need a sister, and I don’t want one with all the baggage you’re bringing into my life. But I promised our mother that I’d make sure you’re safe, and I’ll do it.”
“My mother? I don’t know anything about her. I never wanted to know. They told me she gave me up when I was a baby. She didn’t care about me then. Why should I believe she does now?” She drew a deep breath. “So you can call your Joe Quinn and get him to take you out of here. I don’t need you.” She turned to Newell. “I’ll be right back, Billy. There’s a first-aid kit in the kitchen.” She turned on her heel and strode out of the library.
“She does need you,” Newell said quietly. “The cards are stacked against her. It has to be the Averys who gave the kill order. That’s a hell of a lot of power for Beth to have to go up against. She can’t even go to the police. Just the fact that she’s been in a mental hospital all these years will make it difficult for anyone to believe her. She’d end up back in the hospital, and, in a year or two, they’d find a way to kill her.”
“I’m not going to leave her.” She shrugged. “Even if she tells me to do it. It’s not totally my fault, you know. It appears that she’s taken a dislike to me.”
He smiled. “I noticed. It’s a little strange. I actually think it’s healthy. I’ve never seen her react like that toward anyone. She’s always been sweet and docile. It could be that the drugs are totally out of her system now. Or it could be spending this period alone, she’s had time to think, and her personality is beginning to assert itself.”
“Or it could be a natural antipathy.” She reached up and gingerly touched her jaw. “For any reason you choose to call it, her personality is definitely present and accounted for.” She turned away and dialed Joe. “Everything is fine here. Drogan was in contact with Beth, but he hasn’t shown up here. Anything suspicious out there?”
“No. How is Beth Avery taking all this?”
“Not tamely. Scared, but she’s no timid rabbit.”
“Do I detect an edge?”
“Probably. But I’m trying to work through it. Are you ready to come in? I’ll unlock the front door.”
“Not yet. I’ll call you. I’m going to drive back the way we came and check to make sure we weren’t followed.”
“I didn’t see anyone tailing us on the freeway.”
“Neither did I. But Newell said Drogan was a professional who knew what he was doing. He might have been good enough so that we wouldn’t have been able to notice him. It won’t hurt to take a little time to be sure.” He hung up.
“Okay?” Newell asked, as she hung up her cell.
She nodded as she turned back to face him. “He’s going to backtrack in case we were followed. He’ll call me.”
“Smart move.” He leaned wearily back in the chair. “Thorough.”
“That’s Joe.” She gazed thoughtfully at him. “You look like you’re ready to pass out.”
“I’ve been worse.” He smiled slightly. “But if I do pass out, you’ve got to promise that you’ll take care of Beth for me. I promised Uncle Hermie that she’d come out of this okay.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“No, I like her.” He chuckled. “And I’ve no ambition to be the prince who battles through the thorns to save her.”
“Yet you already have.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” He tilted his head. “But I feel more like she’s my sister. I’d do it for a sister. Would you?”
She didn’t answer. “She said that she didn’t know anything about her mother. But your uncle told you about Sandra. You didn’t mention it to Beth?”
He shook his head. “You have no idea how little time we had for small talk.”
“Hardly small talk,” Eve said dryly.
“It was for me. Everything I did, everything I said, was aimed at getting her off the drugs, clearing her mind so that she didn’t stay in that damn fog they tried to keep blowing around her. It was all present and a little future, no past. You weren’t important.”
“I’m still not, but Sandra wouldn’t agree.” She thought of something else. “Beth calls you Billy. William is your middle name.”
“And no one at the hospital would recognize it if she mumbled something by mistake during the time we were hiding those pills in the mattress. It protected both of us when she was