Chapter Sixty-Four Her

Chapter Sixty-Four Her

Present Day

Elias stood in the doorway. Another emergency visit. This time I welcomed it. At the sight of his grim expression and obvious

fury the tension snapping across my nerves eased. If he was here, the police would be close behind. But I remained coiled,

ready to spring.

A wail of pain cut through the uneasiness. Across the room, Wyatt cradled his arm. Thin ribbons of blood ran down to his hand

then dripped onto the floor. The horror of what that could mean hit me.

“What happened?” I’d watched his mother’s slow-motion wreck but missed this.

“Wyatt!” Kathryn ran to him.

“You stabbed me.” Wyatt clamped his hand over the wound, but blood seeped through his fingers and his body listed to one side.

That shocked, almost breathless voice would haunt my nightmares. Wyatt took his hand away for a second and I regretted looking

at his arm. A deep puncture, not a superficial cut or a light prick. Kathryn had nailed him.

“I didn’t mean... it was her.” The venom returned to Kath ryn’s voice. She pointed the scissors at me again. “Look what you made me do.”

“Stop this.” Elias stepped in front of me without an ounce of self-preservation. He held up both hands to confront one of

the town’s most prominent members as she careened into disaster. “Put the scissors down. Now.”

Kathryn shook her head. “You don’t understand what she did.”

What was wrong with her? “Your son needs a hospital. My mom is injured.”

Worrying about Mom broke my concentration more than once during the last half hour. The extent of her injuries could be severe.

The slow drip of lies and years of deceit should have stomped out my ability to care. I craved the ability to be forever detached,

or at least ambivalent. Despite every effort I failed.

I both hated her and loved her. The former clear with a list of reasons and explanations. The latter murky as it repeatedly

knocked me down.

“Portia?” Elias called out. “Go outside and wait for the police.”

“She’s here?” I couldn’t see her, but I heard footsteps behind me, getting too close to her mother’s derailing. “Do it now,

Portia.”

My shout sent her running in the opposite direction. I didn’t regret scaring her or pissing her off. I would have done anything

to keep her out of the room. There was no way for her to walk into this scene and leave it unscathed. After this day she’d

have enough horrible memories to wrestle with and digest without this one.

I owed her. Portia had called Wyatt and Elias and maybe the police. She’d subjected her relationship with her mom to a test

it might not pass.

With one Dougherty child out of the fray, my attention switched to the other. Blood seeped out from under Wyatt’s hand. Splashes landed on his shirt. On the floor.

Elias held his hand out to Wyatt. “Come toward me.”

Kathryn grabbed her son’s uninjured arm, stopping him. Pulling him close and clinging to him as he winced and struggled through

the pain to push her away.

“Mom, please.” Wyatt’s voice sounded strained to the point of breaking.

“Don’t you understand what needs to happen here?” Kathryn’s unblinking eyes provided a window into the wild thoughts filling

her mind. Somehow her voice stayed even. “We can still resolve this, put everything back together, but we have to move now.”

The situation continued to devolve. She clearly had a plan in her head and intended for everyone in the room to jump to her

command. Worse, she hadn’t dropped the scissors.

Dread settled in my stomach and refused to leave. This mess could only have an unhappy ending. I threw Wyatt the blanket hanging

over the back of one of the chairs. “Wrap it around your arm and keep it lifted.”

That was the full extent of my first aid knowledge. The ambulance better show up soon.

Elias took a step in Kathryn’s direction. “This is over. Give me the scissors.”

“No. No, listen to me.” Her now uneven tone bounced between pleading and ordering. “Addison has to die. It’s the only way

to get our lives back.”

“Kathryn—”

She clearly wasn’t in the mood for a lecture. “You’re our attor ney. You can’t say anything unless we allow it. We’ll explain that you walked in the room after Addison attacked us.”

I couldn’t control my rage. “You’re going to claim self-defense against me in my own house? You can’t be serious.”

“Wyatt and Portia will understand once I explain all the sordid details to them.” She tugged on Wyatt’s arm. “You see what

happened here, right? She provoked me.”

“Mom killed Dad.” Wyatt delivered the horrible sentence in a flat tone. She’d admitted her attack but hearing the stark words

from Wyatt’s mouth brought the tragedy fully into focus.

“I heard the part about the bat.” Elias’s deep voice mirrored the gravity of the situation.

Until that moment my mind had filled with stray thoughts and unanswered questions. I kept trying to weed out the clutter and

concentrate. Elias had been outside the room when Kathryn exploded. He’d listened to every truth I insisted on unburying,

spread out like a roadmap.

Now I heard the sirens. Faint, still in the distance, but headed this way as they had several times before. My exhausted body

begged for the police to drive faster.

“Richmond was getting... complacent. Sloppy. Overconfident.” Nervous energy wrapped around Kathryn. She stumbled over words

and gulped in deep breaths. “He started to believe the persona we’d created.”

We not he. She’d been in on all of it. A willing partner.

The witness Richmond left alive.

“I knew if... if there was a court case about the surgery someone could look into his past. There was so much at stake.”

She shook her head like she’d got lost in her panicked words. “I was on the verge of losing everything I’d worked for.”

“So, you killed him.” She did it and decided I should take the blame.

“We had a fight that last day about his strategy and how long his plan was taking. He could be so intimidating. That temper.”

She turned to Wyatt and continued to plead her case. “You know how he was. You all know.”

“So, you picked up the bat.” Elias said.

“He told me Addison threatened him with it.” Kathryn moved toward the window. “He was so out of control. I... I needed

to protect myself. I didn’t have a choice.”

“You did.” Wyatt had wrapped his arm but his face remained pale and his voice shaky. “You could have done a thousand different

things and Dad would still be alive.”

The sirens grew louder. Closer.

“The police can’t be here.” Kathryn pulled back the curtain and peeked outside. Her fidgeting kicked up instead of winding

down. “We’re running out of time.”

Before the police arrived and lawyers stepped in I wanted one last confession. She tried to shift the blame, but it landed

squarely on her.

“How hard did you have to hit Richmond to make him fall like that?” Because it was intentional and preplanned. Richmond’s

murder was not a heat of the moment thing. Kathryn had been passionate in her fury when she targeted her ex. I’d bet my life

on it.

Her mouth opened and closed. It took a few seconds for her to answer. “I didn’t... You were supposed to be there. At the

scene or close by. But that damn diner. I couldn’t wait. You didn’t see his face.”

I’d seen his rage. I could imagine hers. All those years of serv ing him, fulfilling his needs, backed up on her. “And you knew you had to do something because he was capable of killing. He’d killed before.”

Wyatt made a gagging sound as his body curled in on itself. “I’m going to be sick.”

The room erupted in chaos. Everyone moved as if a whistle had been blown. Kathryn sprang from the window and raced toward

me. The scissors aimed at my face, ready to plunge. Wyatt shouted as Elias pivoted to block the incoming attack.

Bang

The shocking noise made me drop. I squatted with my hands on the floor and my head low as adrenaline coursed through me, shaking

my whole body.

“No!”

At the sound of Wyatt’s scream, I looked up. Kathryn thumped against the wall. Her legs crumpled under her, and she started

sliding. She landed in a sitting position that seemed to jolt through her whole body. Her eyes stayed open and filled with

fear.

The stain on her dress grew. The drops turned into a splotch. More blood. This time hers.

My attention shot to the doorway, expecting to see the police pour in. One woman stood there—Mom. Tense shoulders and stiff

arms. Blood matted in her hair and her shirt torn at the shoulder. She looked like she was two seconds from falling over but

her eyes were bright and clear.

Mom lowered her gun. “I told her not to come here again.”