Murder Deja Vu

What did I ever do to turn you against me?”
    “You have to stop this.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “What you think I did is ludicrous. You’re my brother, for crissakes .”
    Reece moved toward the visitor’s chair. Carl stood. His hand lurched toward the desk drawer. Reece had forgotten his father kept a .22 revolver there. He never understood why. No one robbed a business like Daughtry Custom Homes. They never kept cash, only checks in large amounts—large enough to make the Daughtrys rich beyond the comprehension of most people, with an estate on the coveted Maine coastline.
    Carl yanked the gun from the drawer and waved it at Reece with a shaky hand. A few months ago Reece wouldn’t have cared if Carl shot him. But he cared now. He had carved out a life and had someone he wanted to share it with. He pictured Dana and knew he didn’t want to die. “Are you going to shoot me?”
    “I could. No one would blame me.”
    Reece took another step forward. “No, they wouldn’t. I’m wanted for two murders in North Carolina I know nothing about. And I think you committed one of them, maybe both. Tell me I’m wrong.” He didn’t move. “Please, Carl. Tell me.”
    Carl swallowed and shook his head. He brushed the back of his left hand under his nose to wipe away the moisture. “I know nothing about the second one. It wasn’t me.”
    Reece’s stomach rolled over. The second one. Which meant Carl knew about the first—the poor beheaded girl in Corley. Ever since he heard his father’s words incriminating Carl, Reece retained a small glimmer of hope that there had been a misunderstanding. An old man’s lapse of memory. Something. Now he knew differently.
    He debated going for the gun. He’d always been stronger than Carl. Certainly now more so. Carl looked soft. The result of the good life. Reece wasn’t soft. Prison had toughened him, turned him hard in more ways than physically.
    But he couldn’t beat a bullet.
    If he charged to take away the gun, his brother would pull the trigger. Everyone would applaud and say You rid the world of a murderer, Carl, and give him a medal. They might learn the truth from the recorder unless Carl found it first and destroyed it. Then Reece Daughtry would go to his grave a murderer, and the world would never know what really happened. He stumbled to the chair and collapsed into it. He needed time.
    “After spending a third of my life in prison, I have a right to know why you killed her. Then you can shoot me if you want.” He crossed his calf over his thigh, the guise of appearing relaxed, the recorder in his breast pocket, listening. “Why, Carl?”
    The gun trembled in Carl’s hand. Reece watched the barrel point at him, then move to the side and back. Always shaking.
    Carl sat. “Karen was a whore.” He spat out the words as if bees were stinging the inside of his mouth. “She came on to me one day when you were at work. I put her off. After all, she was my brother’s girlfriend. But she didn’t like being put off.” He leaned back in his chair, the hinges squeaking with the motion. “I figured after Marcy and I were married, I wouldn’t have any more chances. And Karen was hot. Everyone thought that. I wanted to see what she was like. Not to take her from you. Besides, I thought with her coming on to me, she wasn’t worth you. But you know how it is—she stuck it in my face.”
    “Actually,” Reece said, “I don’t know how it is. I never fucked my brother’s girlfriend. I never would have.”
    Carl snorted. “You’re so predictable. No, you wouldn’t have. Mr. Perfect, always doing the right thing.”
    “Is that what this is about? Getting back at me because I followed the rules?”
    “I could never compete with you. I was smart, but you…you had to be the best at whatever you did. The teachers must have been disappointed when Reece Daughtry’s kid brother moved up. I never came close.”
    Reece sprang forward and banged his fist on the desk. Carl rolled his chair back to the wall, still pointing a wavering gun in Reece’s face.
    “So fucking what?” Reece didn’t mean to raise his voice, but he couldn’t listen to the bullshit spewing from his brother’s mouth. “You had your own strengths. If Karen put out so easily, why would I have wanted her?”
    “Don’t you see? I wanted to have what belonged to big brother. To see what his woman was like, just once. That’s all. But then…something happened.” He