by Josie Belle
“Ginger!” Maggie yelled. She was ignored.
With a huff, Maggie got up from the couch, crossed the room and yanked the vacuum’s plug from the outlet.
The vacuum groaned and then was silent. Ginger clicked it into its upright position and turned to look at Maggie.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you want something?” she asked. “Or is there something else you wanted to tell me that happened twenty-plus years ago?”
Maggie refused to get irritated. She tried to think how she would feel if the situation was reversed and her best friend of almost forty years had never told her about a short love affair with the heartthrob of their high school. Yeah, she’d be miffed, too.
“Bianca is Doc Franklin’s daughter. Courtney is a drug addict and the most likely suspect to have killed Vera. Pete kissed me last night, and Sam kissed me this morning. There. Now you’re caught up.”
Both Joanne and Claire stared at her with wide eyes, their mouths slightly agape, as if they had a million questions but were too surprised to form the words.
“Well, you have been busy,” Ginger said.
“Oh, come off it, Ginger,” Maggie said. “You’re my best friend. I never meant to keep anything from you, but I was young and heartbroken, and I didn’t know what to say. Can’t you forgive me?”
Joanne and Claire looked from Ginger to Maggie with hopeful eyes.
“I just don’t understand,” Ginger said. Her brown eyes were sad. “Why did you keep it a secret for so long?”
“Shame,” Claire said. They all turned to look at her. Of all the GBGs, Claire had the most colorful past and had kept her own share of secrets up until a few months ago, when her secrets caught up to her in the form of a dead ex-boyfriend. “Shame will keep you quiet.”
Maggie nodded. She had felt so stupid when she believed that Sam had cheated on her with Summer Phillips. She hadn’t wanted anyone to know that she’d been rejected for her nemesis.
Ginger heaved a sigh. Then she looked at the rest of them with her most ferocious mama face.
“All right, I forgive you,” she said to Maggie. “But if anyone else has a secret, could we please share it now so that we don’t have to go through this again?”
They all glanced at each other, and just when Maggie thought they were in the clear, Joanne cleared her throat.
“I have a secret,” she said.
“Oh no, is it a crazy ex-boyfriend?” Maggie asked.
“A secret affair?” Ginger asked.
“What?” Claire asked, clearly exasperated.
“I’m pregnant,” Joanne said. Then she laughed and promptly burst into tears.
Chapter 28
The afternoon was spent in a giddy blur of hugs and laughter and baby plans for Joanne. She had waited until she was past the first trimester to say anything, and by all accounts she was doing great. Ginger had baked a pound cake earlier that morning, and they toasted the mama-to-be with sweet tea and cake.
Maggie was so happy for Joanne, she couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. What a lucky baby to have Michael and Joanne for parents.
The news had reestablished the connection that was the GBGs, sharing the good times and helping in the bad. It was nice to have something so wonderful to celebrate. Maggie started thinking that she definitely needed a section of the store to be devoted to baby clothes.
As she drove home, she wondered how Bianca was doing. She knew that Bianca had Molly, but Molly had a home of her own and a son to care for. She couldn’t look after Bianca twenty-four seven. Maggie decided she’d do a quick pop-in and make sure Bianca was all right. If she seemed lonely, Maggie would invite her home to dinner. It was the least she could do, given that Bianca had lost her mother, and at the hand of her own half sister, no less.
Maggie knocked on the front door of the Madisons’ house and waited. It took a while before the door was pulled open, but when it was, Bianca stood there, looking flushed and with an unmistakable sparkle in her eyes. Maggie was caught by surprise. The Bianca she knew was never flushed or sparkly.
“Maggie!” Bianca cried. She looked over her shoulder as if to check that the house was clean enough for a visit. “Come in.”
“Sorry to bother you,” Maggie said. She stepped into the house, and Bianca closed the door behind her. “I should have called first.”
“No, it’s fine,” Bianca said. She pushed her glasses up on her nose. “I was just…um…reading.”
