Poisoned Prose (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

sister’s eyes and just . . . knew. And she didn’t try to escape her fate. Why?”
    Flynn gave her a wry grin. “Because she wanted her whole life to read like a story. An incredible and, more importantly, an unforgettable story. If she died of heart disease or went peacefully in the night, her name would eventually be forgotten. As Elijah’s was forgotten. That’s not the kind of ending she would ever accept. She feared obscurity more than anything else. By mentioning the diamonds during her performance, she invited her sister to act, guaranteeing herself more time in the spotlight. She continued performing, manipulating people and shaping her own story until her very last breath.” He choked on the last word.
    Olivia frowned. “I don’t see how Lowell fits into this macabre picture.”
    “Greg was Lowell’s teacher in prison,” Flynn said. “But you probably know that by now. It was his idea for Lowell to apply for the position of Violetta’s assistant. Greg thought he could get in her good graces if he put her and Lowell together. Greg Rapson’s had a thing for her since he joined the storyteller circuit. And Lowell? He really was trying to go straight. Too bad he ended up right smack in the middle of something too tempting to resist. Cartier diamonds? The guy stood no chance.”
    Thunder rumbled again offshore, but the sound was closer now. Again, lightning burned the sky white, but only for half a heartbeat.
    “So you really don’t know where the diamonds are. The cops don’t know where the diamonds are. And Amabel and Greg didn’t leave town, so I’m assuming they don’t have them. Does Lowell, I wonder?”
    Flynn shrugged. “I hope he does. He might be a thief, but he’s still a decent guy.”
    “Do you know who tried to drown him?”
    “I’d guess it was Amabel or Greg or both. They’d already killed one person together, and they didn’t get the diamonds from her or Lowell would have never been attacked. He may have figured out where Vi kept them. She tossed Hicks’s laptop and notebook in a mountain lake, but Lowell might have kept one of the pages printed from Hicks’s MacBook Pro. He’s smarter than he lets on.”
    Olivia hoped Rawlings was with Lowell right now. If so, Lowell would tell him who’d held his head under the water, and the chief would immediately return to the station, fueled with a quiet anger, to coax a confession from Amabel and Greg. But she had no way of knowing what Lowell’s ordeal had done to his faculties. She could only desperately wish that he was still the man he’d been before he was drowned and brought back to life again.
    There was another round of thunder and lightning, and Olivia moved a little closer to Flynn. She saw despair in his eyes, as stark and gray as the sky. “What else, Flynn? What else do you have to tell me?”
    “I watched them kill her, Olivia,” he said. Tears slipped down his cheeks. “They didn’t see me. I could have shouted. I could have grabbed them, but I couldn’t move. She stared straight at me, and I felt the old rage. I’ve felt it for most of my life. Part of me reasoned that she deserved what she was getting.” He wiped off his tears, but fresh ones followed. “She didn’t struggle. Not until the very end. And the whole time, she looked right at me. Right through me. As if I didn’t exist. As if I
still
didn’t matter. And so I did nothing. I crept away without making a noise like the ghost she’d turned me into all those years ago.”
    The wind ruffled his hair and the sleeves of his shirt. The thunder boomed and in the distance, a new sound floated up to the lighthouse balcony. The sound of sirens.
    Rawlings. He’s coming for me
, Olivia thought, her heart lifting.
    Flynn heard the sirens too. He slowly got to his feet and took hold of the gun again, the barrel pointing at the floor. “This was never for you,” he told her, gesturing at the weapon with his free hand.
    Olivia wasn’t sure if she believed that. “What about Haviland?”
    “I suppose he’s wherever you left him,” Flynn said. “I’d never hurt him, Olivia. Or you. I just wanted someone to listen. It’s the last story I’ll ever tell.”
    It took a moment, but when the meaning of his words sunk in, Olivia cried, “Flynn, no! I can help. I can hire the best lawyers in the state. I’ll pay off the loan on your shop. This isn’t the way. Let me be a friend to you.”
    He gaped at her. “Why would you help me? I’m