Chapter Fifty-Two #2
Lucinda swung her attention to Guy. “You used your daughter to invest in CareFree. You saw its potential. You wormed your way in. But you couldn’t stand that someone else was going to make more off of CareFree than you.
I know you, Guy Chisholm. I’ve heard your big talk and seen how little success has accompanied it.
With CareFree, you found something that could actually hit. And you wanted all of it.”
“No,” Guy said.
“Yes.” Lucinda’s voice had power now, reinforced steel. “You were the one who hiked with Babette to the river. For all we
know, you hired Marc—”
“I hired him,” Thor said.
“Fine.” Lucinda didn’t miss a beat. “You hired him. Not me. And we don’t know how far Marc hiked with Babette and Guy, do
we? We don’t know what happened after Marc turned back.”
Mandy could see the faces turning to her father with questions in their eyes.
“Dad . . .” she warned.
“And you,” Lucinda said. “The bubbly little minority investor. While your dad was dispatching the CEO, you had your sights
set on the big money. On Stefan, and by extension, on me. When your sister decided to tie Stefan up, you saw your opportunity.”
“It’s not true,” Liv wheezed. “Mandy didn’t—”
“I’m sorry, dear, but it is. She stabbed him, and then they escaped. I know it’s difficult to accept the truth sometimes.
Especially when it’s family. That’s probably why you threw yourself in the river.”
“No,” Mandy said. “You’re the one who’s lying. Distraction: That’s where CareFree falls in your portfolio. And here you are
trying to distract us with a story. But this time, we actually know the truth.” She swallowed. “Stefan knew it too. When he
was raving on the beach about a lady who’d gone too far, he was talking about you. You didn’t have to kill Babette. Charlie
and Stefan had a plan worked out to take over the business without bloodshed. When you killed Babette, it must have infuriated
Stefan, or scared him. Or both. So you decided to silence him too.”
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” Lucinda said smoothly. “Why would I kill Babette if Stefan could replace her by other means?
Why would I remove—let alone kill—either of them at all? They were both critical to CareFree’s success.”
Lucinda sounded calm. Rational. And for once, Mandy didn’t have a good answer.
“You did it,” Guy said. “You coldhearted—”
Lucinda turned coolly away from him, facing the rest of the group. She gestured back at Mandy and Guy. “Think about the time
you’ve spent with these two. Have they said anything that was actually true?”
Mandy cringed as silence swallowed the beach. Fiona, Charlie, and Devon backed away. Even PK shook his head.
Was this it? Was Lucinda going to convince everyone that she and her dad had murdered Babette and Stefan? Even more than her
fear for her own survival, Mandy hated the idea that Lucinda might get away with it. That Lucinda’s stories might be more
powerful than her own.
But there was nothing she could do to fight back. Any word she said, any attempt she or her dad made to right the wrongs,
would be looked at with suspicion. She was muted. They were done for.
Then Liv dragged herself up and out of Mandy’s arms. She staggered, not quite to her feet, but to a kneeling position under
her own power.
“You’re right,” Liv said. “I hate how they lie.”
She half shuffled, half crawled. One step. Then two. Toward Lucinda. Away from Mandy.
“But truth requires proof,” Liv said. “Thank God I held on to the letter.”
“What letter?” Lucinda asked.
Liv pulled herself up to standing.
“The letter I found in Babette’s hat. The letter where she explained that CareFree’s lead investor was actually a criminal
who planned to use the waste material from the product to create a deadly drug that turns people into suggestible zombies.
Or kills them. Like roofies, only worse. Because the target is conscious while they’re being controlled.”
“This is ridiculous,” Lucinda said. “You’re delirious.”
“It was a brilliant business plan; I’ll give you that.
” Liv’s voice was hoarse but sure. “You’re the lead investor in CareFree, and Attention to Detail Disposal—ADD Inc.
—is under your control too. CareFree assured you an unlimited, unregulated supply of highly concentrated scopolamine.
ADD got paid to take it away, and you’d make even more from the skin care products that kept the psychotropic waste material pumping.
But Babette connected the dots, found out what you were doing, and canceled ADD’s contract.
That didn’t work for you. You couldn’t risk being exposed, and you wouldn’t let the scopolamine go, either. ”
This was the piece Mandy had been missing. While she’d been tracking down Marc and the lady behind him, Liv had found the
motive.
“You told Stefan you needed the CareFree waste contract reinstated,” Liv continued. “But you also had to remove the possibility
that Babette would tell her siblings—or the feds—what you were up to.”
“Babette saw you on a video Imogen posted, that first morning up at the rim,” Mandy said. “She thought you were coming down
to steal her company and turn it into a front for your criminal activities. She went to my dad for help.”
“That’s right,” Liv said. “Babette didn’t know what would happen to her when she confronted you. But she knew enough to write
it all down.”
There was a click, and Mandy stopped breathing.
Lucinda was holding a pistol, pointing it at Liv.
“Give me that letter,” Lucinda said.
“I don’t think so.”
A blast shook the air, and Liv fell to the ground.
Mandy screamed and ran to her. Behind her, there were shouts. It sounded like someone had tackled Lucinda. There were grunts,
then a soft thump. But no more gunshots. No more victims.
Only Liv.
And so much blood.
The rocky ledge beneath her sister was wet and slick where Mandy knelt.
She whipped off her sweatshirt and pressed it to Liv’s chest, to her shoulder, squeezing until the fabric was black with blood.
Behind them, she could hear Thor and her father shouting at Lucinda, presumably as they wrangled her into submission.
She leaned down. She let the rest of them go. She put her face as close as she could to her sister’s.
“She showed us who she really was,” Liv whispered. She grimaced then, her whole face contracting. “It hurts.”
“She shot you in the shoulder,” Mandy said. She held her sister tight, tighter than she ever had, letting the blood and sweat
and tears all mix together.
“Then I don’t want to paddle anymore.”
Somehow this stupid joke made Mandy burst into tears.
“What happens now?” Liv rasped. Her voice was growing fainter.
“The police are on their way,” Mandy said. She took a quick glance over her sister’s shoulder. Thor had reclaimed the gun
and wrapped a length of webbing around Lucinda, tying her to a boulder. “And Lucinda’s not a threat anymore.”
“She did it,” Liv croaked.
“I know.”
“What do you know?”
“I figured out who and how,” Mandy said. “But not why.”
“All I had was why.” Liv closed her eyes, and Mandy’s heart jumped back into her throat. Had her sister lost too much blood
already?
But then Liv came alive again. “We’re a good team.”
Relief. Gratitude. And one thing that confused Mandy.
“The letter,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me about it when you found it?”
Her big sister looked up at her, eyes glazed, and time stopped again. Mandy knew Liv might not remember this night. But Mandy
would. She quieted her brain and locked in on this moment, this little pocket of hope deep in the heart of the earth.
“There is no letter,” Liv whispered. “I made it up. I lied.”