“What are you talking about? Cleaned up my messes?” Richards looked over at Sharon. “What does he mean?”
“You know perfectly well what he means.” Her eyes glittered. “You killed Beth. I knew it at the time. I knew everything.”
“We all knew it was you,” Ford said. “We both knew you’d been sleeping with Beth and the moment I heard she was dead, I knew as sure as I knew my own name that you’d done it. You threw a tantrum and killed her because she wouldn’t give you your way. Your uncles and your mother and Sharon—we covered it up for you. To save your reputation and your political aspirations.”
“You covered what up?” Richards asked. “There was nothing to cover up. I’d been prepared to tell her I was ready to leave town if that’s what she wanted. Now or later. Whatever she wanted. I was through with all of it. The pressure from my family and my wife. All I ever wanted was a simple life. I didn’t care about any of that. Honestly, I wanted to be left alone with Beth.” His jaw clicked as he jerked his head around to look at his wife. “Wait a minute. Sharon, you knew about Beth and me?”
“Of course I did.” Sharon bit out the words. “I’m the brains of this marriage. Don’t you know that by now? We covered it up to save you from prison.”
“I didn’t kill her. I loved her more than I’d ever loved anyone or anything. I didn’t know she was pregnant until tonight.” Richards said this quietly and with such grief in his voice I almost pitied him. Tears filled his eyes as he raked a hand through his hair. “Oh God, Sharon. You weren’t home when I called the house the night she was killed. Sharon, no. You didn’t. You couldn’t have? Please tell me you didn’t kill her.”
“This little act won’t work any longer, dear,” Sharon said. “Soon enough, everyone will know the truth about who you really are. A rapist and murderer.”
“You killed her. Oh my God.” Richards stared at her as if he were seeing a monster for the first time. “Where were you all those hours? Were you cleaning up at my mother’s? Ridding yourself of Beth’s blood? My God, you stabbed her seventeen times. What kind of sicko does that to an innocent girl?” He placed his fist against his mouth as a look of horror took the place of confusion. “Why did you have to do it? If you wanted a career in politics, you could have just run yourself. You didn’t have to kill the woman I loved.”
“You’ve lost your mind or you’re one heck of a gaslighter,” Sharon said as she turned to Carlie and me. “Can’t you see what he’s doing?”
“Sharon, how did you know my sister was pregnant?” Carlie asked.
“Nothing in this town happened without me or my mother-in-law knowing it,” Sharon said.
“My mother? What did she know?” Richards asked.
“She knew everything,” Sharon said. “In fact, she’s the one who came to me after she saw that little idiot buying a pregnancy test. By then, we already knew about your secret hiding spot that wasn’t so secret. You never understood that the two most important women in your life were much smarter than you. If you’d followed directions, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Directions?” Richards asked. “Was it in my mother’s directions to kill Beth?”
Mrs. Richards shook her finger at him. “Just stop all this nonsense and tell the truth. I’m not big enough to hurt anyone with an ice pick.”
Carlie rose to her full height. “How did you know it was an ice pick? That was never released to the public.”
Sharon’s face transformed into a hundred contorted shapes. She stepped backward, holding her arms out in front of her as if she were being attacked. “That fact was released. I read about it. You’re wrong.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Carlie said. “I know every detail. Real-life nightmares are like that. You killed my sister out of jealousy. You’d discovered the affair and that she was pregnant. Beth was going to have a baby. Something you could never give him.”
“You have quite the imagination,” Sharon said, having returned to her usual composure. “It wasn’t me.” She looked over at her husband. “Your mother killed her. She couldn’t stand the thought of that little girl ruining everything.”
“My mother?” Richards asked. “But…how?”
“She’s strong as an ox. Always has been,” Sharon said.
“Did she kill Thea too?” Carlie asked. “Because she knew?”
How could Shelley Lancaster have shot a gun so precisely from the church that it hit Thea in the exact right spot to kill her instantly? Like a sudden spark from a match, the truth came to me. The two murders didn’t have anything to do with each other. She’d been killed by a professional, a sharpshooter. Ford had been trained to shoot for his work. He’d shot Thea.
“No, it was Ford,” I said. “Wasn’t it? You killed the girl you raped to keep her quiet. She threatened to dismantle your whole life.”
Lily gasped, then whispered, “Please, Don, tell me it’s not true.”
“No one can prove it,” Ford said. “All these girls—it was consensual. They came to me.”
Carlie gasped. “Oh my God, you were the sharpshooter who killed Thea. Trained to protect, not to kill. I trusted you.”
“She was just a junkie slut.” Ford’s voice had turned nasty and sharp. “How dare she come to me and threaten to expose me? I’m Sheriff Ford.”
“You killed her to keep her quiet,” Carlie said.
“No one will miss her like they will me,” Ford said. “This town needs me.”
“Her mother cares, you son of a bitch,” I said.
“Don, how many were there?” Lily asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ford said.
“What about the girls? Why, Don?” Tears streamed from Richards’s eyes. “Just to keep up with me? You knew about Beth and me and just had to have one of your own?”
“Shut up,
