forty-two

“Danielle! What the hell are you doing?” Frank yelled jumping to his feet.

“It wasn’t him. It was me,” Danielle said in a small voice. She was standing in the doorway, the gun in her hand trained on my chest. Nigel shifted in his chair. Danielle briefly glanced his way. “Stay right there,” she said, her voice wavering slightly. “I don’t want to have to hurt your dog, but I will if I have to.”

Nigel caught my eye, and I gave a nod. “Is that the gun you used to kill Janice?” I asked.

Danielle studied me a moment before nodding. “It is,” she said.

“Danny! No!” cried Frank in horror. “What are you saying?”

“I shot Janice,” Danielle said in a soft voice. She looked at Frank, her eyes pleading for understanding. “She was a horrible woman. She was an even worse mother.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying, Danny,” Frank said, his voice a hoarse whisper. “I can help you, but not if you keep talking.”

“Janice came here looking for you the other night,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “The night you were at that dinner. I could tell she was upset about something. I said that I didn’t know when you were coming back, but she insisted on waiting. I let her wait in the study. She must have waited about two hours.” Danielle looked at Frank. “Before she left, she gave me a letter to give to you. She said that it was vital that you read it as soon as you got home. I read it instead.” Danielle paused and squeezed her eyes shut. “She’d seen the picture in the paper of you leaving the party with your Oscar. She’d seen me leave earlier with one, too.” Danielle opened her eyes and looked at Frank. “But Janice had it backward. She assumed that you were behind the attack. She said she’d keep quiet as long as you gave Christina that role. But I knew she wouldn’t stop there. Women like Janice never stop. They have to be stopped.”

I folded my arms over my chest. “Is that why you killed Melanie?” I asked. “Did she need to be stopped, too?”

Anger flared in Danielle’s eyes. “Melanie was about to ruin my life,” she said. “I couldn’t let her do that. If my mom found out about the pregnancy, she would have filed for divorce. I knew what that would mean. Everything would be ripped apart. I’d grow up being shuttled back and forth between homes just like most of my friends. Except in my case, my homes would be in two different countries.”

“And yet that’s what happened anyway,” I said, not unkindly.

Danielle blew out a long breath. “Yeah. But, I didn’t know that then. Then, I just wanted to prevent it. I just wanted to save my parents’ marriage. I just wanted to save my life.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Even if it meant taking someone else’s?”

Danielle stared at me, her eyes blank. “She was going to ruin everything. Don’t you get it? She had to go.” She looked at Frank. “You understand, don’t you, Daddy? I didn’t want to lose you. I couldn’t lose you. She had to go.” In a firmer voice, she repeated, “Melanie had to go. There was no other way.”

Frank sank into his chair with a half sob. “Oh, my God,” he moaned as he covered his face with his hands, “Oh, my God. Danny. Danny, why?”

Danielle stared at him incredulous. “Why? Why? I did it so I could be with you. You always said I was your special little girl. I couldn’t let someone take that away from me.” Danielle’s voice broke. “Daddy?” she pleaded, “Tell me you understand.”

Frank didn’t answer. He was caught up in his own misery. “Zelda said something to me once. She said to watch you. I didn’t listen to her. I thought she was being silly….”

Danielle’s focus remained fixed on Frank’s hidden face. Nigel eased himself out of the chair and began to edge his way toward me.

After a minute, a haunted expression came over Danielle’s face. “Daddy,” she said, her voice pleaded, “I can fix this. I’ll fix this and then we can start over. You’ll see. It’ll be fine.”

I glanced at Nigel just as Danielle turned toward me and aimed the gun at my chest. Everything seemed to happen at once. The gun went off. Nigel yelled, “Rosebud!” and dove for me. Skippy lunged at Danielle. Officer Hax rounded the corner, her gun drawn and screamed, “Freeze!”

Then there was a loud crack as my head hit the floor and things went black.