“And you’re too busy chatting and whining to hear me. If someone wanted to paint me as a killer, as someone who can’t control her impulses back then or now, which is ridiculous, of course”—her snort emphasized how little she thought of that idea—“what better way than to have me show up in town, find out your baby boy snagged my big inheritance, then make him disappear. It wouldn’t be hard to sell theonce a killer, always a killerrefrain to the public.”
I was stuck on the part where she might actually be a killer.
“Someone wants to make it look like I did a Menendez brothers on my family and came back to town for Jeremy,” she said. “Sounds trite to me, but others would be impressed.”
She wasn’t threatening or vying for her piece of Xavier’s fortune, but I still didn’t trust her. Never would. “Or this is a convenient story on your part to shift the blame to someone else.”
“You’re the smart one of you three women who were always around and overly involved in my family’s lives.” Aubrey headed for the doorway to the hall but didn’t leave the room yet. “Anyone coming for Jeremy is really coming for me. Find the killers and we find Jeremy.”
“I can just go to the police and repeat what you’ve said.”
She sighed. “Excellent plan. The police have done such a great job for the Tanner gene pool so far.”
“What happened to your family?” Catching her off guard would never work but I was desperate.
“You’re asking the wrong person.” She turned around to face me. “If you want to see Jeremy alive again—and I do think your time is running out on that wish—work with me.”
Running out. The words slashed through me. I’d walk into hell with the devil herself.
“Think about it.” Aubrey winked. “Don’t worry. When it’s time to decide, I’ll find you.”
“Leave the key.” My final shot.
She laughed. “Don’t have one. You have a lot to learn about what’s really happening deep inside the walls of the Tanner properties. You might want to get on that. It will also explain how someone might move in and out and how Gramps got me out of the picture so smoothly without being seen back then.”
“What?”
“You’ll figure it out.” She winced, bringing even more drama to the moment. “Or you’d better if you want to save your boy.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Stella
This was a terrible idea. I didn’t need the degree and all those supervised practice hours to see the train wreck piled up in front of me.
I refused to open the car door. I couldn’t believe I’d even gotten in the front seat.
I sat in the driveway of Victoria and Patrick’s house with Hanna and Marni. The abandoned Tanner mansion. The three-story Victorian that once stood out in the neighborhood with its two acres of perfect green lawn. The bright white siding had faded from the direct sun to a dingy yellow. Years of neglect and an unfixed water leak had left the front porch dipping under the weight of a rotting roof.
Thanks to the roots of an overgrown tree, the once regal stone steps leading to the front door had cracked until they stuck out of the ground in a haphazard pattern as if something down there wanted to escape to up here.
We could have knocked down the old fence, but Mom had akey to the gate. I “borrowed” it earlier as she delivered another lecture about my patients’ lack of boundaries. She didn’t need to know where I really was or why.
Everly had been asleep for hours. I’d been napping on the couch in lounge clothes, mentally debating turning in, when Hanna texted about talking with Aubrey. Hanna then set out her far-fetched plan to sneak into Aubrey’s old house and all thoughts of relaxing and sleep died a wheezing death.
Now I was here in Hanna’s car with the engine running and Marni in the back seat, muttering about this being a ridiculous plan. She wasn’t wrong.
Hanna’s grip on the steering wheel didn’t ease. She clenched and unclenched. Twisted the leather under her palms. “Aubrey mentioned the houses. Talked about something happening inside and suggested she didn’t need keys to get in either place.”
Aubrey had us running around in circles. Her plan to shove Hanna right to the edge had worked. I tried to convince myself I was here as the voice of reason but curiosity spurred me on. I hadn’t spent much time at this Tanner house in years, except one trip with my mom at Xavier’s request to remove valuables. It had been a desperate attempt to make the heap less of an attractive nuisance to kids and anyone looking to rip out the pipes to make a buck or two.
The place should have been gutted by thieves long ago, but after an initial spurt of activity and a few warning shots by the security guards Xavier stationed here for the first full year, interest had died down except for curiosity seekers. With all the rumors about a dead family haunting the house its reputation became more of a testimony to lives gone wrong than a placefilled with treasures worth plucking. With Aubrey being back, people would come looking for a story and making videos to post online again.
“Why are we here instead of at Xavier’s place?” I asked because Aubrey broke into, or snuck into, or just plain walked right into, Xavier’s house. Not this one.
Hanna didn’t shift her gaze from the front door. “It’s where she’s staying.”
“That information has to be wrong. Look at this.” I stared at the dark, soulless house. I swear it stared back.
