by Sofie Kelly
It wasn’t hard to find photos of Mike’s parents. They had the same curls their son did. I kept going mostly out of curiosity. Mary-Margaret Finnamore Quinn had wavy hair, not curly. Her son, Colin, had a head full of those Finnamore curls. And Jonas, who wasn’t a Finnamore, had wavy hair like their father. Ainsley Quinn, Colin’s wife, also had a gorgeous head full of blond curls.
I stared at my handiwork. I thought about Lachlan’s unruly hair. I pictured him with his head leaning in close to the microfilm reader. “A tangle of curls,” Mary had called his hair. But it wasn’t really curly, I realized.
Lachlan’s hair was wavy, which wasn’t possible.
I got the piece of paper that Owen had swiped and looked at it again. What if Mike had been trying to work out Lachlan’s eye color, not Leitha’s? I thought about Jonas coming into the library that day with Lachlan. It had been just a few days before the concert. What if I was right about why Mike had stuffed those pages in the book and closed it? I looked at Owen. “What if he was hiding them?” I said.
I had wondered why none of the staff had checked the pages of the book in which Keith had discovered Mike’s notes before Keith borrowed it. Mike had been around the library enough to know how things worked. He could have easily put the book with other ones Keith had requested. Whoever had checked Keith out could have missed those sheets of paper stuck inside the book, especially if it had been busy.
I took a sip of my coffee. There were only a couple of mouthfuls left now, and they were cold and a bit too sweet for me since some of the sugar had settled to the bottom of the cup even though Claire had stirred it well before she handed it to me.
I tapped the marker on the table. “Leitha was adamant about the importance of the family line,” I said, “and she thought telling the truth was more important than discretion or hurt feelings.” I remembered hearing her tell Mary the day that they had argued, with a great deal of pride in her voice, that the Finnamores could trace their family tree, unsullied, back to the Mayflower. Jonas had said that family was more than biology. Leitha had snorted and said of course he would say that.
I thought about my own family and the similarities between Ethan, Sarah and me, how Ethan made me think of Mom in so many ways. They were both born performers.
I thought about Lachlan’s wavy hair, his green eyes and his gentle manner so different from the more outgoing Finnamores, so much like soft-spoken Jonas.
“Lachlan is Jonas Quinn’s son,” I said. It was the only explanation that made sense.
Behind me a voice said, “Yes, he is.”
chapter 19
I turned around slowly. Jonas was standing in the kitchen doorway, pointing a gun at me.
“You’re very smart. I knew you’d figure it all out,” he said. “I wish you hadn’t, though.”
I swallowed against the sour taste in the back of my throat and tried not to panic. Owen leaned around the side of the chair and stared with curiosity at Jonas.
“Mike figured it out, too,” I said.
“Not at first.” Except for the gun, Jonas seemed just like the man who had come into the library, who had shown me around his garden, who had laughed with us all at Eric’s.
“Leitha figured it out first.”
He nodded. “She never let me forget that my mother was really my stepmother and I wasn’t a real Finnamore.”
“And she was going to tell Lachlan,” I said.
Jonas loved his nephew—his son. You had to spend only a few minutes with them to see that. It was the only reason I could think of that could explain why he had killed Leitha, because I was suddenly sure he had.
“Lachlan adored his mother and father and they felt the same way about him. If there were any fairness in the world, any justice, they would be alive and Leitha would have died years ago.” He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “It’s her fault they’re dead, you know,” he said.
The lines around his mouth tightened. It was the only sign of what he was feeling. I suspected Jonas had learned to keep his emotions to himself a long time ago.
“Leitha kept pushing Colin to get more involved in the family business,” he continued. “She still had shares in Black Dog and she convinced him to go and vote her proxy. The accident happened on the way home. She would have ruined every memory Lachlan had of them. I couldn’t let her do that. And I couldn’t let her cut him off from the trust money for his education.”
My phone was on the table. There was no way I could reach it before he shot me. The only thing I could do was keep him talking. I was Miss Marple in the drawing room of an English country manor, I told myself. I was Hercule Poirot on the Orient Express.
“You laced your tea with potassium chloride and put sugar in it so Leitha wouldn’t notice the taste.”
“Potassium chloride tastes a little salty and slightly metallic, but the sugar hid that quite well,” Jonas said. The shoulders of his jacket were damp. It must still be raining, I realized.
I put one hand on the back of the chair next to me, gripping it tightly so Jonas wouldn’t see my hand shaking. “How did she figure it out?” I asked. I genuinely wanted to know the answer.
Jonas rubbed his face with his free hand. “It was that study she was part of. They were looking into the genetics of heart disease, looking to see if there was a connection to common physical traits like eye and hair color, and how cilantro tastes to someone. Leitha outlived her brother and lived longer than her parents and her grandparents. She had the Finnamore green eyes. They had become less common over the years.”
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 wish 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.
