by Sofie Kelly
I nodded. “I remember Mike saying that.”
“She didn’t want the Finnamore line to die out. It drove her crazy that Eloise had adopted instead of having biological children. I can’t remember when she wasn’t at Mike to get married and have babies. He’d just laugh and say one of him was enough for the world.”
I almost smiled. I could imagine Mike saying that.
“And she was always pestering Colin and Ainsley to have more children. She didn’t know that they had been trying for years to have a brother or sister for Lachlan. It just never happened.”
I could see the pain in his eyes. “It was only one time with Ainsley, a momentary lapse on both our parts. Colin was the only man for her.”
“And she was the only one for you,” I said. It was a guess but a good one.
He nodded.
Jonas had slept with his brother’s wife—a huge betrayal. The fact that he had been in love with her forever probably would have made things worse if the truth had come out. But Lachlan was the result. How could Leitha even have considered telling him? It seemed too cruel even for her. As Jonas’s child, Lachlan wasn’t entitled to any money from the family trust because he was not a biological Finnamore. Did money really matter more to her?
“Did you know Lachlan was your child from the beginning?” I asked.
“Not at first. But when they couldn’t seem to have more children, I got suspicious. I finally confronted Ainsley and she admitted that I was Lachlan’s father. She didn’t want him or Colin to know and neither did I. I didn’t want to break up that family. Colin was Lachlan’s father. The only father he knew. The only father that mattered. I didn’t want to do that to my . . . to Lachlan and I never wanted Colin to know that I had betrayed him. I wanted to be the big brother he believed in.”
“Leitha wasn’t going to let Lachlan have the money for college from the trust.”
Jonas shook his head. “The DNA shouldn’t have mattered. Lachlan was Colin’s child in all the ways that were important, but Leitha was the trustee and her belief was that only blood Finnamores were entitled to the money. Eloise’s daughters should have gotten the money for their education as well. If Leitha wouldn’t release the funds for her own grandchildren, she wasn’t going to give it to Lachlan and she was determined to tell him why.”
“So you decided to kill her,” I said. How was I going to get out of this? What would Jonas do when he got to the end of his explanation?
“Yes,” he said. “I won’t insult you by saying I had no other choice. There were other options. I just didn’t like any of them. I knew potassium chloride could bring on a heart attack. I started college as a chemistry major.”
“Leitha gave you an ultimatum, didn’t she?” I took a step closer to the chair and dropped my hand onto Owen’s back. He meowed softly.
“She had given me forty-eight hours to tell Lachlan the truth or she said she would. On the day of Mary’s presentation at the library, I had just a few hours left. She was a miserable old woman and the world isn’t any worse off with her dead. It was easy to get the potassium chloride at the university. I faked drinking the tea when I was talking to Rebecca. It was that simple.”
“And then Marcus got suspicious about two deaths so close together in one family.”
“I really wish he hadn’t done that,” Jonas said. He looked like he felt bad, but the gun he was pointing at me didn’t waver.
“When we were at Eric’s, I knew the minute the words were out of my mouth that I’d made a mistake with that comment about not liking sweet things. I knew you’d pick up on that. Marcus had told me about the contents of Leitha’s stomach. I knew he would have told you as well. And you don’t miss details like that.”
“So what happens now?” I said. I was surprised how steady my voice sounded since both of my hands were shaking and my chest felt as though an elephant had just sat on it.
“We’re going for a ride,” he said.
“Where?”
“Out to Wisteria Hill.”
My heart sank. He’d heard my conversation with Roma when we’d been at Eric’s.
He nodded his head as though he’d read my mind. “Yes, I heard enough of your conversation to know that Dr. Davidson and her husband won’t be there. And I know that you’re looking after the cats that live out there. For some reason you wanted to check on them tonight. It’s been raining hard and you were just worried about them. You’re a very kind person.” His eyes hardened. He gestured with the gun. “Let’s go.”
“I need my keys.”
“And bring your phone,” Jonas said.
“All right,” I said. I felt a frisson of hope. If I had my phone, there was a chance I could get help. I leaned down and kissed Owen on the top of my head. “It’ll be okay,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure if the words were for his benefit or mine. At the edge of my vision, I could see Hercules peeking around the living room doorway. At least they were both safe.
We walked out to the truck. “You drive please,” Jonas said. He had such nice manners. How could someone who remembered to say “please” and “thank you” kill another person?
“I could put the car in the ditch,” I said through clenched teeth as I fastened my seat belt. Anger was beginning to replace my fear.
“And I could shoot you,” he said. “I think that puts us on even ground.”
“If you’re not going to shoot me, what are you going to do?” At least out at Wisteria Hill I had a chance. I knew the woods around Roma and Eddie’s house well. Out there Jonas and I were no longer “on even ground.” Out there I had an advantage.
“I told you, you’re going to drive out to Wisteria Hill to check on the cats. You’ll discover one of them is missing and you’ll go looking for it in the dark and have a nasty and deadly fall into the brook.”
“No, I won’t,” I said, forgetting for a moment that he was holding a gun on me.
