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  Liz stood up. “I’ve given you my entire life and you say this to me.”

  “I didn’t want your life,” Phin told her bitterly. “I wanted mine. And Diane and Zane probably wanted theirs, too.”

  “I didn’t kill them,” Liz said.

  “That’s a pretty damn big coincidence, Mom.” He turned to go. “I wouldn’t want to have to explain it.”

  “Are you going to Wes?” Liz said from behind him, no emotion at all in her voice.

  “No,” Phin said, refusing to look back at her. “You’re still my mother. Just stay away from Sophie.”

  “I didn’t kill Diane, Phin,” Liz said. “It really was a coincidence.”

  Her voice shook a little this time, and he turned back. “Remember that day in the courthouse when you said you’d do anything for me?”

  She nodded.

  “Don’t.”

  He turned and walked out of his mother’s house and down the Hill to the bookstore, not stopping until he was in front of the pool table.

  It was a beautiful thing, massive in its elegance, impressive in its tradition. Just like his family.

  He really did not believe his mother had killed people. His mother might be unhinged from his father’s death but she wasn’t a killer. There was still a human being in there somewhere, a cold, driven human being, but still a human being. She hadn’t become a monster when he wasn’t looking.

  “Oh, Christ,” he said, and sat down hard on the edge of the table. She really hadn’t. Not his mother.

  And now she was trying to pin Zane’s death on Sophie.

  He got up and went to the phone and dialed Hildy Mallow. “Hildy?” he said when she answered. “I’ve got some gossip for you to spread.”

  “I don’t spread gossip,” Hildy said primly.

  “You will this gossip,” Phin said. “Somebody’s spreading the rumor that Sophie killed Zane.”

  “I’d heard that,” Hildy said. “Didn’t seem likely but people are strange.”

  “She was in bed with me,” Phin said. “The entire time. Tell everybody.”

  “Oh,” Hildy said. “All right. Your mother’s not going to like this.”

  “Good,” Phin said. “Tell her first.”

  When Sophie got home, Amy was waiting for her. “Where have you been?” she said. “I need—”

  “Get it yourself,” Sophie said, and went upstairs.

  Amy followed her up. “What’s with you? I just wanted your opinion on the cable cut of the video.”

  “Get all the sex out of it and bleep the foul language,” Sophie said. “After that I don’t care. I’m worried about Phin and Dillie. They—”

  “Oh, sure,” Amy said. “Phin and Dillie.”

  Sophie looked up at the tone in her voice. “You’re jealous.”

  Amy shrugged. “I just think family—”

  “That’s why you called Brandon,” Sophie said. “You don’t like him, but you’d rather I was with him because you know I don’t care about him. But Phin—”

  “I don’t care what you do with the mayor,” Amy said. “Screw him all you want.”

  “It’s really Dillie, isn’t it?” Sophie said. “I can only have one kid in my life, and that’s you?”

  Amy’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Amy, I will always be here for you, but you’re not getting my life anymore.”

  “No, they get it now.” Amy sniffed. “Well, no problem. I can take care of myself.”

  “Actually, you can’t.” Sophie tried to smile to take the sting out of the words. “I wish you’d apologize to Wes and get him back. This is a man who not only fixed your funky sunglasses, he made them funkier. And he gave you a flexible showerhead that you’ve been using for immoral purposes ever since we got here. He may be the only man in the world who understands you and gives you what you need even before you know you need it. But you’re giving him up for a dirty movie? Come on, Ame.”

  “This is my career, Sophie,” Amy said stiffly.

  “This is a home movie, Amy,” Sophie said. “An amateur, direct-to-video skin flick. You are not Robert Rodriguez. Grow up and look at what matters in life.”

  Amy turned and walked out.

  When Davy came up the stairs a few minutes later, he said, “What happened with Amy?”

  “I picked Phin and Dillie,” Sophie said. “Was that lousy of me?”

  “No,” Davy said. “It’s past time for you to get a better plan than, ‘I’ll sacrifice my life for my grown brother and sister.’ Way past time.”

  “What about you?” Sophie said.

  “I have a plan of my own,” Davy said, grinning. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “Not for Amy,” Sophie said, and Davy’s smile faded.

  “She’ll be all right,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced. The lights flickered, and he said, “Oh, great, she’s plugged in all the computer stuff again. Didn’t you tell her—”

  “Over and over again,” Sophie said, and got up to call down the stairs. “Amy? You’re going to blow a—”

  The lights went out downstairs.

  “—fuse.”

  “I’ll get it,” Amy said coldly from the foot of the stairs. “How hard can this be if you do it?”

  They heard her slam open the basement door and stamp down the stairs.

  “You know, she needs to be smacked,” Davy said. “Spoiled brat.”

  “She’s just hurt,” Sophie said. “She—”

  The lights came on for a split second, and then there was a crack and they went out again.

  “Amy?” Sophie said.

  “Amy?” Davy ran for the stairs, Sophie on his heels.

  “Somebody pulled loose a wire in the fuse box,” Wes said, when Phin had come back from the hospital. “And poured water on the floor and set a trap for her.”

  “Not for her,” Phin said, his voice grim. “Amy doesn’t change the fuses. She doesn’t do any scut work. She’s the artist.” He felt lousy even as he said it, remembering Amy’s pale little face in the hospital bed, her fingers bandaged from the burns, her head shaved to stitch up the wound she’d gotten when the charge had blown her back against an old metal table.

  “For Sophie,” Wes agreed. “I got an anonymous phone call today. Somebody seemed to think there was a gun under Sophie’s bed.”

  “Trace it?”

  “The courthouse,” Wes said. “Anybody in the world could have made it. And now this. Somebody wants Sophie out of the way pretty badly.”

  Phin closed his eyes. “I do not see my mother sneaking into a basement to fray a wire. Or putting a gun under a bed she knew I’d be sleeping in.”

  “Your mom is . . . upset that you moved out,” Wes said. “Extremely.”

  “She’ll get over it,” Phin said. “So you going to the hospital to see Amy?” Wes turned away as he added, “She asked for you. I told her you were investigating the accident and you’d be out to talk to her later.”

  “She wants to see me?”

  “Sounded like it,” Phin said. “She pretty much got the spunk knocked out of her, and she’s stuck in the hospital for the night. Good time to go talk to her.”

  Wes turned on him. “You think I’d ask her about Zane now?”

  “I meant about the two of you,” Phin said. “She’s leaving tomorrow after the premiere.”

  “She’ll be out that fast?”

  “They’re just watching her for the night. Go see her.”

  “Maybe,” Wes said. “Is Sophie—”

  “Sophie’s staying with me tonight.”

  “I thought Dillie—”

  “She’s staying with me and Dillie,” Phin said.

  Wes raised his eyebrows. “Your mother—”

  “Go see Amy,” Phin said. “I’ll take care of my mother.”

  When Wes brought Amy home from the hospital the next day, Sophie had the entire house cleaned, their things packed, and the car full of gas. “If you don’t feel like leaving tonight af