14 - J. T. Ellison [123]
Forty-Seven
Nashville, Tennessee
Tuesday, December 23
7:30 p.m.
The apprentice stormed through the hallways of the manse, looking in every room in the upstairs corridor. The girl was gone.
He entered Snow White’s library in a fury, not noticing that they weren’t alone. Joshua sat in the corner by the fireplace, the flute in his lap, sightlessly serene.
“Where is she? Where is the girl?” he screamed.
Snow White sat in his chair, a fire lit, warming his crippled legs. He rubbed the cream into his hands, massaging the pain away as best he could. He hated the scent of the balm; it crept into his wasted flesh, wouldn’t ever wash away. But the pain subsided fractionally when he used enough of it.
“She’s in her room.”
“No, she isn’t. She’s gone.”
Snow White struggled to his feet. “She was there when you left with Charlotte.”
“Well, she’s gone now, old man. Kind of fitting, really. So’s your bitch of a daughter. I had no choice, really I didn’t. But it was so much fun. She died screaming, like a child.”
“Noooo!” Joshua’s strangled cry sounded from the far side of the room. “You didn’t kill her. Tell me you didn’t kill her. I let Jane go. Ssshe was sssweet and kind and didn’t deserve thisss. You didn’t hurt Charlotte. Tell me you didn’t hurt Charlotte.”
Troy turned and snarled. “She died slowly, little brother. Know that.”
Joshua sobbed and ran from the room. Snow White looked at Troy with pain in his eyes. “What have you done?”
The apprentice shrugged. “She was in the way. She was going to turn us in. I had to silence her.”
“Did you? Did you really? Or were you just taking matters into your own hands again? So help me God…” Snow White lurched at the man he’d trained, but the younger man was too nimble. He danced away easily.
“What did you expect, old man? That I’d let her live? That I’d let any of you continue on? You were wrong. You were so very wrong.”
Grabbing a poker from the fire, he advanced on Snow White. Before he could take four steps, his body jerked. His mouth opened, but the roar of the gun drowned out his scream.
Joshua reentered the room, a pistol wavering in his hand. He squeezed the trigger again, but Troy saw it coming and ducked, rolling away from the fireplace, away from Snow White. He made it to the door before Joshua’s empty eyes found him again, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway.
Joshua went to the door and bolted it, locking him and his father in the library. He went to Snow White, who had crumpled, stricken, in his chair. He was keening, a low mourning for his daughter. His son joined him, held him while he cried, and they wept for Charlotte’s soul.
Taylor went back to the CJC and found the offices nearly empty. Most people had taken the entire week off for their Christmas vacation. She had a moment’s displacement, knowing all that had transpired that prevented her from leaving on her own Christmas vacation, but pushed it away. There would be time for that later.
She’d called Captain Price on her way into the office and told him about the recovered file folder. She hadn’t gone through it in detail, but at first glance it contained all the information they’d been speculating about regarding Burt Mars and Edward Delglisi. Her next call was to Baldwin, a request to meet her and go through the information. With any luck, the key to sinking Delglisi’s ship would be in these papers. Whatever Richardson had discovered had gotten him killed. She was ready to see what that might be, regardless of her own involvement. Baldwin had extracted a promise from her to wait until he got there to go through the file. The suspense was killing her.
She was toying with the edge of the folder when Baldwin came into her office with two cups. The steaming latte was a welcome treat; she didn’t realize how chilled she was until she wrapped her hands around the warm cardboard. She thanked him and sipped gingerly.
“So, can we look now?”
“I want to talk to you about a couple of things first.”
“What?”
“I had a conversation with a friend of Lincoln’s, an…official with the