Page 144 of The Change
“But instead, she was murdered,” Nessa said. “Like Mandy Welsh and a dozen other girls who were brought here.”
“I didn’t know anyone other than Faith had died. There were rules the men here were supposed to follow. They ignored me.”
“So you were in charge?” Jo felt rage building inside her.
“She supplied girls,” Nessa said. “They trusted her because she’s a woman. She betrayed them.”
“I made sure the girls I brought here weren’t harmed,” Claude argued. “Rocca was the one who changed all of that.”
“Let me get this straight—you were okay with the girls being raped, but you drew the line at murder?” Jo asked.
“They needed money, and they got it! I even made the men donate to charities that build schools for girls around the world. I got Leonard to hand over millions of dollars to train young women in self-defense.”
“So they could protect themselves from people like you?”
Nessa crossed her arms over her chest. “While girls were being raped and killed, this bitch was living like a queen. And the perverts got to call themselves philanthropists.”
“Nothing’s going to stop them from doing what they want to do,” Claude argued. “These are some of the richest men in the country. For God’s sake, they had the chief of police bringing them girls. The only thing I could do was make sure some good came out of it all. For fuck’s sake, Jo. Their money is helping us teach girls howto protect themselves from predators! Some of their money funded your husband’s new play!”
Jo could feel the fire shooting through her veins and waves of energy traveling down her limbs. She saw heat ripples radiating from her skin and smelled the grass singeing beneath her feet. She’d tried her best to control it. Now Jo closed her eyes and let go. Nothing had ever felt so good.
She knew then what she was meant to do. She knew why Nessa had found her. Nessa was the light in the darkness. Harriett was the punishment that fit the crime. She was the rage that would burn it all to the ground.
“You know what’s going to happen, right?” she asked Nessa.
“Yes,” Nessa told her. “I do now.”
“Jo,” Claude begged, “think of all the good you can do!”
“Oh, I am,” Jo assured her.
When Jo opened her eyes again, they fell on one of the yellow bushes. She reached out and grasped the tip of a flower-covered branch between two of her fingers. A thin wisp of smoke wafted up from between them. When Jo let go, a tiny flame was glowing at the tip of the branch. She leaned over and blew gently, and the entire bush burst into flame. The flames leaped to a nearby bush and soon it, too, was ablaze.
Jo began to laugh. It started with a snicker, but then she just couldn’t stop. Several more bushes were already burning.
“Can you believe we were worried about Harriett?” Jo could barely get the words out. “She planted these fucking bushes. She’s known what would happen since Memorial Day.”
That’s when Claude bolted, zigzagging between the burning bushes and disappearing in the direction of the mansion her father had bought after he’d stolen his first fortune. The house her partner had shipped across the ocean and rebuilt to say he was sorry. The estate she’d shared with the man she’d just killed.
“Should I chase her down?” Jo asked.
Nessa looked over at Faith, who was already fading. The girl smiled as she shook her head.
“Naw, let her go,” Nessa answered. “Harriett had this all planned out. Claude isn’t going to last very long.”
Then the two women walked arm in arm through the burning bushes, then down the road toward the Culling Pointe gate.
Harriett stood on the deck of the boat, eating an apple as she watched the smoke rise from the Pointe. One by one, the mansions along the south beach burst into flames.
“The fire is traveling fast.” Celeste was watching through binoculars. “I’m surprised none of the houses have sprinkler systems.”
“They do. Isabel dealt with them the last time she watered the plants,” Harriett said. “May I borrow the binoculars? There’s a painting I’d like to see go up in flames.”
With the binoculars to her eyes, she watched with great satisfaction as the Richard Prince nurse was put out of her misery. A slight turn to the right, and she could see Jackson Dunn’s roof deck being consumed by the blaze.
“It’s time.” Harriett pulled Celeste to her and kissed her. “Meet me at Danskammer Beach?”
“See you there,” Celeste said.
