Annie squeezed both of her hands. “I didn’t know. I didn’t put it all together until just today. Why did you—?”
“You should have thought harder, Annie.” Prescott slid one hand along the smooth wood of the bat. “I told you myself how long I searched for Susan after she supposedly drowned. I had teams of people looking, and they kept on looking for weeks afterward. Even years after that, I had people keeping their eyes open. Just in case. It’s the kind of man I am. I know things, and what I don’t know, I find out. I have people. Resources. I don’t leave things to chance. When I first met Susan all those years ago, I had her checked out. Her family, her friends. I knew everything about her, and them. Did you think this ‘Cousin Sandy’ story was going to fool me?”
“Please,” Susan begged. “Can’t you just leave us all alone? I wasn’t going to say anything. It’s been twenty years now. If I was going to say anything, I would have already.”
“You shouldn’t have dyed your hair, Susan. Natural blondes are too hard to come by.” Prescott shook his head. “You’re still not bad to look at though, for your age and all, but not when you cry. I told you years ago, you shouldn’t ever cry. It spoils your looks. But it doesn’t much matter now, does it?”
He stepped back, leaning slightly so he could look out the front windows, obviously making sure no other unexpected company had shown up, and Susan made a slight sobbing noise.
“What did I tell you about spoiling your looks, Susan?”
Prescott tipped her chin up to him, and Susan shrank back, her eyes wide with fear. Her shaky breath was suddenly silent.
Annie steeled herself. “What do you want?”
A slow grin spread once again across Prescott’s face. “Closure. Isn’t that what everybody wants? I just want to make sure it’s final this time.” He still had one finger on Susan’s chin, making her keep her eyes on him. “You didn’t think you could really leave me, did you, darling? Nobody leaves Archer Prescott. Don’t you remember?”
“Please, Archer. I had to. I couldn’t stand it anymore.”
He removed his hand, shoving Susan’s head back as he did, and then he turned to Annie. “And you, Annie, you don’t seem to know when to mind your own business. Now it’s a little too late for turning back.”
Annie straightened her shoulders, forcing herself to look him coolly in the eyes. “People know I was coming here. They know you were coming here. If anything happens to us, if you do anything at all, they’ll know. You won’t be able to just walk away.” She paused, letting him think. “But it’s not too late to do it now.”
He laughed to himself, the same warm chuckle she had heard over the phone before, only now it made her blood run cold. “Sure they know. They’ll know I came out here to talk to the lady who owns Susan’s old house, the lady you told me about. They’ll know you came out to talk to us both. And once I’m gone, they’ll know you two were just fine when I left you. They’ll even know that friendly Mrs. Dawson decided to accept ‘Sandy’s’ invitation to stay to dinner so you two could get better acquainted. Now what could be nicer than that?”
“Her husband was on his way here when I left town,” Annie bluffed. “He’ll be at the door any minute now. If you go now, nobody has to even know you were here. I promise we won’t say anything.”
“No,” Prescott agreed. “You won’t say anything. And neither will her husband. I’ve already made sure of that.”
Annie glanced at Susan. “Tom’s here?”
“In the kitchen.” Again tears sprang to Susan’s eyes. “He came in the back door. Archer was already here with that bat—”
“You know what they say about weaving tangled webs, don’t you, Susan? You shouldn’t have tried to deceive me. You knew I’d find out. No matter how long it took.”
“Please. Tom’s hurt. Let me—”
“He’s all right. And he won’t have to last much longer anyway.”
“What are you going to do?” Annie demanded.
“Once you mentioned ‘Cousin Sandy’ was living here in this house, I started thinking about what I should do. I couldn’t leave my darling Susan out here with just good old Tom to keep her company. She might get bored and start talking too much.”
Susan screwed her eyes shut and shook her head. “No. No, I won’t. I promise. I swear!”
“Shh.” Annie squeezed her arm around the other woman, trying to calm her. Then she glared at Prescott. “What are you going to do?”