“Yes, there was a lot of fighting,” I admitted, “but I know your mother wouldn’t have hurt my mother or me. And I can’t believe she’d ever hurt Nora. I won’t believe it,” I added, “not without some kind of evidence—stains or fingerprints.”
“Did you look for the weapon?” Holly asked McManus.
“What weapon is that?” he asked.
“I thought that Nora was struck—” Holly stopped midsentence.
She had been too quick to point the investigation in the direction of the lamp, too eager for the sheriff to follow the plan she’d laid out for him.
When she didn’t go on, McManus said, “I told you that Lauren found Nora unconscious. I didn’t say how she got that way. She could have fainted, could have been poisoned.”
I saw the curtain move again, its long cord swinging loose.
“She could have,” Holly agreed. “But I figured it happened the way it does on TV.”
The cord swung as if in a breeze. Nick turned his head slightly. Aunt Jule noticed it. But McManus’s eyes were on Holly, and hers on him.
“I’m not a detective,” Holly went on. “I’m not trained to think of all the possibilities. Like Lauren, I can’t believe my mother would do this. It—it horrifies me. It doesn’t seem real.”
The cord swung like a pendulum, closer and closer to Holly’s right arm.
“And Frank—he’s like an uncle to me. I trusted him! I trusted both of them.”
“Holly,” Aunt Jule cried, “why are you turning on me?”
The tip of the cord curled upward as if invisible fingers had twisted it.
“You’ve got it backward, Mother,” Holly argued. “You turned on us. My sister is dead. And if I don’t say what I know, Lauren may be next.”
Tears ran down Aunt Jule’s cheeks.
Holly’s face hardened. “Stop faking it, Mother. Who else would want to kill Lauren?”
The moving cord suddenly twisted upward and snaked around Holly’s wrist. It coiled twice and knotted itself, tying Holly’s forearm to the wooden arm of the chair.
McManus rose from his seat, his notebook sliding from his lap. “Good God!”
Holly sat still and appeared perfectly calm, but her arms prickled with goose flesh.
There was a long ripping sound. The curtains on the other door fell and the cord flew across the room. It twined itself around her wrist. Holly’s skin paled, her eyes widened with fear. She struggled to get free of the rope, rocking back and forth in her chair, knocking into the glass door. “Stop it, Nora!” she screamed. “Stop it!”
Two officers stepped into the room.
“Move aside, Nick,” McManus said.
Holly’s eyes darted over the room, as if she expected Nora to come back from the dead.
“Nora, you can come in now,” McManus called.
Holly wrenched around in her chair and stared at Nora as she came through the door, then she turned to me. “Witch,” she said, with unnerving calm.
I didn’t reply. I had no answer for the hate in her eyes.
“You’re such a fool, Lauren,” Holly said. “Did you really think that anything had changed between us during the last seven years?”
“I hoped we had both grown up.”
“You will always be rich and stupid, just like your mother,” Holly said. “You don’t deserve what you have. You don’t deserve your money and you don’t deserve my mother’s sickening admiration. I have always hated you.”
“Enough to attempt murder?” McManus asked.
She ignored him. “I told Frank you were an idiot and would be easy to take in. You trusted him like a puppy dog.”
“I guess I am naive,” I answered. “I never imagined that you could hate me so much you’d make your mother and sister suffer for it.”
“Who doesn’t help me, hurts me,” she replied coolly. “They stood in the way.”
“Of the inheritance?” McManus asked. “Perhaps, Holly, you figured that if both Lauren and Nora were dead, and your mother charged with double murder, the money would be yours. At least, you’d be given control over it.”
“You’re smarter than the rest of them,” she said.
“Of course,” McManus continued, “it would help to have Frank moving things along legally. What was he supposed to get out of this?”
“My mother’s property for a good price.” She sounded proud—she sounded absurd, as if there were no difference between a murder plan and a yearbook layout.
“The boathouse was Frank’s idea,” Holly went on. “He saw it was in his best interest to help out. I knew Frank was in bad financial shape—he leaves his papers all over his home office, like he thinks a teenager can’t read. He’s got several banks and some real unhappy investors breathing down his neck. He was desperate to have something to offer them.
“I want a deal,” she told the sheriff. “I’ll give you the evidence you need on Frank, but I want a lawyer with brains to represent me and a good deal from you.”
“We’ll talk about it back at the station,” McManus replied.
Holly eyed Nora. “You let me down, Nora,” she said bitterly. “You screwed your own sister.”
Nora stepped behind me, as if needing my protection.
“I am the one who let you down,” Aunt Jule said, “all three of you. It’s way past time that I tell you why I asked Lauren to come back to Wisteria.
“Seventeen years ago, when Sondra came here pregnant and terribly upset, I myself was pregnant for the third time. Sondra lost her child. Her baby is buried next to her in the churchyard.”
That was the grave I had seen, the one I’d thought was mine.
“Meanwhile, I had a child I couldn’t afford. We agreed that it would be best for all three children if Sondra took Lauren and pretended she was hers. I knew that Lauren would receive all that a child could want and that Sondra would love her dearly. Sondra sent money every month to help support us here. As part of the agreement, my little girl was to visit each summer.
