Georgia rubbed her cuffed wrist. “What is this about?”
Kate’s glare soaked in Georgia. “You don’t look like her. Maybe a little around the mouth but that’s about it. You look like,” she hesitated as if emotion clogged her throat. “You look like Gary, your father.”
Georgia raised her chin a notch. She looked brave and strong, but Rachel felt, rather than saw, a bone-deep vulnerability. “Pastor Gary.”
Kate smiled. “You’re smart like he is.”
The cuff holding Rachel and Georgia tightened, as Georgia fisted her fingers. With her free hand Rachel grabbed Georgia’s wrist as if to steady her.
Kate shifted narrowing eyes toward Rachel. “You are good at sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
“It’s a talent.” The sharpness in Rachel’s tone was designed to draw fire and anger. If they were focused on her maybe Georgia could somehow escape this nightmare.
Brenda shoved Rachel hard against her tender shoulder, making her wince. “Shut up.”
Pain bulldozed through Rachel’s body forcing her to take deep breaths. She righted and glared back at Kate. Let’s see who’s running this show. “What the hell is her issue?”
Brenda raised her hand as if to strike Rachel when Kate shouted, “No!”
Brenda lowered her hand but clearly she craved any violence she could rain on Rachel.
Rachel kept her gaze on Kate. She might be physically weaker but she was the one in control here. “You had Brenda kill Dixie, Lexis, and Rebecca. Why?”
Kate moistened pale thin lips. “It’s complicated.”
“We’ve time.”
A smile quirked Kate’s lips. “Not much time. I heard the sirens as well as you. But we’ve a moment or two.”
“Why?” Rachel persisted.
Kate arranged the folds of her blanket on her lap, enjoying this moment of control. “You know why Lexis died. That was your fault.”
Rachel shoved aside the guilt. “The letters.”
“I knew she would figure out that the last letters were forgeries. I knew she’d know that Annie hadn’t written them all and that would raise questions. I couldn’t have any questions that might lead back to Pastor Gary.”
Rachel gritted her teeth. “If you knew they were a problem then why send them to me?”
“I didn’t.” Kate looked past her to Brenda. “She did. She thought they’d make Pastor Gary nervous. Brenda wanted to punish him.”
The release of the letters had been a mistake, a miscalculation. A laugh tumbled out of Rachel. “She didn’t tell you what she was doing?”
Kate shifted in her chair. “Not until after. Not until the damage had been done.”
“I did my best to clean up the damage,” Brenda insisted.
“Too little, too late,” Kate said.
Brenda shook her head. “I was thinking about you, Momma! I wanted him to come see you and make you feel special but he wouldn’t. I had to make him squirm.”
To split these two vipers’ alliance, Rachel had to stoke Brenda’s fears and dig into Kate’s weaknesses.
“Well, you helped me. Not too smart. You’ve given the police the weapon they need to prove that Jeb didn’t kill Annie. Did you know the DNA came back? Showed a woman killed Annie.”
“Shut up!” Brenda shouted.
“Thanks to Brenda, the cops have forgeries which they will eventually trace back to Kate. Dying or not, she’ll go to jail.”
A glance from Georgia revealed understanding. “My partner identified the forgeries immediately.”
“Why go after KC?” Rachel asked.
“He was nice enough and I knew if I had a contact in the police department I would know what they knew once I started doling out my lessons.” Brenda laughed. “KC is a fool. He was far too easy to pump for information.”
“How’d you meet him?” Rachel asked.
“Gary’s prison ministry. It’s also where I met Oscar McMillian and gave him your card when he needed a lawyer. One look at him and I knew he’d be hard for you to handle.”
Rachel studied Brenda’s face contorted with anger.
Under her scrutiny, Brenda’s scowl deepened. “If Rachel had given all the letters to Lexis this would be over.”
“But she didn’t give them all over,” Kate said. “You never think it through, Brenda, and you always underestimate.”
Brenda’s eyes widened with hurt and then as quickly narrowed with anger for Georgia. It would take little to make her fire the gun.
“Kate, why did you write the fake letters?” Rachel asked.
“Gary came to me when he realized Annie was pregnant. Beth would have seen to that. He was in a panic. His new church would have been ruined if people learned he’d gotten a singer pregnant. I told him I’d handle it. And I went to Annie and told her I’d find her a husband if she’d stay away from Gary.”
“Is that when she agreed to marry Bill Dawson?”
“She didn’t agree right away. But I told her Gary would never marry her. Unless she wanted a bastard child she better turn her magic on Bill, who was like most men in the church. Half in love with her. I set them up on dates and within two weeks he’d proposed. They married a week later.”
“Gary married them,” Rachel said.
“The last letters made him realize how much trouble she could be. He saw past her smiles to the problems that waited for him if he stayed with her. He married Annie and Bill and was willing to walk away.”
“What happened?”
“He couldn’t stop thinking about her. He confessed to me several times that he still loved her. He married Beth but was ready to leave her and toss away the church for Annie.”
“So why kill Annie?” Rachel asked.
“I went to see Annie after the baby was born. She and Bill had had a bad fight. He’d figured out the baby was not his. She was going to go to Gary and tell him she still loved him. I begged her not to but she wouldn’t listen.” Kate looked at Georgia. “I didn’t go planning to kill her.”
Wind rustled through the trees. “When did you figure out Georgia was Annie’s child?” Rachel asked.
A satisfied smile teased Kate’s lips. “The church held a community fund-raiser last year. She came as a representative from the police force. The minute I saw her, I saw Gary. And then I saw her name tag. Morgan. Buddy Morgan, big-time cop. Didn’t take much checking to figure out that the Morgans’ adopted a daughter right about the time Annie died. Buddy Morgan. Got the press and the force to hide the fact that he took Annie’s baby. I should have seen it years ago but they kept their baby girl off the radar for a long time.” Kate shook her head. “I wanted you, Georgia. I wanted to raise you as my own. I had dreams about raising you with Gary.”
Brenda’s frown deepened as if Kate twisted a knife in her side. “All she did for him and still he was a faithless man. He had his whores and he refused to come see Momma.”
“He couldn’t help himself,” Kate hissed. “He couldn’t help himself.”
“Brenda, you did the killing this time,” Rachel said.
A wide proud grin spread across her face. “I did.”