Bouquet of Lies Part 33

Everyone was silent. Lacey thought about it. If Harper would lie all those years and let his kids think their mother was dead, then he was capable of forcing Crystal to go away. Still. A mother should have fought for her children.

"So explain. I still don't get it. Blood is thicker than water. I'm your blood. Darla's your blood. You left!"

Darla's nightmare was different this time. She wasn't caged. She wasn't a victim. She was a killer. She held a poker with two hands as her mother instructed her on the fine art of the perfect swing.

"Like this." Her mother clutched a pretend poker. She lifted it over her head and swung down in an arc. "Za-zoom! Now you try."

A tough and determined Darla eyed her father kneeling before her, head bowed. She lifted the poker and brought it down, gently touching the crown of his head.

"X marks the spot," her mother said.

Darla brought the poker up and then, as hard as she could, sliced it downward and bashed Harper's skull. It split open with a loud crack, blood spurting everywhere. "Ooh, messy."

"Yes, very messy. Sometimes the things we must do are very untidy. Now. Over here. This one," her mother instructed.

Darla and her mother moved two steps to the right. There knelt Edward. He wasn't as complacent as his son. His face contorted this way then that and although he didn't speak, snarls spewed from his twisted mouth.

"What's that?" Darla's mother asked, c.o.c.king an ear toward Edward. "You hate your granddaughter? Yes. We know." She looked at Darla. "Would you like to do the honors?"

"I most certainly would." With a smile this time, Darla raised the poker and came down hard.

"Very nice," her mother said. "Very professional."

Darla shook her head. "Now I never have to hear him call me names again."

"That's right. And now, my sweet one, here is what you do next. Put the poker down."

Darla did.

"And you're going to shoot a gun." Her mother held a gun in her hand.

"Must I?"

"I'm afraid you must. Mother knows best. Now don't argue."

"I would never do that."

"There's my sweet. Take the gun."

Darla did.

"Get ready."

Darla held it, arms extended, finger on the trigger.

"And when your sister walks through that door, fire."

"I don't really want to."

"Mother knows best."

"Mother knows best," Darla repeated.

The door opened and Darla screamed.

"Wake up. Wake up, baby. Darla, wake up."

Darla opened her eyes with a start. "Where am I?" Her voice was urgent, desperate. She rolled her head from side to side on the pillow. Hands were on her. An arm lifted her and another hugged her.

Who is that? Where am I? My face is hot. My body's cold. Where am I? She struggled.

"Darla. Darla, stop. You're in our motel room. We're together. You're fine."

Randy? Randy, is that you? "Randy?"

"Yes. It's me."

Her muscles relaxed and she started to cry. "I did it. I killed my father and my grandfather."

"What? No."

"I did. I really did. I saw. And I didn't mind it."

"You were dreaming."

"I know. But I realized. Mother's dead. She's really dead. The Reverend Irene said so. And dead people don't hit live people with pokers. I was there. Both times. It had to be me. It had to be me." Her body racked with sobs.

"Listen to me. Listen. You didn't kill anyone."

Darla reached an arm around Randy and clung to him. She didn't say anything.

"Do you want to know what I think?"

Darla nodded. Her head rubbed against his chest.

"Now listen. Really listen. I know you think your sister loves you, and maybe a part of her does. But she's money hungry."

"That's what the Reverend Irene says. And mother sometimes, when I hear her in my head." She began to cry again.

"There's no point in fighting the truth. I'm afraid for you. I can't be with you all of the time and I don't trust Lacey. I've told you this before. You have to listen this time. Your sister killed Harper and Edward."

"But she was on stage when-"

"No. You aren't listening. On stage she did that disappearing trick. She was gone for a while."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. And when Edward was killed, she says she was asleep in her room. I don't believe it. Not for a second. And now that Harper and Edward are dead, all that's left is you."

Darla twisted so she could face Randy and pushed up with one hand. "And you! I've put you in danger. She'll come after you! We have to get a divorce."

Randy laughed. "No. We have to protect ourselves. That's why you have a gun now. For when I'm not there. But Darla, I have to be confident that you will shoot when you have to. When Lacey comes near. When you sense danger. Shoot first and ask questions later."

Thirty-two.

TIFFANY'S FACE WAS in her hands, fingertips over closed eyes. Her cigarette break was over and she had been given a gla.s.s of water. She was stalling and Lacey was running out of patience. It was time for Tiffany to tell what happened.

"Mrs. Bouquet."

Uncle D's words startled Tiffany and Lacey at the same time. They both glanced at the rotund cop.

Mrs. Bouquet? He was right. Her mother was Mrs. Bouquet. They'd never divorced.

