The Accused Read Free

every day and make sure they’re still on the estate, right?”
    “That’s it. I’ll leave the scheduling to you, but I’ve made Alaina aware that she needs to work around your job.”
    “And she had no problem with that?”
    “She’s an attorney. She has a lot of respect for law enforcement.”
    “Then she’s not like the attorneys I’ve known—present company excluded, of course.”
    “I appreciate your handling this for me.” William rose from the table, wisely deciding not to overstay his welcome. Carter’s mother followed him to the front door where he gave her a kiss on the cheek.
    “Call me if you need anything,” William said.
    “Of course,” his mother said. “And don’t worry, I’ll see that Carter doesn’t scare the woman away from her inheritance.”
    His mother closed the door, then came back into the kitchen and sat down again, frowning.
    “I don’t like it,” Carter said.
    “I don’t either, but not for the same reasons.”
    “What about it bothers you?”
    She gazed out the back window and shook her head. “I can’t put my finger on it. I never liked Trenton Purcell. I always got a bad feeling in his presence. After he and Ophelia married, they pretty much disappeared from society, and I don’t think he left the house even once after Ophelia’s death. He didn’t even attend her funeral.”
    “Sounds like a stellar guy.”
    His mother nodded. “No one liked him, but until then, we had nothing concrete to point at and say, ‘He’s completely wrong.’”
    “But?” Carter was certain she hadn’t finished her thoughts on Purcell, and he knew his mother well enough to know that her “feelings” about things were not something he should ignore. He didn’t know what made her so intuitive, but she’d been right so many times about seemingly straightforward things that weren’t straightforward at all that he’d started paying attention when she got the least bit uneasy.
    “ But something about all of this doesn’t add up for me.” She held up a hand to stop him before he could speak. “I don’t think William sees anything unusual except for the legal arrangement itself, which is apparently aboveboard, so don’t go thinking he’s keeping something from us.”
    “It bothers me,” Carter agreed, “and I didn’t even know the man, except by rare sighting when we sneaked onto the property as kids. But if he married the woman for her money, then abandoned her kids when she died, I expect you wouldn’t get a good feeling about him.”
    “Certainly not, but it’s more than that.” She reached over to place her hand on top of his. “Promise me you’ll be careful. Be more watchful than usual. That you won’t dismiss anything to do with that house or the girls as simple oddity or coincidence.”
    He frowned. His mother’s concern for him and others was nothing new. She was a wonderful woman with a huge heart. The concern didn’t bother him at all.
    But the fear in her voice did.
    * * *
    A LAINA TURNED HER SUV onto a narrow dirt road that seemed to lead directly into the swamp. The cypress trees were so thick overhead that they almost formed a canopy over the road, the moss clinging to the limbs blocking everything but the stray ray of sunshine from creeping through.
    Her right front wheel sank into a huge dip and she pressed the gas to push the vehicle out of the hole. It’s a good thing I didn’t go for the convertible sports car. She wouldn’t have given a low-profile car a hundred yards on this road before it left the driver stranded.
    She glanced down at the directions she’d received from the attorney, to double-check the accuracy, but she already knew she was on the right road. Details were her specialty and the attorney had given very descriptive instructions. She just needed to come to grips with the fact that it looked as if she was driving into the abyss.
    She’d just turned seven years old when her mother passed and she’d gone to live with a