AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Only when they’d driven away from the house and through the rows of pecan trees did Delacroix turn to him. “You notice anything strange about Duval?”
“Such as?”
“Such as he didn’t so much as ask one question about what happened to his sisters. All he knows is what he’s read in the papers or seen on TV. Don’t you think it’s odd that he didn’t ask how they died? How long they’d been there? Why was there only two of them? What happened to the youngest?” She angled her chin up at him.
“Maybe.”
“And maybe he didn’t ask because he already knew,” she ventured, rolling down the window a crack, then closing it again.
Just like Morrisette.
He felt a little pang of regret, a sense of déjà vu that gave him pause, but dismissed it.
For now.
“He’s lying.”
“Lying?” Reed accelerated onto the main road.
“Yeah, I can feel it, y’know. He’s got secrets.” She chewed on her lower lip, the fingers of her right hand drumming against the window’s ledge. “It’s just not right, he’s holding back. I just needed to push him harder.”
“Any harder and he’d just clam up.”
She sent him a look. “Or come clean. There’s got to be a way. Probably through the girlfriend. Ashley Jefferson. She’s Duval’s alibi, so she’s the key.” She whipped out her phone. “Time to reset her priorities, I think. I’ll call. If I don’t get through, we’ll just run out there, right?” She slid him a smile as she punched in a number. “I’m thinking the mommy blog can wait.”
CHAPTER 14
Nikki couldn’t help herself. She drove out of town with the windows down, letting the heat of the day rush through the windows and blow through her hair. She’d felt cooped up, antsy, as if she were spinning her wheels.
As she stepped on the gas and passed a slow-moving sedan that was plastered with a STUDENT DRIVER sign, she thought about the story she couldn’t push aside, no matter how much her husband wanted her to abandon the project.
She knew that a lot of the answers to the Duval girls’ disappearance could be answered at the Beaumont estate, where the bodies had been found. She hadn’t been back since all hell had broken loose the last time she’d gone out there, and she felt that if she actually walked on the property she might gain some insight.
Really? Even though the police have already combed the place—detectives, deputies, crime scene techs, all with more equipment than you? You think they might have missed something you’ll just happen to stumble over?
Her fingers were sweaty on the steering wheel. It was unnerving to drive out to the place again, but she felt in her gut that she needed to actually feel the aura of the old, decrepit mansion that had once been so grand and where so much tragedy had occurred. Nell Beaumont had drowned in the river, Holly and Poppy Duval had been sealed in their tomb and Sylvie Morrisette had lost her life trying to save Nikki. Even the loss of Nikki’s own unborn child could be tied to the place, she thought sadly.
What other secrets did that old graying mansion hold?
She slowed as she passed Channing Vineyards and the rows upon rows of vines gracing the rolling hills, and made a final turn where the two huge pieces of property were separated by a moldering fence. A quarter of a mile later, she turned into the lane leading to the heart of the Beaumont estate. Today, she thought, she wouldn’t have to sneak in the back way through the woods and along the edge of the river.
But she was wrong. As she pulled into the lane, she spied another SUV, a white Lexus, parked near the open gate, the driver’s side door hanging open. Tyson Beaumont, in jeans and a faded T-shirt, was behind the wheel, a cell phone pressed to his ear. She wouldn’t be able to get into the grounds without him knowing, so she’d have to wait, but she’d hoped to talk to him anyway and now seemed as good a time as any.
Nikki pulled into a spot next to his Lexus, cut the engine and slipped out of her sling before she got out of her car. Approaching his vehicle, she overheard his end of the conversation. “I’m handling it now . . . what? Yeah, I’m putting up the last sign, and the security company should be finished by the end of next week . . . I know, I know, but they’re all jammed up because of the hurricane . . . it’ll happen. They promised we’re at the top of the list. I’ve got something going for now, not all that great, but it’ll have to do . . . What? . . . Okay. Do that.” Glancing up, he spied Nikki. He held up a finger and nodded, as if whoever he was talking to could see him. “Yeah. Right. . . I know. Tell Mom I’ll be by soon . . . what?”
A pause in his side of the conversation, then he rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know, Dad. Probably a couple of days . . . sure . . . okay, I’ve got to go.” And he hit a button on his phone before sliding it into the pocket of his jeans. “Nikki?” he asked. “What’re you doing here? I heard you nearly drowned, that you were prowling around or something when the cops were here.”
What could she say? “You know me, I can’t ever resist a story.”
“Your brother used to say that you were just nosy.”
“That’s right.” She smiled, remembering her oldest sibling as a gust of wind scattered dry leaves across the sparse gravel and past a toolbox lying open near the gate. “You knew Andrew.”
“Played ball with him.” He swatted at a yellow jacket that hovered near his head. “Damned bees.” Then, he added, “We’re closing up the place.” For the first time she noticed the NO TRESPASSING signs that warned that violators would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. “Too many lookie-loos and people trying to break in while we’re trying to sell the place. Now, since the bodies were found here, it’s gotten crazy.” He rubbed his upper lip where it seemed he was starting to grow a blond moustache. “You’re not the first reporter to come poking around, you know.”
Oh, she knew. She thought of Metzger from her own paper and the news stations and their teams of reporters.
