Part 30 (1/2)

That's when I saw it across the field on the outskirts of the woods: an old-fas.h.i.+oned wis.h.i.+ng-type well, where I knew that wishes were useless. ”Are you going to throw me in there, too?” I asked, the past becoming clearer when I noticed his tigereye ring.

Lolique had been right. I was a duped dope.

She chuckled. ”Don't look at me. I didn't throw Isobel in there. She died before I was born.”

”But you're the woman who was seen sneaking in and out of the playhouse, aren't you?”

Lolique scoffed. ”No, that was my mother, before the locals caught on to her presence and she accepted the role they handed her as Sampson's sister. She'd moved in with him, again.”

”Without bothering to break off her affair with me,” Goodwin said.

”Poor you,” I said, tongue-in-cheek to Gary. ”And what about you, Natalie? Why?”

”True, I hated Isobel,” Natalie said. ”Daddy's little girl, keeping watch, so no one could get close to him.”

I'd taken sewing lessons from this woman! ”You had a thing for Isobel's father?”

”What if I did? I didn't kill anyone.”

Goodwin chuckled. ”Natalie would have helped if she could have cozied up to the old man, but she didn't know what I planned. She's been my most loyal helper.”

”Thanks loads, Dad,” Lolique snapped.

”Natalie's not as loyal as you think,” I told Goodwin. ”She's a gossip. Told me the first day about your accident, about how badly you wanted the dealers.h.i.+p. She's not loyal at all.”

Goodwin whipped around to look at Natalie, now looking daggers at me. If only I could make the three of them duke it out and forget about me.

”And your daughter, Mr. Goodwin. You must be so proud.”

”My stepdaughter,” he said.

”Thanks again. Okay, so Sampson was my biological father. Rich as G.o.d. And my stupid-a.s.s stepbrother goes and kills him before he can change his will in my favor. He paid, though. Keep pus.h.i.+ng, Natalie.”

”So that's why you killed Vinney, Lolique? Revenge?”

”What an amazing hypothesis,” she said.

”Not a hypothesis. Vinney ratted you out. He called Eve and gave you up with his last breath.” I was lying of course, but she didn't know that. ”And as for Sampson's money, you may still get it, now that the truth about his divorce to your mother is out. I'm sure there'll be something left after the IRS takes their share. Years' worth of back taxes, I hear.”

She stopped walking and stood still as a snake about to strike. I so wish she'd point that gun in another direction.

I had to break her, though. ”You see, your father was selling his corner lot because he had to. You and your mother climbed out from beneath your respective rocks to finesse a man headed to prison for tax evasion.”

Lolique gave a feral hiss through her teeth, and I felt fear and fury radiating off her in waves, small consolation since we were getting closer to the well, too close. ”You killed Vinney for nothing, except, hey, maybe you'll inherit your father's debt, anyway?”

”Vinney was a son of a b.i.t.c.h. He was supposed to pin that second fire, the one we planned, on my husband by planting his sweater with the bones. Does he do that? No. He kills my father to start an unplanned fire, sic the law on us, and ruin my chances to inherit Sampson's and McDowell's fortunes. Two fortunes! Vinney deserved to die.”

”So you killed him.”

She raised her head with pride. ”So I killed him.”

”Vinney was a good son,” Goodwin said almost to himself, and I understood suddenly his stay on the psych ward, as if he lived in a different world than the rest of us. He looked up at me, but I'm not sure he saw me. ”Vinney took the bones out of your building for me.”

I remembered Dante's story of the night the bones were brought to my building . . . Goodwin brought them. Dante taunted him, and he left so shaken he had a car accident, and ended up in a wheel chair in a psych ward. Puzzle pieces were falling into place like clockwork toys, click, click, click.

Goodwin's face changed and he radiated hate. ”Why the h.e.l.l did you go and buy that old shack?”

My heart beat like a drum, and my hands were so sweaty it was getting hard to keep a grasp on my bag.

My connection to Isobel grew strong, and her fate fell into place. ”You put Isobel here when this was an empty lot, didn't you? Before construction here was a glimmer in Zachary Goodwin's eye.”

”I should have put her husband here with her,” Goodwin said. ”While I was dropping her here, McDowell was having drinks with her father, outlining the brilliance of building a second dealers.h.i.+p on this very piece of land. I'd thought it was smart to put her on land that her old man owned. But the old man and McDowell, they planned to build here in secret. Kept projected ledgers. No one knew. Not even Isobel. She told me that she thought her husband was embezzling.”

Click. Another puzzle piece fell into place.

The closer we got to the well, the harder my heart pumped, the more slippery my hands became. I could barely keep a grasp on my bag. But if I moved it, everyone would know how heavy it was.

I wanted to use it, but I had three targets. One with a gun.

I'd keep Goodwin talking and wait for my best shot, because the more he talked, the slower we walked.

Werner should be at the dealers.h.i.+p by now. Would he look for me?

”Why did you kill Isobel, Mr. Goodwin?”

”For the dealers.h.i.+p, dammit. I'm blood. Her father said it would be mine when he died.”

”Why isn't it yours, then?”

Five feet from the well.

”McDowell became his right hand, his expansion idea put him in favor, and his grief at Isobel's loss appeared to match her father's. Then, when Isobel goes missing, the old man has a stroke, and who takes him in? McDowell.”

Serves you right, I wanted to say. Had McDowell been sincere, at least about Isobel? I wondered way too late.

”Why did you move Isobel's bones in the first place?” I asked him. ”Why not leave her in the well?”

”This was about to become a car lot. I couldn't hide a body this close to a construction crew, then the public.”

”Why did you bring them to my building, then?” I was stalling but he hadn't figured that out yet. I was surprised that he couldn't smell my fear.

”It was a morgue,” he shouted, ”full of body drawers. I didn't think I'd live to see the place fall down. You messed with me by buying it. I've killed once, I can kill again.” Hate laced his last words.

An icy fear ran down my spine.

”Why did you keep the quilt until you moved Isobel from the well to my place?”