The Woman Who Couldn't Scream

  “What did he hope to accomplish by telling you … any of that?”

  “He was in pain. On medication. He said someone needed to know.”

  “Deathbed confession? How human of him.”

  “I suppose.” Lilith clearly did not see the humor. “I knew I had to find it before … before disaster struck. I sat down and I thought. Thought about his last days and his last words and I knew … I knew somehow he’d managed to send it to you.”

  “Why do you care? Why would anyone care except me? I’m the one who … who’s suddenly legitimate.” Was she? Kateri wasn’t sure that a child born of bigamy was legitimate. Hey, maybe Lilith was no longer legitimate.

  Kateri grinned.

  “Why do I care? Your mother … and my father. He was a respected man of the community. He didn’t love my mother, but at least she had her position as his wife.” Lilith glared as if Kateri were guilty of every kind of crime. “And then you. You! We found out about you. So unlike him. Such a lack of control on his part. When you came to live with us, I was in high school. Do you know what my friends said? About me having an Indian sister?”

  “Native American.”

  Lilith kept rolling. “Out of control. Savage. Without the slightest smidgeon of civilization or education. I was humiliated.”

  “You’re holding a grudge about what happened in your high school? That was more than twenty years ago!”

  Lilith went into her martyr act. “You have no sensitivity to my finer feelings.”

  “Finer … feelings!” Kateri sputtered. “You … you locked Merry Byrd and me in the basement and left us to die!”

  “Don’t exaggerate. It was only a couple of days.”

  “You didn’t let us out. We figured out how to get ourselves out.” Kateri reined in her temper. “This is squabbling. This is stupid. How did you get in here? Into my house?”

  “That’s not important.”

  “I promise it is.”

  “I may have helped myself to a key while we were at the quilting group.” Lilith managed to sound lofty, as if she had managed some noble mission.

  Outraged, Kateri shouted, “You stole my back door key? Sure. Why not? You trashed my house. You trashed Rainbow’s house. You think nothing of breaking and entering. Why would you stop at stealing?” She took a breath, calmed herself and in a reasonable tone asked, “What did you think I was going to do with the marriage certificate?”

  Lilith grew deadly calm, looked down, removed a piece of lint from her sleeve.

  Illumination struck. Kateri smiled in the moment of revelation. “You thought I would challenge his will.”

  “There is money involved,” Lilith pointed out.

  Kateri felt herself descend to the level of out-of-control savage without the slightest smidgeon of civilization or education. “I don’t want his dirty money.”

  “Of course not,” Lilith mocked. “You’re too noble for that.”

  “Let us be clear here. I didn’t know there was a marriage, much less a marriage certificate. I didn’t know I had the paperwork.” Kateri realized she was shouting again. “And even if I had known, I wouldn’t have handed it over to you.”

  “Why not?” Lilith wore that tucked-in lips, snottily superior I told you so expression. “If you’re not going to challenge the will, why wouldn’t you give it to me?”

  “Because you never asked for it.” Kateri found herself flapping the certificate at Lilith. “I knew when you showed up here you were up to something, but you never told me what. Why is everything in your family so shrouded in secrecy? ‘Don’t look in the attic, Kateri.’ ‘Don’t touch the raven, Kateri.’ ‘Don’t look at the books in the library, Kateri.’ It’s like some stupid game you’re always playing and I can’t figure out the rules.”

  With that laser focus that marked Lilith’s personality, she asked, “Will you give me the marriage certificate?”

  “Why should I?”

  Lilith reached into her purse, pulled a pistol, a Glock 43 and pointed it at Kateri. “Because I said so.”

  Kateri wavered between scornful laughter and sheer terror. This was the woman who had shut two little girls into the cellar and left them to die. At the same time, her hair was perfectly groomed, her makeup was flawless, and she held the pistol limply, negligently, as if the weight hurt her wrist. But …

  Looking up into those cold blue eyes, Kateri decided that terror was the logical emotion.