“But as Lauren grew older and Sondra more troubled, Sondra and I began to fight about how Lauren was being raised. When they came that last summer and I saw how painfully confused Lauren was by Sondra’s behavior, I was furious. We fought about Lauren day and night, as you all well know.
“It’s hard not to be overly critical and jealous of the woman raising your child. But I loved Sondra. I did not kill her. Still, I knew Nora had problems and feared that she had. I was afraid that in therapy, that secret would be discovered and they would take Nora away from us. I thought if I could keep her safe here at home, everything would be all right.
“I knew I had to tell Lauren the truth about her birth, but the longer I put it off, the harder it was. When I finally made up my mind to do it, and Lauren came, painful memories were stirred up in Nora. I worried that Nora might hurt Lauren and was afraid to explain the past and make things worse. I didn’t know what to do.”
Aunt Jule gazed at Nora and me, then turned to Holly. “I have not been a good mother. I have made terrible mistakes. But I have always loved you.” Her voice wavered with emotion. “I will never stop loving all three of you.”
I wanted to put my arms around Aunt Jule, to reassure her, but I couldn’t. I struggled to comprehend that she was my birth mother and to reinterpret all the things I had thought I knew about myself. Nick, who was standing a distance behind us, came forward and took Aunt Jule’s hand.
I finally found my voice. “Nora is innocent of my mother’s—Sondra’s—death,” I said. “Holly convinced Nora that she was guilty because she didn’t go into the river to pull her out, but Nora wasn’t responsible.”
Aunt Jule closed her eyes and shook her head.
“Okay,” McManus said, “I think this soap opera’s over, at least for now. I’ll be sending someone back to you folks for some more statements.”
An officer cut the curtain cords around Holly’s wrists. When Holly stood up, Aunt Jule tried to put her arms around her, but Holly pu
shed her aside. “I hate you! I hate all of you.”
“I want cuffs on her,” McManus said.
“Traitor,” Holly hissed at Nick, then moved toward me. Two officers moved with her.
“Excuse me,” she said, “I have something private to tell Lauren.”
They looked at me and I nodded.
She took a step forward and whispered in my ear, “I killed Sondra, but you’ll never be able to prove it.” Then she turned away laughing and was escorted out the door.
nineteen
As the police exited, Nick’s parents arrived. They said a quick hello to Aunt Jule and rushed over to Nick. I don’t know how the three of them understood each other, for they all talked at the same time. I turned to Aunt Jule—in my mind, that was still her name. I hugged her and Nora, then pulled away, feeling suddenly shy.
My godmother—mother—touched my cheek gently. “It’s okay, love,” she said. “It’s going to take a while to get used to the idea.
“Your dad knows,” she added, “he has since you were three. I didn’t realize Sondra had told him, not until we spoke at her funeral. The loss of Sondra had upset you so badly, we both thought it best not to tell you about your birth until you were older. Whenever I visited you, your dad would call to find out how I thought you were doing. He may not have been an ideal father—he certainly wasn’t a good husband to Sondra—but he does love you.”
I nodded silently. There was so much to absorb.
Aunt Jule hugged Nora and smiled at me, as if to send me the hug vicariously, while giving me the space I needed at the moment.
“Do you want one of your walks alone?” she asked. “See, I’m learning that you’re not a little girl anymore and like to work things through by yourself.”
I smiled back at her. “Yes, but I want to take Rocky with me. Tell Nick I’ve got him, okay?”
The dog trotted next to me down to the boathouse. I kept a tight hold on his collar as we watched the firefighters continue to douse the grass around the burned-out structure. Fishing line, crab traps, and nets, some of which looked new, had been dragged out of the water. Yellow police tape surrounded the site.
“Come on, Rocky,” I said and headed in the direction of the dock. He raced past me, then plunged into the water. I watched him swim and tried not to think about Nick.
I had discovered that there was something more painful than falling in love with someone who hasn’t fallen for you: hurting that person—hurting him and not being able to do anything about it I wondered if Nick suspected that Holly had killed my mother. I wouldn’t tell him. Holly was just a kid then—maybe a heartless one, but a kid, and legally a minor. If I pursued the matter I’d create more pain, not achieve justice. I told myself it was Holly and Frank who had betrayed Nick; still, my return to Wisteria had triggered the whole disturbing chain of events. I wondered if Nick and I would ever be friends again. I thought about the way he had cried when he held me on the grass.
Think about something else, I told myself, think about Dad. In nine months I’d inherit my mother’s money and wouldn’t be dependent on him anymore. It would give me a better chance to strengthen our fragile relationship, to let him know I didn’t need, but wanted, his presence in my life.
And the money would enable me to pay for the psychological care of Nora—for the care of my sister, I thought, trying out the new words. I’d stay the summer and, if she needed me, do my senior year in Wisteria.
“It’s going to get better,” I said aloud.
“It will.”
I turned, startled by Nick’s voice. He stood a foot away from me.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “Can we talk?”
