The Last To Die

by Beverly Barton

  "Howdy do, miss." Lu­die smi­led.

  "What brings you to Che­ro­kee Po­in­te?" Sally as­ked.

  "I'd think that was ob­vi­o­us," Ca­leb sa­id. "She ca­me he­re lo­oking for a wo­man she was told re­sem­b­led her eno­ugh to be her twin sis­ter."

  "Well, now that you men­ti­on it, she do­es fa­vor our Jaz­zy so­me, don't she?" Sally ex­ten­ded her hand to­ward the wo­man. "I'm Jaz­zy's Aunt Sally."

  Reve sho­ok hands with Sally, all the whi­le stud­ying Sally as if she'd put her un­der a mic­ros­co­pe for clo­se scru­tiny. "I met yo­ur ni­ece and I ag­ree that we do lo­ok a bit ali­ke, but-"

  "You know, they say that we all got a do­ub­le out the­re in the world so­mew­he­re. Gu­ess Jaz­zy's yo­urs, huh?"

  "Ms. Tal­bot, may I ask you a qu­es­ti­on?" Re­ve Sor­rell lo­oked Sally right in the eye.

  Sally swal­lo­wed. Don't blink, she told her­self. Don't show any fe­ar. You ain't do­ne not­hing wrong. Not thirty ye­ars ago. Not to­day.

  "What you want to ask, gal?"

  "If Jaz­zy is yo­ur ni­ece, then you'd know if… if she had a sis­ter, wo­uldn't you?"

  Sally chuc­k­led, the so­und just a bit off. She ho­ped no­body but Lu­die he­ard the ner­vo­us­ness in her vo­ice. "Yes, I'd know. And if you're thin­king the­re's any chan­ce you and Jaz­zy are sis­ters, then get that no­ti­on right out of yo­ur he­ad. My yo­un­ger sis­ter-Jaz­zy's ma­ma-had one baby girl. That's all."

  "I see."

  Sally co­uld tell by Re­ve Sor­rell's he­aving sigh and her ten­ta­ti­ve smi­le that she was re­li­eved not to be re­la­ted to Jaz­zy. Jud­ging the wo­man by the fancy clot­hes she wo­re and the ex­pen­si­ve sports car she dro­ve, Sally fi­gu­red Ms. Sor­rell ca­me from mo­ney. Big mo­ney. And big bank ac­co­unts usu­al­ly ca­me at­tac­hed to big snob­bery. Mo­re than li­kely this gal was mighty glad to find out that she wasn't blo­od kin to the li­kes of Jaz­zy Tal­bot.

  "What did Jaz­zy say when you two met?" Lu­die as­ked, and Sally wan­ted to slap her fri­end sen­se­less. Damn it, Lu­die, le­ave well eno­ugh alo­ne.

  "We re­al­ly didn't get a chan­ce to talk," Re­ve sa­id.

  "I'm af­ra­id Jaz­zy and I had a lit­tle dif­fe­ren­ce of opi­ni­on," Ca­leb ad­mit­ted.

  "Let me gu­ess." Sally huf­fed. "It was over Jamie Up­ton co­ming aro­und last night, wasn't it?" Sally re­ac­hed over and pat­ted Ca­leb on the back. "You ke­ep on gi­ving her hell abo­ut it. When she told me she'd let that ras­cal in last night, I su­re ga­ve her hell for be­ing so stu­pid."

  "Jazzy told you that she was with Jamie?" Ca­leb as­ked.

  Sally eyed him spe­cu­la­ti­vely. "She didn't let him spend the night, you know. She ain't that stu­pid. She swo­re to me that it's over bet­we­en them. And I be­li­eve her."

  Reve cle­ared her thro­at. "If y'all will ex­cu­se me-"

  "Ms. Sor­rell is a fri­end of Jamie's, too," Ca­leb sa­id. "He's the one who told her that she had a lo­ok-ali­ke he­re in Che­ro­kee Po­in­te."

