Dutton, Sunday, February 4, 9:03 a.m.
“I told you so,” Paul said to Charles, flipping his phone shut. “She’s out of control.”
Charles filled their cups with coffee. “She could also make good on her threat, and I need you to remain where you are. You’re useful to me in the police department.”
Paul’s jaw squared. “She won’t talk if you kill her first. Or let me do it.”
Charles lifted his brows. “But I’m not finished with her yet.”
“I’m not going to kill Garth’s mistress.”
Charles regarded him mildly over his coffee cup. “Yes, you will.”
Paul’s eyes flashed. “We have no idea what the Laneer woman even knows.”
“Pillow talk,” Charles mused. “We don’t know what Garth might have told Laneer. I’ll choose where and when to divulge information.” His eyes narrowed, pleased to see Paul straightening in his chair. “I want Bobby at that press conference this afternoon.”
“Why?” Paul sounded petulant, just as he had as a small boy.
“Because that’s where Susannah will be. Bobby won’t be able to resist.”
“That’s why you wanted me to goad her about Susannah stealing her inventory.”
Charles pointed to Paul’s plate with his fork. “Eat your eggs, son. They’re getting cold. Then get over to Kira Laneer’s. You can take my car.”
Paul jabbed at his breakfast. “Let Bobby do her own damn dirty work for once.”
“I don’t want Bobby going over there to do her own dirty work,” Charles said sharply. “In her current mood, she’ll get caught and I’ll miss my live show at four.”
Atlanta, Sunday, February 4, 9:30 a.m.
Filled with uncertainty, Susannah stopped in the doorway of Daniel’s hospital room. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been in ICU and she’d been crying all over him.
Now, standing here, was an awkward moment. He lay in the bed with his eyes closed, Alex by his side reading a magazine. “How is he?” she whispered to Alex.
“He’s fine,” Daniel answered. He opened blue eyes that could be glacial, warm, or sad. Now they were warm. “I saw you on the news. You found the girls. Congrats.”
“Thank you.” Susannah sat on the edge of a chair, wanting to flee. Luke stayed behind her, his hands on her shoulders. She folded her own hands in her lap, primly. “Daniel, I have something to tell you and it’s going to be something of a shock.”
Luke gently kneaded her shoulders. “You’re making it worse. Just tell him.”
Daniel was looking up at Luke balefully. “What?” he said, carefully enunciating.
“Relax,” Luke said easily, a hint of humor in his voice. “I haven’t laid a hand on her.”
Yet. Susannah could feel the word hover in the air, and her cheeks heated, not in embarrassment or fear, but in excitement. Yet. It was seductive. Powerful. She thought of the box in his bedroom. Yet. It was a portent of things to come. But not now, she thought, preparing to deliver what would be both balm to Daniel’s heart, and a dagger.
“It’s about Frank Loomis,” she blurted.
“What about him?” Daniel asked stiffly, going very still.
“We visited Angie Delacroix early this morning, hoping for some answers, and got a lot more than we bargained for. It seems Angie has been having an affair with Frank Loomis for years. But he wouldn’t marry her, because he loved someone else. Mother.”
Daniel blinked, his lips falling open in surprise. “Our mother?”
“Yes. And, it was mutual between them, at least once.” She drew a breath, let it out. “Arthur Vartanian is not my father. Frank Loomis is.”
Daniel slowly sagged. He stared at Susannah, then up at Luke. “Are you sure?”
“I gave Ed a DNA sample before we came here,” she said. “We’ll know tomorrow.”
“But it makes other pieces make sense,” Luke said, briefly squeezing her shoulders.
Susannah hesitated, then took her brother’s hand. “Angie said thirteen years ago Simon did something so terrible that Frank couldn’t make it go away. She said Mother begged him to take care of ‘it’ and Frank did. For Mother.”
“So Frank falsified evidence and framed Gary Fulmore,” Daniel murmured. “And that’s why he disappeared this week. He said he needed space. He was mourning her.”
Susannah said nothing for a moment, letting her brother think, consider. And she recognized the moment he understood what she had been too stunned to comprehend in Angie’s living room. His eyes flew open and locked on hers, intense and horrified.
“Then Mother knew,” he whispered hoarsely. “She knew Simon was involved in Alex’s sister’s murder. Oh my God, Suze. She knew.”
“If not the murder,” Susannah said quietly, “then at least the rape.”
“I thought that last night,” Luke said quietly, and Susannah twisted to look up at him.
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“You were so hurt. I figured you’d get there on your own when you were ready.”
She held his gaze for another few beats, touched. Then she looked back at Daniel and stiffened her spine. “Daniel, there’s more.”
He stared at her, pale. “More?”
“Yes. Ed found a hair in the bunker office where you were shot. It… The DNA is a close match to yours, consistent with a half- sibling, sharing paternity.” She’d reverted to her just-the-facts prosecutor persona. It was easier that way. “You have a half-sister. Another half-sister, that is. It’s Garth Davis’s wife, Barbara Jean. She goes by Bobby.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “The ‘other’ Granville was talking about before he died.”
Daniel’s mouth opened and closed several times. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Luke said. “Your father had a fling with the wife of the former reverend of your church. Barbara Jean was the product.”
“And she’s… bad, Daniel,” Susannah said. “Evil. She’s killed eleven people, plus ordering the murders of the five girls. She killed Kate Davis, too.”
Daniel’s breathing was fast and shallow. “But why? Why kill Kate?”
“Remember I asked about Rocky?” Luke said. “We thought that was a man. Rocky was Kate Davis, Garth’s sister. Kate was working with Granville and Bobby Davis.”
Daniel looked lost. “But Kate came to us. She told us that whoever was killing the Dutton women last week had sent Garth letters threatening her life. That Garth was afraid to talk because a few years ago Jared O’Brien started to talk about the club and was murdered. We found Mack O’Brien because she came to us. She played us?”
“Like a bad harmonica,” Luke said dryly. “Chase and I were pissed, too.”
“So you need to be careful,” Susannah said urgently. “Bobby’s still out there.”
“That’s why I still have a guard on my door,” Daniel said. “Oh my God. This is…”
“I know,” Susannah murmured. “Insane.”
“I’m glad you told me.” Daniel raked his fingers through his hair. “This answers a lot of questions. I don’t like any of the answers, but as you say, it is what it is. You need to go to a safe house, Suze. For your own safety.”
She’d already considered the option and rejected it. “For how long, Daniel?”
His eyes narrowed at her tone. “Until she’s caught.”
“And if that’s weeks? Months? What if she’s never caught? I’ve lost thirteen years of my life because of Simon and Granville and Bobby. I don’t want to lose any more.”
“You could lose your life,” Daniel said fiercely.
“I’ll take every precaution.”
He looked like he wanted to argue. “Will you at least wear a vest?”
She’d already decided to do so. “Yes. That I will do. And now I’m going to visit Monica Cassidy, and then I’m going to sleep. I have a busy afternoon ahead of me.”