The Third Grave (Savannah #4) - Lisa Jackson Page 0,133

suicide as a confession, that his guilt drove him to it.”

“You’re out of your mind. Do you think Margaret will let it go? No way.” She lit up, took a long drag, then blew out a long stream of smoke. “Not that woman. Did she ever once think to thank me for supplying Owen with an alibi? Hell, no! She twisted it all around and blamed me.” Another pull on the cigarette. Another cloud of smoke. “She made my life a living hell.”

“A living hell? Out on Tybee? Tennis? Golf? Boating?” He snorted. “If that’s hell, count me in!”

“Shut up! You know what I mean!”

“Hey, we’re in this together.”

“I don’t think so. I never signed up for murder. You were supposed to kidnap Rose and find a place for her, a home . . . that was the idea.” She squared her shoulders. “Holly and Poppy were never supposed to be a part of it.”

“Things evolved.” Tyson was calm for the moment, but he was sweating and he felt that small tell-tale tic developing beneath his left eye. He rubbed it with the back of his hand holding the gun, but it remained, a testament to his own tension. They needed to end this. He needed to end this. “If Gillette followed you . . . if she’s on to us? I’ll deal with her.”

“Deal with her?” Ashley repeated, obviously distressed as she looked up at the ceiling as if searching for strength or divine intervention. “Oh, God, Tyson. You mean kill her. Jesus, Tyson, listen to yourself. That’s always your answer, isn’t it? But it has to stop!”

What was she not getting about this? “Ash, it has to be permanent. You know that.”

“No! No more!” Ashley’s voice was quavering. She took a final drag, then tossed the rest of her cigarette into the firebox, the cig’s red ember glowing in the charred remains of a long-ago fire. “There’s been too much killing.” She was shaking her head, her blond hair shimmering in the lantern’s light. “There’s been too much.” And she looked up at him with accusing eyes. “It all started with Nell, didn’t it?”

“Nell? What’s Nell got to do with any of this?”

“Didn’t it?” she demanded.

What the hell did Ashley know about his sister and how he’d let her drown? It was true Nell had been the first to die because of him, but no one knew about that. Not Jacob, who’d been there, not his parents and certainly not Ashley. She was driving blind. Had to be.

“How dumb do you think I am?” she said, getting to her feet and challenging him. “If you were going to ‘take care of Rose’ because of your father’s damned estate, then why wouldn’t you start with Nell?”

“Nell drowned,” he said simply, and silently kicked himself for explaining to Ashley years ago about his need to be Baxter’s only heir, that he felt the estate, the grounds, the rights, and everything with the name Beaumont in Savannah belonged to him. Now, with Ashley in such an agitated state, her eyes blazing with accusations, there was no reason to confess.

“You were there, Ty.” She walked closer, poked a finger at his chest.

“You’re crazy.”

“Am I?” She was only inches from him now, her face upturned, her lips tight, this woman he’d loved for decades, the girl he’d killed for so they could have a future together. And she was pissed as hell.

“I didn’t kill my sister,” he said, forcing a calm he didn’t feel.

“Bullshit!”

She wasn’t having it, so he lifted a shoulder. “Look, don’t make more of it than it was, okay? I just didn’t save her. And it happened years ago. So let it go, Ash. It’s over.”

He heard what sounded like a scrape outside. Fuck! He glared at the window. Was he going crazy? Or was there really someone out there? The hairs lifting on the back of his arms warned him of an unseen danger and he took a step toward the grimy panes only to spy a rat dart toward the fireplace, its tail slithering behind it as it scrambled into a crack in the mortar. He started for the window once more.

“You killed her,” Ashley accused again, and he stopped dead in his tracks. “Your own sister.”

“I already told you. I just didn’t—”

“Save her. I know. But you could have,” she charged, as if any of this was a surprise. “You were on the damned swim team!”

God, Ash was getting irritating, and this old lodge with its creaking