a thing? Adam would never hurt me. I am his mother. I raised him—”
Stuart said, “What would you have done, Katherine, when you found out Adam conned you, that you signed two hundred acres over to him to build a resort on Devlin’s Point?”
Kate looked nauseous. “Michael told me all about that yesterday. I—I simply won’t donate the land is all.” She straightened and pulled her shoulders back.
“Ah,” Stuart said. “And did you speak to Adam about that?”
“I never had the chance. I tried calling him. I would have spoken to him. What difference does it make now?”
“Probably none,” Stuart said. “But what do you think his plan was? Adam had to have known you’d fight him. He would have planned ahead for that.”
Like a billboard, the word “Benazepril” flashed in my brain. Could Adam kill his own mother?
“Kate,” I said.
She turned her head towards me, ever so slowly. Hate radiated in my direction.
“What medication did Doc Harper prescribe for your heart?”
She drew her shoulders even further back. “What concern is that of yours?”
“Was it Benazepril?”
“My personal trials are none of your affair.”
“Where’s the medicine cabinet?” I started to stand, but Colleen patted my leg. I glanced at her and back at Kate. “We need to check your medications. Make sure you’re taking what you think you’re taking. Your vitamins, too. If I were you, I’d throw out everything in the house and buy new bottles.”
“What are you saying?” Her hand fluttered up to her face.
A silver aura appeared around Colleen.
“Adam tampered with your pills.”
Kate’s eyes bulged, and her hand fell to her heart. “I don’t believe you.”
I shrugged. “You don’t have to take my word for it. Have it checked out.”
Stuart shook his head in disgust. “I knew he’d have killed you, just like he killed Emma Rae.”
The light around Colleen shimmered.
Kate bowed back like a cobra. “You don’t know everything you think you do, Stuart.”
I found my voice. “Adam didn’t kill Gram, did he, Kate?”
“Here it comes.” Colleen held on tight.
“Why, whatever do you mean?” Kate’s voice dripped glee.
My stomach roiled. “It was happening all over again, wasn’t it?”
Michael turned to me. “Liz? What…”
“Phoebe showed you Gram’s locket, didn’t she? When Gram lost it at the day spa? Phoebe didn’t know who it belonged to, so she asked all her customers.”
Kate narrowed her eyes at me.
“You knew immediately once you saw the picture. And you knew that after all these years Gram and Stuart were back together. She’d won.”
Kate’s skin took on a blue-white cast. Her breathing became labored.
“And now,” I said, “you have to decide.”
“Decide what?” she hissed.
“Whether your grandchildren grow up thinking their father was a murderer, or you tell the truth.” There was no way to prove what I knew she’d done, and it was not something people would want to believe. She’d have to confess.
Michael said, “Liz, I don’t like what you’re suggesting.”
“Kate?” I said. “What’s it going to be? Will Holly and Isabella—and everyone else on this island—remember Adam, your first born, as a murderer?”
She wheezed and turned away. Her shoulders rose and fell.
Michael leaned towards Kate. “Mamma? Are you all right?”
Stuart said, “I’m almost certain it was Adam. He was abusive to his own family. He was certainly capable of murder. He had motive, means, opportunity. I’m sure after I tell Blake everything I know, he’ll have no trouble finding evidence.”
Kate jerked her head towards Stuart. She stared at him for a moment. “Adam is not a murderer. He did not kill your whore. I did.”
I felt like I’d had the breath knocked out of me. “How did you get her outside?”
“I went there that night and knocked on the back door. Told her I’d seen a dog limp down her driveway and crawl up under the deck. Stupid bitch. Always had a soft spot for animals. She grabbed a flashlight and followed me out there, into the gale. She looked for the dog, and I grabbed a piece of firewood off the pile. I dragged her over to the bottom of the steps and smoothed out the sand. Then I remembered that cursed locket, but I couldn’t find it. I wasn’t sure she’d been wearing it, so I left.” She looked into the fireplace. “Brought the log home with me and burned it right there.”
“That’s why you came by my house the day I came home.” I said. “You were going to look for the locket. You weren’t sure if I’d be there or not, so you brought that chicken potpie as an excuse.”
The look in her eyes was pure evil. “Too bad I didn’t slip some arsenic in that pie.”
Stuart’s face was a mixture of pain and disgust. “I knew you were capable of many things. But not murder. I’m sure Adam would have killed Emma, or tried. She stood in his way. But you did his dirty work for him, just like always.”
Kate rubbed her arm. Fear leapt into her eyes. She blinked at Michael. “My arm’s gone numb.”
Michael reached
for the phone on the table beside him, dialing as he went to his mother’s side. “I’m calling Doc Harper.”
“He’s at Deanna’s, remember?” I said. “Try his cell. Deanna’s landline was down when we left.”
“Why are you being so helpful?” Kate spat. “Why would you care?”
“I don’t want you dead,” I said in a soothing voice.
Kate stared at me, hatred and a question in her eyes.
“I want to see you in prison.”
Kate’s eyes bulged. She clutched her chest and fell face forward onto the sofa.
FIFTY-THREE
Doc Harper declared Kate dead shortly after one that morning. He and Blake processed a body in one Devlin home and came straight to another. We told Blake how Kate killed Gram and how Adam had surprised Kate with a trip to the hereafter via pharmaceuticals. I hoped they were keeping each other company in hell.
If it had been just my word and Stuart’s, I’m not sure Blake would’ve believed Kate killed Gram. But he believed Michael. No one would invent such a thing about his own mother.
Michael stayed at his mother’s house to navigate the aftermath. He tried to get me to stick around, but I’ve never wanted to leave anywhere as badly as I wanted to bolt that morning.
I prevailed upon Sam Manigault to run me home. Halfway down my drive, his headlights shone on Nate’s rental Fusion. A feeling of peace warmed me. I thanked Sam for the ride, shut the car door, and stepped towards the porch. Nate appeared at the top of the steps, Rhett beside him.
“I am so happy to see you.” I started up the steps.
“Likewise. What happened here that resulted in a police cruiser bringing you home at one-thirty in the morning looking half-drowned?”
I stopped one step below him. “I’m exhausted. Can I tell you everything in the morning?”
He moved back to let me up on the porch. “Sure.”
I unlocked the door and switched on the foyer light. “There’s a guestroom next to mine. I haven’t checked it since I’ve been home, but Gram usually kept it ready for company.” I started up the stairs.
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