"You can call me Crystal." She looked down at the table and murmured, "Now that Edward's dead." She swallowed. "It's hard to tell this story." Her hands balled into fists. With eyes glued to the tabletop she took a deep breath before she began.

"Harper was gone a lot. Building his empire. And I was young and didn't quite get it."

"Where'd you meet?" Lacey asked. "I never knew."

Crystal looked at her. "I was a waitress."

"Where?"

Crystal closed her eyes. "Hooters."

There was silence. No one laughed.

"Go on," Uncle D prodded.

"Harriet didn't like me all that much and Edward was just downright rude. I must have heard every Hooter joke ever created. Things weren't perfect, but I coped." She looked at Lacey. "And then you came along and I loved being a mother. I mean I just loved it. I adored you. So did your father and your grandmother. But it did something weird to Edward. He got worse."

"I bet."

"He was jealous." Crystal crossed her arms. "That's when I decided I would try to make friends."

Lacey couldn't help herself. She let loose with a "Ha!"

Tears came to Crystal's eyes and Lacey wiped the smirk from her face. "So what happened?"

"He went along with it."

"What do you mean?" Uncle D asked.

"He pretended we were friends. Best friends. He was nice. Like he'd seen the light and become another person."

"Nice? Edward?" Lacey raised both brows. "He had a motive for everything. Must have been b.u.t.tering you up for something."

"He . . . he . . ." More tears spilled from Crystal, although her voice remained clear. "One night we had some whiskey together." She wiped away the tears. "Your father was on a long business trip. Six weeks. Six weeks in Hong Kong. And Harriet knew her son. She told me not to play with snakes. Yeah. She called her own son a snake. I explained to her. I told her I was just trying to get along with Edward. Be friends for the sake of harmony in the family. She told me I should keep my distance. I didn't listen."

Crystal rubbed her face and was quiet for a moment.

"I blacked out the night we were drinking and it wasn't from the whiskey. I have absolutely no memory of what happened. But . . ." She swallowed. "Nine months later Darla came along."

Lacey felt like she'd been slugged in the stomach. The hair on the back of her neck rose. She felt nauseous. "Are you saying Darla is Edward's daughter?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

The blood drained from Lacey's body and she was certain she was going to retch. She wanted to call her mother a liar, but the words lodged in her throat and stayed there.

No one spoke. Everyone stared. Lacey regained a measure of composure and it occurred to her: Why would Crystal make up such a thing? There was nothing to gain. Nothing at all. It had to be true.

Lacey spoke. "Darla used to say Edward had a special pocketful of hatred for her and I told her it wasn't true. He hated everybody. He was an equal-opportunity hater."

"Edward would hate his own daughter," Crystal said. Her eyes went to the table. "Harper did the math. And Edward fed him lies." Her eyes glistened. "He said I came on to him. And, who knows? It's possible that in Edward's sick brain that's how he saw it. I had tried to make friends."

She wiped her eyes and swallowed. She looked at Lacey.

"At least he never tried to say I ran around on my husband. Of course, Harriet would have known that wasn't true and squashed any lie like that. Not to defend me to Harper, but because the baby was blood and that meant a lot in her book."

She took a deep breath and looked away.

"Your father never touched me after that. I tried to explain, of course. But he didn't listen. He said I could stay until the baby was born and then I was to leave. He said it just like that. No emotion. Like it was easy to see me go. He said he was going to keep the kids and that he'd send me money every month.

"I thought he would change his mind. You know. It would be months before the baby arrived, enough time for him to realize I would never have seduced Edward.

"But he didn't. He never budged. He wouldn't even talk about it. Didn't matter to him-or Harriet-that Edward was the bad guy in all this. I mean, because they knew I was telling the truth. They had to. They knew what he was like. What he was capable of. They just accepted it and tolerated it. But instead of kicking him out, I had to pay."

Her voice trailed with a touch of anger.

"That blood thing, you know. How blood is thicker than anything. That's what mattered. No a.n.a.lyzing who did what. No being fair. Blood. That was it with them." Crystal's jaw twitched.

Lacey digested her mother's words. It was easy to make herself sound like a sacrificial lamb, but Lacey wasn't buying it. She believed Edward drugged her mother and all that. But why not get a divorce then? Make it official. She didn't know how much money her father paid her mother, but the court probably would have ordered more and she would have gotten at least partial custody of her kids. Unless the truth was Crystal didn't want her kids.

Bitterness found its way into her voice. "Why didn't you divorce him? The courts would have ordered equal time with us."

"You've never been poor," Crystal said. "What lawyer do you think I could have gotten? Harriet might protect her no-good son, but she would have smeared me and not cared about the truth."

"Grandmama Harriet wasn't like that."

"You don't know. You were her granddaughter. She loved you. I was an outsider and a person from the wrong side of town."

Silence for a moment again.