“Let me escort you back to your car,” he said. “The driver will be fine.”
Fine? Gabriella choked back tears. Tania Marie’s fingers dug deeper.
She felt him pause, as a stalking animal does. He’d heard her, smelled her fear.
“You have a choice, ladies.” Then a click in the darkness. “You can come out, let me help you get back home, or you can make me come looking for you. Not a good idea, let me tell you. You don’t want to make me mad.”
“Don’t do it.” Another voice, high-pitched with the lunacy of fear, rang out not far from them. Whoever it was had also hidden behind a vat. Not only could the woman see them; she could direct the monster to their hiding place.
“Shut up, Ellie.”
“And what if I don’t? Are you going to kill me, too, Daddy?”
“I said, shut up.” He began to thrash in their direction. “Do you think I’d ever hurt one of my daughters? Haven’t I always tried to take care of you and your sister?”
“No, Daddy. Jules was the one who took care of us.”
“She never stopped loving her daddy, even though we both made mistakes over the years. That’s why she bought me our old place, why she came here when she needed help.” He spoke softer, hypnotically, moving closer all the time. Soon, he’d see them, yet there was no place they could dare to move. Tania Marie didn’t even appear to be breathing, but she continued to squeeze Gabriella’s shoulder. “It wasn’t my fault what happened to her. I’m a medic, ladies. I took good care of my daughter, but something happened and she got real sick.”
“Youknowwhat happened, Daddy.”
“I mean it, Ellie. Shut the hell up or you’re in for it.”
“Jules wouldn’t want you to do this, she wouldn’t.”
“She told me what to do, just as she told you what to do.”
“She didn’t say to kill them.”
“She told me what to do. Now, leave me do it or you’ll have hell to pay.” He moved a little closer. Gabriella could make out his silhouette, right down to the rifle.
“She didn’t mean it. She knew how sick she was. She didn’t want anyone to know why. She didn’t really want you to kill Tania Marie. She’d be horrified at what happened here.”
Tania Marie gulped. Now Gabriella clutched her. The entire cellar lay quiet, submerged in the silent, surreal world of scent. Earth, oak, wine, time.
Then movement. The crunch of heavy shoes, combat shoes.
“Ladies, don’t listen to my little girl here. She’s just had a terrible shock. We both have. Come on out, now. Don’t make me pick you off one by one.”
“She ate, Daddy. She ate, even after the surgery, because she had a hole in her life that couldn’t be filled, regardless of the size of her stomach.”
“Liar.”
Now he’d find them. He stood inches away, panting like a bull.
The woman stepped out. Walked to face him. Yes, it really was Ellen Homer, Bobby Warren’s assistant. And she saw them. Even in the darkness, Gabriella could make out her blond hair and slender form and knew that Ellen saw Tania Marie and her. She moved away from them, and the man followed.
“Her stomach was this small.” Ellen clenched her fist. “It couldn’t hold even a cup of liquid, but that didn’t stop her. She ate herself to death. The stitches exploded, and she died. He got rid of her body in the ocean so that no one would know what killed her.”
“I warned you, Ellie.”
“In case you really are here,” she said, looking away from them, “I want you to know that my father made me call Tania Marie. He wanted to get her here alone because she saw my sister at the clinic, saw what had happened to her. He made me do it.”
“I don’t care what they think.” He was drawn to her, though, following her through the shadows of the winery. “They can’t leave now, anyway.”
“I was the one who tried to scare you,” she said. “Jules was still alive. She didn’t want anyone else to be Killer Body.” She sobbed. “It was her life.”
“Get out of here,” the man demanded. “Leave me to take care of this.”
