Chapter 20
“Do you? Do you hear it?” she asked again.
I strained my ears to hear what she did.
Nothing.
“At night. I hear it at night when the lights are off but also now. In the middle of the day. He’s in the floorboards. The ticking. He whispers.”
The blood in my veins froze. “Donna Lee?”
“It’s William. He follows me everywhere. Talking. Talking. Always talking. He’s so mad.” She stared down at the stained hardwood floors. “I’m sorry!”
“For what?” Dane asked. I thought we probably already knew, but it was smart to get a full confession.
“For killing him.” Donna Lee’s hand swung out, and she knocked the highball glass from the table. “I gave him the meds. Set the story and told him to jump. To find the ghosts at the bottom of the water. But now he’s here, not there. He won’t stay there.”
Silence fell on us all.
Did she think William…
“Do you think William is haunting you?”
Her head jerked up to stare at me. Her eyes were glassy now, wild with something unmentionable. “He won’t leave. I killed him, and now he won’t leave.”
She’d clearly lost her mind. But did it happen before William’s death or because of it?
“Why, Donna Lee? Why William?” I asked, trying to load my question with sympathy.
At first, she didn’t answer. Her gaze flopped back to the floor as if she were tracking something under the floorboards. “William made Southern Hospitality Tours. Before him, we were almost bankrupt. He was the brains.”
“What about Lonny?” Dane cut in. Didn’t he know that you don’t interrupt someone while they are confessing?
She choked on a sob or a yell. “Lonny was the checkbook. He used his trust fund to set everything up.”
“That was years ago, why kill William now?”
“For leaving,” she shouted and slammed her foot against the floor as if she was killing a bug. “He was leaving us. His family! To what? Work at a stuffy old house. What more did they have to learn? He was mine! They couldn’t have him. How dare William think he could leave us?”
“Do you hear that, William?” Two more hard foot stomps on the wooden floor. “How dare you try to leave us?”
When William didn’t answer, Donna Lee turned, retreating further into the parlor area.
She picked up a plant, set on a high-backed stand in front of the window, and threw it at the floor.
The ceramic pot exploded, and dirt scattered everywhere.
Next, she knocked over the entire stand.
It fell to the floor with an echoing boom.
She turned toward a bookshelf, and I ducked as the first thick volume sailed in our way. Dane rushed forward. He slammed his body into her, sending her into the bookcase. Donna Lee screamed as she dropped to the ground.
Dane leaned over her as a menacing presence. “Did you get that all on camera?”
“Yes.” I kept it rolling to be safe. You didn’t know what she might say next.
A door back in the main part of the home slammed against a wall.
“In here!” Dane yelled.
I stepped to the side of the large opening into our space in case he’d just called another killer our way.
A man, who had to be over six feet tall with brown hair and the same shoulder density as Dane, ran into the room with a gun raised in front of him. He slid to a stop and took in the scene. “I missed all the fun.”
“Isn’t that always the case with you, Eli?” Dane said, shooting his friend a quick glance before returning his attention to Donna Lee.
She stayed on the floor, huddled in a tight ball. The sound of quiet sobs came from her.
“The cops are about thirty seconds out,” Eli said. “Passed them on the way in.”
Right on cue, a team of uniform-clad men and two women rushed into the home. “Lower your weapons!”
Lonny, wearing his thick cowboy boots, walked in right after them. “What’s going on?”
Dane stepped away from Donna Lee, and I turned off the video. Our part in this case had ended.
* * *
“And you never learned who was in the hoodie?” an officer with tattoos running up his arms asked.
I glanced at Dane, who was answering the same questions on the other side of Donna Lee and Lonny’s expansive dining room table. “I don’t think we ever did. Did we?”
Dane glanced at me with a smile. “No. It was probably just a coincidence, like I said.”
“He always thinks he’s right. It’s really annoying,” I said, turning back to the officer.
The same unaffected expression met me. “I’m sure. What about the note? Any idea who wrote that?”
“Not a clue.” I tapped the table. “But Donna Lee broke into my room at the condo place. She knew about us before we knew about her.”
“Donna confessed to one of our officers she found out you were in town asking questions about William from one of her tour guides. It sounds like you weren’t the most inconspicuous.”
Oops.
The officer asked a few more questions, took our information, told us not to go too far, and a few hours later, they let us go.
“So, what’s next” I asked Dane as we walked away from Donna Lee’s home.
He grinned. “This.”
I didn’t wait for him to take control this time. I launched myself into Dane’s arms in the middle of the sidewalk.
He caught me—like always—and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. Dane cupped my face and kissed me like it was the only thing that made sense.
It wasn’t rushed. Nor frantic. But solid. Firm. Slow. Deep. Perfect.
Dane kissed me with a promise.
When we finally pulled apart, I stood staring into his eyes. “It’s over now.”
“No,” he said, pushing a strand of my hair from my face. “It’s just the beginning.”