‘Max, you were always so melodramatic.’
‘I don’t think so, Roxy. Not after all these years at seeing how you operate. You have no mercy.’
Jane’s hand was beginning to tremble slightly. The gun wasn’t aimed directly at Roxanne. Vanessa knew she had to divert Roxy until she could think of something to save Cara and hopefully herself. She didn’t give a damn about the other three in the room. Roxanne had always thought she was incredibly clever, she thought. Maybe now was the time to appeal to her ego.
‘This time you decided not to just return. You claimed you’d been a prisoner and said you’d gotten free,’ she said to Roxanne. ‘How does Brody figure into all of this?’
‘Most people thought Brody took me when I was fifteen. Luckily, Max lived close to Brody in Portland. They’d been friends when they were young. He’d known Zane back then, too. Max had managed to befriend them again. Barely. I knew neither one of them would consider Max a friend.’
Max visibly winced.
Roxanne seemed to relish in Max’s discomfort. ‘But I wanted there to be evidence that Brody – and Zane – had been holding me prisoner and Max was in a perfect position to help me.’
‘Why?’ Vanessa asked.
‘It was more convincing. Daddy didn’t believe me the first time I tried to come home. So, this time I had to put on an act.’
‘I mean why did you want to involve Zane?’
Roxanne looked at Max and smiled. ‘That was really Max’s idea. He said Brody and Zane were so close that it would be hard for people to believe Zane didn’t know something was going on with Brody. And … I had another plan for Brody.’
‘You mean you wanted it to seem as if he’d gone off his meds,’ Vanessa said.
Her sister nodded.
‘Only worse. Max, you used to visit Brody sometimes. Libby told me,’ Vanessa continued. ‘You poisoned his medicine with crack. How could you do such a hideous thing?’
‘I told you. Roxanne threatened me and said if I didn’t—’
‘It was more than that.’ Vanessa’s voice lashed. ‘You hated Brody. Why?’
‘I … I didn’t hate him. Back when we were teenagers, everyone acted like he was some kind of god. He was so tall and good looking like his brother. Everyone admired the Montgomerys. My father had taken off years ago, and I was left with a mother who was kind of the town joke with her gossiping and her grande dame airs. And then came the tennis. Brody didn’t play better than I did but he always won.’
Vanessa looked at him in disbelief. ‘You hated him because he won the tennis tournaments?’
‘He didn’t deserve to win! I played as well as he did! It was the linesmen and the umpires. They were all against me!’ Max went quiet for a moment, seething. ‘Then there were our careers. I put my heart and soul into my art. I always wanted to be a great artist, to have my paintings shown in galleries in New York and Paris and Venice. But I was told I wasn’t good enough. One teacher told me my work was “barely tolerable”. Then along comes Brody and even though he’s crazy as a loon, he develops Blackbird. He was going to make millions. And I was just poor old Max.’
‘You mean that Brody and Zack developed Blackbird. Brody and Zack were going to make millions.’
‘Yeah. Zack Felder. I knew him when he was a teenager and summered in Everly Cliffs with his parents. What a waste of space – short, pudgy, frizzy red hair, his constant prattling about computers. Nobody could stand him except Brody.’
‘But you hung out with them. I remember that.’
Max shrugged. ‘I didn’t have anything else to do.’
‘Because you had no other friends.’
‘That’s not true!’
‘And what happened when you found out you were living only a couple of blocks from Brody in Portland?’
‘What do you mean, what happened?’
‘You insinuated yourself into his life again. You pretended to be his friend. And Zane’s.’
‘I was friendly to them. We were adults – over all the kid rivalry and jealousy.’
‘Oh, I don’t think you were over it at all. And although Brody chose to ignore it, Zane didn’t. Zane didn’t trust you. Ever.’ Vanessa paused. ‘Is that why you killed him?’
‘I didn’t want to. She made me. I was only her instrument.’
Roxanne rolled her eyes. ‘You are the most spineless, pathetic wimp I’ve ever met. I knew it when I was fifteen and you haven’t changed a bit.’
‘Why?’ Vanessa asked Max. ‘Why did you murder Zane?’
