Chapter 43 #2
“Why did you do that?” Elizabeth demanded, her voice small and high-pitched, like a child whining over a lost toy. “You do it every time! I was making a pet out of the raccoon. You had no right!”
Patricia scoffed. “Don’t be foolish. He was a wild animal. You’ve never properly taken care of a pet. The only things you need to be focused on are work and Carson.”
“You never listened to what we wanted,” Elizabeth snapped. “Never, never, never! Every time Father got us a dog you found something wrong with it. Wanted it out of the way. I think you were just jealous, Mother. Jealous of how much Dane and I loved those dogs.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Elizabeth,” Patricia patronized. “It was for the best. I know what’s best for you.”
This just got more and more twisted. Annette had to make a move. “What about Carson?” She directed her appeal to Elizabeth. “Hasn’t he been hurt enough? Does your mother have to drag his uncle into this nightmare, too?”
The princess of Birmingham morphed instantly from helpless little girl to psychotic bitch. “Don’t pretend you know Carson. He only slept with you because he couldn’t have me.”
Okay, so Elizabeth wasn’t a potential ally. “Or maybe,” Annette tossed back, “it was because I was helping him find the truth.”
“Liar.” Elizabeth snatched the gun from her mother’s hand and moved in a step closer to Annette. “You don’t know the truth any more than he does.”
Annette wasn’t sure whether Elizabeth was less of a threat than her mother or not. Might as well take a stab at throwing her off balance. “Were you going to kill Carson when he came here? The way you did your father?”
“How dare you even suggest such a thing!” Elizabeth leveled the barrel of the weapon on Annette.
“I loved my father. And no one’s going to hurt Carson.
We’re going to be married. Father would have come around in time.
He loved Carson. My father was only worried that Carson would cause trouble with all this digging into the past.”
“That’s why we have to do this now,” Patricia urged. She looked from her daughter to the gun in her hand and back. “We can’t take any more risks.”
Annette had to keep them distracted and divided until she had a plan. “Maybe your mother killed your father for you.”
Patricia Drake’s chin jutted out. “He went too far.”
Elizabeth watched her mother as she spoke. Her lips quivered. “He did,” she agreed, her voice low, grim. “But he didn’t have to die. You could have talked to him. You always kill everything!”
“He wasn’t listening.” Patricia’s cold expression melted as she peered lovingly at her daughter, brushing a strand of dark hair from her cheek. “I couldn’t let him hurt you all over again. He wanted Carson dead.”
When Elizabeth would have argued, Patricia implored, “I heard your father give the order, Elizabeth. I had no choice. He had to be stopped.”
Annette shuddered. A part of her had wondered if Wainwright and Drake would really go to that extreme. Killing her was one thing, but Carson? For all intents and purposes, he was one of them. Now she knew. If she didn’t get out of here alive to warn him . . . it could still happen.
Say something! Anything! “The way you stopped Lana Kimble when you were afraid Randolph might choose her over you,” Annette insinuated. More conjecture, but it was worth a try.
Patricia’s face darkened with renewed rage, but there was no mistaking the flicker of surprise in her eyes. “I didn’t kill her. She fell. It was an accident. We were arguing. Besides, Randolph never really loved that pathetic little slut. It was me he needed. She would have ruined him.”
Jesus. Annette had guessed right. “So you were just protecting the man you loved?”
“Of course,” Patricia insisted. “He would never have achieved all that he has without me. I’ve always made sure my family was protected.”
No shit. Like a bear protecting her cubs. Annette fought the quaking that had started in her limbs. She needed more time. Think! The prescription bottle in Dane’s room. It had belonged to his mother. “The way you protected Dane?”
“He wouldn’t stop causing trouble!” Patricia’s voice grew higher and thinner as she spoke. “I told him to stop, but he refused. Trading the rings for drugs was the last straw. He left me no choice.”
Elizabeth stared at Patricia. “What did you do, Mother?”
Patricia glanced around the room as if buying time while she came up with an excuse. “I . . . I gave him something to help him sleep, dear. That’s all. Maybe he’ll do better after he’s had some rest.”
“Doesn’t matter now,” Annette blurted, hoping to keep the tension mounting between mother and daughter. Both glared at her. “Like I said,” Annette improvised, “Dane told us everything. I know what you did.”
“Dane’s an idiot,” Elizabeth contended. “Drugs have ruined him. But he would never do anything to hurt me.”
What now? Annette had just one genuine ace up her sleeve. “Dane is dead, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth’s mouth went slack. Her eyes widened for a moment before the fury resurrected. “I don’t believe you.”