“That sounds relaxing,” Maggie said.
Bianca nodded. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to relax since she arrived.”
“Courtney’s not back here is she?” Maggie asked.
“No, Sheriff Collins said she wasn’t coming back here,” Bianca said. She looked thoughtful. “He was here earlier today, and they searched her rooms. He wouldn’t tell me what they found, but I think it has something to do with my mother’s death. I think I’m officially afraid of her.”
Bianca became serious, and the sparkle left her eyes like a candle being snuffed in the dark. She grew pale and sad, and Maggie instantly missed the brighter Bianca.
“I don’t think that’s an unusual reaction, given that she tried to rip the hair out of your head,” Maggie said.
“Would you like to come and sit by the fire?” Bianca asked.
She led the way into the house, and Maggie could hear music floating on the air from the study. It sounded classical, and she remembered that Bianca had studied to be a concert pianist when she was younger.
Bianca caught her listening to the music, and her mouth turned up on one side, but it was more of a grimace than a smile.
“That’s the opening prelude from Das Wohltemperierte Clavier by Bach,” she said. “One of my favorite pieces when I used to play.”
They sat in opposite chairs by the fire. Maggie couldn’t help but think that the house seemed too large for one person, and she wondered if Bianca would stay here by herself once Courtney was routed for good.
“Why did you quit playing?” she asked.
“My mother thought my time would be better served taking care of her,” Bianca said. “We had a pretty full schedule of doctor’s appointments to keep.”
“Do you miss it?” Maggie asked.
Bianca gave her a small smile. “You’re the only person besides Molly who has ever asked me that. I did miss it at first, but I had to let it go. You know, sometimes you have to give up your dreams for the ones you love.”
“I do,” Maggie said. “My husband was killed when our daughter was just two. I had to give up everything that I thought my life was going to be and just survive.”
Bianca nodded. “So you understand, then.”
“I do,” Maggie said.
“Maggie, I…” Bianca began but then hesitated.
She looked equal parts embarrassed and…Maggie couldn’t place the emotion exactly, but the sparkle she had seen in Bianca before was slowly returning. If Maggie didn’t know better, she would have thought that Bianca was…in love?
“Bianca,” she said, “are you seeing someone?”
Bianca’s fair skin flushed a deep shade of red, and Maggie felt her jaw gape.
“Bianca, your mother hasn’t been gone even a week,” she said. “You’re an emotional wreck. You can’t fall for someone in this state. Why, he could just be trying to get your inheritance right out from under you.”
“He’s not,” Bianca protested. “He’s the nicest, smartest, most interesting person I’ve ever met.”
“Oh my god,” Maggie groaned, and fell back in her seat. This was a disaster. “You’ve already been taken in by a gold-digging lothario.”
“Really, Maggie, you don’t have to worry,” Bianca said. “He’s not like that.”
The sound of the front door banging open made them both jump. Bianca half rose out of her seat, and Maggie followed.
“The wind must have—” Maggie started to say, but was interrupted by the sound of the same door slamming shut.
C
ourtney appeared in the doorway. She was pulling black leather gloves off her hands, one finger at a time.
“What’s the matter, sister dear?” she asked Bianca. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
“What are you doing here?” Bianca asked. “You’re supposed to be—”
“What?” Courtney asked. “Dead?”
Chapter 29
“No!” Bianca looked to Maggie, as if she could back Bianca up that she hadn’t meant that.
“Right,” Courtney said. “I want you out of my house tonight. Because, make no mistake, this is my house now, and you’re not welcome here.”
“Courtney, you can’t throw her out of her own home,” Maggie said. “And, the last I heard, you weren’t allowed to come anywhere near Bianca or the property.”
Maggie reached into her purse to dig out her cell phone, but Courtney stepped forward and smacked it out of hand. It landed on the floor with a thud, and Courtney kicked it across the room.
“Can’t I?” Courtney asked. “I disagree, especially as I’m about to have her arrested for attempted murder.”