  "God help you, gal." Sally pin­ned Re­ve with a war­ning gla­re. "If you know what's go­od for you, you'll ste­er cle­ar of Jamie Up­ton. He's not­hing but tro­ub­le for any wo­man. So­me­body sho­uld ha­ve skin­ned him ali­ve ye­ars ago." Sally puc­ke­red her lips and spit a hunk of brown to­bac­co ju­ice on the si­de­walk. When she he­ard Re­ve Sor­rell gasp and no­ti­ced her jump bac­k­ward, Sally grin­ned. "Damn, I sho­uld ha­ve kil­led that go­od-for-not­hing po­le­cat back when he was a te­ena­ger. I co­uld ha­ve sa­ved Jaz­zy a he­ap of he­ar­tac­he." Sally slap­ped her hand down on Ms. Sor­rell's sho­ul­der. Wo­uldn't be a bad idea to sca­re the wo­man off. No sir­ree, not a bad idea at all. Even if Ms. Sor­rell tho­ught she might be Jaz­zy's sis­ter, kno­wing so­me­body li­ke Sally might be her aunt wo­uld run her off pron­to. "If you be­en fuc­king aro­und with Jamie, then you got my sympathy. Ta­ke my ad­vi­ce and stay away from him from now on."

  "Ms. Tal­bot, I can as­su­re you that I ha­ve not be­en-"

  "Call me Sally. Ever­y­body do­es." Sally in­ter­rup­ted be­fo­re Re­ve fi­nis­hed her sen­ten­ce, which un­do­ub­tedly was a de­ni­al of a se­xu­al re­la­ti­on­s­hip with Jamie Up­ton.

  "Sally, it's be­en… in­te­res­ting me­eting you. But I re­al­ly must go." Re­ve bac­ked away se­ve­ral fe­et. "Ha­ving met yo­ur ni­ece… and you… and fin­ding out that she and I are not re­la­ted, des­pi­te our re­sem­b­lan­ce-"

  "Did you re­al­ly co­me he­re just to see if you and Jaz­zy might be re­la­ted?" Sally as­ked. "Or did Jamie men­ti­on Jaz­zy and you ca­me he­re fi­gu­ring to see if she was com­pe­ti­ti­on? She ain't. Her and Jamie are fi­nis­hed. But you do know he's en­ga­ged… to be mar­ri­ed."

  "No, I didn't know, but I'm ple­ased for him. Be­li­eve me, Jamie Up­ton do­esn't me­an a thing to me. Now, if y'all will ex­cu­se me, I'll be go­ing."

  Sally spit aga­in, this ti­me cre­ating a lot of no­ise be­fo­re do­ing so, ma­king the event se­em even mo­re gross to so­me­one unac­cus­to­med to be­ing aro­und an old wo­man who che­wed to­bac­co and oc­ca­si­onal­ly dip­ped snuff, too.

  "Don't run off," Ca­leb cal­led af­ter Ms. Sor­rell.

  The lady in qu­es­ti­on didn't even bot­her sa­ying go­od­b­ye. She un­loc­ked her car, got in, and bac­ked out of the par­king pla­ce, all in a po­wer­ful hurry.

  "So, what's go­ing on?" Ca­leb as­ked Sally. "Why did you try to hard to run her off? Is she re­al­ly Jaz­zy's sis­ter?"

  "What a fo­ol thing to say," Sally told him. "My Jaz­zy ain't got no sis­ter. My sis­ter ga­ve birth to one baby girl. Says so right on her birth cer­ti­fi­ca­te."

  "Mm-hm… if you say so."

  "I say so."

  "Well, it's be­en qu­ite a day al­re­ady and it's not even ten o'clock." Ca­leb nod­ded cor­di­al­ly. "You la­di­es ha­ve a go­od one." Smi­ling, he tur­ned and wal­ked away.

  Just as so­on as Ca­leb was out of ear­s­hot, Lu­die grab­bed Sally's arm. "You might ha­ve run that Sor­rell girl off pretty easy li­ke, but we both know that Jaz­zy's go­ing to ask you abo­ut her. And you just re­mem­ber that Jaz­zy knows you. She'll be ab­le to tell if you're lying to her."

  "I didn't lie to that Sor­rell wo­man and I won't be lying to Jaz­zy when I tell her that my sis­ter, Cor­ri­ne, ga­ve birth to one lit­tle girl. Not twins. Cor­ri­ne's baby didn't ha­ve no brot­hers or sis­ters."

  "That's only a half truth and you know it."

  "It's all the truth Jaz­zy ever ne­eds to know."

