Lesser Crimes Page 21

"How am I looking at you, Mama?" Lee asked, and she sounded tired.

  "Like I done something to you." She gestured toward the stairs. "Like all of that was my fault!"

  For a moment James thought that Lee wouldn't be able to get the words out, but she struggled, her throat working, and managed to say, "Why did you put Cora's prints on that poker, Mama? Why did you drop it next to Joe?"

  "You don't know that I did that!"

  "I do know. Why?"

  Different emotions succeeded each other on April's face, none of them good. James watched her calculating what her reaction ought to be, how much she should disclose, whether sincerity would give her the best advantage or whether she should keep feigning innocence. Finally, an expression that was tough and canny at once settled on her features, and she said, "Everyone would've thought I done it."

  Lee shook her head slowly. "And you thought it better they should believe Cora had killed her own stepfather?"

  "Cora was a child."

  "Exactly!"

  "As a child, she wouldn't have been taken to prison," April shouted, the veins on her neck jumping. "She'd maybe have gone talk to a doctor or something. A shrink. They'd have let her go."

  "Mama, you'd have let your eight-year-old daughter be questioned? Treated like there was something wrong with her? You'd have drugged her and let her get all confused, thinking she might have killed Joe?"

  "And you think Cora would have wanted her mama in jail?"

  Lee looked mournful. "No, she wouldn't. She's far too good to want that."

  "In any case, when they found your prints I thought you'd done it." April shrugged. "I thought it had to be you, or why would your prints be on the poker?" Again, the woman shrugged. "I thought you done it, Lynn. You were always violent."

  James couldn't help laughing at this. April's head snapped toward him, but her expression softened quickly, and so did her voice as she pointed out, "But good things came from it! You went off and made money, 'stead of being married to Billy in a hick town. You met James ..."

  "I went off and learned to steal," Lee said in a hard tone. "I learned to fool men into wanting me, so I could take their jewels."

  April's beautiful eyes widened, as if she had never heard of such behavior. "Like you stole your grandmother's ring? She always said you'd become a criminal."

  What a piece of work.

  "She was right,” Lee said.

  "But if no one ever caught you, you're like Robin Hood, you stole from the rich and gave to the poor." April cackled as she took a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and lit one. "Can that money you send me be traced? I don't want no more trouble, Lynn."

  "Then I guess I'll send you no more money," Lee said.

  Her eyes, so like her mother's, had finally gone flat. Had she understood there was no point? It was April who was lost, cut off from humanity by her incapacity to feel for anyone else but herself — not Lee, who felt too much.

  "What do you mean?" April asked. "You gonna abandon me, Lynn?"

  "I won't be stealing anymore, so I guess I'll have no money to send you."

  "What about James?" April turned to him. "You're rich, you won't let her mother starve and beg in the streets!"

  Lee stepped between them, almost as if to protect him. "James' money isn't mine. And you won't starve. You have a job."

  One of April's delicate eyebrows rose. "Maybe then Cora needs to come home and help out."

  The woman April hadn't yet met appeared in Lee, and James stood back, letting her have her moment.

  "Maybe I should remind you that you tampered with evidence," she told her mother coldly. "You tried to incriminate a child for murder. You drank and slept with men while your children were in the house. You went off with men for days, leaving your children alone with nothing to eat. I think that Social Services will take one look at you, then one look at me and my rich boyfriend and Cora won't ever have to step foot in Hawkshaw."

  April Keane didn't back down easily. "Well, maybe I should tell them how you made your money."

  "Good luck proving it," Lee said, turning away.

  "Lynette!" The red claws reached out, holding on to Lee's arm. "You can't have such a hard heart. Think of everything I done for you, for Cora. I was just a girl when I had you, living in a trailer park by myself, but I didn't give you away! I know you didn't want me to go to prison for something I didn't do! And it worked out for the best — you met a man who's devoted to you."

  Lee shook her head and said, “Goodbye, Mama."

  James let her pass, placing a hand on the small of her back so that she would know that she wasn't alone, and that she was doing the right thing. They walked outside as a breeze blew through the leaves, and the sun peeped through them. It was a beautiful afternoon.

  But the harridan behind them wasn't done. April came to the door, her voice lowering by two octaves like a devil's in a horror film. "Do you think devotion lasts, Lee? Do you think you're more beautiful than I was, and you'll be able to hold on to him?"

  By the slight stiffening of Lee's shoulder James could tell that she was listening to her mother.

  "Every man I ever met wanted me, when I was your age," April went on, stepping onto the driveway. "They promise the sun and the moon, and then it's all gone, like it never happened. What do you think your English billionaire here will do? He can have all the beautiful women he wants. How long he gonna want you? You're just like me!"