Max glared at Roxanne for a moment, then said, ‘He was suspicious of me. He tried to get Brody to get rid of me as a friend. And when Brody went missing at the same time as Roxanne turned up – well, he really went into overdrive. Couldn’t you see the way he was looking at me when he saw us at the Christmas party, Vanessa?’
‘He was looking at you the same way he looked at me.’
‘No. No, it was different. He was coming after me – I knew it. So I sent him a text sounding like it was from Brody and telling him to meet me at the Diamond Rose. And then I got rid of him for good.’
‘And used his house as evidence against him. Whose idea was that room in the basement?’
‘Mine,’ Roxanne said casually. ‘Except Max screwed it up. Everything looked too nice, too well arranged, not like a place where someone had lived for a week much less held a prisoner for months.’
‘But you were so overcome you threw up,’ Vanessa said.
‘Ipecac, dear sister. Vomiting was so much more effective than a maidenly swoon and I can’t make my face pale at will.’ She smiled. ‘It certainly convinced everyone that the room actually horrified me. You all believed I’d been a captive in that place.’
‘For a while. Then I realized it looked perfect. And this morning I remembered you saying you’d “slipped” out the front door as quietly as you could. Wade Baylor is strong and the front door of that house is so warped even he had trouble opening it. And I thought of how insistent you were that we go downstairs when we’d started up the stairs to the second floor. You rushed it, Roxy.’
‘Well, aren’t you the brilliant sleuth, Nessa?’ Roxanne’s voice was scornful. ‘Or rather, didn’t you become one after your renewed love for Christian turn you into Brody’s champion.’
‘I wasn’t his champion, Roxanne, especially after he beat up Max on the beach.’ She looked at Max. ‘It was Brody who beat you, wasn’t it? That wasn’t a trick, too?’
‘It was Brody all right. I wasn’t even thinking about him or I wouldn’t have been on the beach. But as soon as I saw him, I knew I was in trouble. He wasn’t on his medication. Hell, he was on crack. I tried to keep him calm, but I couldn’t. He was going on about me not being a good knight. He thought I was trying to trick him. And he cut loose on me.’
‘Did you know where he was hiding?’
‘There are three shacks at the edge of town. They’re condemned. I think Derek Sherwin bought them to tear down. Back when Brody and Zane and I hung out as kids, there was an old guy staying in one. He called himself Captain Morgan. He always invited us in, taught us poker, gave us beer – sometimes harder stuff. He told us stories about his life on the sea and all the women he’d had. I had a feeling Brody might go back there – he loved the old guy.’
‘But those shacks were searched,’ Jane said. ‘Wade told me they searched them three times.’
‘Brody seemed to have a sixth sense about when the cops were coming. He hid somewhere else until they left. Then he came back. I kept a close eye on him, per her ladyship’s instruction,’ Max said scathingly, glancing at Roxanne. ‘If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have seen that carving knife he left on a table when he went out for a few minutes. I don’t know where he got it, but I didn’t want to have another encounter with him when he was holding that thing. The blade must have been ten inches long. So I slipped into the shack and took it. Then I ran for my life. I didn’t want to be anywhere near when he noticed it was miss
ing.’
‘So, which of you killed Nia Sherwin?’
‘It was a joint effort,’ Roxanne said. ‘Jane had finally told Simon she’d seen me kill Daddy. I think she was trying to warn him away from me. But Simon thought he was invincible, even when Nia Sherwin started pressuring him into helping her get Sammy. He wanted her to stop bothering him so he told her about what really happened to Dad. She told me he’d sent her to me to help her because I was in the house with Sammy! And it would be easy for me to get Sammy out of here.’
‘Daddy wasn’t well!’ Jane cried. ‘He wasn’t thinking clearly or he would never have told her to ask for your help.’
‘She didn’t ask. Nia said if I didn’t help her get Sammy out of this house, she’d tell everyone that I hadn’t really been kidnapped, and that I’d killed my father. We should have been comrades after what happened to both of us at Simon’s hands. Instead she tried to use me! She threatened to blackmail me, the bitch!
‘I let her think she’d scared me,’ Roxy continued. ‘I told her to come here around midnight and I’d have Sammy outside waiting. I sneaked out of the house to where I told her I’d meet her. While I was talking to her, Max crept up behind her and slit her throat. Then we arranged the gold ribbon and the white roses to make it look like Brody’s work.’
