in the attic after you knocked Tiffany out, figuring the police had already done a search of the house but might have missed something in the attic that they might find on a second sweep,” I said.
“Clever girl,” she said. “It’s a shame you couldn’t find something else to do with all that talent.”
“What I can’t understand is why you killed Gwyn,” I said.
Gertie and Ida Belle both gasped.
She raised her eyebrows. “Can’t you? As soon as she heard that the investigation had gone from carjacking to murder, she could barely string a sentence together. Maybe it was just because she had no backbone and was worried about something happening to her, or maybe she was upset that her white knight had been intentionally killed. But maybe it was because Gil had told her his suspicions about me, and that was something I couldn’t risk.”
“Gwyn didn’t know anything,” I said. “You killed an innocent woman for no reason.”
“Let’s not pretend that Gwyn was an innocent,” she said. “She was up to her neck in an affair with Gil. If she’d had morals, she’d wouldn’t have been in that position and then she’d still be alive.”
“So it’s her fault you killed her?” I asked. “That’s some interesting logic. I wonder how it will stand up in court.”
“Fortunately for me, it doesn’t have to,” she said. “Now drop that palette knife and move away from the painting. I can’t afford to get blood on all those props, especially as you’ve removed the plastic wrapping from so many.”
A faint click sounded from somewhere on stage and we all jerked our heads in that direction just in time to see a giant bird on a rope swing out from the ceiling on stage and straight toward the auditorium.
Brigette jumped back as the bird flew past and I yelled at Gertie and Ida Belle to dive. Brigette’s finger tightened on the trigger and she squeezed off a round. I flung the palette knife at her, then dived behind the box of paintings. A round of bullets sprayed around me and I covered my head and face as glass burst everywhere.
Then there was silence.
I pulled out my weapon and prayed that Ida Belle and Gertie were tucked safely away behind boxes, then inched forward and peered around the corner of the tattered box I was hiding behind. I blinked once in disbelief, then rose.
The palette knife had lodged in Brigette’s cheek and her hands were locked around it, but she wasn’t moving. I rushed over to check her pulse but it was strong. She’d either passed out from pain or fear or cracked her head when she fell. I grabbed some rope I’d removed from a crate and tied her wrists together, then kicked the gun across the room after I frisked her to make sure she didn’t have another weapon hidden somewhere.
No more activity had come from the stage area, which was eerily silent, but I knew someone lurked in the shadows. I shifted my attention to the stage and aimed my weapon. Someone had let that bird loose and I couldn’t be certain they were friendly, even though it had helped me.
“Come out!” I yelled. “If I have to pursue you, it’s not going to end well.”
The curtains moved at the back of the stage and Lil stepped out, all color drained from her face, and her hands above her head.
“Don’t shoot,” she said. “I heard everything. I called the police but I was afraid they wouldn’t get here in time. I thought if I distracted Brigette, you could get away.”
I lowered my weapon and Ida Belle and Gertie popped up from their hiding places.
“You did a hell of a job with that distraction,” I said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to shoot you.”
“We might hug you though,” Gertie said.
Lil let out a huge breath and her shoulders relaxed.
“I’ve never been so scared in all my life,” she said as she made her way off the stage. “When I heard her admit to killing Gil, I was shocked, but when she admitted to killing Gwyn, I was just mad. I couldn’t let her get away with it.”
Gertie pulled Lil into a hug and squeezed her so tightly, Lil winced.
“Of course you couldn’t let her get away,” Gertie said. “Especially with your daughter sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial for a murder she didn’t commit. Or did you even know Tiffany had been arrested?”