Devlin, I thought. My poor Devlin. He would never know the truth from me. Mariama had taken Shani from him once. I would not be responsible for taking her from him again.
The sun rose over the garden wall. So dazzling I couldn’t stand to look into the light. But Shani and Robert were already walking toward the garden gate. The child hesitated and glanced back. Robert had already disappeared, but she hovered just inside the gate, a fingertip to her lips.
I felt a presence and turned.
Devlin stood behind me.
I said in shock. “You can’t be here. Unless you’re…”
He looked at me sadly.
“But you can’t be,” I whispered. “I won’t let you be.”
“You have to go back,” he said. “You’re almost out of time.”
“I don’t want to go back. Not without you. Please come with me.”
“I can’t.”
His gaze went past me to the gate where Shani still waited.
Chapter Forty
I felt a jolt, like a shot of pure adrenaline, and I opened my eyes on a gasp. I could have sworn I saw Mariama hovering over me, but she was too late. I was back inside my own body, lying on my own kitchen floor. Devlin was prone beside me. He looked very pale, very dead.
I tried to reach out to him, but I was so cold I could do nothing but lie there trembling in my misery.
A shadow moved and I looked across the room, expecting to find Darius Goodwine or Mariama’s ghost, but I was shocked to see Ethan Shaw.
He gazed at me defiantly. “It would have been so much easier if you hadn’t come back.”
He slid down the wall and sat with his back against the door frame.
“What have you done?” I whispered.
“What I had to do. He was going to take her away from me.”
“John?” I asked in confusion?
“Robert Fremont. I heard Mariama on the phone that day after John had stormed out of the house. She was making plans to run off to Africa with Fremont. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing her again.”
A gun dangled from his hand, and I wondered if it was the same one I’d found in the tree hole. Devlin’s .38. Had Ethan followed me to Chedathy Cemetery?
I tried to inch my hand toward Devlin. If I could just touch him…
“You knew about the gun John kept in his desk, didn’t you?”
“Mariama showed it to me once. She even hinted that, with John out of the picture, his money would be hers, and she would be free to spend it with someone who truly loved her. I thought that someone would be me.”
His hands trembled, I noticed. I wondered if he could really muster the courage to shoot me in cold blood. But then, he’d killed Robert Fremont and probably Tom Gerrity. And now Devlin lay dead at my side.
“I’d been with John earlier that day,” he explained. “I told you about that. He and Mariama fought viciously and he made plans to stay at a friend’s place on Sullivan’s Island until they both had time to cool off. I knew he would be alone out there with no alibi. So I went to her house, got the gun and then I called Robert and asked him to meet me at the cemetery. I told him I had information about Darius.”
“And then you ambushed him. You shot him in the back with Devlin’s gun. But Mariama was already dead.”
“I didn’t know she was gone until Father called. By then, it was too late.”
I thought about Rhapsody hiding that gun all these years because she thought her father was the murderer. But it had been Ethan all along.
“Why did you give John an alibi for that night if you wanted him to take the fall?”
“I panicked when the police showed up at his place. And—this may sound strange—but with Mariama gone, I saw no need to make him suffer. He was my friend.”
“And yet, you shot him.”
“Once he decided to go after Darius, he would have found out the truth sooner or later. He was already suspicious of that alibi.”
I glanced at Devlin’s still form. “Please call 911. It may not be too late to save him.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Then tell me why you killed Gerrity.”
“He’d been blackmailing my father for years. He claimed to have evidence that would prove my father killed my mother. It was nonsense, of course, but Father paid him at first in order to salvage his reputation. And perhaps because he knew about me.”
“You killed her?”
“You don’t know what it was like, watching her suffer all those years. Mariama helped me. She knew exactly how to do it so that no one would suspect. That’s when I knew she really loved me.”
“So now you’re going to shoot me, too.” My fingertips touched Devlin’s hand and I closed my eyes. He was so cold. “What will be your excuse this time? Mariama isn’t here. You can’t blame this on her.”
“Don’t be so sure,” he said, and I turned to see his numinous smile. Or was that Mariama’s smile? Was he still doing her bidding?
A slight movement from the back door caught my attention. I couldn’t see her face, but I smelled her haunting perfume. Isabel Perilloux eased into my line of sight with a fingertip to her lips. From the front door, Clementine’s voice rang out. “Amelia! Are you in here? Grandmother had a dream. She thought that I should come check up on you.”
Ethan leaped to his feet, his head cocked toward the sound of Clementine’s voice. It was a perfect distraction. I grabbed Devlin’s gun from his holster and when Ethan turned back to the kitchen, I fired without hesitation.
I was astounded by my action. I lay there in shock as Isabel dropped to her knees beside Devlin. Within moments, her hands were covered in his blood.
Chapter Forty-One
I stayed by Devlin’s bedside day and night, clinging to his hand, willing him to come back to me. The temptation to stay with Shani must have been irresistible because he showed no sign of coming around.
On the third night, I had just nodded off when I felt another presence in the room. I opened my eyes to find Darius Goodwine in the doorway.
“I know what you tried to do,” I said. “You used Shani to lure me through the veil so that Mariama could inhabit my body.”
“You’re strong,” he said with what I thought was grudging admiration. “Far stronger than Mariama.”
I didn’t feel all that strong at that moment. I felt…helpless.
“You said I had untapped power. Show me how to use it to bring him back,” I begged.
“There are always unintended consequences when you bring back the dead,” he warned.
“I just want him back.”
I lifted my head and glanced around. I was alone in the room except for Devlin.
A moment later, his eyes fluttered open. “Amelia?”
“Yes, it’s me. Welcome back,” I whispered, with only a momentary trepidation as I pondered those
