ログインChapter SixteenSharon walked toward the sound of the engine.She wasn't sure why. She was too tired to be afraid, and some part of her thought that whatever was waiting by the gate couldn't be worse than what she had just left in the boat shed. Her hands were stiff with drying blood. Her knees ached from the concrete. When she reached the harbor gate, she saw Daniel's car right where she'd parked it, and behind it, parked at the curb with its lights off, a long black SUV.The driver's door opened and a man stepped out.He was tall, and he moved slowly, keeping both hands where she could see them. He wore a long black coat and no hat, and the streetlight showed a hard, tired face and dark hair that needed cutting. He stopped about ten feet from her."Mrs. Ashford," he said. "I'm sorry. I meant to reach you before tonight.""You're the man who went to Michael's office.""Yes.""You told him twelve days." Her voice came out hoarse. "Nobody knows that. Who are you?""Adrian Voss."She
Chapter FifteenFor a few seconds nobody moved.Sharon stayed on her knees with her arms around her grandmother and listened. Somewhere to her left, someone was dragging air in through their teeth. Someone else was crying in small, hiccuping sobs that sounded like Carla. Quick footsteps ran across the concrete, a door banged open, and cold air rushed in off the water."Ben!" she shouted. "The light!"There was a clunk, and the work light buzzed back on.The first thing she saw was the open back door swinging on its hinges. Vivian was gone. Her revolver lay near the table, next to a overturned folding chair. Ben stood by the breaker box with his hand still on the lever, as white as paper. He looked like he might be sick."I tried to grab her," he said in a small voice. "She just ran."Michael lay on his side beside the table with one hand pressed to his stomach. Dark red was coming through his fingers and spreading across the concrete. His pistol had skidded several feet away.Sharon
Chapter FourteenSharon stayed where she was.She was surprised by how calm she felt. Her hands had stopped shaking and her breathing was slow. She had died once already, in a garden full of screaming people, and she knew what that was like. This was different. This was a cold boat shed that smelled of diesel, and a man who couldn't hold his arm steady."Michael," she said. "Look at me."His eyes jumped to her face and away again. Water slapped against the pilings under the floor, and somewhere outside a rope creaked."You can't pay me back. I know that. That's why you're here.""Don't talk to him," Vivian said."I'm not talking to you." Sharon kept her eyes on her husband. "She told you this would be a scare. That I'd sign and everybody would go home.""She said you'd sign." He licked his lips. "She said I'd get Hargrove back if I just stood there.""Stand there," Vivian said coldly. "That's all you were ever asked to do."Sharon let her eyes move past him, just for a second. Beside
Chapter ThirteenSharon read the rest of her mother's letter in the car with the dome light on. Ben didn't say anything. He looked out at the dark lake and let her cry.The last page was shorter than the others."I'm writing this at the kitchen table while you're asleep upstairs. I have a bad feeling I can't explain, so I'm burying this just in case. If something happens to me, please don't blame yourself. Be careful who you trust, my love. Not everyone who smiles at you is on your side. But if you can, be kind to Vivi. She has had a harder life than she lets on.I love you more than I know how to say. Mom."Sharon folded the page and held it against her chest. For days she had been so angry at Vivian that it hadn't occurred to her that her mother had loved that girl too. It made everything harder. She couldn't hate Vivian cleanly anymore, and she resented her for that."She sounds nice," Ben said quietly."She was." Sharon wiped her face with her sleeve. "She was also wrong about
Chapter TwelveSharon didn't scream.She wanted to but the scream was right there in her chest, hot and enormous, but Ben was standing three feet away with his hands over his mouth, shaking like a kitten, and somebody in this room had to stay upright."It's not your fault," she heard herself say. "Ben. Look at me. It's not your fault.""I should have stayed in the room." He was crying openly now, ugly, hiccuping sobs. "She's my grandmother too. I was supposed to protect her, and I went to get a stupid coffee."Sharon pulled him into her arms. He was taller than she was, all elbows and sharp shoulder blades, and he collapsed against her like a child. She held on and stared over his head at the stripped bed, and thought: This is what it feels like. This is what it felt like for her, standing at that locked door.Tessa had already called security. A detective came about an hour later, a tired man with a coffee stain on his tie. He wrote down everything Sharon said, but he kept calling i
Chapter ElevenSharon stood up.Her knees felt like water. Every eye in the courtroom pressed against her skin, Helen's eyes were wet and watchful, Richard's stricken, Carla gaze with something close to hope. Daniel's hand brushed her elbow, a small steadying touch, and she was grateful for it."Yes, Your Honor," she said. "Those words were spoken at that warehouse."Helen's lawyer leaned back in his chair, satisfied."I'd like to tell you who said them," Sharon went on. Her voice shook, and she let it. "The truth is a strange thing. You can hand someone a hundred true words and still make a lie."Vivian's expression didn't move. But her fingers tightened around the edge of the witness stand."I won't pretend I'm not afraid of something coming," Sharon said. "I am. I've been afraid since the day my parents died and nobody came to help me. So I bought supplies, and I built a wall, and I slept better than I had in eight years." She turned toward the judge. "Every person in this room







