AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ripe for a fall. Ripe for someone he considers his inferior to drag him into a criminal scheme without him even knowing it.”
“You presume he knew because he’s too smart to have fallen for her game. My own experience says hell yeah, he could have fallen for it. But either way, he knew. So what did he want?”
“Bill Turner’s treasure.”
I expect Tom to laugh, and then I’ll laugh with him, and we’ll giggle over this proof that Liam wasn’t nearly as smart as he thought. Instead, a look passes through Tom’s eyes. A look I can’t quite decipher.
“Tom?”
He drops his head onto the pillow and groans. “Please tell me you’re joking. The treasure? Really?”
I relax and smile. “Right? I think I deserve an Oscar for not breaking into a fit of giggles. You should have seen him. He hadn’t just drunk that Kool-Aid. He gulped it. And Maeve kept refilling his glass.”
His brow creases. Then he sputters a laugh. “She went along with it. Encouraged it.”
“She did. He told her he wanted her to dip into the money for her health, and she pretended to have no idea what he was talking about... while suddenly starting to use the money I was putting in her account, for medicine and whatnot.”
“Which proved to him that the treasure existed and kept him being oh-so-solicitous of her health.”
“Yep, and on her deathbed, she gave him the key to a safety deposit box, which he was supposed to give to Celeste. He didn’t, naturally. He opened it and found a note telling me to remember how I liked to spend my time at her house, that I’d find the money there.”
When Tom doesn’t laugh, I look to see him hesitating. Then he bursts into that laugh, shaking his head. “She played him.”
“She totally played him.”
“So he wanted the answer from you.”
“Yep. I promised to come up with a list of ideas. What I really wanted was—” I stop there, remembering what I’d really wanted. I haven’t shared this with Tom yet. I didn’t want him to try to keep me out of the house, but that’s no longer a concern.
I meet his gaze. “I’m not here sneaking around figuring out how to expose Celeste. I could do that at any time. I’m here to find out whether she killed my grandmother.”
He stares. Blinks. Stares some more. Then he starts swearing.
“Tom?”
He runs a hand through his hair. “Did I just say how I got suckered into that scheme because I thought I was too smart for it? How I learned my lesson? Apparently, I did not, because no matter how much I hated fake-Celeste, I never considered that.”
“You think she didn’t do it, then.”
“No, I think she absolutely might have, and I can’t believe I never suspected it.”
“Maeve was failing. Dying. Then she died. No reason to question that.”
“Not while I thought you were the person nursing her. When I found out otherwise, I should have wondered, but my focus was on finding you. Then you came back, and I should have wondered why you hadn’t just turned her in, but I was too busy trying to be helpful.”
I tell him what Liam said about the medications, how good Celeste had been about making Gran take them even when she balked. Then I tell him about what I found in the bathroom, the medications I found in the imposter’s name.
“You think either she overdosed Maeve with Maeve’s own medicine, or she substituted one of her own.” He nods. “You should talk to Dr. Hoover about those medications.”
“And find out the exact cause of death. Liam says it was heart failure, but that’s like saying she died because she stopped breathing. I also want to find Gran’s diary. I know she kept one, and I know she hid it, but I can’t find it.”
“Did you check under the main-floor bathroom sink?”
My chin jerks up, and he chuckles. “I found it once when I was fixing the pipes while she was out. She hides it behind a bag of adult diapers. I had to move them to get to the pipe. I laughed at that, wondering what the hell Maeve wrote in her diary that made her think she couldn’t just shove it under the mattresses like everyone else.”
“Did you look?”
“Hell, no. Whatever she put in there, I did not want to know. But, yeah, unless the imposter found it, that’s where it is. We’ll go back for your things in the morning and snag it.”
