“Why not? He touched me.” Elizabeth laughed. She’d obviously intended her words to be sultry, but the sound came out high-pitched and deranged.
Gabrielle winced while George glanced around, desperately looking for his son. Gabrielle caught sight of Seth beneath a tree, staring at the burning building with utter shock and pain on his face.
Gabrielle had no doubt Elizabeth was telling the truth.
George turned back to face her. “Let’s say he did borrow money from you. That would explain all the times he defended your grandmother and let her hold her holiday party at the Wave. That doesn’t make it your bar.”
A satisfied expression eased her lips upward in a nasty smile. Gone were all vestiges of amiability covering her true personality. Gone was any trace of sanity. “It does if the payments haven’t been made. And they haven’t.”
“He wouldn’t let me see the books.” Tears filled George’s eyes.
Gabrielle couldn’t watch his pain. She strode closer to George, intending to walk him away.
Derek, meanwhile, walked up to Elizabeth. “What is that in your hands?” he asked, although with the woman reeking of gasoline and waving the can around as she spoke, the answer was obvious.
“It’s her new perfume. Eau de Gasoline,” Hank said in disgust.
Elizabeth shook her head. “Do you people think you can stop me?” She gestured wildly, poking herself in the chest. “My family founded this town. My grandmother owns you all. I’m her successor. My name gives me power. Just look at all the generations of Mary Perkins there have been, and the things that they have done. I dare you to defy me.”
“That’s enough!” The mayor stepped through the crowd and approached her granddaughter. “Not another word,” she said to the young woman, obviously looking to protect her from her own insanity.
But it was equally obvious it was too late.
The police edged closer. “Elizabeth Perkins?”
“Mary Elizabeth,” she shrieked back at them.
A uniformed officer stepped forward. “Mary Elizabeth Perkins, you are under arrest for arson,” he said, and then read the woman her rights.
“That’s okay, darling, Grandma’s right here. I’ll take care of everything.”
Roger, the only officer Gabrielle knew, wedged himself between Elizabeth and the mayor. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re under arrest, as well,” he said, gently grasping the mayor’s arm.
“For what?” Mary asked, assuming a haughty “I own you” tone Gabrielle hadn’t heard from her before now.
“Bribery. Theft from the police Evidence Room. And whatever else the district attorney comes up with,” he said, then read the mayor her rights, as well.
“Nonsense,” Mary spat. “I’m the mayor!”
“Which doesn’t make you exempt from the law,” Derek said, facing the woman who had been the bane of his family’s existence, at least in this generation. “Apparently you feared Richard Stern so much you must have panicked.” And Richard had managed to inform the police.
“We have proof you paid someone to steal evidence. We have an eyewitness,” Richard said.
As people surrounded her, the other woman began to shrivel into the old, frail woman she really was. “There was no bribery involved. I had no intention of exposing the photograph,” Mary said. “I only wanted to scare Richard into not running in order to protect his fiancee, but I never got the chance.”
“Then who sent me the note asking for money?” Sharon asked, stepping out of the shadows.
Gabrielle wanted to applaud her friend’s bravery. She didn’t have to. Richard was beaming enough for them both.
“Did you really think I was going to let the fact that age was softening you prevent you from winning, Grandmother?” Elizabeth tried to shrug off the police, but they held on tight. “I found the photo. I discovered the history behind it. I put the blackmail into motion. I thought the mousy librarian would go crying to her fiance and beg him to drop out of the race. When she didn’t make the first drop, I realized maybe she was cockier than I thought and I stepped up the game. This is my town,” she said, hysterically. “Mine!”
“Grandma, Beth, come on.” Lauren Perkins, Mary’s other granddaughter whom Gabrielle had met in the mayor’s office, stepped forward and put a hand on her grandmother’s shoulder. “Let’s just go with the police. We’ll sort things out when we’re alone.” Her voice shook as she spoke, but she took control, instructing the police to take her family to the station and end the public spectacle.
The officers complied, but before they reached the police cars, George came running forward.
“Why?” he asked. “Why burn down my building? I have to know.”
“You’re as foolish as your son!” Elizabeth, her hands cuffed behind her back, said. “Isn’t it obvious? I burned down the building for the money. I’ll call in the loan for lack of payment and it’ll be mine.”
“You’re pathetic,” George spat.
“You all thought you could ignore my grandmother. Making that documentary and treating her as if she didn’t exist. But that film needs to include my grandmother, the mayor. Mary Perkins. That name means everything in this town. Instead you interviewed that sniveling man who thought he could take the job that belongs to my family. Mine.” Her eyes were wide, bulging, her insanity clear.
“Take her away,” Lauren insisted, her eyes filled with tears.
“Not yet. I have one more thing to say,” Elizabeth said. “You!” She turned her glare on Gabrielle.
The blood drained from Gabrielle’s head as she met the other woman’s icy stare. Maintaining her composure, Gabrielle wrapped her hands around her arms to stop the shivering and refused to show fear. Derek stepped up from behind and eased her against him, supporting her with his strength.
“Do not think you can undo the curse with one of your pathetic books. Everyone in this town knows the curse exists. And you’ll know it again when your life falls apart.” Elizabeth laughed again, the sound slicing through Gabrielle’s heart.
Derek squeezed her tighter.
“Not a chance.” Gabrielle stood up to the other woman. “Your family’s days of spreading fear are over. Whatever you wanted in life, you destroyed other people to get it.
Elizabeth shrieked, but before she could act, the police pushed her into the car. Her grandmother had already been taken away.
Lauren shot Gabrielle and the rest of the crowd an apologetic, sick look before following the police into the last remaining vehicle.
Gabrielle squeezed Derek’s hand. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for the young woman who, until now, had no idea what her own sister and grandmother were capable of.
As things calmed down, Gabrielle tried to remind herself both Mary Perkins and her granddaughter were insane, yet Elizabeth’s words chilled Gabrielle despite the summer heat. Elizabeth obviously meant to scare Gabrielle into not writing her book, but her words, if dissected, could go much deeper, to include her relationship with Derek. Her entire future was at stake.
She looked back at the Wave. The firemen had finally begun to get the blaze under control. The bar was basically destroyed. The ownership and insurance issues would have to be sorted out later. But the harm done by Mary Perkins and her granddaughter would be much harder to contain.
Gabrielle glanced at Derek, the man she loved, and prayed they wouldn’t become part of the other woman’s collateral damage.
“HELLUVA DAY,” GABRIELLE said as they walked into Derek’s house at last.
Exhaustion pummeled at Derek, settling in his bones.
They’d dropped Hank off at his house after stopping by to assure Uncle Thomas everyone was in one piece. The fire and Elizabeth Perkins’s breakdown and the mayor’s arrest was the talk of the town.
For Derek, coming off the argument with Marlene, and the idea of losing Holly fresh in his mind, today had been draining in ways he still couldn’t come to terms with.
“Who could have guessed that Elizabeth Perkins was determined to carry on her grandmother’s evil legacy?” he said.
“More like family insanity.” Gabrielle shivered. “Although Lauren seemed refreshingly normal. I hope she’s okay.”