Vanessa flinched. ‘So Max slit her throat. But not with the knife he’d stolen from Brody. Not the knife Brody had when he grabbed you on the lawn.’
‘On the lawn?’ Max’s laugh was dry and scratchy. ‘How about on the beach, where Brody was supposed to meet her.’
‘That’s enough, Max,’ Roxanne snapped.
‘Oh, is it? I don’t take orders from you anymore. We’re way past that.’ Max turned his attention to Vanessa. ‘Roxanne decided Brody had been around long enough. She was afraid he’d be caught and his poisoned medication detected. She thought it was best that he die when everyone was convinced of his guilt. So she had me leave a note on his porch telling him to meet “Lady Roxanne” on the beach. She told me that after Grace’s funeral, you’d be sure to retire to your tower. With any luck, you’d be looking through your telescope. She had the whole scene planned. From your viewpoint, it would look like Brody was abducting her and when she fought him, he tried to stab her. But really, he was only trying to get her in the shipwreck because he was trying to rescue her. He didn’t threaten to kill her. She had the knife. She stabbed Brody and he would have bled to death if it hadn’t been for you, Vanessa. You ruined her plan, and she despises you for it.
‘Nothing is going right for her and I knew she was about to spin out of control when she told me she was going to kill Simon Drake,’ Max went on. ‘She wanted to know if I still had any of my mother’s insulin. I did, and I gave her the insulin and Mother’s kit. I thought she was going to wait until tonight to do it but I didn’t intend to hang around here waiting to see what happened or what she’d do next. I only came by to get my pay for the painting and then leave Everly Cliffs as soon as possible.’
Jane glared at Roxanne. ‘So you broke into my father’s house and murdered him!’
‘I didn’t have to break in, Jane. He came here yesterday with flowers and reminiscences about the hot sex we used to have. I let him think he was seducing me, the old fool. We made plans for me to spend the night with him. He made my skin crawl, but it was worth it to know I was ridding the world of him. I went after midnight. We had sex. As much as he could handle, which wasn’t impressive.’
Jane’s face crumpled.
Roxanne continued. ‘I stayed awake until morning when he was still asleep and used Max’s mother’s insulin to give him a fatal dose. Then I had to wrestle him into his chair, find his own insulin kit and needle, and inject some of his insulin into him. That’s why I waited until morning. I wanted his body to still be warm so it would look like he’d accidentally given himself a morning overdose. It took longer than I thought it would and you – Plain Jane – had to come barging in to check on Daddy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get out of the house quick enough.’
‘He was my father!’ Jane screamed.
‘He was a sexual deviant, a blight on the Earth. I got rid of him.’
Jane started to sob.
Vanessa looked venomously at Roxanne. ‘My God,’ she breathed. ‘Roxy, my little sister, orchestrated everything.’
‘Yes, I did.’ Roxanne sounded proud. ‘You always thought you were the imaginative one. You weren’t. I’m the smart one, I’m the imaginative one, I’m the shining star in this family.’
‘Don’t smirk, Roxy. You’re insane.’
Roxanne’s face was so full of fury Vanessa knew Roxy had considered the possibility and it terrified her. ‘I’m not. Brody is insane!’ Roxy spat.
‘He isn’t. He’s just a guy who’s sick and whose life you’ve almost ruined—’
The front door opened. ‘We’re back!’ Queenie bounded in with Pete right behind her holding her leash. ‘We had a great walk!’
Jane shrieked and fired a shot that hit the wall beside Vanessa’s head. Queenie jerked her leash from Pete’s hand and charged Jane, knocking her to the floor. Vanessa heard Jane’s head crack against the leg of the hall table. Without thinking, Vanessa darted forward and took the gun out of her limp hand.
‘What’s going on here?’ Pete asked in a high, tight voice. ‘Is she dead?’
‘I don’t know. Stand still, Pete. Roxanne has a gun.’
‘Roxanne?’ Pete looked at her in shocked bewilderment. ‘Why does everyone have a gun?’
‘Only two of us have guns,’ Roxanne said. ‘And only one of us has the courage to use one.’
Pete’s face tightened. ‘Grace told me you were dangerous once, Roxanne. I didn’t believe her, but she was right. This time you’re not going to hurt anyone.’
