Killjoy

too. She was in the backyard and didn't hear the screaming until she came into the house. My mother had become hard-of-hearing,' she added. 'From what the police were able to ascertain, mother tried to shoot Skarrett. She must have given him warning because he grabbed Avery just as she fired. The bullet struck my niece.'

The words came out in a monotone, but there were tears in her eyes. 'I left an old woman to take care of my niece, knowing

that Jilly was out there.'

'But surely you couldn't have anticipated…'

'Oh, but I did know what Jilly was capable of,' Carrie said.

'What happened to your mother?' Sara asked.

'She suffered a massive heart attack. She was dead by the time the police got to the house, and Avery was hanging on by a thread. I caught a flight from L.A. to Jacksonville. By the time I got there, Avery had already had surgery and was in ICU. The first thing the doctor told me was that Avery would recover, but he didn't give me time to rejoice because he said she wouldn't be able to have children. A hysterectomy at age eleven. That has to be some kind of record,' she said bitterly.

Sara looked startled, and Carrie assumed she was reacting to her morbid account of that awful day.

'That poor child,' Anne said. She sounded genuinely compassionate.

'I remember her,' Sara whispered.

'What?' Carrie all but shouted.

Sara nodded. 'The names… there were so many over the years; it isn't possible to remember all of them. And I didn't remember Avery until you mentioned the hysterectomy at age eleven. I'll never forget reading the transcripts of the trial.'

'I don't understand,' Carrie said. 'Why would you read the transcripts? Judge Hamilton was the judge at the trial.'

'Yes, but Hamilton died before the sentencing date. He had a massive stroke, and the case was given to me. I'm the judge who sentenced Skarrett, and he has every reason to want me dead. I gave him the maximum.'

Astounded, Carrie sat back. 'So there's the connection between the two of us. Dale Skarrett… and Jilly.'

'Jilly was never charged with any of it, was she?' Sara asked.

'There wasn't any proof to go after her. Besides, she had vanished,' she explained. 'It was Avery's sole testimony that got Skarrett convicted of second-degree murder. A few weeks after his sentencing, I got a call from a funeral home in Key West asking me what I wanted done with Jilly's ashes. That's how I found out she was dead.'

'Except she isn't dead,' Anne said.

'No, she definitely isn't. I saw her in living color last night,' Carrie said emphatically. 'She hasn't aged much at all. She's still beautiful… and still frickin' nuts.'

Sara went to the kitchen cabinet and took down a cup and saucer.

'I always wanted to have a daughter, but my husband didn't want children. He convinced me that it would cramp our lifestyle,' Anne said.

'What was your lifestyle?' Sara asked as she poured the hot coffee.

'Work. Just work. I felt guilty about that,' she confessed. 'And so I gave in to my husband on all the little things.'

Anne considered having children a little thing? 'I see,' Carrie remarked.

'Eric is ten years younger than I am,' Anne continued. 'But age never mattered to him. He loves me very much.'

'I'm sure he does.'

'He's taken over operations. You know, the mundane office managerial tasks, and he's so clever. He found a new health insurance carrier with a group rate that was less than half of what we had been paying.'

Carrie couldn't understand why Anne wanted to talk about this now. Sara untied Anne's left hand and placed the cup of coffee

in front of her. 'There isn't any milk,' she said. 'But I found some sugar if you want it sweetened.'

'No, thank you.'

Carrie couldn't put up with the nonsense a second longer. The two were acting as if they were at a tea party. 'What the hell

are we going to do?'

'Find a way to get out,' Sara said. 'We're three smart women. We should be able to think of something.'

Anne didn't seem at all interested in that topic. 'Sara? What did you mean when you said I could have been an innocent bystander?'

Sara refilled her cup and sat down. 'If you didn't have a letter on your nightstand…'

'I didn't,' Anne rushed to assure her.

'Then I think I know what happened. Your plane landed just a few minutes before mine did, remember?'

'Yes.'

'And didn't you tell us that you were irritated because the driver from the spa was waiting for me at my gate, but there wasn't anyone waiting for you? In the car you said that if you hadn't seen the man holding up the sign for Utopia, you would have had to carry your own luggage and get a taxi.'

Anne nodded. 'Yes, I certainly do remember, and I was extremely put out. I'm still going to register a complaint with the manager. There should have been a driver waiting for me at my gate.'

'Therefore,' Sara continued as though Anne hadn't gotten sidetracked, 'perhaps you weren't meant to be part of this. However,' she hastened to add before Anne could interrupt, 'the fact remains that you are going to die when this house blows up.'

'But why? I didn't do anything wrong.'

'And we did?' Carrie asked.

Anne shrugged.

'Answer me,' Carrie demanded. 'Do you honestly think we deserve to die like this?'

'I don't know,' Anne said. 'You must have done something pretty awful to make your sister so mad, and, Sara, you might have sent an innocent man to prison.'

Carrie had thought that Anne was going to be sensible, but her comments indicated she was still in Lala Land.

'I still don't understand why he brought me here,' she said.

'Because you saw his face,' Carrie muttered. 'How could you have run a business? You ask such stupid questions.'

'I don't like you.' Anne took a dainty sip of her coffee after making the childish remark.

'I don't give a damn if you like me or not.'

'Ladies, this isn't getting us anywhere,' Sara interjected. 'Anne, the killer couldn't leave you behind. You had also met me, and

if you had gone to the spa, you would have complained to the management, and that would have signaled an alarm… since

they obviously didn't send a driver to the airport.'

'You also could have given a description of the man to the police. It was much too risky for him to leave you behind,' Carrie explained. 'And you could have told the police where he was taking us,' Sara added.

'Oh, I'm sure he lied about where we were going. He lied about everything else, didn't he?' Sara asked. She suddenly looked weary, and her voice trailed off.

'No, he didn't lie about that.'

Both Sara and Carrie frowned at Anne. 'How do you know?' Carrie asked.

'Because I saw the sign. It was a tarnished brass plaque in the center of the iron gate. The driver pushed the button on that remote control gadget, and I read the sign as the gate was swinging open. Land Between the Lakes. So he didn't lie about that.'

'That was very observant of you,' Sara said.