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“Because it’s best, don’t you think, to begin at the beginning.”
“We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Don’t tell me. You’ve called the police.” She was walking down a hallway, her tennis shoes silent on the polished hardwood floors, her gait a little off, the scent of jasmine wafting after her. “Oh, Zach, you’re so predictable. I wish you would have talked to me first.” She glanced over her shoulder, her gaze landing on Adria again. “Maybe it’s better that you’re here after all. Close the door, would you?”
Adria, feeling as if she was truly walking into a lion’s den, complied. Zach waited for her and by the time they walked into the kitchen, Eunice was already dipping a tea bag into a cup of hot water. Two cups stood waiting, water already steaming from their porcelain depths. “Would you like some?” she asked, dipping a tea bag into the cup.
Zach shook his head.
“You?” she asked, glancing at Adria and there was a light in her eyes that gave Adria pause.
Something wasn’t right here. The smell of jasmine from the tea seeped into the room and a chill as cold as all of December settled in Adria’s bones. “I’m fine.” What was with the tea?
“What is it you wanted to say, Eunice?” Zach, standing near the kitchen table, didn’t take his suspicious gaze from his mother as she busied herself with her tea cup.
To Adria, the entire situation was surreal. She stood next to Zach, waiting to hear the worst, watching a woman who was probably a killer calmly fiddle with her cup.
“Sit down, Zach, and drink a cup of tea or coffee with me,” she said, waving him into a chair. “It might be the last one we’ll be able to share for a long, long time.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Zach—”
“Get on with it, Eunice.” He checked his watch. “The police should be here within a few minutes. You’d better tell me what it was you wanted to say before you have to tell it to a detective.”
“You think I killed Ginny,” Eunice said.
“You’re way ahead of me.”
“I didn’t do it.” She looked up, set the empty bag on the table.
“Right.”
“I mean it. I said I should start with Kat…or more precisely, London. I did kidnap her and I paid Ginny to make certain she never surfaced again. But she failed.” Her lips flattened as she glanced at Adria.
“So you decided to get rid of Ginny.”
“No…there’s someone who’s one step ahead of me and trying to blame me for everything that’s happening.”
“Let’s get through the bullshit,” Zach said, stepping away from the wall, closing the gap between himself and the woman who had borne him. “I came here for answers, not smoke screens or excuses or lies.”
“But it’s true,” she insisted, her eyes pleading as he stood, looming over the table, a big man with wide shoulders and sleek muscles and a fury so intense his lips had flattened against his teeth.
“Let it go, Eunice. There isn’t much time. As I said, the police are on their way.”
“I’m telling you the truth, Zach,” she swore, almost desperate, her teacup trembling in her hands. She took a long sip and smiled as if at a private joke. “I didn’t kill Ginny.”
Adria didn’t buy it, knew how evil this woman was.
Zach’s eyes narrowed. “No?”
“No.” Another drink of the hot brew.
“Then what about Kat?”
“Kat?” Eunice whispered, stunned. Every muscle in her body stiffened before she forced them to relax. Her eyes flickered with uncertainty. “She committed suicide. That’s what the police decided.” Again she swallowed and there was something that didn’t quite fit…
“I’m not so sure,” he said, his gaze skewering his mother’s. “In light of what’s been happening around here, I’ve asked them to reopen the investigation surrounding her death. I’ve come to believe that she was killed. Someone made certain she was high on pills and booze and helped her off the verandah of the hotel room. Seems to me you’re the most likely candidate.”
