I didn't think Lolly was half as loved as some kin proclaimed her to be, but I kept my mouth shut. Jake prodded Philip with his cane.
“You're a liar,” Jake hissed. “I know you didn't love Lolly. You ain't got love for nothing in your heart but green and silver.”
“This from a man who snarls at little children,” Philip shot back, but his voice had transformed. He sounded desperate, cornered. “What the hell would you know, old man?”
“Lolly told me,” Jake pronounced. “She was afraid of you. Of what you'd do to lay your hands on your inheritance just a tad sooner.” Uncle Jake whacked at Philip again with the cane, incisively and hard. Philip fairly jumped back.
“Mr. Zimmerhanzel.” Victor Mendez stepped forward, and I wanted to say: About time. Are you going to let them snipe at each other? Of course you are, Lieutenant. You might just learn something.
Uncle Jake's eyes blazed at the young officer, who didn't seem the least bit cowed by the old fellow's malevolent glower. “You're wasting our tax money. Are you gonna arrest Philip or stand there and let the grass grow?”
“You seem awfully eager for an arrest to be made, Mr.
Zimmerhanzel. Why is that?” Tricia Yarbrough crossed her arms.
“Because Philip's guilty as sin,” Jake retorted. “He stole money from Mutt before, and I don't see Jordan's got any reason to lie about what he saw in this library.” He poked the air with his cane. “You're the law. It's your job to exact justice. If you won't, someone else will.”
“I don't abide vigilantes in my county, Mr. Zimmerhanzel,” Mendez said, and for a sick moment I thought I saw a light of amusement in his eyes as Uncle Jake postured as the family avenger.
“Uncle Jake! I can't believe you're turning on me this way,” Philip managed to utter. Jake studied the ornately sculpted handle of his cane.
Mendez didn't relent on Jake: “Why did you think Mr. Bedrich wanted to get his hands on an inheritance? Is he a beneficiary under Mrs. Throckmorton's will?”
“Him? In Lolly's will? Fat-ass chance.” Uncle Jake laughed. A finger of dislike crept up my spine. “I think she planned on leaving everything to Deborah, Aubrey, and Tom.”
Deborah stiffened next to me in obvious surprise and I saw Tom, who'd so far kept his tongue, jerk from staring at his brother to staring at Uncle Jake. Candace leaned an arm behind me to touch Deborah's shoulder, and my cousin twitched nervously. Aubrey didn't visibly react.
“She couldn't. She wouldn't,” I heard Deborah whisper.
Jake laughed at the reaction his announcement caused. “But that ain't the real money in this house. Old Philip's after Mutt's money. He needs it bad to pay off his gambling debts. He done hit me up already for a loan. Those fellows who break legs ain't inclined to wait until Mutt here kicks off.”
“I do not have gambling debts,” Philip argued.
“Not what Lolly said!” Jake retorted.
“That makes no sense, Jake. Why kill Lolly, then, if he should've tried to kill… me…” Uncle Mutt collapsed into a chair. Wendy knelt solicitously at his side. He breathed heavily for a moment, then stared at his nephew.
“Is that it, Philip? You were gunning for me and poor Lolly got in the way? She took the poison intended for me?”
Philip's assurance finally collapsed. “For God's sake! Listen to yourselves! Uncle Jake-Uncle Mutt-this is me! You think I killed someone? You think I killed one of us? For holy God's sake!” The enormity of their accusations buckled Philip's knees, and he sank down onto the ottoman in front of Uncle Jake. The old man trembled, as if cognizant of the wounds he'd inflicted, then covered his face with his hands.
“Why'd you go and have to do an ornery thing like this?” Jake asked, his voice barely a whisper. He became silent and kept his fingertips pressed against the wrinkled plain of his forehead. “Poor Lolly. Innocent Lolly.”
Tricia Yarbrough cleared her throat. “We still don't know that digitalis was involved. Mrs. Throckmorton could have simply had a heart attack.” She scanned faces: mine, Mutt's, Deborah's, Jake's, Philip's. “Aren't y'all getting a little ahead of yourselves in casting accusations? Anyone here got something they want to share?”
I felt a sick tug in my gut. They're casting accusations because they 're sure the digitalis will show up in her body. Why wouldn 't they just glue their lips shut if they had any real doubt? They're covering their butts.
Philip stared at Jake, still stinging from his uncle's accusation. He then whirled to face his twin brother. “Tom? Tell them, tell them I couldn't do it!”
Tom Bedrich leaned against the corner bookshelf, his haggard face drawn into a frown. “I don't know, Philip. I don't know you anymore. Any of you.”
“You're my brother, for God's sake!”
“That ceased to count for much years ago, Philip.” Tom's voice chilled me, devoid of fraternal affection.
Aubrey interjected, “I don't think any accusations should be leveled at my cousin without an attorney present. Philip, let's get a lawyer here if you're going to be questioned by the police.”
Philip didn't take Aubrey's advice as support. His appeals crescendoed in anger and fear as he jumped to his feet. “I don't need any damned lawyer. Because I didn't do it, and there's no evidence to support a claim that I killed Lolly, or tried to kill anybody.”
I forced myself to speak again, dread making an accommodation in my heart. I was playing every trump card I had, and I wasn't even sure of the game. I wanted to whisk Bob Don out of the study, squire him away to a private room, and shake the truth out of him about whatever demons haunted this family. Instead I forged ahead, exposing the fractures in our family tree. “Philip. I heard you and Wendy talking. Out at the cemetery.”
The quiet in the room was as dense as the quiet of those tombs. Philip glared at me with a shining light of pure hatred. It shone for one sickening moment, then he safely eclipsed it by closing his eyes. Wendy stood from where she'd squatted by the grieving Mutt, an insensate lump to the arguments raging around him.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Wendy said flatly.
“I went for a hike. I was by the crypts when y'all came down there and had a little confab. About getting hold of some of Uncle Mutt's money.”
Wendy laid a possessive hand on Mutt's crown of gray hair. He seemed to hear my words, but he hadn't yet formed a reply to them, looking at me slack-jawed.
“I still don't know what you're talking about, Jordan,” Wendy said.
“I don't talk to Wendy but to say hello and ask what's for supper,” Philip offered, after a quick sidelong glance at his partner in crime. “Why the hell would I be jawing with her out in a goddamned cemetery?”
“So no one would hear or see you,” I replied, determined not to let them evade me.
Wendy shook her head. She reminded me of a chessboard's queen, idly glancing down at a helpless pawn. “Your facility for lying is amazing. But since none of us know you, I don't suppose we should be surprised.”
“Know me? What does anyone know about you, Wendy?” I countered.
My challenge didn't faze her. “Perhaps you'd explain to Lieutenant Mendez and Judge Yarbrough why you were sneaking around Lolly's bedroom this morning.”
She was right about my facility for lying. “I suspected Lolly might be sending me the hate mail. I wanted to find some evidence to support my theory.” The fib slid out of my mouth with surprising smoothness. I closed my mouth before I could elaborate further on my falsehood. I didn't glance at Deborah. Or at Bob Don, who Wendy claimed to have spotted as he exited from prowling the room while I hid in the closet. Until I knew why Bob Don was in that room-what secret did he have? I could hardly ask him about it in this room full of accusing faces.
“And just why did you suspect Lolly?” Wendy continued. Her hand played insolently in the gray of Mutt's hair, like she was stroking a pet. Mutt watched me with stony eyes.