His dark eyes narrowed. “If it comes down to choosing between Lachlan and you, between Lachlan and anyone, it’s an easy decision.”
I needed him to think about what he was doing. I needed him to think about what he had already done. That meant asking him the question I didn’t want to hear the answer to. I tried to take a deep breath but I couldn’t. My chest was tight with anger. Still I managed to get the words out. “Why did you kill Mike?”
He didn’t say anything.
I glanced in his direction. The pain was raw on his face. Part of me felt compassion for the man and part of me wanted to hit him. I started the truck.
“I kind of understand about Leitha. I’m not saying what you did was right, but she threatened your child, so that part I get. But Mike would never have hurt Lachlan. Never.”
“He didn’t see that what he wanted to do would hurt Lachlan.” His voice was flat, empty of emotion.
“Maybe Lachlan would be happy to find out he still had one parent,” I said as I pulled out of the driveway.
“No. Lachlan adored Colin. He would be devastated to find out Colin wasn’t his father.” For a moment Jonas didn’t speak but I could feel his gaze on me. “Mike was one of those people who saw the best in everyone and he had this idea that the rest of the world did the same thing. You’re like that, too.”
“He just wanted to tell the truth.”
I saw Jonas nod his head out of the corner of my eye. “It was an accident,” he said. “It wasn’t like Leitha. Mike and I were arguing. He shoved me a couple of times and then I hit him back. He lost his balance and went backward. When I close my eyes, I can still see his head hit the mantel above the fireplace.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why didn’t you call nine-one-one? It was an accident.”
“He was dead.”
I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly, I felt it might snap in half. “You’re not a nurse or a doctor. You don’t know that.” Anger gave my voice a raspy harshness.
“I know how to check someone’s pulse. He was dead. And I panicked. I w
ish I hadn’t.”
I glanced over at him again. The hand that was pointing the gun at me was shaking.
“I wish I hadn’t punched him. I wish I hadn’t gone over there. I wish I hadn’t . . .” He didn’t finish the sentence and I wondered if he’d been about to say he wished he hadn’t slept with his sister-in-law.
We drove in silence for a few minutes. I needed to get Jonas talking again. I needed him to see me as a person and not an obstacle to be dealt with.
“Did Mike think Leitha might not have been a Finnamore?” I asked.
Jonas nodded. “You saw his notes. Yes. For a while he did. He found something in a diary of a midwife. Leitha was a surprise baby, coming years after her brother. She was supposed to have been born premature, but she was a robust eight pounds plus at birth according to the midwife.”
“Her mother had an affair.”
“Maybe. Celeste married John Finnamore on the rebound after a broken engagement. It seems she carried a torch for her former fiancé for the rest of her life.”
“Mike tried to work out whether or not Leitha was a Finnamore by looking at eye color.” We were almost at Wisteria Hill. All I could think was Keep him talking.
“The Finnamore green eyes,” Jonas said. “It’s ironic that Lachlan probably got his green eyes from me and I’m not a real Finnamore.”
He was still holding on to my phone. He looked at it and then set it on the floor by his feet. “Eye color was just too complicated. Too many factors involved. Then Mike looked at the type of everyone’s hair, which told him that Leitha was a Finnamore—her mother’s previous beau had straight hair.”
“Which meant Leitha would have had wavy hair, not curly,” I said.
He nodded. “But the old eye-color thing had him intrigued. He was trying to work out when green eyes first showed up in the family tree. He wouldn’t let it go. He wanted us all to take those DNA tests so we’d know more about our genetic makeup. I couldn’t dissuade him.”
“You were afraid the truth would come out if Lachlan did the test.”
“I gave him every logical reason not to that I could. You know what Mike was like. He told me I was too much of a worrier and everything would be fine.”
“He got suspicious because you were so adamant.”
“No,” Jonas said.
I saw him shake his head out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t believe him. I’d seen what Mike was like when he sank his teeth into something, the way he had been with researching his family tree. He wouldn’t let go until every question he had was answered.
“He went back to his Punnett squares,” I said, “while he was trying to change your mind. And at some point he started looking at everyone’s hair again.”
“People have always commented on Lachlan’s curly hair. It’s been like that since he was a baby.”
“But his hair isn’t curly. It’s actually wavy. Curly hair is spiral and wavy is S-shaped. The interesting thing is that hair type is an example of what’s called incomplete dominance. It means that if you have one of each version of the gene, you end up with a mix of the two: not straight, not curly, but wavy hair.”
“I see why Mike liked you,” Jonas said.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a lot alike. You notice things other people don’t. And you have a strong sense of right and wrong.”
He was right. Were our similarities going to get me killed, too?
“I couldn’t let the truth come out. I wanted Lachlan to at least be able to get an education.”
“Why didn’t you just pay for college yourself?” I looked over at him again.
“I can’t. Without the trust there is no money for Lachlan’s education. There isn’t even enough money to hang on to the house much longer.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It took every cent Colin and Ainsley had to pay for her care after the accident. It took every cent I had and everything I could beg or borrow. Lachlan is as entitled to that trust money as anyone.”
