Mariah Stewart - Last Look

“You mean about your grandfather raping her?” Dorsey asked. “And I suspect you, too, Natalie? And Aubrey…and Paula Rose?”

“This is all my fault.” Natalie’s voice was heavy with pain. “My fault. If I’d told…if I’d spoken up, that first time, I could have stopped him. It could have stopped with me.” She held her hands over her stomach as if holding in a horrible pain. “I was such a coward. If I hadn’t been such a coward-”

“I could have stopped it, too, Nat. I’m just as guilty,” Aubrey told her.

Natalie looked up at Paula Rose. “How could you have thought of protecting him, even now, after he’s been gone for so many years, after everything he did to us?”

“You want to be known around the capital as the senator who was screwed by her grandfather? The senator whose sister liked it enough to make it her life’s work?” Paula Rose taunted her.

“Surely you don’t believe that.” Natalie looked up at her. “Any fool can see that Shannon was running from him. And if she turned to a life of sin, it was because he set her on that path.”

“She was a whore at heart,” Paula Rose said calmly. “She tempted him.”

“Oh, for the love of God,” Natalie whispered. “You just don’t get it, do you?”

She stood and faced her youngest sister. “He raped us. Do you understand what that means? To have someone you love and trust force you to do things that hurt you, things you don’t understand, terrifying things you know are wrong and shameful?” She stared at Paula Rose. “No, you don’t. You were the lucky one. He stopped after Shannon. She did you a big favor, you know that? Running away when she did? Maybe that scared him into stopping. Maybe he left you alone because of what he thought had happened to her.”

“Y’all are going to burn in hell,” Paula Rose said, staring at Aubrey and Natalie. “Sullying the name of that righteous man. Sticking up for that whore who was setting out to ruin all of us. I saved us all, can’t you see that? I did what I did for all of us.”

“Her blood is on your hands, not mine.” Natalie took Aubrey’s hand. “Not Aubrey’s. Only yours.”

“One thing I don’t understand,” Dorsey asked Aubrey. “Why try to hide the gunshot wound?”

“She wasn’t trying to hide it. She wanted me to do it. She said we were both there, we were both responsible, we both killed her.” She began to sob. “She walked right up to her. Shannon thought she was going to hug her. She put her arms out to hug Paula Rose back,” Aubrey said, spreading her arms open as if embracing someone the others couldn’t see. “But instead, she put the gun right to Shannon’s chest and pulled the trigger. Just like that…”

Natalie dropped her sister’s hand and crumpled into her chair.

Aubrey gasped and her body shook, but she continued. “She gave me the knife and told me to stab her. Shannon was there on the ground and she wasn’t breathing. I said, ‘For God’s sake, Paula Rose, you killed her.’ She said I had to do it, but I couldn’t. She took the knife and stuck it in Shannon’s chest to show me what she wanted me to do, but I started to throw up, and she got mad and started stabbing Shannon, over and over…”

The imaginary knife in Aubrey’s hand pumped up and down, stabbing at the air.

“Then you put the body in what, plastic, Paula Rose? Wrapped it up, drove it to Shelter Island so you could dump it?” Andrew asked. “You drive that church van yourself, or did you get the church gofer to do that for you?”

“I don’t need anyone to do for me. I can do what has to be done.” Paula Rose turned to Aubrey. “I never suspected you’d be so weak. I never should have trusted you. I should have just taken care of everything myself. No one would have known. She would have been just another dead whore.”

Andrew took his phone from his pocket and held it to the side of his face. “You heard enough?” he asked.

“You’re forgetting Edith,” Dorsey said to Paula Rose as the police chief and two officers came through the door. “Shannon’s roommate-she knew who Shannon really was, and there was no way she’d let her be a Jane Doe.”

“Who’d have thought she’d have kept on the cops like that,” a suddenly docile Paula Rose murmured. She stared at Chief Bowden as if he were a stranger.

She said nothing more as she was led from the room.

Aubrey sat still as a stone on her bed, Natalie motionless beside her. Both appeared shell-shocked.

“I’m sorry, Nat, I couldn’t live with myself anymore,” Aubrey told her sister, but Dorsey couldn’t tell if she was apologizing for admitting Shannon had been murdered, or for her attempted suicide.

“I know, honey. You did the right thing.” Natalie got out of her chair and patted her sister on the head.

“Where are you going?” Aubrey asked.

“Someone’s going to have to tell Momma.” Natalie stopped in front of Dorsey, who now stood. “Am I free to leave?”

“What was your role in this?” Dorsey asked.

“Aubrey came to me the day after Shannon…the day after. She told me everything,” Natalie admitted.

“You’ll be held for withholding information, obstructing justice. We’ll need to send an officer with you now.”

Natalie nodded. “I understand.”

“You went to Deptford to identify her because you were the only one who wasn’t there when she died.” Dorsey touched Natalie’s arm as she passed by.

“Paula Rose…I didn’t want her to go. And Aubrey, she could never have handled it. It was the least I could do for Shannon. Someone who cared for her had to be there for her,” Natalie told her. “Someone had to say good-bye.”

She turned to Andrew. “What’s going to happen to Aubrey?”

“She’s cooperating. If it weren’t for her, we’d still be wondering what the hell happened. I doubt Paula Rose would have confessed on her own. I think it’s pretty clear Aubrey didn’t have any part in the murder,” Andrew told her. “I’ll speak with the prosecutor on her behalf. I promise to do the best I can for you and Aubrey.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that. But Paula Rose? Y’all can let her fry.” Natalie shook her head as if it were beyond understanding. “How do you do such a thing to your own flesh and blood?”

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Andrew replied. “That’s a question I ask myself every day.”

“So where to now?” Andrew eased the car into the parking spot in front of his motel room.

“I guess back to Florida, as I’d planned before you hijacked me this morning,” Dorsey replied.

“Hey, it was worth missing the plane-admit it.” Andrew grinned. “Seeing the look on Paula Rose’s face when she realized there was no way out, that was worth a missed flight any day, right?”

“Absolutely.” Dorsey nodded.

“By the way, I asked Chief Bowden to talk to the handyman at Paula Rose’s church about that van. It bothered me that the van was blue, when the witness swore it was a light color.”

“And?”

“And the man was telling the truth. The van we were looking at had always been blue. What he hadn’t said was that the church had only had it for about two weeks. They’d traded in the old one.” He shook his head. “I could kick myself for not grilling him better.”

“It didn’t occur to me to ask him how long they’d had it, either.”

She stared out the window.

“I really feel for this family, you know? Aubrey having to live with that scene in her head; that moment when she realized what Paula Rose was going to do must haunt her. Watching one sister murder the other. And Natalie, caught in the middle like that. I guess blood really is thicker than I’d realized.”