Paul and Ben picked Tim up and took him back inside the house. Ash waited for me to come back from the paddock before he started his jumbled mix of apologies and questions.
“You’ll see soon,” I said.
“You still haven’t told me what happened on Saturday night.”
“I’ll tell you when all of this is over and done with.”
We walked back to the house in silence. Stepping inside the kitchen, Tim’s curses floated down the hallway from the bathroom making us all smile.
Hearing the bathroom door unlock, I whipped my phone from my pocket and set the voice recorder to record. Tim marched back into the kitchen clutching at his thigh with a thunderous look on his face.
“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re playing at, young lady, but this is not a good way to stop me from suing you for slander.”
“Sue me all you like—I have nothing to give you unless a hundred grand house back in England is of any use to you?”
He scowled at me as he realised we didn’t know about the money or the will yet—or rather he didn’t know I knew about them yet.
“Speaking of which, why would you sue your dead wife’s daughter? That’s not very family spirit now, is it?”
“And accusing your step-dad of coming on to you at his wedding to your mum is family spirit, is it? Coming over here, staying at my ranch, and accusing me of trying to rape you is good family spirit also, is it?”
I fixed him a steely stare. “But I didn’t accuse, did I, Tim? Because you actually did attempt it, didn’t you?”
He laughed. “You’re crazy.”
I smirked. “Really? Am I that crazy that I also discovered some tales about Mr. Tim Bycraft and Mr. Tim Roker?”
His face paled instantly, a look of terror flashing through his eyes.
“Mr. Tim Bycraft from New York. Under investigation for a series of rapes and the rape victims’ bank accounts being emptied. Mr. Tim Roker who happened to marry three unfortunate women in Florida who died in tragic circumstances, disowned their children, and left all of their millions to him before he, too, vanished. And then we have Mr. Tim Masters, which is you, I believe, who assaulted his now dead wife ten days ago over a row which ensued because she had changed her will the day after pulling her shares in and left her ten-million-pound fortune to her two children whom she had previously written out of her will. And then we have the same Mr. Tim Masters who attempted to rape his step-daughter, called her a liar, and was going to sue her for slander. Doesn’t it all seem to fit a little too nicely?”
Ash choked on his own breath and glared at the man stood next to him who was trembling from head to foot.
“Tell me,” I said, swallowing a lump in my throat. “How did you do it? How did you kill Mum?”
His mouth flopped open and closed like a dying goldfish as he hesitated for words. Nothing was truer than the saying knowledge is power, and right now, I was revelling in my newfound power.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really? Shall I ring Lisa’s children?” I made a move towards my phone but he stopped me with his words.
“It’s not what it looks like,” he whispered.
“What the fuck is it, then?” Ash asked, jumping from his chair and sending it sprawling across the floor.
“Lisa did genuinely die whilst I was out of town,” he said.
Ash’s mouth dropped open. “But what? The convenience of it all gave you an idea?”
He remained silent.
Ash stepped towards him with his fists clenched. “What were you planning to do? Move from state to state until you’d got more money than you knew what to do with?”
“I had nothing when I was a kid. How is it fair those brats get millions to piss up the wall and blow on hookers when I genuinely needed it to start a business? How can you entrust a kid with millions of pounds? It was better off being spent wisely.”
“That’s what trust funds are for, you idiot,” I said. “Instead, their mothers are dead and they think they didn’t mean a damn thing to them because you made them write them out of their wills.”
“So what about me and Kyra?” Ash said, shoving him in the chest. “Had you just got greedy by this point?”
“Why should that little cow get anything?” he said, looking at me. His top lip curled back as he snarled at me. “Do you know how much shit I got after your little revelation at the wedding? If it hadn’t been for you, then maybe your mum would still be alive.”
I felt like I’d been stabbed in the heart upon hearing those words. Ash let his anger overrule him and punched Tim in the face, sending him flying backwards down the hallway.
Bounding after him, Ash roared curse words in his blind fury, raising his fist to give him more. Ben scrambled up from his seat and attempted to pull Ash off him but it was too late—blood was already splattered everywhere from Tim’s newly broken nose.
Paul wrapped his arms around me as I struggled to breathe, those words going round and round in my mind like a carousel. Was he suggesting it was my fault she went snooping? I struggled to hold back my tears as my legs gave way beneath me. Paul pulled me down to sit on his lap, his arms warming through my numbness.
“How did you do it?” Ash said, now trapped in a bear hug from Ben. “How did you kill Mum?”
“She’d been kicked in the face a few hours before by one of the mares. It wasn’t hard to whack her over the head during her late night checks and finish the job off, blaming it on that stupid horse of hers.”
I broke out into uncontrollable sobs at hearing his confession. It was one thing thinking something, but was quite another to hear it. I kept replaying the scenario over and over in my head. A little voice in the back of my mind reminded me of Nelson’s splintered doorframe.
“He broke the door down to get to you, didn’t he?” I said.
Ash squirmed inside Ben’s hold as he tried to get loose on the despicable man confessing his murder of our mother to us.
Tim’s wild eyes locked onto mine as his face spread into a wide devilish grin. “That fucking horse will be the death of me,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for you, then none of this would have happened. None of this.”
I turned and buried my face in Paul’s shoulder. He massaged the back of my head as he kissed my hair and held me tighter.
“You have two options,” Paul said, his authority vibrating through every inch of him. “You hand yourself in or we put you in the paddock with that horse. Your choice.”
Tim laughed and then bolted for the door.
Ben released Ash, the pair of them following the murderer out of the door. Paul set me down in the blink of an eye as he, too, ran outside after Tim.
I stood up, making my own way outside. Ben rugby tackled him to the ground before Paul and Ash grabbed his arms and legs and dragged him towards the paddock. I walked down after them, smirking as they pulled him, kicking and screaming, into the paddock.
Nelson’s head sprung up instantly at hearing Tim’s voice and he bolted towards the gate as Tim screamed in fear.
In years to come, I knew I could look back at this comical situation and laugh, but right now, I could do nothing but grit my teeth and wish for Nelson to mutilate the asshole to death. Unfortunately, he screamed his agreement to handing himself in—just as Nelson reached him, teeth bared, ready for round two. He clamped his vicelike jaws around Tim’s upper arm as he let out a high-pitched squeal, snapping at him like a rabid dog.
Paul and Ash dragged Tim out of the gate as Ben pulled his phone out and rang the cops. I could do nothing but collapse in a heap of exhaustion, relief, and overwhelming emotions as I heard the sirens approaching.