CHAPTER 25
Natalie heard her parents enter the house from the garage. She watched as her dad walked past her to the bar in the great room and poured himself a Scotch. She’d gotten home just before them, quickly plucked up the Anne Rice novel sitting on the end table, and pretended to read. She thought her visit to Lily’s house would release her pent-up rage, but it did nothing except set her more on edge.
Antonio had been calling and leaving messages. She knew she was going to catch hell for trashing Lily’s place but really didn’t give a shit. Now she eyed her father as he slammed back his drink and poured another.
Her mother clicked her way to the powder room around the corner, and Natalie heard a drawer slide open and then the familiar rattle of pills shaken from a bottle. Each went straight to their self-medication of choice. Things mustn’t have gone well at the station.
“What happened, Daddy?” Natalie asked.
Zander settled beside her on the couch and gave her a smile, the kind that went all the way to his eyes, but there was something about the set of his jaw that let her know bad news was coming. “Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about, honey. Just a stressful day, is all.” He kissed her forehead, but she heard the wobble in his voice and saw he had the bloodshot eyes of a man with something on his mind. Even though he hadn’t let the news slip from his lips, she felt it, like an annoying mosquito buzzing around her head.
“I don’t believe you. Are you OK?”
Gabrielle came into the room. “I need a drink, too,” she said to Zander.
He turned his attention from his daughter but first gave her a wink. “I heard you in the bathroom. What did you take? You can’t have a drink if you took pills,” he said to his wife.
“Never mind what I took. Pour me a goddamn drink and make it a double.”
Zander got up and did as he was told, but held back on the double. He also watered it down, hoping she wouldn’t notice.
She took the proffered drink with a smirk and sipped it. “Not very strong.”
Natalie watched her mother. Her normally perfect coif was disheveled, and her hands trembled when she brought the glass to her lips.
“Can one of you please tell me what’s going on?”
“Honey, maybe you should go and let me and your mother talk. Really, I don’t want you to worry about a single thing,” Zander said.
“Good Lord in heaven, my saint of a husband is trying to spare his daughter the bitter truth.” Gabrielle dropped sloppily into an armchair, and Zander shot her a warning glare.
“Tell me!” Natalie yelled. “I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on.”
Gabrielle barked a laugh. “Well, you should know what’s going on. You bloody well should, because it’s all your fault.” Her mother glared at her through narrowed, hate-filled eyes.
Natalie rubbed at her temples, which were beginning to pound. She needed a pill, something to calm the growing panic threatening to engulf her.
“That’s enough out of you,” Zander said sternly. “Go take more of your pills and get the hell out of here.”
Gabrielle laughed. It was a chilling sound that filled Natalie with dread.
“She’s going to know the truth even if they’re the last words out of my mouth,” Gabrielle said and leaned forward, eyeing her daughter. “A few days ago I found a gun under your bed, my darling girl. I picked it up, but put it back. Don’t know why the hell you have it, but I figured you’d come around to telling me about it someday. Or, more likely, you’d tell your dad, since the two of you are like two peas in a pod. Anyway, turns out that gun is the murder weapon used to kill Sara Valier, and now it has my prints on it. You wanna tell me why you had that gun, or are you going to let me take the rap and go to jail?”
“I hid the gun,” Zander said. He placed a hand on Natalie’s shoulder and looked down at her. “Enough is enough. I’m going to the police to tell them it was me.”
“Jesus, Zander. I picked it up. I held it my hand. My prints are on it, not yours.” Gabrielle’s words were beginning to slur. “They’re not going to believe you. They want to wrap this up in a tidy little bow. They’re coming after me!” She ran a hand over her face, smearing her glossy pink lipstick across a cheek as tears began to fall in black streaks down her face.
She’s hideous, Natalie thought as she twisted away from her father and ran from the room. She could hear her parents’ angry voices, arguing at full tilt. With palms slammed against her ears, she was an eight-year-old again, powerless over the turmoil in her life.
Grateful her parents hadn’t come after her, she made her way to her father’s office unseen, unlocked the top drawer of his desk, and grabbed the Beretta hidden there. She wasn’t the only one in the family who snooped.
It was time to make this all go away.