Chapter 6
The wake started at 6:00 p.m.
The house was full of people.
Relatives I hadn’t seen in years. Business associates of my father. Neighbors. Everyone was there. Everyone had a story about Hannah. Everyone said how sorry they were.
I moved through the crowd like a ghost.
I shook hands.
I nodded.
I let old ladies hug me and tell me God had a plan.
All the while, I watched.
My mother was the perfect hostess. She moved from group to group, accepting condolences, dabbing at dry eyes with a lace handkerchief. She was the picture of a grieving matriarch.
No one would ever guess.
Caleb was by the fireplace. He was holding court. He was telling people how he had been like a brother to Hannah. How he would miss her laugh. How he would make sure Nathan was taken care of.
I wanted to kill him.
I stood by the coffin. People had moved it to the front room for the wake. It was closed now. Thank God. I didn’t think I could look at her again without breaking.
Then I felt a hand on my arm.
“Nathan. Can we talk?”
I turned.
Uncle Ray.
My father’s older brother. He was the only person in the family who had ever been nice to me. He lived in a cabin in the mountains. He came to town once a year.
“Uncle Ray. Hi.”
He pulled me into the library. He closed the door. He locked it.
He was drunk.
I could smell the whiskey on his breath.
“Nathan... I need to tell you something. Before I don’t have the guts anymore.”
I said nothing.
“I saw them that morning. I was driving by your house. I was going to stop. Say hi. I saw Caleb go in. Then I heard screaming. Then I saw your mother drive up. She went in. Then... nothing. No ambulance for almost an hour.”
He ran his hand through his hair.
“I didn’t say anything. Lorraine is my sister-in-law. Caleb is my nephew. I thought... I thought maybe it was just a fight. I didn’t know they would... I didn’t know she would die.”
He looked at me. His eyes were red.
“I’m so sorry, Nathan. I should have called the police. I should have done something. But I was scared. Your mother... she knows things about me. Things that would send me to prison. She would have destroyed me.”
I stared at him.
Another witness.
“Uncle Ray... Detective Carter at the police station. She’s investigating. She needs to hear this from you. Will you talk to her?”
He nodded.
“Yes. Yes, I will. I owe you that. I owe Hannah that.”
There was a knock on the door.
Hard. Sharp.
“Nathan? Are you in there?”
My mother’s voice.
Uncle Ray went pale.
“Go,” I whispered. “Out the back. Through the garden. Call Carter tomorrow. Tell her everything.”
He slipped out the French doors to the garden just as my mother opened the main door.
She stood in the doorway. Her eyes were like flint.
“Who were you talking to?”
“No one. Just needed a minute alone.”
She stepped into the room. She closed the door behind her.
“Don’t lie to me, Nathan. I’m not in the mood. I heard voices.”
She walked toward me.
“Did you go to the police today, Nathan?”
My blood ran cold.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She laughed. A dry, humorless sound.
“Don’t play stupid. It doesn’t suit you. My lawyer called. The probate court. Someone filed a new will this morning. Your will. The one Hannah had drawn up. Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Did you think you could steal from your own family and get away with it?”
She was inches from my face now.
“Where is it, Nathan? Where are the documents Hannah stole? Give them to me. Now. And maybe I’ll let you leave this house alive.”
I looked past her.
Through the glass doors to the garden.
I saw movement.
Two men.
Big men.
They were walking around the side of the house. Toward the library doors.
I understood then.
She wasn’t going to negotiate.
She was going to kill me tonight.
Right here.
Right now.
They would say I was overcome with grief. They would say I killed myself with my father’s old gun. The same gun I had in my waistband right now.
It was the perfect story.
I backed away.
“Stay away from me, Mom.”
“Give me the documents, Nathan.”
The door handle behind her turned.
Caleb stepped into the room.
He was smiling.
He was holding something in his hand.
May you like
A syringe.
“Hello, little brother. I think it’s time you joined your wife.”
