“About that money,” he said. “Whose money, and where is it?”
Sophie sighed. “It’s your mother’s, and it’s in her bank account. That day she came out to the farm, she tried to buy me off. But that was two weeks ago so—”
“Buy you off?” Phin looked down at her, incredulous. “Who the hell does she think she is?”
“Liz Tucker,” Sophie said. “She’s just trying to protect you. Now, can I have that shower?”
There was something in her voice; she was talking too fast. “No.” Phin guided her over to the window seat and pulled her into his lap. “There’s more. I don’t give a damn what it is, I’ll forgive you anything, but I want it all.”
Sophie pulled away from him. “I didn’t do anything, you butthead. You can go forgive somebody else.”
Phin winced. “Sorry. But you’re not telling me everything. What else did my mother do?”
“I don’t know,” Sophie said, standing. “I haven’t seen her since that day, I swear to God. Now, I’m going to shower. If you want to come, too, fine, but I’m going to be naked and wet with or without you.”
He followed her into the bathroom, still suspicious, but when she took off her clothes, he decided he could wait to grill her again until they were both clean and satisfied.
An hour later, buttoning up his shirt as he sat on the edge of his bed and trying to think of what he was missing about his mother and money, Phin stopped on the second button and thought, Diane. “She bought off Diane, didn’t she?” he said to Sophie, and Sophie zipped up her shorts and said, “How would I know?”
“But that’s what you think.”
“But I’m often wrong,” Sophie said.
He thought about Diane and Dillie and the whole miserable mess. “Christ.”
“It’s over,” Sophie said, coming to him. “Whatever really happened, it doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
He put his arms around her and thought, It’s not over. Two women had come between him and his family, and the first one was dead.
Family values weren’t supposed to be lethal.
“What?” Sophie said.
“I have to take you home,” he told her, standing up. “It’s time for a little Tucker family time.”
Phin found his mother sitting at her desk in her air-conditioned office on the Hill. She nodded when he came in, and then turned back to her desk, punishing him with her silence.
“You bought Diane off,” he said, and she stiffened but didn’t turn around. He went to her, grabbed the back of the chair and spun it around on its wheels so that she grabbed the arms.
“Phin!”
“How much?” he said, leaning over her.
She pressed her lips together, stony-faced, and he waited for what seemed like hours. “Fifty thousand,” she said finally.
Phin straightened. “Not bad. What was that for, the first year?”
His mother nodded.
“As long as she stayed away from me and Dillie.”
His mother nodded again.
“But she bought a car,” Phin said. “New clothes, furniture for the river house. How long did it take her to run through it?”
“She was stupid,” his mother said bitterly. “Thank God, Dillie got our brains.”
“Right now, I’m wondering about yours,” Phin said.
“You really thought she’d leave us alone for fifty grand a year? Living right here in Temptation? She wasn’t the only one who was stupid.”
Liz flinched. “She was supposed to move away. As soon as she recovered from having Dillie, she was supposed to go away.”
“And how were you going to make her do that?” Phin said. “Who do you think you are?”
“I’m your mother,” Liz snapped. “I took care of you. That harpy would have ruined you. She made you miserable the whole time she was with you.” She looked at him in disgust. “You’re impossible when it comes to women. Diane was a greedy little slut and now this—”
“Careful.” Phin’s voice cut across the space between them. “You really don’t want to make me choose again.”
“The whole town’s talking,” Liz said, her voice shaking. “That woman killed Zane. They found the gun under her bed—”
“What?” Phin said. How the hell had the gossips gotten hold of that?
Liz nodded. “You don’t know her. She killed him—”
“She was in bed with me,” Phin said. “Wes has got the time of death narrowed down to forty-five minutes, and she was naked with me the entire time. Where’d you get this crap?”
“Virginia,” Liz said. “But everybody knows. And now you’re protecting her—”
“Could you just once listen to me?” Phin said. “Instead of spitting paranoia at me?”
Liz clenched her jaw. “I’m not paranoid. You need me. I got you free of Diane. I saved you.”
“I’m just wondering how free,” Phin said, looking at the steel in his mother’s eyes. “She died when Dillie was three months old. That must have been about the time she ran out of money. Did she come back for more?”
“Yes,” Liz said, her disgust palpable, and then his implication must have registered because her eyes widened, and she said, “No.”
“Did you shove her down those steps?” Phin said, sick at heart. “Did you watch her bleed to death? Did Zane find out? Did you shoot him?”
Liz stood up. “I’ve given you my entire life and you say this to me.”
