Alanna didn’t intend to ever let it go.
The whup-whup of a helicopter overhead brought her to her feet. The chopper landed in the garden to the left of the manor where the least amount of limbs littered the yard. The door opened, and Detective Adams jumped out and ran with his head down toward the house. Paramedics jumped down and they all went to Patricia’s body.
After several minutes, Adams left the body and walked toward Alanna and Liam. The bags under his eyes were even more pronounced than usual. Alanna decided he’d likely gotten no sleep last night. She rushed to the top of the steps to greet him.
Adams’s gaze flickered from her to Liam on the swing. “I came as soon as I could. Your message said Kavanagh killed your sister and tried to kill you? What about Barry’s mother? She appears to have been shot.”
Alanna nodded and stepped aside to allow him onto the porch. “Liam needs to be getting to a hospital at once. I’ll explain what happened on the way.”
Adams stepped aside as the paramedics approached. “Let them stabilize him for the trip first. You got anything to eat? I haven’t had a bite since lunch yesterday.”
The last thing Alanna wanted to worry about was Adams’s stomach. “I think there are bennes in the kitchen. You can help yourself.”
“Much obliged.” The screen door screeched when the detective stepped into the house. He returned a few minutes later with his cheeks puffed out. Two more bennes were in his hands. He chewed and swallowed. “There’s a lot of explaining to do here.”
Alanna kept her gaze on her husband. The paramedics had inserted an IV line and were checking Liam’s blood pressure. “How is he?”
“He’s going to be fine, ma’am,” one of the paramedics said. “Don’t you worry.”
“Did the blade get his lung?” she asked.
“Don’t think so. We’ll get some X-rays at the hospital though.”
Alanna let out the breath she’d been holding. “When can we get going?”
“Just a few more minutes,” the man said.
Grady appeared from under the trees and walked slowly toward them. “Everyone is dead. I can’t quite wrap my head around it.” He sank onto a step and buried his head in his hands.
She unclenched her fists. “Barry killed his mother, then tried to kill all of us. The gun went off in a struggle, and his body is in the water.” She swallowed hard. “At least what’s left after the gator was done.”
Adams winced. “I checked some stuff after I got your message. Kavanagh has been treated for psychotic episodes ever since he was in his teens. His mother managed to hush it up when he was kicked out of school for attacking another boy when he was fifteen. He nearly killed the kid for speaking to a girl Kavanagh liked. His parents paid quite a sum of money to kill the story.”
“Patricia covered up many things over the years,” Grady said. “If she’d let him take the consequences, maybe he could have been helped.”
Adams nodded and swallowed another benne. “There were at least two more incidents in college, I found, both over women.”
“What about Neila?” Alanna’s voice broke at the mention of her sister. She would never have that reunion she had dreamed of for so long. Would Paddy care when he was told, or was he too bitter? She understood bitterness. It had nearly ruined her too.
“No sign of her, but we’ll dredge the lagoon and see if we can find any trace of her body.”
“Patricia said they fed her to the gator.” Alanna shuddered and watched the paramedics work on her husband. They were loading him onto a stretcher.
“Then we’ll likely never find the evidence.” Adams’s gaze lingered on Liam. “You’ve got your memory back?”
Liam nodded, his face pale. “I remember the crash, everything. Barry said he’d killed me once, so he must have planted the bomb.”
Adams swallowed the last of his bennes. “The darkness that can lurk in the human soul still astounds me.”
“You don’t seem surprised that he’s not Jesse,” Alanna said.
“I was starting to have my doubts. If the second DNA test confirms the first, I’ll be a convert. Too bad they take so long.”
“Well, I don’t need a test,” she said.
The paramedics carried Liam past them. “We’re ready,” the blond one said.
“Where are your friends?” Adams asked.
The sooner she left this dark house, the better. “They got a hotel room last night when the storm started. They’re at the Charleston Place.” She hadn’t told them the circumstances, just that they’d come through the hurricane all right. The full story could wait until they were together in person.