Page 73 of Murder Will Out
Or did they expect her to push Audra off the roof the way Audra had Sue?
Even if she were physically capable, Willow didn’t think she could bring herself to do that. Besides, if Audra got hands on her, she knew she didn’t have a chance.I’m a doughy grad student, she thought,and she is a go-for-a-run-and-do-actual-workouts kind of woman; she’ll kick my butt…
Willow had only one advantage, and it was meager at best. She had seen Audra in the library, and hers were no longer the eyes of the dispassionate predator of a couple of hours ago. Patricia had been the planner, the calculator. Without her, Audra was rudderless. Then she had been forced to face down a roomful of dead people, feel the pressure and the weight of almost-heard voices closing around her. She had come face-to-face with the impossible; it suffused the very air around her, and she had no choice but to inhale it, to take it in.
Willow still had her wits about her, but Audra, Willow suspected, was beginning to lose hers.
Audra burst through the doorway onto the widow’s walk, her feet sliding a little on the wet boards, windmilling her arms to stay upright. Willow lunged at her, hands outstretched, hoping to knock her down long enough to escape through the door back downstairs, but Audra was too fast. She wheeled her arm around as she fell, grabbing a handful of Willow’s hair and pulling her down with her; Willow yelped as the knife sliced through Sue’s coat into her shoulder. Within seconds, Audra was on top, pinning Willow down to the deck, holding her wrists with one hand while the other brought the knife up for its fatal blow.
See?Willow thought inappropriately.I knew this was a terrible idea.The knife began its inexorable journey down toward her chest…
It never made it. A long and solid object swung in an arc intoAudra’s forearm with a sickening thud, sending the knife skittering across the widow’s walk, out of reach. Willow heard Dot’s—or was it Dellie’s?—voice in her memory:We can only touch things that existed when we were alive… and we each have our own little talismans…
As it swept by, Willow caught a glimpse of the long wooden stick with its faceted glass handle and understood what it meant.
Geralt Talbot was back.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Willow lurched upward and threw off her attacker, clawing her way back toward the stairs. She stopped when she saw Geralt Talbot standing in the doorway, tall and craggy and looking every bit as irritated as he always had in life. He peered down his hawk nose at her, shook his head, and said, “See, Sue’s girl, this is why I never wanted children. They are invariably a disappointment.” He glared down at Audra, who was lying on her back, looking up at him in shock. “And you—you are more of a disappointment than most.”
Though he had on the sweater and dreadful plaid pants he’d worn on the day she met him, and he still held his now-unbroken glass-topped cane, this was a version of Geralt that Willow had not seen before. Gone was the frail curmudgeon who had barked ineffectually at everyone around him. Geralt’s hair and eyebrows were still white and wild, his face still carved with the deep lines of years, but this man stood straight and tall and strong; this was the version of Geralt Talbot who had taken over companies, reigned as CEO over multimillion-dollar businesses, and cemented his dominance by crushing even the smallest insurgency.
By the look in his eye as he scowled down at Audra, he would not tolerate insurgency here either.
Audra pulled herself to her feet, her face twisting with rage. “You! You disgusting—horrible—evil—” She lunged at the old man, but he stepped easily out of her path, while Willow inched as far away from the pair as she could, trying to avoid Audra’s notice.
She need not have worried; Audra only had eyes for the old man, the father who had abandoned her, the reason for all her troubles. She lunged for him again; again, he stepped aside.
Audra was panting now, terror and hatred warring in her. “I killed you!” she spat. “I killed you once, I’ll keep doing it over and over if I have to. I promise I’ll never stop. You ruined my life; you ruined my mother’s life. You destroy everything you’ve ever touched—”
“For God’s sake, don’t be so dramatic.” He sneered back at her. “You killed me because you wanted my money. You killed my wife because you hated that someone might get even a little of what you thought you were entitled to.” His eyes narrowed as he moved to the railing directly opposite and stood facing her. “Your mother was one of the worst mistakes I ever made in my life, and I have made many. Thanks to you, I will not have the opportunity to make another. But know this: You will never take ownership of this property or anything of mine.” He smiled at her, the smile of a crocodile watching its prey through the reeds. “The choice is yours. You can walk downstairs, walk out the door, climb over the body of your easily deceived lover, and accept the consequences for what you have done. Or—”
Audra did not let him finish. The growl started deep in her throat and escalated to a scream; she lunged wildly across the platform to where the old man stood.
Willow rose sluggishly and moved forward, trying to stop her, but the enraged woman’s leap was too committed. Geralt was suddenly not there; now Audra could see the broken rail his spectral body had concealed, the boards Audra had broken to stage Sue Davis’s death. Terror bloomed through the rage; Audra tried to shift her balance before she went over, to grab for something solid. For a moment, Willow thought she might succeed.
Just as Audra looked as though she might be about to right herself, Geralt swept his cane around and caught her by the ankles, jerking them out from under her and propelling her over the edge. Willow crawled forward in a vain attempt to stop her from going over, but Audra had disappeared from view.
As Willow watched, a hand came up and grasped the railing; the other released its hold on the roof edge to swing around and grasp one of the spindles.
A police siren sounded from the causeway bridge, getting closer.
Willow, spent and dizzy, crawled her way to the edge. Inches below her, Audra dangled, struggling to pull herself up, feet kicking for purchase on the steep roof.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Sue’s girl,” came Geralt’s voice from behind her. “Leave her be; you know she’ll try to kill you again if you drag her back up here.”
Willow looked over the edge to where Audra hung. “Help me—please—” Audra’s eyes were bleak and pleading.
This is a terrible idea, Willow thought.I seem to be full of them lately.
She reached down. “Give me your hand!” she called out.
Audra swung her arm around and grasped Willow’s outstretched hand; Willow braced herself against the railing so Audra could pull herself up.
For a moment, it seemed everything would be all right, that an exhausted Audra would safely make it back up to the widow’s walk, that the police would arrive and take her into custody…
But as she dragged her knee over the edge and back onto the decking, Audra saw Geralt, standing there with his smirk and his scorn. The fury and hatred returned to her face.