Bianca gasped. Maggie looked at her and then back at Courtney. “But that’s ridiculous.”
“Tell it to the sheriff,” Courtney said. “He should be here momentarily.”
As if on cue, they heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway, and Maggie felt her body sag in relief. Obviously, Courtney was delusional on top of being a murdering drug addict, so it was awfully nice of her to call the police on herself.
Unfortunately, it was not Sam who entered the room. Instead, with the sharp tap of her stilettos on the marble floor, Summer Phillips arrived in all of her leopard-print-micromini, bleach-blonde glory.
“Courtney, darling,” she said as the two women air kissed. “I just went to the hospital to see you, but they said you’d been released. Are you all right?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” Courtney said. “It would take a whole lot more to kill me than the stupid narcotic you used on your mother.”
She blasted a look of triumph at Bianca, who blinked at her in confusion.
“What are you saying?” Bianca asked.
“The truth,” Courtney said. “I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so sick. I thought it was the stress of trying to take back what is rightfully mine, but then I got so violently ill. The doctor at the hospital actually thought I had tried to commit suicide. The idiot.”
“As if,” Summer said. “And give up all of this?”
“Thank you,” Courtney said as if pleased to finally have someone around who understood her inherent greed.
“So what happened?” Summer asked.
“They put me on Naloxone, which binds up all of the narcotics in your system and helps to get rid of them. Then they took my medical history. It turns out, given my past, that I’ve developed quite an immunity to narcotic analgesics, so that little morphine overdose you gave me to make it look like I tried to off myself? Yeah, it wasn’t enough to kill me. Not even close.”
Bianca’s eyes went wide, and Maggie was sure she had the same look of surprise on her face.
“Ha! That’ll teach you to mess with my bff.” Summer tossed her blonde hair and glared at Bianca. “You’re going to jail.”
“But I didn’t,” Bianca said. “I wouldn’t. You have to believe me.”
Maggie glanced at Bianca. She was standing in front of the fire with her hands out in a helpless, imploring gesture. Over her shoulder, Maggie could see the portrait of her parents, Vera and Buzz, looking down on Bianca as if they had her back.
Maybe it was the lighting in the room or maybe it was the angle of the photograph, but all of a sudden, Maggie knew who had killed Vera and had tried to kill Courtney, and it made her blood run cold. If it was true, the killer was going to strike again, and Maggie had to stop it.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Summer asked.
“I just remembered something I have to do,” Maggie said. “Bianca, come with me.”
Bianca gave her a surprised look, and then glanced at the door in the corner.
“No, I can’t,” she said.
“This is really important, Bianca,” Maggie said.
“Oh no you don’t,” Courtney said. “The only person taking her out of here is the sheriff, and he’ll be using handcuffs.”
“You can’t keep me here,” Maggie said, and she hurried to the front door and tugged it open. Before she could step outside, she smacked right into Molly Spencer, who was on her way in.
“Molly!” Maggie gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Molly met Maggie’s gaze, and Maggie realized that she had just given herself away. Caught off guard, she’d let everything she had deduced about the situation show on her face, and Molly knew it.
“I came to check on Bianca,” Molly said. She stepped into the house, closing the door behind her, effectively shutting Maggie in.
“I have to—” Maggie began, but Molly interrupted her.
“No, you don’t.”
Molly grabbed Maggie by the elbow and forced her into the study, where Courtney and Bianca were staring at each other.
“There are too many of us, Molly,” Maggie said. She tried to keep her voice even. “It’s over. You have to let it go now.”
“I can’t,” Molly said. “Not while she still lives.”
“Oh, goody,” Courtney cried when she caught sight of Molly. “Guess what, Molly?”
Molly stared at her, not speaking.
“You’re fired!” Courtney said with a malicious gleam in her eye. “Since Bianca will be going to jail for the murder of her mother and for attempting to murder me, the estate is now mine, and I am firing you.”
“Stop it, Courtney,” Maggie said.