“So you finally just told Mike the truth.” My eyes were on the road but I could watch him in my peripheral vision. The gun was still pointed at me.
“The night he . . . That night . . . Yes. He didn’t think it was such a big deal. He told me we’d figure out college. Lachlan could take out a loan or better yet we could challenge the terms of the trust. He didn’t understand that it would blow up Lachlan’s life. I swear to God, I didn’t mean for him to get hurt.”
We were almost at Wisteria Hill. There wasn’t anything left to talk about. I felt something brush against my leg then, as light as the sweep of a feather. I froze, my entire body rigid.
Owen. It had to be.
Owen was with us in the truck.
Jonas suddenly leaned forward. I forced myself to keep my eyes on the road. There was no way he could know that Owen was here. Even if the cat accidentally touched him. I could feel my pulse pounding in the hollow at the base of my throat and I made myself take deep breaths and slow down my breathing. Panicking wasn’t going to do me any good.
“Detective Gordon sent you a text,” Jonas said.
Marcus rarely sent texts. Had he figured out something was wrong? “What does it say?”
“He wants to know where you are.”
I swallowed to ease my suddenly dry mouth. “Are you going to answer him?” I asked.
“No,” he said.
We drove in silence for maybe a minute; then Jonas spoke again. “I’m sorry I have to do this.”
“Then don’t do it.”
“And what? You’ll give me your word that you’ll keep all my secrets? You won’t. As I said, you’re just like Mike.” There was an edge of anger to his voice now.
“No, I won’t keep your secrets, but I will help you in any other way that I can.”
He laughed. “You’re honest. I’ll give you that. But I would sacrifice my life for Lachlan. And yours as well. Detective Gordon is a good man. I’m sorry he’s going to be hurt.”
Not if I can help it, I said silently.
chapter 20
We were at Wisteria Hill. I drove slowly up the driveway, hoping that somehow Roma had been late leaving or that her plans had changed, but the farmhouse was in darkness. I parked as close to the old carriage house as I could.
“Give me the keys, please,” Jonas said.
I handed them to him and laid one hand on the dashboard for a moment. Harrison had given me the truck because Owen and I had found some papers about his daughter, Elizabeth’s, adoption. And we’d almost gotten blown up in the process. We had barely gotten clear of the cabin where we’d been trapped when the propane tank exploded. I remembered having no sense of where my body was as the impact propelled me into the brush. I had landed flat on my back in a pile of snow, cold, wet, bruised and bloody.
But alive.
And then I’d caught sight of Owen coming toward me, snow and bits of tree bark stuck to his fur, spitting angry, meowing loudly all the way.
But alive.
We’d gotten out of that and we were going to get out of this as well.
Jonas gestured with the gun and I climbed out of the truck. Could I sprint to the carriage house if I had the chance? I hoped so. From there the woods were dense enough that I could find lots of places to hide.
I stood next to the truck while Jonas stuffed the keys and my phone into his pocket. He’d said that I noticed things that other people didn’t. He was right, which meant I’d paid attention when Harry had explained how he’d hot-wired a truck almost identical to this one when he was a lovestruck teenager. I didn’t need those keys to get out of here.
“If I had any other option to protect Lachlan, I would take it,” Jonas said. “Everything I have ever done has been for Lachlan.”
“So tell the truth for Lachlan. Tell him who he really is.”
“He’s Colin and Ainsley’s son. He’s a Finnamore.”
I wasn’t going to get though to him. In a different circums
tance, I would have respected his loyalty to his child. But I was in this circumstance.
“I admire you and people who are like you,” he said. “I admire the fact that you truly do seem to see and expect the best from people, but I’m not like that. Maybe I was once, but not now. As I said before, I am sorry.” Once more he gestured with the gun.
I thought about Marcus and Mom and Dad and Ethan and Sarah and Harrison and Roma and Maggie and the furballs. I thought about what Mary had taught me about kickboxing and the structure of the human knee.
“I’m sorry, too,” I said.
And then I kicked the side of his knee as hard as I could. He yelled and went down, the hand holding the gun flying up in the air. I didn’t waste any time trying to look for the gun. I ran and hoped Owen was with me.
I bolted around the side of the old carriage house and sprinted for the trees. I had a bit of a head start, but I knew it wasn’t enough to let me double back to the truck. Jonas was taller and faster and stronger. I just hoped I’d connected hard enough that his knee would cause him enough trouble to give me an edge.
I tried to picture the road that ran in front of Wisteria Hill. If I turned left once I got up the graded embankment behind the carriage house, I could make another left turn and then head down toward the road. It made more sense than continuing to cut through the woods in the direction of the back access road. The main road would have more traffic.
It was dark and the air was heavy with moisture but it had stopped raining. Everything was dripping. The ground was saturated with water. I was breathing heavily. My feet in my canvas shoes were already soaking wet. I could hear the sound of rushing water. There was a stream off to the left behind the carriage house, skirting the rise where the trees began. When I got that far, I would need to turn left a second time. I reminded myself that it didn’t matter that it was dark. I could hear the water. I knew which way to go. I had an advantage Jonas didn’t have.
