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  “About that money,” he said. “Whose money, and where is it?”

  Sophie sighed. “It’s your mother’s, and it’s in her bank account. That day she came out to the farm, she tried to buy me off. But that was two weeks ago so—”

  “Buy you off?” Phin looked down at her, incredulous. “Who the hell does she think she is?”

  “Liz Tucker,” Sophie said. “She’s just trying to protect you. Now, can I have that shower?”

  There was something in her voice; she was talking too fast. “No.” Phin guided her over to the window seat and pulled her into his lap. “There’s more. I don’t give a damn what it is, I’ll forgive you anything, but I want it all.”

  Sophie pulled away from him. “I didn’t do anything, you butthead. You can go forgive somebody else.”

  Phin winced. “Sorry. But you’re not telling me everything. What else did my mother do?”

  “I don’t know,” Sophie said, standing. “I haven’t seen her since that day, I swear to God. Now, I’m going to shower. If you want to come, too, fine, but I’m going to be naked and wet with or without you.”

  He followed her into the bathroom, still suspicious, but when she took off her clothes, he decided he could wait to grill her again until they were both clean and satisfied.

  An hour later, buttoning up his shirt as he sat on the edge of his bed and trying to think of what he was missing about his mother and money, Phin stopped on the second button and thought, Diane. “She bought off Diane, didn’t she?” he said to Sophie, and Sophie zipped up her shorts and said, “How would I know?”

  “But that’s what you think.”

  “But I’m often wrong,” Sophie said.

  He thought about Diane and Dillie and the whole miserable mess. “Christ.”

  “It’s over,” Sophie said, coming to him. “Whatever really happened, it doesn’t matter. It’s over.”

  He put his arms around her and thought, It’s not over. Two women had come between him and his family, and the first one was dead.

  Family values weren’t supposed to be lethal.

  “What?” Sophie said.

  “I have to take you home,” he told her, standing up. “It’s time for a little Tucker family time.”

  Phin found his mother sitting at her desk in her air-conditioned office on the Hill. She nodded when he came in, and then turned back to her desk, punishing him with her silence.

  “You bought Diane off,” he said, and she stiffened but didn’t turn around. He went to her, grabbed the back of the chair and spun it around on its wheels so that she grabbed the arms.

  “Phin!”

  “How much?” he said, leaning over her.

  She pressed her lips together, stony-faced, and he waited for what seemed like hours. “Fifty thousand,” she said finally.

  Phin straightened. “Not bad. What was that for, the first year?”

  His mother nodded.

  “As long as she stayed away from me and Dillie.”

  His mother nodded again.

  “But she bought a car,” Phin said. “New clothes, furniture for the river house. How long did it take her to run through it?”

  “She was stupid,” his mother said bitterly. “Thank God, Dillie got our brains.”

  “Right now, I’m wondering about yours,” Phin said.

  “You really thought she’d leave us alone for fifty grand a year? Living right here in Temptation? She wasn’t the only one who was stupid.”

  Liz flinched. “She was supposed to move away. As soon as she recovered from having Dillie, she was supposed to go away.”

  “And how were you going to make her do that?” Phin said. “Who do you think you are?”

  “I’m your mother,” Liz snapped. “I took care of you. That harpy would have ruined you. She made you miserable the whole time she was with you.” She looked at him in disgust. “You’re impossible when it comes to women. Diane was a greedy little slut and now this—”

  “Careful.” Phin’s voice cut across the space between them. “You really don’t want to make me choose again.”

  “The whole town’s talking,” Liz said, her voice shaking. “That woman killed Zane. They found the gun under her bed—”

  “What?” Phin said. How the hell had the gossips gotten hold of that?

  Liz nodded. “You don’t know her. She killed him—”

  “She was in bed with me,” Phin said. “Wes has got the time of death narrowed down to forty-five minutes, and she was naked with me the entire time. Where’d you get this crap?”

  “Virginia,” Liz said. “But everybody knows. And now you’re protecting her—”

  “Could you just once listen to me?” Phin said. “Instead of spitting paranoia at me?”

  Liz clenched her jaw. “I’m not paranoid. You need me. I got you free of Diane. I saved you.”

  “I’m just wondering how free,” Phin said, looking at the steel in his mother’s eyes. “She died when Dillie was three months old. That must have been about the time she ran out of money. Did she come back for more?”

  “Yes,” Liz said, her disgust palpable, and then his implication must have registered because her eyes widened, and she said, “No.”

  “Did you shove her down those steps?” Phin said, sick at heart. “Did you watch her bleed to death? Did Zane find out? Did you shoot him?”

  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 abo