“I didn’t want your life,” Phin told her bitterly. “I wanted mine. And Diane and Zane probably wanted theirs, too.”
“I didn’t kill them,” Liz said.
“That’s a pretty damn big coincidence, Mom.” He turned to go. “I wouldn’t want to have to explain it.”
“Are you going to Wes?” Liz said from behind him, no emotion at all in her voice.
“No,” Phin said, refusing to look back at her. “You’re still my mother. Just stay away from Sophie.”
“I didn’t kill Diane, Phin,” Liz said. “It really was a coincidence.”
Her voice shook a little this time, and he turned back. “Remember that day in the courthouse when you said you’d do anything for me?”
She nodded.
“Don’t.”
He turned and walked out of his mother’s house and down the Hill to the bookstore, not stopping until he was in front of the pool table.
It was a beautiful thing, massive in its elegance, impressive in its tradition. Just like his family.
He really did not believe his mother had killed people. His mother might be unhinged from his father’s death but she wasn’t a killer. There was still a human being in there somewhere, a cold, driven human being, but still a human being. She hadn’t become a monster when he wasn’t looking.
“Oh, Christ,” he said, and sat down hard on the edge of the table. She really hadn’t. Not his mother.
And now she was trying to pin Zane’s death on Sophie.
He got up and went to the phone and dialed Hildy Mallow. “Hildy?” he said when she answered. “I’ve got some gossip for you to spread.”
“I don’t spread gossip,” Hildy said primly.
“You will this gossip,” Phin said. “Somebody’s spreading the rumor that Sophie killed Zane.”
“I’d heard that,” Hildy said. “Didn’t seem likely but people are strange.”
“She was in bed with me,” Phin said. “The entire time. Tell everybody.”
“Oh,” Hildy said. “All right. Your mother’s not going to like this.”
“Good,” Phin said. “Tell her first.”
When Sophie got home, Amy was waiting for her. “Where have you been?” she said. “I need—”
“Get it yourself,” Sophie said, and went upstairs.
Amy followed her up. “What’s with you? I just wanted your opinion on the cable cut of the video.”
“Get all the sex out of it and bleep the foul language,” Sophie said. “After that I don’t care. I’m worried abo
ut Phin and Dillie. They—”
“Oh, sure,” Amy said. “Phin and Dillie.”
Sophie looked up at the tone in her voice. “You’re jealous.”
Amy shrugged. “I just think family—”
“That’s why you called Brandon,” Sophie said. “You don’t like him, but you’d rather I was with him because you know I don’t care about him. But Phin—”
“I don’t care what you do with the mayor,” Amy said. “Screw him all you want.”
“It’s really Dillie, isn’t it?” Sophie said. “I can only have one kid in my life, and that’s you?”
Amy’s eyes filled with tears.
“Amy, I will always be here for you, but you’re not getting my life anymore.”
“No, they get it now.” Amy sniffed. “Well, no problem. I can take care of myself.”
“Actually, you can’t.” Sophie tried to smile to take the sting out of the words. “I wish you’d apologize to Wes and get him back. This is a man who not only fixed your funky sunglasses, he made them funkier. And he gave you a flexible showerhead that you’ve been using for immoral purposes ever since we got here. He may be the only man in the world who understands you and gives you what you need even before you know you need it. But you’re giving him up for a dirty movie? Come on, Ame.”
“This is my career, Sophie,” Amy said stiffly.
“This is a home movie, Amy,” Sophie said. “An amateur, direct-to-video skin flick. You are not Robert Rodriguez. Grow up and look at what matters in life.”
Amy turned and walked out.
When Davy came up the stairs a few minutes later, he said, “What happened with Amy?”
“I picked Phin and Dillie,” Sophie said. “Was that lousy of me?”
“No,” Davy said. “It’s past time for you to get a better plan than, ‘I’ll sacrifice my life for my grown brother and sister.’ Way past time.”
“What about you?” Sophie said.
“I have a plan of my own,” Davy said, grinning. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Not for Amy,” Sophie said, and Davy’s smile faded.
“She’ll be all right,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced. The lights flickered, and he said, “Oh, great, she’s plugged in all the computer stuff again. Didn’t you tell her—”
“Over and over again,” Sophie said, and got up to call down the stairs. “Amy? You’re going to blow a—”
The lights went out downstairs.
“—fuse.”
“I’ll get it,” Amy said coldly from the foot of the stairs. “How hard can this be if you do it?”
They heard her slam open the basement door and stamp down the stairs.
“You know, she needs to be smacked,” Davy said. “Spoiled brat.”
“She’s just hurt,” Sophie said. “She—”
The lights came on for a split second, and then there was a crack and they went out again.