  James stopped at this with a look of withering contempt. "Not in a million years.”

  He took Lee's hand. They kept walking as April screeched after them, "It ain’t gonna last forever, Lynn. Get what's coming to you while you're young. Leave them before they leave you! Not like your stupid mama!"

  There was a sob at the end of the sentence and Lee almost stopped, but James held her fast and didn't let her. That devil had abused her for too long.

  "Where are we going?" Lee asked for the second time that day as he pulled her by the hand. "The car is that way."

  "A little walk. Want to show you something."

  She was quiet, trying to process the fact that there was no closure to be had with a woman like April, until they stood on a grassy knoll.

  "Oh, the dogwood!" Lee cried.

  The trees before them had burst into an explosion of white flowers, even though it was only mid-March. The dogwood stood shedding petals, transforming the clearing in that shabby suburb into the landscape in a fairy tale.

  "Billy would have said it’s climate change, but he always loved them,” Lee remarked.

  "Well, I think it's a metaphor."

  "For what?"

  "If you look back that way you see a messy house with a narcissist inside. Nothing can cure her.”

  “But—”

  “You once told me that I followed things to the last consequence by refusing to be around my parents. I’ve heard how many times you use the word ‘Mama,’ Lee. I know you love her in spite of all she has done. But she is missing parts. She can’t love you or Cora, and it isn’t even her fault.”

  "I guess." Lee gave a deep sigh as she tore her eyes away from the house below them. "You just keep hoping that you can fix things."

  "You can’t fix people." James nodded toward the dogwood. "And spring means new life. As long as you're not allergic, it’s a great time to start again. You have a lot of love in you, and you can be happy. With Cora. With me."

  Her eyes were clear but a little frightened. "What will I do?" She gave a small laugh. "I just realized I've lost my occupation."

  "You're a capable woman. More than that, you're talented. You'll figure something out — just don't be a private investigator or anything that will get you in trouble."

  She laughed. “We would make a good team, though.”

  He looked at his sling. "Please."

  Her head turned toward her mother's house again. "We have to be happy while it lasts."

  "Yes, listen to your mother. She is wisdom itself. I'm a shallow man, only interested in an
admittedly gorgeous piece of arse and in a bunch of stupid secrets."

  "You're anything but shallow. But I'm her daughter, I guess. In my life I saw the same things she saw."

  "Your life has just begun, and you're your father's daughter too."

  Lee frowned. "Why do you say that?"

  "I met the formidable Mrs. Bergeron."

  "James!"

  "Saw where you grew up, saw your father's room, your little Japanese box and spoke to a lovely lady named Celia—"

  "When did you do all that?"

  "—who told me that you never stole that ring from your grandmother. It was given to you."

  "My grandmother said not."

  "It was given to you when she thought you were dying. You survived, and she took it away."

  Her smile turned sad. "Does that explain everything about me?"

  "Nothing explains everything." He brushed the hair away from her forehead. "But I think you just wanted something to shine a bit in the middle of all this muck. You wanted secrets you could control."

  She flushed, embarrassed by his scrutiny. "Why, James Anthony, you are sentimental."

  "Poetic."

  "You think I'm cured?"

  He embraced her with his free arm. The movement didn't hurt very much, thanks to the Vicodin, and it felt good to hold her. "You're cured of at least one of the conditions you had when you met me."

  Lee laughed. "You are unbearable.”

  "I’m hurt, and you promised to play nurse." He looked up. "Also, we'd better get the fuck out of here in case there's a killer owl. I don't think the one that attacked Joe was ever arrested. In fact, let's just get the hell out of Hawkshaw."

  "And go where?"

  James smiled. "Home."

  EPILOGUE

  Lee kept her eyes closed to feel James's stubble against her shoulder, his movement in her. She let out a gasp.

  "Quiet," he said.

  He said her voice excited him, but so did his. When he collapsed on the mattress, she rolled over his body. It was hot, even though it was only seven o'clock and only June; but the windows were closed so no one heard them. Still, old beds made a lot of noise. She put her face against the sweat on his chest.

  "Let's save something for later," he said.

  "You're a vigorous old man."

  He pulled her hair back, holding it in a ponytail behind her head and forcing her to look at him. His eyes were lazy and alert at the same time, and he looked happy. He was going to get his way, as he always did.

  "Will you behave?" he asked.

  "Yes."

  "Won't ask you to promise. You lie."

  "I think you'd catch me, and I'd be afraid of you then."

  He laughed. "You're not afraid of anything."

  Afraid of losing you.

  James could read her mind these days. He held on to her and rolled again. Now his face was above hers, and his body between her legs. "Not going to happen. Oh, damn, here I go again."

