Chapter Forty-Three Hanna
Chapter Forty-Three
Hanna
I blinked but Aubrey didn’t move. She’d snuck in. Now she hovered and haunted like an unwanted visitor in a Sleepy Hollow
ghost story. I’d rather deal with an angry spirit. “Get out.”
She didn’t smile. Didn’t frown. She wore a neutral, you’ll never figure me out expression. “This is my grandfather’s house.”
“Was.” I refused to believe she’d kept a key for fifteen years to a house she never lived in. “He didn’t leave it to you,
which means you’re trespassing.”
“Look at little Hanna throwing around the legal terms.”
This bitch. “Let’s call the police and ask them for the official definition.” I slipped my cell out of my back pocket. I hadn’t put
the thing down since Jeremy disappeared. If he called, I would not miss it. “I’m sure they’d love to talk with you again.”
“About this house. I have some questions.” Aubrey dragged a finger along the fireplace mantel.
Scanned the books on the shelves framing the doorway to the dining room.
Even frowned at one of the flower-covered pillows with the fringe on the couch.
“Did you have to sleep with Gramps more than once to get the family fortune? For your sake, I hope not. But I fear you had to dive in and keep going until the supposedly unexpected little miracle happened.”
Nope. We were not playing the game on her terms. Not today.
“It sounds like you’re ticked off because you thought you’d receive the money and the house and Xavier cut you out of both.”
That would explain the perfect timing of her return.
“Actually, I was too busy hoping Isabel and Stella didn’t get anything to worry about my haul. They deserve to be buried in
that garden with my father.” Her I’m above all this composure slipped a bit. A burst of anger seeped through.
That made me want to poke around. “You mean the garden where you put your father’s body.”
“Oh, Hanna.” Aubrey let out a dramatic sigh. “You’re better than this.”
Over-the-top gestures ran in the Tanner family. Her mother used to whip out those theatrical sounds, too. “I’m honored you
think so.”
“I didn’t kill my parents.” She said the words with all the emotion of someone reciting a grocery list.
“Totally believable. Anyone can see you’re in mourning.”
A tiny smile came and went. “Gramps worried that I killed his precious boy. He sent me away, paid for tutors, shipped me off
to that hideous prison of a boarding school. Let me live but he liked to remind me that his position could change.”
A steady refrain ran through my mind: Fake it. Don’t let her see your shock.
Xavier knew the whole time. Xavier hid her.
The conclusion made sense. She’d been a kid.
A savvy one but still a kid. Someone had to pay her bills, keep her safe and away from the speculation swirling around Sleepy Hollow.
The only question was if he did it to protect his precious reputation or to actually save her.
He begged me for time with Jeremy to make up for missing Aubrey and Noah.
I’ve lost everything, Hanna. You no longer need to fear me.
The lying asshole.
“Did he keep that juicy bit from you? Honestly, what did you two talk about in bed?” Aubrey acted as if she actually expected
an answer. “Maybe you didn’t need to talk. Was it an all-sex-and-no-words thing? Lights off. Music on.”
Who would have guessed teen Aubrey would be the most tolerable and likable version of Aubrey. “I know you get off on being
shocking.”
She snorted. “Who doesn’t?”
“Most of the civilized world.”
“Is this the same world where college girls sleep around to get paid?”
She was a one-note insult machine. She needed to try harder. I’d heard already every accusation she could dream up and hurl
at me. “Your bitchy little girl act is getting tiresome.”
“You have to forgive me. I haven’t spent much time around other people.”
“Nice try. You’ve been gone for fifteen years. You didn’t spend all of them in a boarding school by yourself.”
“True. He changed my name. Paid people off. Sent me away to hide for as long as he could. Unfortunately for him, I grew up and got out.” She walked around the chair and over to the wall of windows.
It was too dark to see much outside the circle of light cast on the flagstone patio, which probably explained why her gaze didn’t linger there.
“Why did he do all of that?” That part didn’t make any sense. This whole farce sounded nonsensical.
“Fair question. You’d think he’d want his sweet granddaughter victim by his side to sway public opinion, but no. He seemed
determined to blame me. Hang the whole mess—”
“Meaning what, exactly?”
Aubrey shook her head. “Don’t interrupt, Hanna. No one likes that.”
“You’re stalling.”
“You talk too much. You should watch that.” She hesitated before continuing. “I had something on Gramps. Not a secret baby,
of course. That was your thing, but he needed me to stay quiet. So, we made a deal. He financially supported me and guaranteed
my financial future. I stayed lost until Gramps kicked it. Then I could switch back to my real name and rise from the dead
and collect my parents’ estate.”
Her disregard for the loss of her family sent a panicked shiver racing through me. “You don’t strike me as the compliant type.
Why wait? You could have forced the issue.”
She gave me full eye contact. “He made it clear what he would do if I showed up.”
“Which was?”
“Use your imagination. He wasn’t a nice man.” She shrugged. “The point is he didn’t want to see me.”
