where Whitney lay dead.
'Who else, Charlotte?' Julia demanded. 'You almost said someone else, didn't you?'
Charlotte's lips twitched. 'That girl, the one who came, the one who disappeared—what did you do with her?'
Harris bolted across the room. He grabbed Julia's arm. 'Where is Courtney?' It was a hoarse and maddened shout. 'You're going to—'
Julia came alive, twisting free of his grasp, slipping around him, crossing the room to the fireplace. And she now held a gun in her hands and faced them all.
She looked at Harris first. 'Leave me alone. I didn't hurt Courtney. I would never have hurt Amanda's granddaughter.'
Harris's hands dropped to his sides. He stood very still.
Julia's hand moved, and now the gun was aimed at Charlotte. 'I want to talk to you, Charlotte. It's time now.'
'Policeman!' Charlotte squealed, cutting her eyes toward Matthews, who stood in shock, his hand fumbling with the holster snap. 'Do something! She's going to kill me, just like she killed Whitney!'
The poncho was too big for Julia. She looked like a lost child. Except for the gun in her hand. 'It's no good, Charlotte. I was almost sure before I came tonight. Now I know. Because only you needed to kill Whitney. He didn't look through thewindow toward the back of the house. If he had, he would have seen me. And Whitney had no reason to protect me—certainly not if he thought I'd killed his father. But he didn't look through that window —'
Annie was nodding. Yes, oh, yes. That was what she had decided. Not the first window. Whitney had looked through the second window, the window with no view of the house because of the rose arbor, but a clear, unobstructed view of the potting shed.
—he looked through the other window at the garden shed —and you weren't there, were you? I thought about it and thought about it tonight and I was almost sure. You see, I started toward the house—I was going to make one last effort to talk to the Judge. I was going to tell him about my father. Not even the Judge would have sent me there—if he knew. He wouldn't have wanted my father to touch Missy. I was going to tell him—but I was afraid. I kept standing there, trying to make up my mind, then I heard a shot. I didn't know what had happened, but I was frightened. I turned and went back to the bench where I'd been. But you see, I was midway up the garden, so I would have seen Miss Dora or Lucy Jane. They had a much longer way to go. Only you and Whitney were so close to the back piazza. It was only a few feet from the arbor or the garage to the back steps. So it had to be you—or Whitney. And now there's only you.'
Charlotte's eyes were wide with panic. 'You're insane,' she hissed. 'I wouldn't kill Whitney. Never.'
Julia took a step forward. 'I have to know.' She raised the gun, aiming it at Charlotte's heart.
Chief Wells stood in the archway, his hands loose at his sides. 'Miz Tarrant, put down that gun. You can't get away.'
But, Annie realized with a thrill of horror, Julia didn't care.
It was as if Julia hadn't even heard him. She took one step closer to Charlotte. 'All because you are obsessed with the Tarrants. That's almost funny, isn't it? To kill and kill and kill for a house. An old, hate-filled, heartless house. That's why you killed my baby, isn't it? To be sure that someday your
daughter would be the Tarrant of Tarrant House. Harriet was born the next year. Did you know you were pregnant? You did, didn't you? So my baby had to go. Did Amanda figure that out, too? Did she know that Missy's teddy bear was left at Tarrant House, after the birthday party? Did she wonder aloud how it could have been found in the pond—where you led my little daughter? You told her Bear-Bear was waiting, didn't you? That he was swimming out in the pond and she could swim with him. Did you pick her up and throw her?' Julia's unearthly voice broke and then she screamed, a shriek of pain and anguish and bitter, unrelenting fury. 'Did you throw my baby in the water?'
'Miz Tarrant—' the chief bellowed.
Julia held the gun out straight. Charlotte screamed. Then, sobs racking her wasted body, Julia turned away. The gun clattered to the floor. She walked blindly across the room, into Milam's arms.
Charlotte Tarrant struggled to regain her composure. 'She's sick, don't you see? Sick. I didn't do any—' The lights flickered, dimmed, went out.
A flurry of movement sounded in the hall. Then, all at once, there was a dim and smoky shaft of light from the hall and a flickering image moved toward them. The scent of lily of the valley was almost overpowering.
Annie struggled to breathe.
Amanda Tarrant.
It was vague and pale and insubstantial but the features were those of her portrait, and high and ghostly came the cry: 'Charlotte, Charlotte, I'm coming for you.'
Charlotte began to back away, her hands stretched out in front of her. And then she screamed, 'Amanda, no, no. Amanda, I had to kill him,
Chief Wells tried, but Charlotte's demonic plunge through the archway caught him off guard. And then she was out of the house. They all ran after her. Even Miss Dora thumped her way out into the wild night.
Everyone except Julia and Milam.
The storm still raged. One patrolman almost cornered Charlotte near the ruins of the museum, but she ducked away into a deeper shadow.
But everyone heard her final, despairing cry as she jumped from the bluff, down, down, down into the flood- raging water below.
