Charlaine Harris (109 page)

“We did think of that,” Pete said mildly.

I flushed. “I'm not . . .”

“It's okay. You want to find your sister. I do, too.”

“Thanks, Pete,” Tolliver said and shook his hand again.

“You get better now, you hear,” Pete said and turned to walk back to his cubicle.

“We've wasted a lot of time here today,” I said. I was depressed and wondering what to do next.

“I don't know about that,” Tolliver said. “We've learned a little. You want to drop by to say hello to the Clevelands?”

I thought about it. My foster parents were good people, and I respected them, but I wasn't in the mood for catch-up conversation. “I guess not,” I said. “I guess we ought to head back to Garland.”

The cell phone rang. “Hello,” I said.

“Harper, this is Lizzie.”

She sounded shaky. Though our acquaintance was limited, I'd never heard Lizzie sound less than positive and forceful.

“What's wrong, Lizzie?”

“Oh, gosh, nothing! We were wondering where you were . . . if you could stop by the ranch for a minute.”

Stop by the ranch? When for all they knew, we were two hours' drive away in Garland?

“We're in Texarkana right now,” I said, thinking furiously but not coming up with anything. “I guess we could come by. What do you need?”

“I just wanted to touch base with you. About poor Victoria, and a couple of other things.”

I relayed all this to Tolliver in fewer words. He looked as taken aback as I felt. “Do you feel up to this? I can tell her no,” I said.

“We might as well stop by. We're in the area, and they know a lot of people.” The Joyces knew a lot of people with disposable income who might want to have some graves read.

I found myself wondering if we'd see Chip again. There was definitely something about the ranch manager/boyfriend that interested me, and it wasn't a physical attraction. At least not in the “I want to jump your bones” sense. But bones had something to do with it. . . .

We didn't talk much as we drove out of Texarkana. I was puzzled and worried by Lizzie's odd request, and Tolliver was thinking about something that worried him, too. I could tell by the way he sat and the tense muscles of his face. We took the exit off the interstate without any further discussion.

We drove by Pioneer Rest Cemetery and turned off onto the long driveway that ran between wide rolling fields. We could see miles in every direction, even with evening drawing in. Finally, we reached the gate to RJ Ranch, and Tolliver insisted on jumping out to open and then close the gate after I drove through.

I noticed that I couldn't see anyone, anywhere. On our previous visit, we'd been able to see people moving around in the distance.

We pulled up in the large paved parking area in front of the big house. We got out of our car and looked around. Everything seemed still. It was a warm day; in fact, it felt like it was spring. But the hush seemed abnormal. I shook my head doubtfully, but after a shrug, Tolliver led the way up the brick-paved path.

The big front door swung open, and Lizzie stood framed by the rectangle. The entrance hall behind her was shadowy. Talk about abnormal; though she was obviously making a huge effort to smile at us, it seemed more like the grin of a skull. Her eyes were as round as quarters and tension screamed in every muscle.

Red alert. Our steps slowed. “Hey, you-all, come on in.” All the natural enthusiasm she'd shown when we'd met here the first time had been replaced by an intense anxiety.

“We shouldn't have said we'd come by, we have an appointment in Dallas,” I said. “Lizzie, can we come back tomorrow? We really can't miss this date we have.”

I saw the relief on Lizzie's narrow face. “Well, just give me a call tonight,” she said. “You-all drive on to Dallas.”

“Oh, come in and have a drink,” Chip said from behind her.

She twitched, and her attempt at a smile vanished. “Get back in the car,” she said, “Get out!”

“You better not,” Chip said, his voice calm and level. “You better come on in.” We saw that he had revolver in his hand. That clarified our choice.

Chip and Lizzie backed up.

“I'm sorry,” she said to me. “I'm sorry. He said he'd shoot Kate if I didn't call you.”

“I would have done it, too,” Chip said.

“I know you would,” I told him. As we eased past Lizzie and stood in the square foyer, waiting for further directions, I understood what had fascinated me about Chip. His bones. His bones were dead. This was a strange connection, and one I'd never experienced before; or if I had, I hadn't understood its nature.

“Where is everyone?” Tolliver asked. His voice was as calm as Chip's.

“I sent everyone on the payroll to the farthest places on the ranch I could think of, and it's Rosita's day off,” Chip said. He was smiling again, bright and hard, and I sure would have liked to wipe that look off his face. “It's just me and the family.”

Shit.

Chip herded us all down the hall to the gun room. The light was still streaming in all the French doors, and the view was just as beautiful, but now I was in no mood to admire it.

Drex was standing there. He had a gun, too, which was a surprise. Kate was tied to a chair. They'd released Lizzie to lure us in the house. The ropes were loose around another chair.

“Good to see you again, Harper,” Drex said. “We had a good time at the Outback, didn't we?”

“It was all right,” I said. “It was too bad that Victoria was murdered after that. Kind of ruined my memory of the evening.”

He gulped and looked upset, just for a split second. “Yeah, she was a nice woman,” he said. “She seemed like a . . . She seemed good at what she did.”

“She worked hard for you-all,” I said.

“You think they'll ever find out who killed her?” Chip said. He smiled some more.

“Did you shoot Tolliver?” I asked him. There didn't seem to be much point in keeping quiet about it.

“Naw,” he said. “That was my buddy Drex, here. Drex ain't good for much, but he can shoot. I told Drex to shoot
you
, but he seemed reluctant.” He said the word slowly, as if he'd just learned it. “He didn't want to shoot a woman. Ol' Drex is gallant in his own way. I tried to correct his thinking a few nights later when you were out running, but damn if that cop didn't jump in front of you and take the bullet. I wouldn't have fired if I'd known he was a cop. I thought he looked sort of familiar, and it made me sick when I heard I'd shot a football player.”