  "I thought you said to save—"

  "Quiet."

  ***

  Eleven o'clock, and it was only bearable in the shade. That's where James waited. He sat under a leafy tree in his shirtsleeves, his jacket folded over the back of a chair. Mount Etna looked quiet behind the red villa. He hummed and sang a piece of the Neapolitan song,

  Comm'è bella 'a muntagna stanotte

  Bella accussì nun ll'aggio vista maje...

  There was laughter, and the noise of feet running. He smiled when Cora appeared with flowers in her hand.

  "What do you think, James?"

  She was fair and looked red from lying in the Sicilian sun.

  “You need sunscreen,” he said. He inspected the flowers. "Bigger.”

  Cora gave a full-throated, happy laugh — a laugh like Lee's, when Lee felt carefree. The girl ran back toward the garden again. "He says bigger!"

  "James!" Caitlin called, raising her head above a shrubbery. "She needs to be able to carry it!"

  "Bigger!" he insisted.

  They giggled. He would probably have to find ways to keep them busy a lot of the time, or they'd run rings around him, all three of them. He smiled, enjoying the belief that he would be the man of the house, making sure they were all right, that they had what they needed and were happy.

  What an illusion; he couldn't make people happy if they weren't. Those girls were happy, though, and Lee was learning.

  He sat humming an Italian song in a crisp white shirt and well-cut dark trousers like a character in The Godfather. But those were the good things in life, he thought as Lee appeared across the swimming pool at the top of the steps: to see a woman in a simple but beautiful white dress, her dark hair loose, her long legs in no need of heels. He stood and waited for her to run to him; she arrived a little breathless — and she was welcome.

  "James ..."

  He tried not to smile. Of course she still had doubts; he had been waiting for them.

  "We don't have to do this," she said.

  "Oh, but we do."

  "Why?"

  "For one, you can't steal anything of mine anymore, when it will all be half yours anyway. And then because of the girls." He pointed, and Cora waved, holding up the bouquet. "It’s high time they had a family, even if they’re going back to school. I'm glad I've got them on the lookout for you.”

  "That bouquet's huge!" Lee cried.

  "Another thing to keep you from escaping. You look beautiful, by the way. My heart's beating sort of fast."

  "Don't be silly."

  He took her hand and put it on his chest. "It's like I've got tachycardia."

  She caressed him. "Then let's not. You could have a cardiac arrest."

  "We have to, now."

  "Why?" she asked, almost in agony.

  "Because there's this very charming old stone building where they're waiting to marry us. It will be quick and painless, no speeches of any kind — and then there is this great little restaurant, family affair, climbing on the rocks over the sea. They've been hanging flags all morning, Star and Stripes and Union Jacks, to celebrate our union. The mother has been cooking, the cousins are the band and the sons the waiters. I said the boys could dance with Cora and Caitlin, so they're looking forward to it. And then there's the boat, which will be waiting so we can sail off. Imagine how many people you'd disappoint if you ran.” He frowned. “It would be very rude.”

  "We'd do all that, but just not the part—"

  "Where we get married?"

  "Yes, just not that.” She held on to his lapels. “Come away with me."

  The smile now spread over his face. "Are you asking me to run away from me? This manages to be insulting and flattering at the same time. But no."

  "James …"

  “You’re a world of trouble.” Putting his arms around her, he shook her a little. "But we're getting married today, Magpie. And I'll twist your arm if you try not to say 'I do,' and I'll twist it again for you to sign the register. Although I do fear what you may be able to do with a pen."

  She laughed, then became serious again. She had been a serious little girl with dark hair and a quick mind, facing life all alone — but no more.

  "We are happy, James,” she insisted. “The girls are happy. Why do we need to get married?"

  She still doesn't understand. Light the way for her.

  "Because I love you, Lee.”

  There, he had said five words. And such was the power of words, when they were true, that her beautiful eyes had filled with light, as if a sun had risen inside them — so he held her face and repeated three.

  "I love you."

  Thank you for reading the Deadly Lies trilogy. I hope you’ve enjoyed this love story and these mysteries.

  If you have enjoyed it, please take a moment and leave a quick rating and review on Amazon. We writers are more thankful for reviews than you’ll ever know!

  And if you enjoy psychological thrillers without romance, The End of Fear, a novella on Amazon now.

  Chec
k it out here.

  In the meantime, below you’ll find other titles by the same author under a different pseudonym.

  Historical romance as Lara Blunte:

  The Last Earl

  The Abyss

  To Be King

  (Winner of the Wattys 2015)

  Contemporary romance as Lara Blunte:

  A Man in Africa