  "Something tells me that so­oner or la­ter Jaz­zy and that Sor­rell girl are both go­ing to start won­de­ring mo­re and mo­re abo­ut why they lo­ok so much ali­ke." 'The­re co­uld be anot­her re­ason, anot­her ex­p­la­na­ti­on," Sally sa­id. "I swe­ar to you that I don't know not­hing abo­ut the­re be­ing two ba­bi­es. All I ever knew abo­ut was my lit­tle Jas­mi­ne."

  "I be­li­eve you." Lu­die pat­ted Sally on the back. T be­en aro­und all the­se ye­ars, all of Jaz­zy's li­fe. I know ever­y­t­hing you know."

  Not qu­ite ever­y­t­hing, Sally tho­ught. The­re was one thing I ne­ver told you, my old fri­end. One thing I'll ne­ver tell a li­ving so­ul.

  Mor­ning sun­light war­med her as it stre­amed in thro­ugh the flo­or-to-ce­iling win­dows and ca­res­sed her body. She'd be­en thin­king abo­ut what she had to do to pro­tect her child. No mo­re, no less than any mot­her wo­uld do to ke­ep her child sa­fe. Jamie Up­ton was a dan­ger she plan­ned to eli­mi­na­te. He didn't de­ser­ve to li­ve.

  She had to be very ca­re­ful. Her plans had to be well tho­ught out, me­ti­cu­lo­us in de­ta­ils, so that not only wo­uld Jamie die a hor­ri­fic de­ath, but so that Jas­mi­ne Tal­bot wo­uld be ac­cu­sed of his mur­der. They we­re both sin­
ners. For­ni­ca­tors. They both de­ser­ved to die. Why did men think they co­uld bet­ray the wo­men they pro­fes­sed to lo­ve and ne­ver be pu­nis­hed?

  She had to act qu­ickly. The wed­ding was in three we­eks. Any ti­me be­fo­re then wo­uld be so­on eno­ugh, but she didn't think she co­uld wa­it. The tho­ught of tor­men­ting Jamie ex­ci­ted her. She didn't da­re wa­it much lon­ger. What if so­me­one el­se kil­led him be­fo­re she got the chan­ce? And it was qu­ite pos­sib­le that might hap­pen, be­ca­use so many pe­op­le ha­ted Jamie. Even his be­lo­ved Jaz­zy pro­fes­sed to des­pi­se him. But she hadn't tur­ned him away last night, had she? And for that alo­ne, she de­ser­ved all the mi­sery that was in sto­re for her.

  * * *

  Chapter 4

  Jamie felt damn go­od. He'd sco­red a di­rect hit on the old man. Even if Big Daddy knew he hadn't fuc­ked Erin, so­me lit­tle frag­ment of do­ubt wo­uld re­ma­in in his mind abo­ut whet­her or not his mis­t­ress fo­und his gran­d­son a mo­re in­te­res­ting pros­pect. The mo­re his gran­d­fat­her wor­ri­ed abo­ut his own lo­ve li­fe, the less ti­me he'd ha­ve to in­ter­fe­re in Jamie's.

  Of co­ur­se, he'd ha­ve to co­ol things with ot­her wo­men for the next co­up­le of months. Last night had be­en his fi­nal fling be­fo­re wal­king down the ais­le. Af­ter the ho­ney­mo­on, he'd gra­du­al­ly ease back in­to Jaz­zy's li­fe and in­to any ot­her wo­man's bed he cho­se to ple­asu­re him.

  Jazzy might ha­ve con­vin­ced her­self that they we­re thro­ugh, but she was just kid­ding her­self. The two of them we­re bo­und to­get­her fo­re­ver, and not­hing or no­body co­uld ever per­ma­nently split them apart. Big Ma­ma might be for­cing him in­to a mar­ri­age he didn't want, but she co­uldn't ma­ke him lo­ve La­ura. And ne­it­her she nor Big Daddy co­uld ma­ke him gi­ve up Jaz­zy.

  Whistling with an une­asy bra­va­do-he wasn't su­re he co­uld so­ot­he Mr. and Mrs. Wil­lis's ruf­fled fe­at­hers even if he squ­ared dhngs with La­ura-Jamie he­aded up the sta­irs. By ta­king the back sta­irs, he ran less risk of run­ning in­to his fu­tu­re in-laws be­fo­re he spo­ke pri­va­tely to La­ura. Oh, she'd be spit­ting mad and all we­epy. But a few kis­ses, a few well-cho­sen words, a pro­mi­se to ne­ver stray aga­in, and she'd be putty in his hands.

