Genuine Lies

here.”
    Paul caught her, struggled her beefy arms back. “Stop it. Dammit, Travers. Julia owns this house.”
    “I’ll see her in hell before she steps foot in it.” Tears gushed out of her eyes as she fought to free herself. “She broke her heart, and when that wasn’t enough, she killed her.”
    “Listen to me. Drake’s been murdered.”
    Travers stopped struggling long enough to catch her breath. “Drake. Dead?”
    “He was shot. We found him late last night. We have a witness who saw him, here, on the estate the day Eve was killed. Travers, the security had been shut off. Drake climbed over the wall.”
    “You’re trying to tell me that Drake killed Eve?”
    He had her attention now, but loosened his hold only slightly. “No, but he saw who did. That’s why he’s dead.”
    Travers’s gaze scraped back to Julia. “If she could kill her own mother, she could kill her cousin.”
    “She didn’t kill Drake. She was with me. She was with me all night.”
    The lines around Travers’s face only deepened. “She’s blinded you. Blinded you with sex.” “I want you to listen to me.” “Not while she’s in this house.”
    “I’ll wait outside.” Julia shook her head before Paul could protest. “It’s all right. It’ll be better that way.”
    When Julia had closed the door behind her, Travers relaxed. “How could you sleep with that whore?” The minute Paul released her she groped in her pocket for a tissue. “I thought Eve meant something to you.”
    “You know she did. Come in here and sit down, we need to talk.” Once he had settled her in the parlor, he crouched at her feet. “I need you to tell me about Charlie Gray’s daughter.”
    Something flashed in Travers’s eyes before she lowered them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Eve knew. She trusted you more than anyone. She would have told you.”
    “If she trusted me, why didn’t she tell me she was sick?” Overwhelmed with grief, she buried her face in her hands. “That she was dying.”
    “Because she loved you. And because she didn’t want what time she had left to be marred with pity or regrets.”
    “Even that was taken from her. That little bit of time.”
    “That’s right. I want whoever took that from her to pay every bit as much as you. It wasn’t Julia.” He gripped her hands before she could push him away. “But it was someone she loved, someone she’d taken into her life. She found Charlie’s daughter, didn’t she, Travers?”
    “Yes.”

The sun was bouncing off the deep blue water of the pool. The ripples caused by the fountain that still fed it widened, and spread and vanished. Julia wondered who would swim there again. If anyone would shuck off their suit, stand under that rush of water, and laugh.
    She had an urge to do it herself, quickly, while she was alone, to pay homage to someone she had loved very briefly.
    Instead, she watched a hummingbird, a small bright missile, flash above the water, then hover and drink from a vivid red petunia. “Julia.”
    The smile that had started to curve her lips froze. She felt her heart leap and lodge in her throat. Very slowly, very carefully, she relaxed the fingers that had tensed into fists, and calling on whatever skill had passed from Eve’s blood to hers, turned to face Charlie Gray’s daughter.
    “Nina. I didn’t realize you were here. I thought you’d moved out.”
    “Almost. I just had a few more things to pack up. It’s amazing how much you accumulate in fifteen years. You’ve heard about Drake.”
    “Yes. Why don’t we go inside? Paul’s here.”
    “I know.” Nina let out a quick breath that caught like a sob. “I heard him and Travers. She didn’t realize I’d come in earlier and gone upstairs. None of this should have happened. None of it.” She reached into her buff-colored envelope bag and pulled out a .32. Sun hit chrome and dazzled. “I wish I could have found another way, Julia. I really do.”
    Finding herself facing a gun brought on more anger than fear. She didn’t consider herself invincible. A part of her mind acknowledged that the bullet could rip through her, cut off her life. But the way the threat was offered, the incredible politeness of it, buried any thought of caution.
    “You can stand there and apologize to me as if you’d forgotten a luncheon date. Sweet Jesus, Nina, you killed her.”
    “It wasn’t something I planned.” Her tone was only mildly irritated as she pressed a hand