Chapter Forty-Five
Willow lurched upward and threw off her attacker, clawing her way back toward the stairs.
She stopped when she saw Geralt Talbot standing in the doorway, tall and craggy and looking every bit as irritated as he always had in life.
He peered down his hawk nose at her, shook his head, and said, “See, Sue’s girl, this is why I never wanted children.
They are invariably a disappointment.” He glared down at Audra, who was lying on her back, looking up at him in shock.
“And you—you are more of a disappointment than most.”
Though he had on the sweater and dreadful plaid pants he’d worn on the day she met him, and he still held his now-unbroken glass-topped cane, this was a version of Geralt that Willow had not seen before.
Gone was the frail curmudgeon who had barked ineffectually at everyone around him.
Geralt’s hair and eyebrows were still white and wild, his face still carved with the deep lines of years, but this man stood straight and tall and strong; this was the version of Geralt Talbot who had taken over companies, reigned as CEO over multimillion-dollar businesses, and cemented his dominance by crushing even the smallest insurgency.
By the look in his eye as he scowled down at Audra, he would not tolerate insurgency here either.
Audra pulled herself to her feet, her face twisting with rage. “You! You disgusting—horrible—evil—” She lunged at the old man, but he stepped easily out of her path, while Willow inched as far away from the pair as she could, trying to avoid Audra’s notice.
She need not have worried; Audra only had eyes for the old man, the father who had abandoned her, the reason for all her troubles. She lunged for him again; again, he stepped aside.
Audra was panting now, terror and hatred warring in her. “I killed you!” she spat. “I killed you once, I’ll keep doing it over and over if I have to. I promise I’ll never stop. You ruined my life; you ruined my mother’s life. You destroy everything you’ve ever touched—”
“For God’s sake, don’t be so dramatic.” He sneered back at her.
“You killed me because you wanted my money. You killed my wife because you hated that someone might get even a little of what you thought you were entitled to.” His eyes narrowed as he moved to the railing directly opposite and stood facing her.
“Your mother was one of the worst mistakes I ever made in my life, and I have made many. Thanks to you, I will not have the opportunity to make another. But know this: You will never take ownership of this property or anything of mine.” He smiled at her, the smile of a crocodile watching its prey through the reeds.
“The choice is yours. You can walk downstairs, walk out the door, climb over the body of your easily deceived lover, and accept the consequences for what you have done. Or—”
Audra did not let him finish. The growl started deep in her throat and escalated to a scream; she lunged wildly across the platform to where the old man stood.
Willow rose sluggishly and moved forward, trying to stop her, but the enraged woman’s leap was too committed.
Geralt was suddenly not there; now Audra could see the broken rail his spectral body had concealed, the boards Audra had broken to stage Sue Davis’s death.
Terror bloomed through the rage; Audra tried to shift her balance before she went over, to grab for something solid.
For a moment, Willow thought she might succeed.
Just as Audra looked as though she might be about to right herself, Geralt swept his cane around and caught her by the ankles, jerking them out from under her and propelling her over the edge. Willow crawled forward in a vain attempt to stop her from going over, but Audra had disappeared from view.
As Willow watched, a hand came up and grasped the railing; the other released its hold on the roof edge to swing around and grasp one of the spindles.
A police siren sounded from the causeway bridge, getting closer.
Willow, spent and dizzy, crawled her way to the edge. Inches below her, Audra dangled, struggling to pull herself up, feet kicking for purchase on the steep roof.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Sue’s girl,” came Geralt’s voice from behind her. “Leave her be; you know she’ll try to kill you again if you drag her back up here.”
Willow looked over the edge to where Audra hung. “Help me—please—” Audra’s eyes were bleak and pleading.
This is a terrible idea, Willow thought. I seem to be full of them lately.
She reached down. “Give me your hand!” she called out.
Audra swung her arm around and grasped Willow’s outstretched hand; Willow braced herself against the railing so Audra could pull herself up.
For a moment, it seemed everything would be all right, that an exhausted Audra would safely make it back up to the widow’s walk, that the police would arrive and take her into custody …
But as she dragged her knee over the edge and back onto the decking, Audra saw Geralt, standing there with his smirk and his scorn. The fury and hatred returned to her face.
In a single move, Audra threw herself at Willow, grasping Willow’s arm with both of hers. Willow had but a split second to understand what was happening; then Audra launched herself backward off the platform, intent on pulling them both down.
The force of Audra’s lunge propelled an unstable Willow over the edge of the widow’s walk; only the crook of her elbow around an ancient piece of railing prevented them both from sliding off the roof and to the rocky ground far below.
Willow struggled to free her arm from Audra’s grip, but the other woman held on like a vise, her body a deadweight pulling them both down, her eyes shining with dark glee.
The police cruiser pulled up below; dimly, Willow saw Nick leap out of the driver’s seat, while Rina and Finn jumped out the other side. Her arm was beginning to slip; worse, she could feel the wood of the railing beginning to give way beneath her unstable grip …
A piercing Caw! sounded from above; a large crow dive-bombed Audra, beating around her head and shoulders with its wings. Audra instinctively tried to bat it away, her grip loosening enough for Willow to wrench her arm free.
Willow’s world went into slow motion, the next few seconds feeling somehow inevitable and eternal all at once.
Audra slid backward down the steep pitch of the roof; she vainly scrabbled for purchase on the uneven surface, but she was moving too fast. Her shout of fury devolved into a wail and then a terrified scream as she slid over the edge and out of view.
Audra’s scream below blended with the creak of too-old wood as the railing Willow clung to began to give way; she whipped her head around to see the wooden spindle bend and then shatter beneath the weight of her crooked elbow, and she felt herself begin to fall.
In a last attempt to save her life, she swung her other arm up—
It closed around a smooth stick of wood with a rounded ball of glass at one end.
With a single powerful yank, Geralt used the cane to pull Willow back onto the widow’s walk, where she collapsed, panting.
There was shouting far below and the sound of a barking dog.
Geralt folded his arms and scowled down at her. “I told you. Didn’t I tell you? Idiot.”
Willow nodded. “You did. But I had to try.” She looked down the roof to the place where Audra had disappeared from view, glad she couldn’t see the broken body on the ground below.
“It’s just that she—we started in the same place, you know?
If I’d had the kind of life she did, who knows who I’d have turned out to be?
I had Sue; I had this place. She had nothing… ”
Geralt rolled his eyes. “Great, so she had a rotten childhood.” He glared at Willow. “That’s not what made her a killer.”
Willow smiled weakly, pulling herself to a sitting position. “Well, maybe. I guess.”
“And a pathological liar. And a homicidal maniac.”
“Oh, shut up,” Willow said half-heartedly.
Geralt crouched beside her, for a moment looking almost kind. “You’ll be all right, Sue’s girl.”
“Willow!” Rina’s voice called from the ground. “Willow, please, are you all right?”
Willow looked down at her and waved weakly. “I’m okay, Aunt Rina. I’m okay.”
When she turned her head back, Geralt was gone.