Lizzie paused at the stair landing. “That’s right.” Her voice was matter of fact. “Gabe shot C. D. in cold blood. And he would have shot you too. He had the gun to your head, you were afraid for your life. You kicked at him, and he fell backwards.” She nodded at Felicia. “Right?”
“End of story,” Felicia agreed.
***
There was a flurry of activity then. Sheriff Goolsby and his deputy seemed to fill the tiny landing with their male presence. Brooke shrank back against the wall, her knees drawn tightly to her chest, as an EMT and an ambulance, hastily summoned from the state park, arrived to bandage C. D., hook up IV tubes, and transport him out of the lighthouse and to the sheriff’s boat waiting at the dock at Shellhaven. Before they left, Brooke allowed them to clean and bandage the gash on her cheek.
“Might need stitches,” the burly EMT muttered.
Lizzie and Felicia hovered protectively beside Brooke as she numbly answered the sheriff’s questions, while the deputy quietly went about his business photographing the scene and taking notes and measurements.
“She’s told you everything she knows,” Felicia said after the sheriff askedfor the third time why a rich, successful Savannah attorney like Gabe Wynant had ended up dead on Talisa Island.
“She’s in shock,” Lizzie agreed. “No more questions. You can call her tomorrow if you think of anything else.”
They waited until the others had gone. “Okay, the coast is clear,” Lizzie said, watching the parade of trucks motoring away from the lighthouse. “Let’s go home now, Brooke.”
They pulled her to her feet. Brooke took two steps, then froze. “I can’t,” she gasped. “The stairs… dizzy.”
“You’ve got this,” Lizzie said firmly. She wound an arm around Brooke’s waist. Felicia took Brooke’s left arm and placed it across her own shoulders.
“We’re just going to take it nice and slow,” Felicia said soothingly. “Close your eyes. Take a step when we tell you.”
“I’ll fall!” Brooke started to tremble. “I’ll fall, and I’ll pull you down with me.”
“You won’t,” Lizzie said. “We’ve got you. We won’t let you fall. Not ever.”
65
The emergency room admitting clerk called her name loudly. “Brooke Trappnell?”
Felicia and Lizzie walked with her to the doors leading to the triage area, where a nurse in purple scrubs stood waiting, a clipboard tucked under her arm. “Sorry. I can’t let visitors back there. Family only.”
“We’re her family,” Felicia said.
“Sisters,” Lizzie agreed.
The nurse rolled her eyes at the improbability of the statement but showed them back to a curtained-off treatment room. “The doctor will be with you shortly.”
Brooke sat on the narrow bed while Felicia leaned against the wall and Lizzie perched on a low rolling stool. Her head was pounding, and the gash on her cheek throbbed. She looked down at herself. Her hands and arms were bruised, her clothes were filthy and blood-spattered. “God, I’m a mess.”
“You’re alive. That’s what counts. You scared the living bejesus out of us, you know,” Felicia said.
Lizzie nodded solemnly. “Yeah. We heard the shots just as we were pulling up to the lighthouse. We didn’t know if you were dead or alive, or what.”
“How did you even know where I was?”
“It was Farrah. You’d better give that girl a raise,” Felicia said. “After that wacky call from you, she knew something bad was going down over there. I guess you gave her some clue about being at the lighthouse. Where she and Jaxson partied? She called the sheriff, and then she called the house phone at Shellhaven.”
“And I picked up,” Lizzie said. “The poor kid was frantic. She was trying to tell me about Gabe and some tax liens and bad checks, and I didn’t really know what any of it meant, but she convinced me that you were in some kind of trouble.”
The nurse pulled the curtain aside. “You’ve got more company. I’d say this is probably your real family.” She glared at Lizzie and Felicia. “You two will have to leave.”
Marie and Gordon stepped into the already cramped space.
Gordon’s face paled when he saw his bruised and blood-spattered daughter. “Jesus! What did that animal do to you?”
Marie nodded at Lizzie. “Thanks so much for calling to let me know what happened.”