She could see the desperation in Molly’s eyes. Courtney’s vindictiveness was not helping the situation.
“Bianca won’t be going to jail,” Molly said.
“Oh, what do you know?” Courtney scoffed. “I figured it out. When I was sleeping yesterday, she hit me with an injection of morphine. Luckily, it wasn’t enough to kill me.”
“I didn’t!” Bianca looked outraged. “I would never.”
“I know,” Molly said. “Because I did it.”
“You!” Courtney gasped. “I knew it. I knew you were out to get me.”
“Only because you’re trying to take away what is not yours,” Molly said. “Vera and I had an understanding. I would help her, and she would make certain that my son, Jimmy, was taken care of for the rest of his life.”
“I don’t understand,” Bianca said. Her voice was shaky. “Are you saying that you killed my mother?”
Molly gave Bianca a sad look. “Vera was dying, honey. She had pancreatic cancer. It doesn’t leave a victim much time. She had a few weeks to live, at best. When she got the letter from this one, threatening to take everything away from you by proving that you weren’t really Buzz’s child, well, Vera figured if she was dead, then her will would stand in place of Buzz’s and Courtney wouldn’t be able to contest it.”
“That conniving…” Courtney began, but Maggie hushed her.
Bianca paled and staggered to a seat. She put her head down between her knees.
“Why didn’t she tell me?” she asked.
“She was afraid you’d put up a fuss,” Molly said. “She wanted to go on her own terms with no arguments.”
“But why did she go to Dr. Franklin’s then?” Bianca asked. “Did she change her mind? Was she hoping to live?”
“No,” Molly said softly. “She wanted to say good-bye to him, her one great love.”
“Oh my god,” Summer said. She stared hard at Bianca. “Look at her eyes. Those are Dr. Franklin’s eyes. She’s his kid.”
Courtney glanced from Summer to Bianca, and then she let out a whoop of joy. “So it’s true. I suspected it was him, but you’re right. Look at her eyes. They’re light blue like his.”
Bianca’s eyes went wide, and Maggie was
sure the poor woman was going to go into shock.
“So it really is all mine!” Courtney jumped up and down.
“Not yet it isn’t,” Molly said, and she grabbed something from her purse and lunged at Courtney.
“Molly, no!” Maggie grabbed her by the arm and spun her around. “You can’t do this now. It’s over.”
“Let me go, Maggie. This doesn’t concern you,” Molly said, and she shoved Maggie aside, wielding the hypodermic needle in her hand like a knife.
Caught off balance, Maggie stumbled into the coffee table. Courtney was quick, however, and she dashed behind Summer, who looked horrified.
“Move, Summer, or I’ll take you out with her!” Molly yelled, and she grabbed Summer by the arm and tried to yank her away from Courtney.
Fair-weather friend that she was, Summer tried to scamper out of the way, but Courtney had her by the hair and was not about to let go of her human shield.
“Molly, stop this!” Bianca said. “Stop it now!”
A door in the back of the room slammed open and out stepped Max.
“Max, what are you doing here?” Maggie asked.
She saw Max and Bianca look at each other, and it was suddenly obvious who Bianca was in love with, and, judging by the look on Max’s face, it appeared to be mutual.
Molly was the first to recover from Max’s appearance, and she used everyone’s inattention to her advantage, as she shoved Summer out of the way and dove for Courtney. Maggie managed to shove the coffee table at Molly, clipping her in the knee, and jumped forward to shove Courtney out of the way. Molly was determined, however, and she stumbled forward to stab Courtney with the hypodermic needle she was brandishng but caught Maggie in the forearm instead.
Maggie stared at the needle in her arm in surprise and then yelped and smacked it away.
“Maggie!” Max ran forward. In a fury, he turned on Molly, and shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”
Molly looked crestfallen. “I have to, don’t you see? I have to get rid of her.”
“Why?” Bianca asked. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because she’s going to take away your home, and if she does, who will take care of Jimmy?” Molly asked.