Page 61 of A Little Bit Whiskey
And pointed it at her.
“Tamsyn, this isn’t what you think,” Fred said, weapon still raised.
“Really? Because I’ve been listening to the two of you talk about planting evidence on this winery. Moving my mother’s body. Please explain yourself.”
Anna inched behind Fred, hiding her face.
“Where’s your gun?” Fred took three steps forward, his hand steady. His eyes were filled with rage, something she’d never seen before. “I know you’re always carrying. So hand it over, and then we’re going for a walk.”
“What are you going to do? Kill me too?”
“Just fucking do it.”
Tamsyn reached under her dress. With tentative fingers, she unholstered her weapon. For a split second she thought about a standoff. But she needed more time for Eddy to arrive. More time to get answers.
“Put it on the ground and kick it over.”
She did as instructed. “Why did you plant the necklace? All the items in the Rivers’ home? The body? And why would you kill my mother?” There were more questions, but those were a good start.
Fred snatched the gun, handing it to Anna. “Let’s go for a walk.” He shoved his weapon into her side and pushed her forward.
She stumbled.
“I have a right to know, regardless of what you’re going to do with me.”
“Fred,” Anna whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I thought I was helping. You had so many other things to handle.”
“What’s done is done,” Fred said. “Now we’ll have to deal with it and maybe it will work to our advantage.”
“How?” Anna asked.
“My little girl isn’t stupid. If she wore the necklace, she has no idea it was found on her mother’s body. And she certainly wouldn’t have informed Carter or Weezer.”
Little girl? Tamsyn swallowed. Of all the people who could have been her father, Fred was not someone she ever thought could fit the bill. She filed that in the back of her brain for the moment.
“Besides, lots of people could have that necklace,” Fred said. “You made a grave error in judgment and it’s going to cost you your life, Weezer her freedom, and Carter his entire world.”
Well, that certainly spelled out Fred’s plan. But it didn’t explain why. And she needed those answers. “Why would you want to do that? Please, Fred. I’m begging you to tell me because it doesn’t make sense. Carter’s your friend. He helped you become police chief.”
“Fred, you can’t be serious? You can’t kill her. Not after all these years. Not after what I did for you. The secret I’ve kept all these years. The betrayal I’ve had to live with. And the truth is I’ve come to care for her,” Anna said through her tears.
“Anna, if you had just let me handle it, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“Are you kidding me?” Anna stopped. “You’ve been telling me for years you’d handle Weezer and Carter. But you never have. She still acts like she’s fucking queen of this town. She has made my life miserable. But ever since Carter got you this job, you’ve backed off, forgetting that he didn’t back you the first time you wanted to go for chief of police. Forgetting that he treated you like you were less of a man than—”
“Be quiet, Anna,” Fred said.
Tamsyn blinked. “The first time?”
“Yeah. Your father wanted the job when Harper was appointed. The mayor at the time was torn and Carter had his ear. He didn’t believe your dad was ready. Said he was soft. Didn’t have what it took to be a leader.” Anna stepped from behind Fred’s back. “At every turn, Carter and Weezer have been destroying our dreams. I thought I had it locked up when we got Elizabeth to agree to accuse Carter. We had all the checks that Carter had paid her. We had documentation of all the times he visited her. We had the fight. We were going to unearth your mother years ago, but then your dad got cold feet. He wanted to raise you. He made me look at his indiscretion day in and day out. A constant reminder of my failings as a woman. I didn’t want to, but I’m a kind and forgiving woman and I wasn’t going to let Carter and Weezer raise you. But over the years, I grew to care for you, so I let the mystery of what happened to your mother stay buried. I did that for you.”
“That wasn’t for me. That was for yourself.” Tamsyn couldn’t believe the crap that had come from Anna’s mouth. The realization that all the answers to her questions had been right under her nose hit her soul like a freight train. “You’re my fucking father.” Tamsyn shook her head. “All these years I’ve wanted two things and both of you knew the answers. Un-fucking-believable. How dare you deceive me like this? And you want to frame two innocent people because you don’t like them.”
“Oh, it goes so much deeper than that, darling,” Anna said.
“It doesn’t matter.” Fred shoved his gun deeper in her side, pushing her along the path toward the overflow cabin. “We’re going to prove that Carter paid off the lab that did the paternity test. Once you’re dead, I’m going to have another one done and prove that he’s your father. I’m going to prove he killed your mother.”
“I can almost buy that, but no one is going to believe he moved my mother’s body.” Tamsyn shivered. Why hadn’t Eddy shown up yet?