“Nick, I’m so sorry. I know how much it must—”
He reached out and touched my mouth with the tips of his fingers. “What I meant was—can I talk?”
“Okay.”
We walked together, following the riverbank. After a long silence he said, “I’m trying to put it all in order.”
“Don’t try. Just begin anywhere.”
“Do you know what it was like kissing Holly and looking up to see you?”
“What?”
“You said to begin anywhere.”
But I hadn’t expected that as a beginning, middle, or end. I felt my cheeks getting warm. “I guess it was pretty embarrassing for both of us,” I said, and walked ahead of him so he wouldn’t see my face. “I know, I just kept staring at you.”
“What were you thinking?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Don’t you start using that line,” he chided.
“Then don’t ask me, Nick.” Did he suspect how I felt?
He caught me and turned me around to face him. I focused on his shirt.
“Okay,” he said quietly, “I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I couldn’t believe that I, who was never going to get hooked, had fallen in love with a girl who didn’t want to date, and she was watching me kiss somebody else.”
I glanced up.
“Your turn, brave girl. What were you thinking?”
“That Holly looked beautiful in your arms and that you didn’t pull away from her the way you had pulled away from me when I kissed you.”
He drew me to him. “I’m not pulling away again,” he said, holding me close.
I hesitated, then put my arms around him. “I thought I had done something stupid.”
“No, you just surprised the heck out of me. I knew before then I was getting hooked on you, but I thought I could handle it. I didn’t know a simple kiss could be like that. It was scary, what I felt. My heart was banging against my ribs. I don’t know how you didn’t hear it.”
“I couldn’t hear it over mine.”
He tilted his head back to smile at me. “I love looking in your eyes,” he said. Then the smiled disappeared and his face grew serious. “I found out right after that what really scary was—someone hurting you, someone trying to kill you.”
“You mean today.”
“No. I was suspicious before. I didn’t think that Nora would hurt you, but I had begun to worry that someone was hiding behind her. The night of the prom I realized how jealous Holly was of you. When I returned to the dance—I don’t know, I must have had a dazed look on my face—she knew something had happened between us. She started cutting you down, saying a lot of nasty stuff. No big deal, I told myself, girls and guys get jealous of each other.”
“I was sure jealous of her,” I said.
“Were you?” he asked, his eyes shining. “You don’t mind if I enjoy that, do you?”
“I feel responsible,” I told him, “as if all of Holly’s life I’ve gotten the attention she wanted.”
“Everyone wants attention, Lauren, and everyone gets jealous. But you didn’t try to get rid of her, did you?”
“No.”
He let me go, then put an arm over my shoulder and started to walk with me.
“The day after the prom you told me about the note that had been left in your car. I could explain it as an anonymous prank, but as I did, I remembered that Holly had left school for a few minutes right after you. It would have been easy for her to put the note in your car while you were in the cemetery.
“And the brick that was thrown at your car, I could explain that, too, but again Holly had gone out during the time it happened. She said she had been at Frank’s picking up some party things. Afterward, Frank pressed me for details about how you were getting along with Holly, Jule, and Nora. He must have realized then that someone wanted to get you.”
“I—I just don’t understand Frank,” I said. “I knew he loved money and thought you should love it, too. I knew he enjoyed using his clout as a lawyer and businessman, but I didn’t think he’d hurt people. I didn’t think he’d hurt me.”
“Me neither. Maybe Aunt Margaret’s family was right about him. It’s scary to think how easy it is to be fooled.”
“I feel so bad for you and your parents, Nick. Frank is family for
you; for me, Holly is. And I don’t know how anyone writes off family.”
“Yeah,” he said, “I think Nora will have a lot of company in the next few months. You and I, Jule and my parents, we’ll all be sitting in Dr. Parker’s office, trying to understand what happened.”
I stopped walking and wrapped my arms tightly around him. “You know, I can hear your heart.”
“Could you hear it breaking when I accused you of getting my cartoon pulled?” he asked.
I held my head back so I could look him directly in the eye. “I didn’t pull it.”
“You couldn’t have,” he replied, “because I did.”
“You?”
“I was worried about your safety,” he explained, “but I thought if I accused Holly, she would deny everything. The only way I knew to protect you was to stick close to Holly and try to anticipate her next move. After the prom, I had to convince her in a dramatic way that I had turned on you. The cartoon was the only excuse I could think of.”
I dropped my head, resting my forehead against his chest.
“I’m sorry, Lauren. When I accused you, I saw how badly I was hurting you. At the party I noticed Holly talking to jason. Not long after that he and his friends started harassing you. I couldn’t break it up, not without making Holly suspicious, so I sent Rocky into the water. It was the best I could do.”
I smiled up at him. “It worked.”
“I saw Holly enter the greenhouse twice during the party and wondered what she was doing. After I left that night, I parked in Frank’s driveway and waited a while before sneaking back to investigate. I arrived just as you smashed the window.”
“So there were no phone calls to your house?”
“No. You remember my stupid excuse about why I’d come to the greenhouse—the flashlight, which, as you pointed out, wasn’t on.”