“Amy?” Sophie said.
“Amy?” Davy ran for the stairs, Sophie on his heels.
“Somebody pulled loose a wire in the fuse box,” Wes said, when Phin had come back from the hospital. “And poured water on the floor and set a trap for her.”
“Not for her,” Phin said, his voice grim. “Amy doesn’t change the fuses. She doesn’t do any scut work. She’s the artist.” He felt lousy even as he said it, remembering Amy’s pale little face in the hospital bed, her fingers bandaged from the burns, her head shaved to stitch up the wound she’d gotten when the charge had blown her back against an old metal table.
“For Sophie,” Wes agreed. “I got an anonymous phone call today. Somebody seemed to think there was a gun under Sophie’s bed.”
“Trace it?”
“The courthouse,” Wes said. “Anybody in the world could have made it. And now this. Somebody wants Sophie out of the way pretty badly.”
Phin closed his eyes. “I do not see my mother sneaking into a basement to fray a wire. Or putting a gun under a bed she knew I’d be sleeping in.”
“Your mom is... upset that you moved out,” Wes said. “Extremely.”
“She’ll get over it,” Phin said. “So you going to the hospital to see Amy?” Wes turned away as he added,
“She asked for you. I told her you were investigating the accident and you’d be out to talk to her later.”
“She wants to see me?”
“Sounded like it,” Phin said. “She pretty much got the spunk knocked out of her, and she’s stuck in the hospital for the night. Good time to go talk to her.”
Wes turned on him. “You think I’d ask her about Zane now?”
“I meant about the two of you,” Phin said. “She’s leaving tomorrow after the premiere.”
“She’ll be out that fast?”
“They’re just watching her for the night. Go see her.”
“Maybe,” Wes said. “Is Sophie—”
“Sophie’s staying with me tonight.”
“I thought Dillie—”
“She’s staying with me and Dillie,” Phin said.
Wes raised his eyebrows. “Your mother—”
“Go see Amy,” Phin said. “I’ll take care of my mother.”
When Wes brought Amy home from the hospital the next day, Sophie had the entire house cleaned, their things packed, and the car full of gas. “If you don’t feel like leaving tonight after the premiere, we can stay,” Sophie said, and Amy said, “Whatever you want,” and went upstairs to bed.
“I’ll come back later tonight,” Wes told Sophie. “She’s okay, she’s just nervous about the video.”
But when Sophie went upstairs to see her, she found Davy instead, packing his bag.
“You’re leaving?”
“I’ve got a place I have to be, and somebody I have to finish things with.” He closed the suitcase lid and locked it. “Harvard’s watching your back here, probably better than I can. It’s his turf, after all.”
“I don’t think—”
“Amy’s okay and Clea’s gone, so I’d say your problems—”
“Clea’s gone?”
“Left about an hour ago,” Davy said. His voice was light, but his face was grim.
“Is that why you’re leaving?” Sophie felt sick. “You’re not going off with her, are you? You don’t want her back?”
“You ask too many questions.” Davy sat down beside her and put his arm around her. “Listen to me: Marry the mayor and keep the dog and live happily ever after in this house. That’s what you want. Forget about me and Amy and go for it.”
“Just like that,” Sophie said.
“Have you tried?” Davy said.
Sophie smiled faintly. “Well, actually, yeah. I kicked the mayor’s butt at pool.”
“Good girl,” Davy said.
“By not wearing underwear,” Sophie said.
“Even better,” Davy said.
“I just don’t think that’s going to do it,” Sophie said. “And I know that’s not going to get me the house.”
“I have a deal for you,” Davy said, and Sophie said, “This should be good. Scamming your sister.”
“No,” Davy said. “This one’s a promise. You stay here and marry the mayor and I’ll get you this house.”
Sophie blinked at him. “You have three-quarters of a million dollars?”
“Never ask people about money,” Davy said. “It’s rude.”
Zone’s bank book. Sophie went cold. “Where did you get three-quarters of a million dollars?”
“Sophie—” Davy said and hit her with the Dempsey smile.
Sophie sighed. “Call me for bail when you get caught.”
“You have an attitude problem,” Davy said, and kissed her cheek. “Don’t go back to Cincy, stay here. I’ll have the deed for you by Monday.”
He picked up the suitcase, and she said, “Wait,” and he caught her as she flung herself at him. “Be very, very careful,” she whispered in his ear, not adding especially with Clea, and he held her tight
and said, “Just for you, I always am.” Then he kissed her cheek and was gone.
Welcome to Temptation Page 35