  What she didn’t count on was her own overwhelming wave of fury. “You bitch. If you had ever asked, I would have given you this. I would have thrown it at you to get it out of my house. But oh, no. Like everything else in your family it’s all games and guessing and sneaking around and hiding the truth.”

  “We’re your family, too.”

  Kateri gestured widely, ridiculously. “I came into that Baltimore mansion too late to learn all that crap.”

  “You learned more than you think. Do you think you could have succeeded as you have if you had remained here your whole life, dealing with an alcoholic mother, a lackluster education and all the lowered expectations of being raised on a Native American reservation?” Lilith knew exactly how to strike at the truth, at Kateri’s pride. “I don’t think so. I went out to your rez. That place is a cesspool.”

  The rez was poor, disheartening, but to hear Lilith describe it as a cesspool made Kateri want to slap her—and made her want to cry. “The reservation is the land the government didn’t want and used to keep Natives Americans imprisoned. What did you think it would be like?”

  “You people should … you should do something to improve yourselves.”

  Kateri noted she was no longer part of Lilith’s family, but you people. “We are improving. Every day we’re improving. Now, we’re building a casino.” False bravado. She didn’t approve of the casino. But if it would improve her people’s finances …

  “That’s immoral. Do you know how those casinos operate?”

  “I do. After my mother died, I was a dealer. I also know that job kept me alive until I was able to get into the Coast Guard Academy.”

  “You’re lying. You were too young to work in a casino!”

  Lilith’s ignorant indignation amused Kateri. “There are ways to get a false ID.”

  “You … lied? You falsified legal documents?” Lilith broke in to houses, stole a key, held a weapon, threatened to kill—and was horrified about a little falsification. “How can you enforce the law?”

  “I understand the law as it applies to the shady side better than most people.” Kateri’s gaze flicked to the pistol.

  “If you had simply asked Father—”

  “For support?” Kateri’s resentment rose. “I think not. When I got away from him, I swore I would never accept his help again.”

  “You did, though. He got you into the Coast Guard Academy.”

  “He made me eat dirt to do it.” Kateri had to take deep breaths to continue. “He was an awful man. Why do you defend him?”

  “Why do you defend your mother, a hopeless alcoholic and sometime whore?”

  Kateri grew cold with rage. This ghastly, manipulative, greedy, shallow bitch dared to malign Mary Kwinault? No. Never. So Kateri said the thing guaranteed to hurt. “At least I know my mother loved me.”

  Where Kateri’s rage was cold, Lilith’s flashed like fire. She lunged, slapped Kateri across the cheek.

  When she came in for another blow, Kateri caught her arm, twisted it behind her, made her drop the pistol. It landed with a thunk.

  Didn’t go off … yay. Maybe the safety was on.

  “Really?” Kateri was furious. “After what you said, you hit me?”

  “You deserve it, you filthy … you don’t even know if you’re really part of the family!”

  “Did you think your father took me in without checking my DNA? Of course I’m his! Do you think I want to be related to you? To him? God, no!” Kateri flung Lilith’s arm away and spun her around.

  Lilith had tears i
n her eyes. From the pain in her arm? Or from Kateri’s cruel taunt?

  Of course Kateri felt guilt. Damn it. “Look, I’m sorry that I said that about your mother.”

  “My mother taught me dignity. She taught me to make the most of my assets. She taught me good grooming.” From the sweeping, gimlet-eyed glance Lilith shot at her, Kateri knew grooming to be her greatest failure. “From my mother, from our family, you learned to survive in a civilized environment.”

  “I learned deception. I learned secrecy. I learned that to express my opinions was a sin punishable by loneliness, rejection and heartache.”

  “You appear to have forgotten it all.”

  “Virtue Falls is a small, barely civilized corner of the world where some people, at least, allow a woman to speak her mind.” Right now, Kateri had never been so grateful to be in Virtue Falls.

  “You can have your barely civilized corner of the world. Now give me that certificate!”

  “To hell with you, lady!”

  Lilith lunged, grabbed the envelope, wrestled with Kateri for control.

  Kateri fought back, angry enough to punch Lilith in the face but too aware of Lilith’s desperation to do it. Lilith dragged her across the room.