“He took those tranquilizers your mother gave him, rented himself a hotel room, and checked out.” Annette needed Elizabeth confused, emotional. Anything but determined.
“You’re lying.”
Annette shrugged. “Call the Holiday Inn Express in Fultondale. Ask them to check room two fourteen. Your brother’s there, he’s dead.” She glanced at the older woman. “Why don’t you ask your mother exactly what she did?”
The weapon in Elizabeth’s hand shook. “I don’t believe you.” She jerked out her cell phone, entered a number, and waited for an answer.
“Don’t listen to her,” Patricia scolded.
Elizabeth ignored her mother. “Dane! Call me as soon as you get this message. I need to hear your voice.”
“He won’t get your message,” Annette warned. “He’s dead. She killed him.”
Elizabeth stared at her phone as if willing it to ring.
“Elizabeth, baby,” Patricia pleaded. “I had to do it. It was the only way to protect you. Dane just kept getting worse and worse. It was time to give up on him and put him out of his misery for all our sakes.”
Elizabeth’s demeanor went abruptly and eerily calm.
“You didn’t have to do that, Mother,” she said placidly.
“I could have talked to him.” She backed a step or two away from Patricia.
“You always overreact. You kill everything I love. I can’t even have a pet because of you!
You’ll probably kill Carson, too, if he makes a single mistake. ”
Annette felt sick at the idea of what these two had done. What they would continue to do if someone didn’t stop them.
“I’ve always protected you,” Patricia reminded her as she reached out to her daughter. “I won’t ever let anyone hurt you.”
The sound of the weapon discharging exploded in the room. Annette’s breath trapped in her lungs.
Patricia stared at her daughter for one long beat before looking down at her chest. Blood gurgled from the small hole near her heart, spilled down her pink blouse.
Patricia opened her mouth to speak but crumpled to the floor in a lifeless heap instead.
Her eyes remained open as if even in death she wanted to see how this ended.
“Max, come here!” Elizabeth commanded.
Annette’s body shook with equal measures of fear and shock.
She tried to rationalize what she’d just witnessed.
Elizabeth Drake had killed her mother. Annette’s muscles quivered once more then turned to lead.
She told herself to breathe. She had to make a move or stand here and let this bitch kill her, too.
“Noooo!” Max wailed. “Don’t make me!”
“Come here,” Elizabeth ordered, “or they’ll come for you and I’ll let them.”
The old man struggled onto all fours and crawled unsteadily to where Elizabeth stood.
“Please,” he begged, “I don’t want them to come.”
“They brought you that dead animal as a warning,” Elizabeth told him. “Don’t make me call them back.”
Max began to moan and weep.
What the hell kind of power did Elizabeth have over that poor man? Who the hell were they?
“No one’s coming, Max,” Annette promised, anger mounting inside her, overtaking the fear. By God, she wasn’t going down without a fight. “You don’t need to be afraid. Elizabeth is lying to you. Patricia brought the raccoon.”
Elizabeth’s gaze collided with Annette’s. “Shut up!”
“What’s the matter?” Annette smiled as if victory already belonged to her. “You afraid he’ll realize you have no power over him?”
“I said, shut up!” Elizabeth pointed the weapon at Max. “Shut up or I’ll shoot him.”
Max howled in agony, curled into a ball of pure terror.
Annette refused to let go of her courage. “You can’t shoot us both at the same time. Who’re you going for first? Him or me?” She eased one foot in front of the other as if bracing to make a move.
The gun’s barrel swung back in Annette’s direction. “Maybe I’ll just shoot you and blame it on Max. After all, you’re a stranger. No one would question it. You showed up and he shot you. Everyone knows he’s crazy.”
“Does Max own a weapon?” If Annette could keep her talking a little longer, she might just be able to come up with a plan.
Elizabeth smirked. “That can always be arranged after the fact, as you well know.”
Determination fired in Annette’s veins. No way was she letting this spoiled brat win. “You’re not that smart, Miss Deputy Mayor.”
“I was smart enough to figure out how to make you squirm.” She smiled sweetly. “Ms. Anderson.”
Murder roared in Annette’s chest. “It was you.”
“The whole plan was so easy,” Elizabeth taunted. “I was touring the center with a group of potential donors and I saw you there. Finding out about your sister, Paula, was simple after that. The staff adores me. My family and I help keep them fully funded. They have to love me.”
Annette wanted to kill her for what she’d done to Paula. But not yet. Dane was dead. Patricia was dead. She needed Elizabeth alive. She needed the whole truth. “Did your plan include murdering Dr. Holderfield, too?”