The way the two had doted on each other in public. Patricia was always so meek and mild. An uncharacteristic tremor of fear rattled Annette. But ... if she had killed her husband, she damned sure wouldn’t have any qualms about killing Annette.
For the first time in over a decade Annette had no idea how to fix a situation.
She was screwed.
“Carson’s dear uncle Max has a message for his nephew,” Patricia explained in a haughty voice. “He was in his sister’s house that night.Hecommitted the murders. Carson needs to hear that so this nuisance can be put to rest once and for all. That’s the way it should’ve been handled from the beginning.” Patricia inclined her head and glowered at Annette. “But Carson isn’t here. Where is he?”
There had to be a way to turn this around. “He’s with the FBI.” Annette looked the other woman straight in the eyes and went for broke. “He’s telling them his suspicions about you and your son. We found Dane. He told us everything.”
Patricia laughed. “Don’t be foolish, you ridiculous whore. Carson has no idea what really happened to his parents. Dane would never tell. Never. He loves his sister too much. Besides, I don’t think Dane has beentalkingto anyone.”
“You,” Annette argued, fury bursting inside her at what those cruel words undoubtedly meant, “should have gone to the police about Dane years ago. Why did you let Carson live in hell all those years?”What kind of person could do that to another human being?
The front door flew open. Annette hoped it would be help. But her hope was short lived.
“Mother! What’re you doing?”
Elizabeth.
Well if she hadn’t been screwed already, Annette certainly was now. This was what happened when she tried to do something nice.
Patricia pointed a disapproving look at her daughter. “Stay out of this, Elizabeth. I have everything under control.”
Elizabeth ignored her mother, unleashed her fury on Annette. “You’re a fool. You should have left town while you had the chance.” Then she wheeled on her mother once more. “Answer me, Mother. What are you doing?”
Annette considered her chances of survival if she took a dive at Elizabeth right now. Too risky. Patricia Drake might not hesitate to shoot—even in the direction of her daughter.
“I told you,” Patricia snarled, “I have this under control. All will be exactly as it should be very soon.”
Elizabeth’s face puckered into an expression of disgust. “What is that smell?”
“I used the raccoon to scare him,” her mother explained impatiently. “Max is going to confess to Carson. That story makes far more sense than that ridiculous Stokes scheme. It should have been done this way years ago. Wainwright’s an idiot.”
Patricia killed the raccoon? What a sick bitch. Hearing Wainwright’s name was no surprise. Annette had known Wainwright was in this up to his eyeballs. The bastard. She hoped he got his. If she were lucky maybe she would live to see it.
“Why did you do that?” Elizabeth demanded, her voice small and high-pitched, like a child whining over a lost toy. “You do it every time! I was making a pet out of the raccoon. You had no right!”
Patricia scoffed. “Don’t be foolish. He was a wild animal. You’ve never properly taken care of a pet. The only things you need to be focused on are work and Carson.”
“You never listened to what we wanted,” Elizabeth snapped. “Never, never, never! Every time Father got us a dog you found something wrong with it. Wanted it out of the way. I think you were just jealous, Mother. Jealous of how much Dane and I loved those dogs.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Elizabeth,” Patricia patronized. “It was for the best. I know what’s best foryou.”
This just got more and more twisted. Annette had to make a move. “What about Carson?” She directed her appeal to Elizabeth. “Hasn’t he been hurt enough? Does your mother have to drag his uncle into this nightmare, too?”
The princess of Birmingham morphed instantly from helpless little girl to psychotic bitch. “Don’t pretend you know Carson. He only slept with you because he couldn’t have me.”
Okay, so Elizabeth wasn’t a potential ally. “Or maybe,” Annette tossed back, “it was because I was helping him find the truth.”
“Liar.” Elizabeth snatched the gun from her mother’s hand and moved in a step closer to Annette. “You don’t know the truth any more than he does.”
Annette wasn’t sure whether Elizabeth was less of a threat than her mother or not. Might as well take a stab at throwing her off balance. “Were you going to kill Carson when he came here? The way you did your father?”
“How dare you even suggest such a thing!” Elizabeth leveled the barrel of the weapon on Annette. “I loved my father. And no one’s going to hurt Carson. We’re going to be married. Father would have come around in time. He loved Carson. My father was only worried that Carson would cause trouble with all this digging into the past.”
“That’s why we have to do this now,” Patricia urged. She looked from her daughter to the gun in her hand and back. “We can’t take any more risks.”
Annette had to keep them distracted and divided until she had a plan. “Maybe your mother killed your father for you.”
