Deadly Descent by Charlotte Hinger

him. His face contorted, and he clenched his fists.
    “It’s gone far enough. Far enough, I tell you.”
    He slammed out the back door. We heard his junky old pickup start, the steady unmuffled pop of the ancient engine, and minutes later, he roared out of the driveway.
    Brian and I looked at one another helplessly. There is no formula for redeeming this kind of situation. No way to make people feel comfortable. I did know it would be a good idea to make a hasty retreat.
    “I’m so sorry. We all have times we wish we could keep strictly within our family. Let’s have lunch another time, Fiona, when conditions are a bit different.” I couldn’t have sounded grander.
    “I want her gone,” said Fiona.
    She was looking far off, and the hair rose on my arms. Her eyes were blank, and she didn’t seem to see me. Didn’t seem to have heard my exquisitely tactful speech.
    “You have no business bringing a jailbird in where she can see some of the most sensitive records in this county.”
    “Judy will be just fine, Mother,” Brian said. “I think she cares a lot about people’s privacy. I don’t know what’s behind this crazy vendetta. I don’t know what’s gotten into you. Judy’s lost her mother, and she needs a little kindness.”
    The words were strong, and what Fiona would not have taken from me she took quite well from her son. She shook her head as though she were coming out of a trance, her mouth quivering with humiliation.
    “Lottie, I don’t mean to sound like a shrew. It’s just that it’s been such a shock, such an incredible shock. I’ve lost Zelda. Then Judy turning on me like she did. I just can’t believe it all happened.”
    “I think it will be good for Judy to be back in this county a while,” I said. “Max needs her.”
    “She’s a very fragile person, Lottie. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Very fragile and very unstable. I think you’re making a big mistake. A very big mistake.”
    “I don’t think so,” I said easily. “Now that I’m trying to cover two jobs, I need someone at the office who really wants to be there.”
    They both looked at me blankly.
    “Now don’t tell me you two are the only ones in town who haven’t heard about my new job?”
    “Another one?” Brian laughed. “Trying to set a record for the number of hats you can wear?”
    I laughed. “I’m Sam Abbott’s newest deputy.”
    “Why would a smart woman like you want to do a stupid goddamn thing like that?” All traces of the Southern belle had vanished from Fiona’s voice.
    “Mom!” Brian reached for her arm, but Fiona twisted away angrily. “That’s enough.”
    “I didn’t come here to be insulted, Fiona.” Deciding quickly I didn’t owe her or anyone else in town an explanation for hiring Judy St. John or working with Sam Abbott, I turned and started toward the door.
    She followed. “I’ll not have a rank amateur, an outsider who never should have come to this town to begin with, investigating my only sister’s murder and agitating my darling niece.”
    Suddenly, I lost all trace of anger. I think it was the “darling niece” that did it. Profoundly aware that Fiona had been through three, maybe four, complete mood swings in fifteen minutes, I knew something was very wrong.
    “Mother.” Brian’s voice was as sharp as a slap. I turned to face them both, my mind racing. “I want to talk to Lottie in private. Will you come into the den with me?”
    I nodded. Fiona left. I heard her click through the kitchen and out the back door.

Chapter Seventeen
    Brian led me through the house to a combination den-library dominated by an enormous mahogany desk.
    “Drink, Lottie?”
    “No, thank you.”
    “Mind if I do?” He went to a hinged panel in a bookcase that opened to a fine collection of liquors in cut glass bottles. His hands trembled as he reached for a decanter of bourbon. He poured a stiff shot, tossed it back.
    “I’ve got to decide what to do about my mother.”
    I