dangers in her mind. Anyone?’
Kallie raised a hand. ‘She’s frightened I’ll discover the wall for myself.’
‘Absolutely. You’re doing up the property, although it’s more of a struggle with Paul gone. Two, suppose Elliot mentions the wall in Heather’s house, the one she made him destroy? She can’t prevent the first, but she can sure as hell fix the latter. She’s done it once before; she can do it again. She waits and watches for an opportunity, and weirdly, just as the stuck tap represented a chance, so does Elliot’s work on the waste ground opposite. She throws you off the scent by claiming to see someone else from the window—or perhaps she has really seen Tate lurking in the bushes—and sends you on a pointless errand to buy booze, before heading over in the obscuring rain to see if there’s anything she can do. And there, perilously close to the half-cut Elliot, is his truck. She looks in the cab, spots the button that empties the flatbed, and allows the bricks to tip forward. Then she runs home, and is careful to be seen at the window by you as you return.’
‘That’s why there was a puddle of water on the carpet,’ May realized.
‘Heather’s out of danger. Everyone knew Elliot was a drunk. The rain will obliterate the crime scene. All she has to do now is wait for the Water House to fall into her lap.’
‘It’s true I was very depressed,’ said Kallie. ‘Maybe I did start to think about moving on, and could have been persuaded to sell to Heather. I should have seen the signs. God, when I think about our conversations together, the number of mistakes she made. She even referred to her cat as “a legacy from George” and I didn’t pick up on it. How did I fail to notice?’
‘Everyone makes mistakes when they’re improvising,’ said Bryant.
‘Maybe Jake did say something to Paul about making money from the house, but they got drunk together, and the next morning he’d forgotten their conversation.’ Kallie accepted another beer from Longbright. ‘I’ll never take him back now. Sorry, Mr Bryant, please go on.’
‘Well—I think it’s safe to assume that, by this time, Heather Allen is no longer thinking rationally. The scheme obsesses her. And that’s when the domino effect really kicks in. Jake Avery comes calling to tell her about something Elliot told him. He’s suspicious of Heather, but can’t decide what to do. He’ll sleep on it before going to the police. She starts to panic now. She’s so close to her goal, but all her efforts will go to waste if Jake talks. I’m guessing this part, but I think we’ll find out it’s true: Heather has seen Aaron and Marshall together. She goes to the workshop and talks to Marshall, and here she finds out something to her advantage. Jake’s always having a go at Aaron about little things, like leaving the back door open. Extemporizing wildly, she uses Tate’s fence-panels to climb into Jake’s back garden, entering his house. Passing through the kitchen, she sees the roll of clingfilm—why, when there’s a rack full of knives? Maybe she’s squeamish—she’s managed to avoid any real bloodshed, after all. She finds Jake asleep and reeking of booze. Smothering him takes virtually no effort at all on her part.’
Bryant dropped down into the seat behind his desk. ‘This should be the end of the chain. No one else knows the truth, and no one will ever know. Whether by coincidence or malicious design, she has murdered three people in accordance with three of the four elements. It’s fate’s grand scheme. Even the land is working with her. She feels invincible. Nothing else can possibly go wrong.
‘Which is exactly when the other weak spot in her plan is breached. Kallie here discovers the mural. To Heather, it seems as if the river is rising up to protect the house and defeat her. How appropriate, then, that she should bring events full circle and drown Kallie, turning her into one of the mural’s subjects. But of course, Tate is watching both houses—Kallie’s and, more importantly, Heather’s. He’s determined to protect Kallie and save his father’s work. But each time he comes running to help her, we chase him away. Still, he returns. At least now his hard work has finally paid off, and the mural—albeit a little frayed and wet around the edges—will be restored and preserved for posterity.’
‘She should have killed Tate,’ said Longbright. ‘That could have