  Kateri saw a flash of movement behind Lilith. Someone—a man—stepped through the doorway and slammed his rifle butt into Lilith’s head.

  Lilith dropped like a rock … leaving Kateri facing John Terrance and the rifle that was pointed right at her.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Time froze. Kateri froze. And what had been terror when she faced Lilith’s pistol cooled and hardened to become something more, something stronger. Courage, maybe, in its rawest and most foolish form.

  She eased back a step. “John Terrance. I knew you weren’t dead.”

  John Terrance grinned, all triumph and dingy teeth. “You aren’t that lucky.”

  “Obviously not.” Her walking stick was leaning against the wall. Her service pistol hung on her belt holster. She didn’t dare reach for either one.

  He wanted to kill her. He intended to kill her. Options were limited. She needed time. “How did you get in?” she asked.

  “Back door was unlocked. Practically an invitation.”

  Great. Lilith had used her key to get in and like the damned idiot she was, she had failed to lock the door behind her.

  Kateri glanced at Lilith’s unmoving figure and the giant lump forming on the side of her head. “You hurt my sister, may have killed her.”

  He poked his mud-splashed boot at Lilith. “Might have. What do you care? I couldn’t believe it when I came in the door and you two darlin’s were havin’ a catfight. Nothing like a couple of women wrestlers to get my juices flowing.” He dropped one hand below his belt and cupped his junk. “I always wanted to fuck a sheriff.”

  “Any sheriff?” Since all the previous Virtue Falls sheriffs had been male.

  “I prefer female, but sure. Any sheriff.”

  Or any knothole in a tree. Maybe being shot by a deer rifle wasn’t such a bad fate. She shifted back another step toward her staff. “I hoped you had died.”

  “I’ll bet you did.” He leaned toward her, skinny, sunburned, his faded blue eyes alight with malice. “I’m all infected on my backside. I can’t survive this. I am going to die. What do I care what happens next? As long as I get revenge for my boy, for myself.”

  Crap. This was a suicide mission. He didn’t have anything to lose.

  “I don’t know who killed your boy,” she said.

  “Bullshit. You ran the ballistics on the bullet.”

  “The gun’s not registered.”

  “Bullshit. Bullshit!” John Terrance went from coldly pleased to hotly furious in an instant. “You … you’re lying. You know who killed my boy. You killed my boy!”

  “I was bleeding on the floor of the Oceanview Café!”

  “One of your officers…”

  “No!” She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye.

  Lilith was crawling away.

  So she wasn’t dead. Thank God. She might be the worst sister in the whole world, but Kateri didn’t wish death on her. Kateri moved to the side, away from her walking stick, drawing Terrance’s attention from Lilith’s slow escape. “The shot that killed your son was from an unregistered handgun.”

  Lilith scraped the button of her cuff across the linoleum.

  John Terrance half-turned. The rifle dipped and wavered.

  Kateri said, “But I won’t lie to you, Terrance. I don’t give a shit who killed your son. As long as he’s dead.” She screamed a war cry and attacked.

  Martial arts favored the underdog. Trouble was, the tsunami and its aftermath had left Kateri with more than her fair share of artificial joints. She didn’t jump well, she didn’t run swiftly.

  John Terrance stood halfway across the room. Before she reached him, the rifle was pointed at her.

  She went in low and tackled him around the ribs.

  John Terrance staggered.

  Over her head, the rifle discharged.

  Behind her, she heard wood splinter, glass shatter.

  Still hanging onto his waist—he reeked—she balled her fist and slammed the junk he had so proudly cupped.

  The air whooshed out of him.

  She jumped away, stumbled when he grabbed her hair.

  He jerked her head back, smashed the rifle holster against her throat.

  She gagged, fell to her knees.

  “Look up,” he said.

  When she did, the black eye of his rifle barrel was pointed between her eyes.

  “I’m going to enjoy this.” His breath, smelling of rot and infection, rolled over her. His eyes, blue and malicious, gleamed with vivid rapture. In slow motion, he wrapped his finger around the trigger. “You’re sweating, Sheriff Kwinault.”