“Why shoot us at all?”

“Because you knew about Mariah, and you told. Maybe I could get Lizzie to forget about it if you died, but I knew as long as you lived she'd think about what you said at the cemetery. She'd wonder about her grandfather's death, and she'd ask herself who wanted him dead. Then she'd go looking, if she believed there was a baby. Lizzie would love to have a kid to raise, and she's all about family.” He dug the gun into Lizzie's neck, and he kissed her on the mouth. She spat when he drew away, and he laughed.

“Why would I have to be dead?” I was genuinely curious.

“'Cause that's the way my baby is. She pays attention to things when they're right in front of her, but if they're out of sight, they're out of mind.”

That seemed like underrating Lizzie, to me. But he knew her better than I ever would. I understood, after a second's thought. Chip knew that failing to prevent me from coming to Texas was his big mistake. If I died, my death would erase that mistake. Of course that couldn't be done. But it would make him feel better.

“Lizzie, I'm sure someone drew your attention to my website,” I said. “I'm sure someone pointed you in the right direction, thought it might be interesting to have me here to look at your graveyard.”

“Yeah,” Lizzie said. The sun was shining onto the terrace at an angle; it was about three thirty in the afternoon. “Yeah, Kate did.”

“How'd you come to think of that, Kate?” I asked.

Kate was clearly in a bad state. Her face was white, her breathing panicky. Her hands were tied to the arms of the chair, and I saw her wrists were chafed raw. It took her a moment to understand the question.

“Drex,” she said, her voice jerky. “Drex told me that he'd met you once.”

Chip's head whipped around like he was a snake about to strike. “Drex, thanks to you, we've lost everything,” he said in a deadly voice. “What were you thinking?”

“It come on the TV when we were watching the news,” Drex whispered. “About her being in North Carolina, finding those boys' bodies. I told Kate I'd gone to her trailer when she was living in Texarkana, 'cause I knew her stepfather. I'd met her.”

“And you told Lizzie,” I said to Kate.

“She's always looking for something new,” Kate said. “That's the name of the game, here. Find things for Lizzie, keep her happy.”

Lizzie looked absolutely astounded. If we lived through this day, she would have a lot of mental rearranging to do.

“So it's a TV newscaster that brought me down.” Chip laughed, and it was an awful sound.

“How much of a snake handler are you, Chip?” I asked.

“Oh, now, that's Drex's strong point,” he said, grinning at the man standing beside him.

“Jesus, no!” Lizzie said, shocked out of her senses. “Drex? Chip, are you saying that
Drex
threw a rattler at Granddaddy?”

“That's what I'm sayin', darlin',” Chip said. His grip on Lizzie's shoulder never wavered.

“Have you gone nuts, man?” Drexell said, and his face looked different now. He didn't look as bewildered and befuddled as he had. He didn't look as weak as he had. He looked craftier and harder. “Why are you telling my sisters lies?”

“Because we're not going to get away with it,” Chip said. “You hadn't gotten that yet, I see.” Drexell looked blank. “There're too many loose ends, fool. We should have killed the doctor. Yes, you asshole, sometime within the past few years we should have moseyed on over to Dallas and taken care of that old idiot. And we knew Matthew was getting out of jail sooner or later. We should have been waiting outside the gate for him with a gun.”

Now there was a sentiment I could agree with.

“You say we're not going to get away with it,” Drex said. “So why are you doing this hostage thing? I thought you were playing a deeper game. I thought you had a plan. You're just crazy.”

“Yes, I am, and I'll tell you why,” Chip said. He let go of Lizzie's shoulder, and she swung around to face him, taking a step backward, closer to the wall covered with guns. “I had me an appointment with a much better doctor than Bowden last week, and you know what he told me? I'm eaten up with cancer. At thirty-two! And I don't give a fuck what happens when I'm not on the earth anymore. I don't have long enough to live for you-all to do anything to me. Since I'm not getting away with anything, I sure as hell don't want ol' Drex to.”

His eyes were mean beyond belief when he said this.

“You're going to die?” said Lizzie. “Well,
good.
I wish Drex had cancer, too. I want you both to die.” She seemed to have shaken off her fear, and I wished I could do the same. I looked at Tolliver, and I thought we would not make it through this. Chip would take us all out, because we were going to live and he wasn't.

With one incredibly fast motion, Lizzie grabbed a rifle off the wall, the one right by one of the doors. It was pointed at Chip in a split second. “Go on and shoot yourself, since you're going to die anyway!” She meant it, too, and she was ready with that rifle. “Save me the trouble!”

“I'm not going by myself,” said her lover, and he shot Drexell Joyce in the chest.

Katie shrieked and went over backward in her chair, covered with the mist of her brother's blood, and as we all looked at the falling dead man, the screaming woman, Chip put the gun barrel in his mouth and fired at the same moment Lizzie did.

I
was so tired after the sheriff's department finished with us that it was hard to focus when I got behind the wheel to drive back to Dallas. In fact, we never did make it to Garland. When I realized there was no real reason why we should, I pulled off at the next exit and got a room. We were just about out in the middle of nowhere, except it was nowhere with an interstate and a motel. It wasn't a very good motel, but we could be pretty sure that no one was going to shoot us through the window.

I was still confused about several things, but both the shooters were dead.