  As he ap­pro­ac­hed La­ura's bed­ro­om-the one she now sha­red with her yo­un­ger sis­ter- the do­or swung open, sur­p­ri­sing him when She­ri­dan sas­ha­yed out of the ro­om, we­aring a bright pink sprin­g­ti­me dress, lo­oking much too sexy for a girl of not qu­ite twenty. And that se­xi­ness was mo­re than just show. He knew, fir­s­t­hand, that his fi­an­c­ée’s lit­tle sis­ter was a hot and wild pi­ece of ass. She had ta­ken gre­at de­light in thin­king she se­du­ced him the very night he'd as­ked La­ura to marry him, back at the­ir ho­me in Ken­tucky.

  "Well, well, well. Lo­ok what the pus­sycat's drag­ged in," She­ri­dan sa­id, a mis­c­hi­evo­us twin­k­le in her big brown eyes as she pa­used di­rectly in front of Jamie and ga­ve him a co­me-hit­her smi­le.

  "Good mor­ning to you, too, sis­ter-in-law. "Jamie le­aned over and kis­sed her on the che­ek.

  Sheridan re­ac­hed up and cur­led her hand aro­und his neck, then sto­od on tip­toe and bro­ught her mo­uth in alig­n­ment with his. She whis­pe­red aga­inst his lips, "You can do bet­ter than that, can't you?"

  He re­mo­ved her hand from his neck, swat­ted her be­hind, and chuc­k­led. "Be­ha­ve yo­ur­self, child. I've got eno­ugh tro­ub­le on my hands this mor­ning wit­ho­ut be­ing ca­ught with my ton­gue down yo­ur thro­at."

  Sheridan of­fe­red him a se­duc­ti­ve po­ut. "Mot­her and Daddy are very up­set with you. And po­or La­ura cri­ed her eyes out all night. I'm af­ra­id she may call off the wed­ding."

  "Not on yo­ur li­fe. Yo­ur sis­ter is go­ing to be­co­me Mrs. James Up­ton HI in three we­eks. Big Ma­ma has dec­re­ed it to be so, and what Re­ba Up­ton wants, she gets."

  "Then you'd bet­ter start ma­king lo­vey-do­vey no­ises to La­ura. And don't bot­her lying to her abo­ut whe­re you we­re. She knows you went stra­ight to Jas­mi­ne Tal­bot."

  "I ha­ve no in­ten­ti­on of den­ying whe­re I went, "Jamie sa­id. "Once I ex­p­la­in to La­ura why I was with Jaz­zy, she'll un­der­s­tand."

  Sheridan's eyes wi­de­ned in as­to­nis­h­ment "This I ha­ve to he­ar."

  "Later," Jamie told her. "Me­et me at the stab­les in an ho­ur." He win­ked at her, then wal­ked past her and knoc­ked on La­ura's bed­ro­om do­or.

  "Who is it?" La­ura as­ked.

  Jamie glan­ced over his sho­ul­der and ga­ve She­ri­dan anot­her qu­ick wink, then blew her a kiss. She smi­led tri­um­p­hantly be­fo­re rus­hing off down the hall.

  "Laura, dar­ling, it's Jamie."

  "Go away! I ne­ver want to see you aga­in."

  "Now, pet, don't be that way. I ha­ve to talk to you. I ha­ve to ma­ke you un­der­s­tand why I did what I did last night."

  "I don't want to he­ar yo­ur ex­p­la­na­ti­ons. I've for­gi­ven you too many ti­mes al­re­ady. If you want Jaz­zy Tal­bot, then you can ha­ve her. I'm cal­ling off the wed­ding and-"

  "You can't do that." Jamie tur­ned the do­or­k­nob and flung open the do­or. Still we­aring her nig­h­t­gown, La­ura sat on the ed­ge of her bed. "You don't want to bre­ak my he­art, do you?"

  "Don't you da­re co­me in he­re." La­ura jum­ped up off the bed and po­in­ted to the do­or. "Get out right this mi­nu­te."

