Page 67 of Duncan

“That’s not what she’s planning to do now.” Valerie recognized the medication in the young woman’s hand, which she swallowed along with gulps from a bottle of bourbon. “Those are Dale’s sleeping pills.”

The image shifted to that of Candace passed out in an over-filled bath tub. Slowly her body slid down until her head disappeared beneath the water.

Valerie rushed toward the tree window, and pressed her hands against the surface. “No, she’s just a young woman. My husband never should have gotten involved with her.”

“That’s awful,” Lark whispered, and then went still as the image on the window shifted to that of a tall, dark man in an orange prisoner’s jumpsuit, talking on a phone to a fearful-looking brunette. “Wait, that’s Lawrence and Kate. Why is he in prison?”

“You were not the first to be swindled by your fiancé and your best friend,” the woodland goddess said sadly. “The IRS will learn that Lawrence hasn’t paid taxes on the money he stole with Katie’s help from his clients, his firm and you. Once they finish long prison sentences for embezzlement, fraud, and tax evasion, they’ll be drowning in debt for the rest of their lives.”

Lark approached the window, and watched her best friend sob as her ex-fiancé shook his head. “Well, at least they’ll have each other.”

“They will be filing for divorce while they’re incarcerated,” Klee told her.

The seamstress uttered a strangled sound as she turned away.

“Go ahead and have a good laugh, Lark. It’s pretty funny.” Caroline marched up to the tree and eyed the woodland goddess. “What happened to that bastard who left me to die?”

The window shifted to a view of a charter boat in the middle of the ocean, and a group of men boarding it from another, older vessel.

“Richard tried to hire another diver, but after your disappearance no one was willing to work for him. These men you see here steal boats to use for transporting their drugs,” Klee said. “Since they will find him alone on his boat, which is the perfect size for their endeavors, they should have no difficulty taking it from him.”

Caroline’s eyes widened as she watched the men toss Rich over the side before taking both boats and sailing off. “How far off shore is he?”

“Thirty miles off the coast of St. Augustine,” Klee said. “Almost exactly in the same spot he abandoned you. He’ll try to swim back to shore, but he’ll have an asthma attack after just five miles.”

“I don’t need to see that.” The diver turned her back on the tree.

Julianne pressed a hand against her forehead as she regarded her Aunt. “I don’t want to watch someone kill Mitch for the money he gets selling my parents’ farm.”

“He’ll never have the chance to put it on the market, my sweet girl.” The woodland goddess made a sweeping gesture, and an image of Julianne’s husband walking with a smartly-dressed woman through an orchard appeared. “Your conniving spouse will only meet with one realtor, I’m afraid.”

Julianne’s eyes narrowed as she followed the pair’s progress through the trees and into a burned area of bare ground that had been recently covered with a thick layer of mulch. “Why would he go there? My dad never sealed off the old well–”

“You mean, the old well right where Mr. Fumagalli will be walking,” Klee said as Julianne’s husband suddenly dropped into a large, dark hole that appeared in the mulch.

The lifeguard peered at the window, which showed the woman waving over the hole before sauntering off and shifting into the woodland goddess. “You’re not going to leave him in there, are you, Auntie?”

“That man needs to suffer for murdering your parents,” Klee chided. “If he hadn’t posted all those no-trespassing signs, perhaps someone would hear him calling for help.”

Nicole went to Julianne, who had started crying, and glared at the immortal. “I think that’s enough, thank you.”

“You haven’t seen what happened to your brother after he threw you into the sea,” the woodland goddess said.

Nicole saw Hudson popping the corks of a half-dozen champagne bottles, which he chugged down like water. After guzzling the last one he collapsed on the floor, rolled onto his back, and laughed until he fell asleep.

“First that young man will convince your father to give up the search for you, and then he’ll torment him by claiming he drove you to commit suicide. Stomach cancer will kill your father shortly after he writes a new will naming Hudson as his heir.” Klee made a tsking sound. “As you see here, your brother will have quite the celebration party after the funeral.”

A tired sadness swamped her. “I’m sure someone else will take my father’s fortune away from him. Probably my cousin Cameron after she divorces him.”

“She’ll never marry him,” the older woman said. “As my sweet girl would say, wait for it.”

Hudson suddenly puked, but he seemed unable to roll onto his side. He began choking and then convulsing, eventually turning purple and going limp.

Repulsed, Nicole took a step back. “No, that can’t be.”

“Drowned in his own vomit,” Caroline murmured. “That’s almost as nasty as Rich’s death.”

“All of this is too awful,” Lark said, looking as if she wanted to throw up now. “I never wanted any revenge. I just thought I got left at the altar because of my bad luck.”