Half answers. Ambiguous statements. So many questions remained. The revving in my stomach, that crushing weight on my chest, I kept ignoring it all in case she dropped one stray line about Jeremy.
“Where’s my son?” The only thing I cared about. Him being safe. Him being home. “Do you honestly think I won’t beat you with that fireplace poker to get the
truth?”
Aubrey’s gaze shifted to the fireplace. When she faced me again she was smiling. “So violent. Who knew you had it in you?
Impressive.”
I would do it. Threaten. Attack. Destroy. For him, I’d forfeit every value and all my dignity. Forget the difficult, exhausting
years of trying to live a decent life. I’d slough off all of that if it meant getting him back. “Where is he?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with the fire or him going AWOL.”
A part of me believed her. She’d show off and preen if she pulled off a kidnapping. She’d love seeing me squirm and beg. “Then
why are you here?”
“We need each other.”
That might be the worst sentence I ever heard. “We don’t.”
“I get it. Frankly, I’m sick of hearing your name. My parents fought about you all the time. Probably because of Mom’s belief
about Jeremy’s parentage.”
This again. Over and over about Patrick, a man I found mediocre at best. He grew far less impressive the more I got to know
him. “For the last time, I never slept with your dad. I never had any relationship with him except as his research assistant
and employee.”
“Like Mom, I assumed you were one of Dad’s many.” Aubrey smiled. “My mistake.”
My life was nothing more than a long, entertaining game to her. Her enjoyment made me rein in my temper and push down the anxiety that ratcheted up with every passing second.
Stay grounded. “About Jeremy.”
She sighed. “Hanna, really, I have no clue where he is.”
“He’s not off somewhere hiding because he’s angry with me.”
“I agree. The police have it wrong. They always got it wrong, except for those times when they purposely got in the way.”
Her mocking tone had given way to a much more rational one.
“You mean Cam.”
Her expression wasn’t neutral now. At the mention of his name, Aubrey’s mouth fell into a flat line. “He was there. The house
had a revolving door that day. You. Marni. Stella. Isabel. Cam. My grandfather. Lukas.”
I debated staying silent, letting her twist as she coughed up more information I didn’t know. But that was too many people.
“Interesting, right?” The amusement in her voice. The slight lift. “The point is it’s time for the people who killed my parents
to pay. Gramps accused the wrong person. I won’t.”
She knew more. A lot more. “People? As in plural?”
“I didn’t touch my parents. You didn’t. Jeremy was, what, four? He’s in the clear.”
Still no mention of Noah. Not as a survivor or a fatality. Did she know he no longer existed? Did he exist? Did she even care?
I blocked out all the questions. Jeremy needed all of my energy. My entire focus. “I’m not doing anything until I find my
son and figure out who hurt Daniela.”
“What if I told you we’re looking for the same people? A currently unidentified person who wants to wrap up the questions about my parents’ murders nice and neat. Hurt me even if it hurts you and Jeremy.”
Jesus. So many pieces and none of them connected in an understandable way. “Back up. Your mother definitely is dead?”
“Of course she is.” No hesitation. Not one second of wondering. “Where else could she be? But she’s irrelevant to this.”
Irrelevant? “You are not okay.”
“And you’re too busy chatting and whining to hear me. If someone wanted to paint me as a killer, as someone who can’t control
her impulses back then or now, which is ridiculous, of course”—her snort emphasized how little she thought of that idea—“what
better way than to have me show up in town, find out your baby boy snagged my big inheritance, then make him disappear. It
wouldn’t be hard to sell the once a killer, always a killer refrain to the public.”
I was stuck on the part where she might actually be a killer.
“Someone wants to make it look like I did a Menendez brothers on my family and came back to town for Jeremy,” she said. “Sounds
trite to me, but others would be impressed.”
She wasn’t threatening or vying for her piece of Xavier’s fortune, but I still didn’t trust her. Never would. “Or this is
a convenient story on your part to shift the blame to someone else.”
“You’re the smart one of you three women who were always around and overly involved in my family’s lives.” Aubrey headed for
the doorway to the hall but didn’t leave the room yet. “Anyone coming for Jeremy is really coming for me. Find the killers
and we find Jeremy.”
“I can just go to the police and repeat what you’ve said.”
She sighed. “Excellent plan. The police have done such a great job for the Tanner gene pool so far.”
“What happened to your family?” Catching her off guard would never work but I was desperate.
“You’re asking the wrong person.” She turned around to face me. “If you want to see Jeremy alive again—and I do think your
time is running out on that wish—work with me.”
Running out. The words slashed through me. I’d walk into hell with the devil herself.
“Think about it.” Aubrey winked. “Don’t worry. When it’s time to decide, I’ll find you.”
“Leave the key.” My final shot.
She laughed. “Don’t have one. You have a lot to learn about what’s really happening deep inside the walls of the Tanner properties.
You might want to get on that. It will also explain how someone might move in and out and how Gramps got me out of the picture
so smoothly without being seen back then.”
“What?”
“You’ll figure it out.” She winced, bringing even more drama to the moment. “Or you’d better if you want to save your boy.”