  Jamie slam­med the do­or shut, then loc­ked it. "I'm not go­ing an­y­w­he­re. Not un­til you let me ex­p­la­in. Not un­til you for­gi­ve me for be­ing a stu­pid jac­kass."

  Laura lif­ted her pretty lit­tle he­ad and ha­zar­ded a glan­ce in his di­rec­ti­on, but lo­oked away qu­ickly. That one swift glan­ce told him that he had sa­id just the right thing, gi­ven her just eno­ugh ho­pe to ma­ke her lis­ten to him. He wo­uld lie to her, tell her what she most wan­ted to he­ar. That was al­ways the best po­licy with wo­men. Tell a wo­man the truth and you're do­omed. Lie to her, flat­ter her, tell her wha­te­ver her he­art de­si­res, and you'll ha­ve her eating out of yo­ur hand.

  He to­ok se­ve­ral ten­ta­ti­ve steps in her di­rec­ti­on, then pa­used as if un­cer­ta­in he had a right to ap­pro­ach her. Act hum­b­le, he told him­self. Pre­tend to be torn apart in­si­de with the fe­ar you might lo­se her.

  "Laura, I ma­de a mis­ta­ke in le­aving our en­ga­ge­ment party be­fo­re it en­ded. I didn't re­ali­ze at the ti­me how it wo­uld lo­ok to you, yo­ur pa­rents, and our gu­ests." Jamie to­ok anot­her co­up­le of steps to­ward her. "Chalk it up to my eager­ness to do so­met­hing I sho­uld ha­ve do­ne a long ti­me ago."

  She lo­oked at him aga­in, this ti­me for se­ve­ral se­conds, be­fo­re glan­cing down at the flo­or. "What-what are you tal­king abo­ut? What sho­uld you ha­ve do­ne a long ti­me ago?"

  "Ended things with Jaz­zy."

  Laura's he­ad snap­ped up, her ga­ze fo­cu­sed di­rectly on his fa­ce. He'd known that sta­te­ment abo­ut Jaz­zy wo­uld ga­in him her full at­ten­ti­on.

  "I don't un­der­s­tand," La­ura sa­id.

  He mo­ved clo­ser, brin­ging him­self wit­hin to­uc­hing dis­tan­ce of his eager-to-be­li­eve-him fi­an­c­ée. "Last night at our en­ga­ge­ment party, with our fa­mily and fri­ends he­re to ce­leb­ra­te with us, I re­ali­zed just how im­por­tant this mar­ri­age is to me… how im­por­tant you are to me. I want our mar­ri­age to work. I-I lo­ve you, La­ura."

  Tears gat­he­red in her eyes as she sta­red at him, dis­be­li­ef bat­tling with ho­pe in her ex­p­res­si­on. "You went to Jaz­zy and you spent the night with her."

  "Yes, I went to Jaz­zy." He re­ac­hed out for La­ura. She pul­led back, ret­re­ating from his to­uch. "I went to he
r to tell her that it's over bet­we­en us. Now and fo­re­ver. I told her that I lo­ve you. She un­der­s­to­od. We tal­ked for a co­up­le of ho­urs-just tal­ked-then I left."

  "If that's true, then whe­re we­re you all night?"

  "I dro­ve aro­und for a whi­le, thin­king, pon­de­ring my many mis­ta­kes, ma­king plans for my-our fu­tu­re. Be­fo­re I knew it, I fo­und myself over in Knox Co­unty, ne­arly in dow­n­town Knox­vil­le. I tho­ught abo­ut cal­ling you, but hell, su­gar, it was the wee ho­urs of the mor­ning. So I pul­led off at a rest stop and got a few ho­urs sle­ep be­fo­re I he­aded back ho­me."

  "I want to be­li­eve you."

  Jamie ze­ro­ed in on her, le­aving her no ro­om for es­ca­pe. Kno­wing she wo­uldn't put up much of a fight, he pul­led her in­to his arms and sa­id, "Be­li­eve this, La­ura. I lo­ve you. Only you." When he lo­we­red his he­ad to kiss her, she tur­ned away from him. He gras­ped her chin and ma­ne­uve­red her fa­ce aro­und so that he co­uld ta­ke her lips. On­ce he kis­sed her, she suc­cum­bed wit­ho­ut even so much as a whim­per. God, she was so easy. Dumb lit­tle cunt.