His body tensed and took two steps toward Roxanne before she shot. Cara screamed as Pete staggered backward. ‘Pete!’ Vanessa screamed as he hit the floor.
In a flash, Roxanne ran into the living room and jerked Cara to her feet, holding the child in front of her like a shield. ‘Don’t get any ideas about shooting me, Vanessa. You’re not a good enough shot to be sure you’ll hit me instead of her.’
A shudder coursed through Vanessa. Cara looked terrified and Roxanne looked determined. She would have no conscience where the child was concerned, Vanessa thought. She didn’t care if Cara was injured or even killed. Roxy’s only concern was herself.
Roxanne began pushing Cara toward the entrance hall. The girl’s ribbon fell from her hair and she was trying not to cry but tears streamed down her face as Roxanne held her tightly with her left arm while pointing the gun at Vanessa and Max with her right hand. ‘Cara and I are going to leave now,’ she said in a creepily casual voice. ‘As long as I get away from this place, she’ll be fine.’
No she won’t, Vanessa thought. You’ll kill her to prevent her from saying where you were headed.
As if making her final bow, Roxanne said with a flourish, ‘It’s been a most interesting afternoon.’
They were almost to the front door when Max made a nervous move. Roxanne lowered her gun and shot him in the leg. His high-pitched squeal echoed around the entrance hall.
‘You’re not going anywhere – certainly not with me,’ Roxanne snapped, visibly annoyed. ‘You’ve always been such a dope, Max Newman. I don’t know how you’ve lived this long.’
Roxanne pulled Cara onto the porch, glanced at the cars, then headed for Max’s. She opened the driver’s side door, shoved Cara in, and got behind the steering wheel. When the car started, Vanessa knew Max had left his keys in the car. Roxanne must have known he always did. She spun the car around and headed down the hill.
‘Oh God, she’s taken off in Max’s car!’ Vanessa cried. ‘It’s white but I don’t know the make—’
‘It’s a Chevrolet Trax,’ Pete said.
‘You’re alive!’ Vanessa cried, running to him.
‘She just grazed my shoulder. The shock knocked
me down.’
‘Stay down. You’re bleeding heavily.’ She pulled his cellphone from his jeans pocket and handed it to him. ‘Call Wade Baylor. Tell him I’ve gone after Roxy and my iPhone has tracing software. I’ll leave the phone on, I think he can trace me.’ She picked up her iPhone from the hall table, Cara’s red ribbon and called for Queenie. ‘I’m going after them.’
TWENTY-EIGHT
Queenie, dragging her leash, jumped onto the second row of seats in Vanessa’s SUV. Vanessa got in front, laid the gun and ribbon on the seat beside her, started the car and wheeled it around. She drove down the hill, not as fast as Roxanne, but above her normal speed. This was a big car and she wasn’t completely accustomed to driving it. She had to be careful, she reminded herself. She couldn’t let panic overwhelm her and make a mistake because she might be Cara’s only hope of survival.
The morning had been lovely with pale blues and yellows, but now the sky had turned to dove gray and lilac. This would have made a beautiful twilight, but it was only two fifteen in the afternoon. A storm was coming.
‘Do we need a storm now?’ Vanessa asked. Queenie, standing on the seat with her head beside Vanessa’s, chuffed loudly. ‘That’s what I said. Not now, God, please.’
Vanessa turned right at the end of the drive and started down Preston Street, heading for the highway to Portland. She couldn’t see Roxanne’s car but she thought her sister would go to a city she knew well enough to easily find a hiding place.
And then what? Roxanne wouldn’t drag Cara around with her, making her more obvious, slowing her down. And Cara meant nothing to Roxy. That sweet, innocent little girl meant absolutely nothing to Roxanne.
Vanessa tried to concentrate only on the road ahead of her and not consider that she might be headed in the wrong direction. She knew Pete would have called Wade by now. Thank God Pete knew the make of the car. Also, by now the emergency services would probably be at the house tending to Pete’s shoulder. She was glad Roxanne had shot Max in the leg. He couldn’t flee. And what about Jane? Was she alive? If so, how could she possibly explain to Wade that she’d known for years Roxanne was alive? And would she care if he forgave her? The love of her life – her pervert of a father – was dead. Vanessa had a feeling nothing would ever really matter to Jane again.
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