Promise Not To Tell(90)

“Hannah never told me the truth because she thought it would put me in danger.”

“Tucker made Rose give him the diary,” Kate said. “He went a little crazy then. He became obsessed with everything and anything that linked to Quinton Zane. He wanted to find the lost money to prove that he was as brilliant as Zane.”

“Josh Preston discovered that obsession and pretended to be Zane.”

“Tucker was always a little unstable, but believing that dear old Dad was alive and communicating with him pushed my brother right over the edge,” Kate said. “Still, he was smart when it came to the tech stuff. He even managed to get into your account through your computer, and your computer is connected to your phone through the cloud. He didn’t just install a tracking app. He was able to see some of your messages and your e-mail.”

“Which one of you took the shots at Cabot that day when he and I went to the house?”

“That was me. I’m the one who realized that Sutter was going to be a huge problem. Tucker took Sandra Porter’s gun the night I killed her, but he never bothered to learn how to use it.”

“He liked fire, though, didn’t he?”

“Oh, yeah. He was a real pyro.”

“You’re the one who shot Sandra Porter.”

“I knew she was stalking Tucker, so I followed her that night. When I saw her go into your gallery, I knew we had to get rid of her. She had discovered the embezzlement, you see. She actually had the nerve to try to blackmail Tucker. He really freaked out after I got rid of her.”

“You shot Rose Gilbert, too.”

Kate snorted softly. “We had the diary. We didn’t need her. Why split the money three ways? When you made the ferry reservation online, we realized you and Sutter were headed to Lost Island. Tucker and I decided that we had to get rid of both of you. It was obvious you didn’t know any more than we did. We decided we might have a better chance of finding the money if both of you were out of the picture. I was raised on the water. I know how to handle a boat. We used one to get to Lost Island that morning, hours before the ferry was due to arrive. We took care of Rose. Tucker wired the house and then we waited for you and Sutter to show up. We figured the locals would just write it off as a drug gang hit.”

“But things went wrong. Again.”

“Nothing worked out,” Kate said, her voice rising. “Everything went wrong because of you and that damned Cabot Sutter. But this is where it ends.”

“You’re risking everything now for revenge?”

“It’s all that’s left,” Kate said.

“You’re going to kill me and then disappear, is that it?”

Kate’s mouth curved in a humorless smile. “I’m willing to negotiate. Give me the key to my inheritance and I’ll think about letting you and your very helpful clerk live.”

“Now why would you do that?”

“Because I don’t need to kill you. I’m very good at disappearing, you see. I’ve had lots of practice. In fact, I’d just as soon not get rid of you. Dead bodies are always a problem. Give me the key to the money and we’ll call it a day.”

This was probably not the time to tell Kate that she was a lousy liar, Virginia thought.

“I’ll do better than that,” she said. “I’ll let your mother give you the key to the money.”

Kate stared at her, her jaw unhinged in shock. After a second or two she managed to pull herself together.

“What are you talking about?” she hissed.

“This afternoon it finally dawned on me that your mother had the key all along. It’s in the portraits that Hannah Brewster painted. I was going to take a closer look at them when you showed up with Jessica.”

“What portraits?”

“There are two of them. I wondered about that from time to time. Why did Hannah paint two very similar portraits of her good friend? But now I understand. There was one for you and one for Tucker. Each contains a portion of the information needed to find the missing money. I suppose poor Abigail wanted to leave something to the children she had never known. The only thing of value that she knew about was the missing cult money.”

“You’re lying. Why would she commission portraits for us, let alone leave us the money? She never wanted us. She told Rose Gilbert to get rid of us. She let Gilbert sell us.”

“I think Quinton Zane made Abigail give you up for adoption. She did it because she was totally under his control. Rose no doubt promised her that you would both go to a loving home. I’m certain that Abigail never knew that Rose sold you.”

“Bullshit.”

Virginia thought about Anson’s advice on running a con. Come up with a good story, one with just enough truth in it to make it sound real.

“I think that, deep down, Abigail always hoped that someday her children would come looking for her,” she said. “When she was diagnosed with cancer, she commissioned the portraits so that if you and Tucker ever showed up asking questions, you would have something of her – a portrait and the key to the money.”

“That’s a touching story but I don’t believe it. If you knew about the key, you would have used it to get hold of the money.”

Virginia shook her head. “I told you, I only realized the truth tonight when I took another look at the portraits.”