Page 74 of Murder Will Out
In a single move, Audra threw herself at Willow, graspingWillow’s arm with both of hers. Willow had but a split second to understand what was happening; then Audra launched herself backward off the platform, intent on pulling them both down.
The force of Audra’s lunge propelled an unstable Willow over the edge of the widow’s walk; only the crook of her elbow around an ancient piece of railing prevented them both from sliding off the roof and to the rocky ground far below. Willow struggled to free her arm from Audra’s grip, but the other woman held on like a vise, her body a deadweight pulling them both down, her eyes shining with dark glee.
The police cruiser pulled up below; dimly, Willow saw Nick leap out of the driver’s seat, while Rina and Finn jumped out the other side. Her arm was beginning to slip; worse, she could feel the wood of the railing beginning to give way beneath her unstable grip…
A piercingCaw!sounded from above; a large crow dive-bombed Audra, beating around her head and shoulders with its wings. Audra instinctively tried to bat it away, her grip loosening enough for Willow to wrench her arm free.
Willow’s world went into slow motion, the next few seconds feeling somehow inevitable and eternal all at once. Audra slid backward down the steep pitch of the roof; she vainly scrabbled for purchase on the uneven surface, but she was moving too fast. Her shout of fury devolved into a wail and then a terrified scream as she slid over the edge and out of view.
Audra’s scream below blended with the creak of too-old wood as the railing Willow clung to began to give way; she whipped her head around to see the wooden spindle bend and then shatter beneath the weight of her crooked elbow, and she felt herself begin to fall. In a last attempt to save her life, she swung her other arm up—
It closed around a smooth stick of wood with a rounded ball of glass at one end.
With a single powerful yank, Geralt used the cane to pull Willow back onto the widow’s walk, where she collapsed, panting.
There was shouting far below and the sound of a barking dog.
Geralt folded his arms and scowled down at her. “I told you. Didn’t I tell you? Idiot.”
Willow nodded. “You did. But I had to try.” She looked down the roof to the place where Audra had disappeared from view, glad she couldn’t see the broken body on the ground below. “It’s just that she—we started in the same place, you know? If I’d had the kind of life she did, who knows who I’d have turned out to be? I had Sue; I had this place. She had nothing…”
Geralt rolled his eyes. “Great, so she had a rotten childhood.” He glared at Willow. “That’s not what made her a killer.”
Willow smiled weakly, pulling herself to a sitting position. “Well, maybe. I guess.”
“And a pathological liar. And a homicidal maniac.”
“Oh, shut up,” Willow said half-heartedly.
Geralt crouched beside her, for a moment looking almost kind. “You’ll be all right, Sue’s girl.”
“Willow!” Rina’s voice called from the ground. “Willow, please, are you all right?”
Willow looked down at her and waved weakly. “I’m okay, Aunt Rina. I’m okay.”
When she turned her head back, Geralt was gone.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Three days later, Willow slipped Sue’s old key in the Cameron House front lock—Willow’s key now—and turned it easily. She stepped inside. The entry hall shone in the early-morning sunshine, and the stained glass sent bright specks of colored light dancing through the room.
A crow flapped its way down the stairs and out the front door; Willow ducked, but the movement brought a twinge to her bandaged shoulder.
“Master Thomas, if I’ve told ye once, I’ve told ye a hundred times—that creature does nae belong in the house, and if I see it again, I’ll be tellin’ yer mam, and she’ll have sommat to say—Oh, good mornin’, miss.” From the second-floor landing, the maid in her black dress and starched white apron broke off her scolding and smiled down at Willow. “Ye look a fair sight better than ye did a few days ago.”
“Sorry, Peggy!” the boy said, scampering down the front stairs past the exasperated maid and out the door. His face brightened when he saw Willow. “Going out now—Oh, and hi, Miss Willow!” he called back before disappearing off into the lupine field afterthe crow. The good-humored Peggy shook her head indulgently, and then she was gone as well.
In the three days since her showdown with Audra DuBois on the widow’s walk, Willow had done little more than sleep and binge-watch detective shows. Rina had brought enough lasagna and red sauce to keep both her and Finn fed for weeks, Joe and Frank stopped by with fresh bread from their bakery, and Mac and Diana were keeping her stocked with pastries (even if Mac ate half of them).
Her memory of what had happened after Audra fell from the roof walk was hazy. She had made her way back downstairs somehow. Sometimes in her memory, the tall lobsterman had been beside her, supporting her; in other foggy moments, she thought it had been Nick’s arm helping her down the four flights to the bottom.
An ambulance had arrived as well, and the pair of EMTs worked frantically over Patricia before transferring her to a stretcher and driving away. There had been statements to the police, the same story over and over like on the day Geralt had collapsed. Rina sat beside her the whole time, holding her hand.
Effie sat on Willow’s other side, though no one else could see her. Willow had no idea what to say to the police, but Joel, sitting on the porch swing a few feet away, helped her abridge the truth into a believable and ghost-free version of events until the police were satisfied.
Willow remembered retrieving the photos and birth certificates from Sue’s desk and showing them to Nick and Rina, who were as shocked as she had been. She remembered the island’s EMTs checking her and urgent care on Great North treating the gash in her shoulder. The doctors had assured her that her wound, thanks to Sue’s coat, had been shallow enough to avoid permanent damage to her muscles but would hurt like crazy for a while. She should rest, drink lots of fluids, and not lift anything heavier than two pounds for the next couple of weeks.
But this morning, Willow had awakened feeling almost herselfagain. She’d showered, dressed, and walked—as fast as her recovering body would allow—back to the big old house that had changed her life: first by almost ending it and then by saving it. There was one big question still unanswered, and one Cameron who had remained scarce over the past few days.