  “You should be sweating, too.” Kateri breathed. Just breathed. If she was going to die, she would first put the fear of a god into John Terrance. Today, he would see the frog god. Putting aside her fear, she placed her palms flat on the floor. She looked past the end of the rifle into Terrance’s eyes and called on the Lord of the Deep.

  Terrance took a step backward. “What’s wrong with your face?”

  Kateri knew what he saw. The cold green gaze of the frog god looked out of her eyes.

  His finger tightened on the trigger.

  Kateri prepared to die.

  Then … salvation! Lilith loomed behind him, raised Edgar Allan Poe’s raven over her head and slammed it down on his skull.

  Kateri ducked.

  His bullet whistled past Kateri’s cheek.

  Lilith slammed the bird down again.

  John Terrance fell to the floor, bleeding and unconscious.

  Lilith hit him again. And again. She shouted at him, “You think you can kill her? You piece of crap, not while I’m around. She’s a pain in the fanny, but she’s my stupid, lousy sister.” She kicked him in the ribs, lifted the raven again.

  Kateri raised her hand. “Wait!”

  Lilith paused. Her hair was mussed. She had a livid, growing bruise on her cheekbone. And she was clearly, absolutely outraged. She kicked John Terrance’s inert body again. “If anybody’s going to kill her, it’s me. Goddamn it!”

  Kateri staggered to her feet. Her knees were shaking. Her hands were shaking. She laughed too loudly. “You’re going to have a black eye!”

  Kateri didn’t know it was possible, but Lilith got madder.

  She turned on Kateri and stalked toward her like a cat stalking an eagle.

  Kateri sobered. She caught the raven and pried it out of Lilith’s fingers. “You win. I’ll give you the marriage certificate.”

  In a disconcertingly smooth assembly, Lilith pulled herself together. She smoothed her hair. Smiled tightly. “Very sensible of you.”

  With four words, she made Kateri want to fight her again. Kateri turned away, toward the sprawled, inert body of John Terrance. She needed to restrain him … she searc
hed at her belt, but she didn’t have cuffs on her.

  Honest to God. She didn’t have her cuffs with her. She didn’t have her pistol on her. She wasn’t holding her staff … from now on, she’d be armed and ready no matter where she was, even in church, even in her own house, even …

  Lilith continued, “You will have to come to Baltimore for the reading of the will.”

  Hostility prickled along Kateri’s nerves. She swung back to face her sister. “Why?”

  “You’re a beneficiary.”

  Kateri’s temper crackled. “I told you. I don’t want that man’s money.”

  “Oh, grow up! Your father was rich. It’s purely an accident of birth, but you might as well get some benefit out of it!”

  Kateri opened her mouth.

  Lilith cut her off before she could say the first word. “No! Don’t give it to charity!”

  Kateri shut her mouth. Was she that transparent that Lilith knew what she’d intended to say?

  “Spend it on yourself. Get some decent clothes. Spiff up your office.” Lilith saw Kateri’s scorn and went in for the kill. “Buy a house so your darling Lacey will have a fenced backyard.”

  “Oh.” A house. Now that was temptation. Kateri knew just the one. Small, old, but well kept, close to downtown, backyard big enough to plant a few tomatoes and let Lacey run free.

  “See?” Lilith was triumphant. “It only took the right incentive to turn you into the same greedy bitch as your sister.”

  Carefully, Kateri set the raven on the coffee table. She stepped close to Lilith. She pulled her service 9mm semiautomatic.

  Lilith’s eyes grew wide.

  So Lilith was smart enough to be afraid.

  Slowly, Kateri released the safety, pointed the firearm over Lilith’s shoulder …

  … At the bloodied John Terrance. That murderous bastard sat up and raised his rifle.

  Holding center mass, Kateri squeezed the trigger.

  The detonation blasted, echoed.

  John Terrance’s chest exploded. Twice. The force of the bullets threw his arms up, pushed him back against the wall.

  Kateri stared, not understanding. Two kill shots? But she’d shot only once.