Grave Secret - Charlaine Harris [104]
Drex was standing there. He had a gun, too, which was a surprise. Kate was tied to a chair. They’d released Lizzie to lure us in the house. The ropes were loose around another chair.
“Good to see you again, Harper,” Drex said. “We had a good time at the Outback, didn’t we?”
“It was all right,” I said. “It was too bad that Victoria was murdered after that. Kind of ruined my memory of the evening.”
He gulped and looked upset, just for a split second. “Yeah, she was a nice woman,” he said. “She seemed like a . . . She seemed good at what she did.”
“She worked hard for you-all,” I said.
“You think they’ll ever find out who killed her?” Chip said. He smiled some more.
“Did you shoot Tolliver?” I asked him. There didn’t seem to be much point in keeping quiet about it.
“Naw,” he said. “That was my buddy Drex, here. Drex ain’t good for much, but he can shoot. I told Drex to shoot you, but he seemed reluctant.” He said the word slowly, as if he’d just learned it. “He didn’t want to shoot a woman. Ol’ Drex is gallant in his own way. I tried to correct his thinking a few nights later when you were out running, but damn if that cop didn’t jump in front of you and take the bullet. I wouldn’t have fired if I’d known he was a cop. I thought he looked sort of familiar, and it made me sick when I heard I’d shot a football player.”
“Why shoot us at all?”
“Because you knew about Mariah, and you told. Maybe I could get Lizzie to forget about it if you died, but I knew as long as you lived she’d think about what you said at the cemetery. She’d wonder about her grandfather’s death, and she’d ask herself who wanted him dead. Then she’d go looking, if she believed there was a baby. Lizzie would love to have a kid to raise, and she’s all about family.” He dug the gun into Lizzie’s neck, and he kissed her on the mouth. She spat when he drew away, and he laughed.
“Why would I have to be dead?” I was genuinely curious.
“’Cause that’s the way my baby is. She pays attention to things when they’re right in front of her, but if they’re out of sight, they’re out of mind.”
That seemed like underrating Lizzie, to me. But he knew her better than I ever would. I understood, after a second’s thought. Chip knew that failing to prevent me from coming to Texas was his big mistake. If I died, my death would erase that mistake. Of course that couldn’t be done. But it would make him feel better.
“Lizzie, I’m sure someone drew your attention to my website,” I said. “I’m sure someone pointed you in the right direction, thought it might be interesting to have me here to look at your graveyard.”
“Yeah,” Lizzie said. The sun was shining onto the terrace at an angle; it was about three thirty in the afternoon. “Yeah, Kate did.”
“How’d you come to think of that, Kate?” I asked.
Kate was clearly in a bad state. Her face was white, her breathing panicky. Her hands were tied to the arms of the chair, and I saw her wrists were chafed raw. It took her a moment to understand the question.
“Drex,” she said, her voice jerky. “Drex told me that he’d met you once.”
Chip’s head whipped around like he was a snake about to strike. “Drex, thanks to you, we’ve lost everything,” he said in a deadly voice. “What were you thinking?”
“It come on the TV when we were watching the news,” Drex whispered. “About her being in North Carolina, finding those boys’ bodies. I told Kate I’d gone to her trailer when she was living in Texarkana, ’cause I knew her stepfather. I’d met her.”
“And you told Lizzie,” I said to Kate.
“She’s always looking for something new,” Kate said. “That’s the name of the game, here. Find things for Lizzie, keep her happy.”
Lizzie looked absolutely astounded. If we lived through this day, she would have a lot of mental rearranging to do.
“So it’s a TV newscaster that brought me down.” Chip laughed, and it was an awful sound.
“How much of a snake handler are you, Chip?” I asked.
“Oh, now, that’s