Best Kept Secrets(166)

why did you marry me?''

He placed a finger beneath her chin. "Because you're a

beautiful, dynamic woman, the best damn thing that ever

happened to me, Stacey," he said, meaning it. He couldn't

love her, but he appreciated her kindness and goodness, and

her unflagging love for him.

"Then, you do love me a little?"

He smiled down at her and, for her sake, said, "Hell, girl,

I love you a lot."

Her eyes glistened with tears. The radiance with which her

face shone made her almost pretty. "Thank you, Junior."

Angus suddenly leaned forward and pointed toward the

horizon. "My God, that looks like--"

"Smoke," Reede grimly supplied, and floored the accelerator.



Forty-seven



"Sarah Jo!" Alex cried. "What on earth are you doing?"

Sarah Jo smiled placidly. "I followed you here from my

house."

"Why?"

Alex's eyes were on the knife. It was an ordinary kitchen

knife, but it didn't look at all ordinary in Sarah Jo's hand.

Always before, her hand had looked feminine and frail. Now

it looked skeletal and ominous around the handle of the knife.

"I came to rid my life of another nuisance." Her eyes

opened wide, then narrowed. "Just like I did back in Ken-

cky. My brother got the colt I wanted. It wasn't fair. I had to get rid of him and that colt, or I could never be happy again."

"What . . . what did you do?"

"I lured him into the stable by telling him the colt had colic. Then, I locked the door and started the fire."

Alex swayed in terror. "How horrible."

"Yes, it was, actually. You could smell burning horseflesh for miles. The stench hung on for days."

Alex raised a trembling hand to her lips. The woman was obviously psychotic, and therefore, all the more terrifying.

"I didn't have to start a fire the night I murdered Celina."

"Why not?"

"That idiot man, Gooney Bud, had followed her to the

inch. I met him on my way out of the stable. He scared the living daylights out of me, standing there in the shadows so quiet He went in and saw her. He fell down on top of her and started carrying on something awful. I saw him pick up

Collins's knife." She smiled gleefully. "That's when I

new I wouldn't have to start a fire and destroy all those lovely horses."

"You killed my mother," Alex stated tearfully. "You killed my mother."

"She was a trashy girl." Sarah Jo's expression changed drastically, becoming spiteful. "I prayed every night that she would marry Reede Lambert. That way, I'd get both of them

nit of my life. Angus didn't need but one son, the one I gave him," she cried, thumping her chest with her free fist. "Why

lid he have to keep that mongrel around?"

"What did that have to do with Celina?"

"That stupid girl let herself get pregnant. Reede wouldn't

lave her after that." She clenched her teeth, distorting her delicate features. "And I had to watch when Junior stepped in to take Reede's place. He actually wanted to marry her. imagine a Presley marrying a lowlife with an illegitimate baby. I wasn't going to let my son ruin his life."

"So, you looked for an opportunity to kill her."



"She dropped it into my lap. Junior left the house that

night, disconsolate. Then, Angus made a complete fool of

himself over her.''

"You overheard their conversation?"

"I eavesdropped."

"And you were jealous."

"Jealous?" she said with a musical little laugh. "Good

heavens, no. Angus has had other women for almost as long

as we've been married. I might not even have minded him

having Celina, so long as he set her up out of town and away

from Junior. But that silly bitch laughed at him--laughed in

my husband's face after he had poured out his heart to her!"

Her eyes were blinking rapidly now, and her meager breasts

were rising and falling with each strenuous breath. Her voice

had grown shrill. Alex knew that if she was going to talk

herself out of this, she had to tread softly. She was still trying

to choose her next words when she caught the first whiff of

smoke.

Her eyes moved beyond Sarah Jo to the hall. It was filling

with smoke. Flames were licking up the walls of the living

room beyond.

"Sarah Jo," Alex said in a quavering voice, "I want to

talk to you about this, but--"

"Stay where you are!" Sarah Jo commanded sharply, brandishing

the knife when Alex took a hesitant step. "You came

here and started causing trouble, just like her. You favor

Reede over my Junior. You're breaking his heart. Angus is

upset and worried over Joe Wallace's death, which is all your

fault. You see, Angus thought one of the boys killed her."

She smiled impishly. "I knew he would. I knew that the