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"Go on with your description."
"The beast looked like a dragon out of a child's nightmare. I was petrified and couldn't say a word or scream, while Deirdre kept staring over the bow. Her attention was focused on telling me when to tack so we wouldn't run onto the outer reef."
"Did it make a move toward you?" Pitt asked.
"No. It just stared at us and made no attempt to molest the boat as we sailed away from it."
"Deirdre never saw it."
"Not at that time, but she later sighted it on two different occasions."
"How did your father react when you told him what you had seen?"
`He laughed and said, `So you've finally met Basil.' "
"You said the serpent made itself known when there was a death?"
"A family fable with some kernel of truth. Basil was seen in the lagoon by the crew of a visiting whaler when Betsy Fletcher was buried, and later when my great-aunt Mildred and my mother died, both in violent circumstances."
"Coincidence or fate?"
Maeve shrugged. "Who can say? The only thing 1 can be sure of is that my father murdered my mother."
"Like Grandfather Henry supposedly killed his sister Mildred."
She gave him a strange look. "You know about that too."
Public knowledge."
She stared over the black sea to where it met the stars, the bright moon illuminating her eyes, which seemed to grow darker and sadder. "The last three generations of Dorsetts haven't exactly set virtuous standards."
"Your mother's name was Irene."
Maeve nodded silently.
"How did she die?" Pitt asked gently.
"She would have eventually died, brokenhearted from the abuse heaped upon her by the man she desperately loved. But while walking along the cliffs with my father, she slipped and fell to her death in the surf below." An expression of hatred became etched on her delicate face. "He pushed her," she said coldly. "My father pushed her to her death as sure as there are stars in the universe."
Pitt held her tightly and felt her shudder. "Tell me about your sisters," he said, changing the subject.
The look of hatred faded, and her features became delicate again. "Not much to tell. I was never very close to either of them. Deirdre was the sneaky one. If I had something she wanted, she simply stole it and pretended it was hers all along. Of the three, Deirdre was Daddy's little girl. He lavished most of his affection on her, I guess because they were kindred spirits. Deirdre lives in a fantasy world created by her own deceit. She can't tell the truth even when there is no reason to lie."
"Has she ever married?"
"Once, to a professional soccer player who thought he was going to live out his life as a member of the jet set with his own set of toys. Unfortunately for him, when he wanted a divorce and demanded a settlement that equaled Australia's national budget, he conveniently fell off one of the family yachts. His body was never found."
"It doesn't pay to accept invitations to go sailing with the Dorsetts," Pitt said caustically.
"I'm afraid to think about all the people Father has eliminated who stood in his way in fact or in his imagination."
"And Boudicca?"
"I never really knew her," she said distantly. "Boudicca is eleven years older than me. Soon after I was born, Daddy enrolled her in an exclusive boarding school, or so I was always told. It sounds odd to say my sister was a total stranger to me. I was nearly ten years old when I met her for the first time. All I really know about her is that she has a passion for handsome young men. Daddy isn't pleased, but he does little to stop her from sleeping around."
"She's one strong lady."
"I saw her manhandle Daddy once, when he was striking our mother during a drunken rampage."
