River’s End

I’ll be all right. I have to be all right.”
    She sat back, scrubbing her hands over her face to dry it. Her head throbbed like an open wound, her stomach was a mass of cramps. But she got to her feet. “I need you to tell me. I need you to tell me everything.” When he shook his head, her chin came up. “I have to know, David.”
    He hesitated. She looked so tired, so pale and so fragile. Where Julie had been long and willowy, Jamie was small and fine-boned. Both had carried a look of delicacy that he knew was deceptive. He’d often joked that the MacBride sisters were tough broads, bred to climb mountains and tramp through woods.
    “Let’s get some coffee. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
    Like her sister, Jamie had refused live-in staff. It was her house, by God, and she wouldn’t sacrifice her privacy. The day maid wouldn’t be in for another two hours, so she brewed the coffee herself while David sat at the counter and stared out the window.
    They didn’t speak. In her head she ran over the tasks she would have to face that day. The call to her parents would be the worst, and she was already bracing for it. Funeral arrangements would have to be made—carefully, to ensure as much dignity and privacy as possible. The press would be salivating. She would make sure the television remained off as long as Olivia was in the house.
    She set two cups of coffee on the counter, sat. “Tell me.”
    “There isn’t much more than Detective Brady already told us,” David began. “There wasn’t any forced entry. She let him in. She was, ah, dressed for bed, but hadn’t been to bed. It looked as though she’d been in the living room working on clippings. You know how she liked to send your folks clippings.”
    He rubbed both hands over his face, then picked up his coffee. “They must have argued. There were signs of a fight. He used the scissors on her.” Horror bloomed in his eyes. “Jamie, he must have lost his mind.”
    His gaze came to hers, held. When he reached for her hand, she curled her fingers around his tightly. “Did he—was it quick?”
    “I don’t—I’ve never seen—he went wild.” He closed his eyes a moment. She would hear, in any case. There would be leaks, there would be media full of truth and lies. “
    Jamie, she was ... he stabbed her repeatedly, and slashed her throat.”
    The color drained from her face, but her hand stayed firm in his. “She fought back. She must have fought him. Hurt him.”
    “I don’t know. They have to do an autopsy. We’ll know more after that. They think Olivia saw some of it, saw something, then hid from him.” He drank coffee in the faint hope it would settle his jittery stomach. “They want to talk to her.”
    “She can’t be put through that.” This time she jerked back, yanking her hand free. “
    She’s a baby, David. I won’t have them put her through that. They know he did it,”
    she said with a fierce and vicious bitterness. “I won’t have my sister’s child questioned by the police.”
    David let out a long breath. “He’s claiming he found Julie that way. That he came in and found her already dead.”
    “Liar.” Her eyes fired, and color flooded back into her face, harsh and passionate. “
    Murdering bastard. I want him dead. I want to kill him myself. He made her life a misery this past year, and now he’s killed her. Burning in hell isn’t enough.”
    She whirled away, wanting to pound something, tear something to pieces. Then stopped short when she saw Olivia staring at her from the doorway with wide eyes.
    “Livvy.”
    “Where’s Mama?” Her bottom lip trembled. “I want my mama.”
    “Livvy.” As temper drained into grief, and grief into helplessness, Jamie bent down and picked her up.
    “The monster came and hurt Mama. Is she all right now?”
    Over the child’s head, Jamie’s desperate eyes met her husband’s. He held out a hand, and she walked over so the three of them stood wrapped together.
    “Your mother had to go away, Livvy.” Jamie closed her eyes as she pressed a kiss to Olivia’s head. “She didn’t want to, but she had to.’“
    “Is she coming back soon?”
    There was a ripple in Jamie’s chest, like a wave breaking on rock. “No, honey. She’s not coming back.”
    “She always comes back.”
    “This time she can’t. She had to go to heaven and be an angel.”
    Olivia knuckled her eyes. “Like a movie?”
    As her legs began to tremble, Jamie sat, cradling her sister’s