The Final Victim(120)

Charlotte sputters and chokes, water spouting from her lips.

"Thank God." Royce's voice is ragged as he cradles her in his arms.

Lianna clings to her mother's hand, sobbing in re-lief-and shame. "Royce, I'm so sorry, I thought you-"

Were trying to kill me.

She can't say it

How could she even have thought it?

Because she walked in on him and Aimee upstairs. His own daughter. He was in bed with his own daughter, kissing her…

At least, that was what it looked like in the fleeting glimpse Lianna caught before she fled, sickened.

Now she replays the scene again, and again, trying to make sense of what she saw. Or thought she saw.

Because it couldn't have happened. Royce shot Aimee to save his wife's life, so…

So maybe I was wrong about what they were doing. He and Aimee…

Or maybe I imagined the whole thing. God knows I was in a crazy state of mind up there…

Right now, the only thing that seems obvious is that Royce loves her mother. He isn't trying to harm Charlotte-or Lianna, for that matter.

"It's okay, Lianna," her stepfather says simply, as if he's read her mind-and forgiven her.

"When I heard you coming down those stairs, trying to get to me-"

"I thought you were in some kind of trouble down there."

"You fell. I was sure you were-"

"My arms broke my fall. But I hurt my leg. The same leg," he adds ruefully.

"Lianna…" Mom thrashes her head; her voice is weak.

"Shhh, Charlotte, it's okay." Royce gently strokes her soaked hair. "Lianna is here, too. She's all right. You \ don't have to worry."

Mom's eyelids flutter. She's trying hard to come out of it.

Lianna swallows a lump of regret, hating herself for thinking that her stepfather was trying to hurt her-and her mother.

"I thought Mom was dead when I heard the gun go off," Lianna says, trembling as she attempts to grasp all that happened. "I thought Aimee shot-"

"No," Royce interrupts, "I managed to get to the gun in time. I shot Aimee. I had no choice."

"She's your daughter." Lianna shudders.

Tears glisten in Royce's eyes. "I had to, Lianna. She's insane. I had no idea she was caught up in what Gib was doing…" His voice breaks; he buries his face in his hands, sobbing. "My God, if I hadn't gotten there when I did… I can't even think about what might have happened."

"Lianna…" Mom's eyes, her voice, are ravaged.

"Lianna is fine." Royce presses a kiss on Mom's forehead as, dazed, she looks from her daughter to her husband. "Can you see her, Charlotte? She's fine. Show her, Lianna. Tell her." 'Yes, I'm okay, Mom." Crying, Lianna bends forward to lean her cheek against her mother's shoulder.

Royce says softly, "Everything is going to be okay, now, Charlotte. We're going to be fine: you, me, and Lianna."

At last, Charlotte manages to speak coherently. 'The police-call the police. Please… Royce…"

"I will. The phones are down, but I'll use my cell phone. Lianna, stay here with your mother."

"I will." Lianna watches Royce limp away in obvious agony, thinking she won't leave her mother's side again for a long, long time.

Neither, she's certain, will her stepfather.

His body torn and bruised, his leg shattered, it takes Joseph a long time to drag himself into the house.

Clasping the cell phone against his ear, he presses 9-1-1 and begs for help.

"What's going on there, sir?"

"Please… We've been attacked. Please send someone-"

"Calm down, sir. Tell me where you are and what happened."

He does. But not, of course, everything.

Nobody will ever have to know everything.

He learns that a tree has fallen across the highway, cutting off Oakgate from the rest of the island.

It's going to be a while before the police can get up here.

"But we're working on moving it out of there now," the voice on the telephone assures him. "We'll be there as soon as we can, Mr. Maitland. I know you've been through a lot. Just hang on."

"We'll try."

Joseph hangs up his cell phone, tucks it into the pocket of his soaked slacks.

Hang on.

Yes.

Later, you '11 clean your wounds, change your clothes.

Later, you '11 take care of yourself.

Right now, he must begin the long, painful, final journey back to Charlotte.

Odette never saw it coming.

Joseph's one comfort is that she never turned her head, never sensed his betrayal.

It was over quickly. One courageous squeeze of the trigger, and Odette was gone.

She was gone, and Charlotte was saved.

What if you had been too late?

He nearly was.

If he was too late to save Charlotte, he could have gone back to the original plan: Odette's plan. The one she assumed he was following all along.

He was careful not to let her suspect anything.

Odette had no idea mat in his effort to make Charlotte love him, Joseph had fallen in love with Charlotte as well.

Odette couldn't know that he had no intention of murdering Charlotte.