“You thought I did it. All this time?” she asked, her voice strangely calm.
“You told me you wanted them dead,” he said hoarsely. “You left the house in the middle of the night.”
“So did you.”
“I went for a walk to clear my head. Where did you go?” he asked.
He’d known she’d left. He’d thought she did it. And yet he’d never said anything, she realized—not even when it could have thrown the suspicion off him and onto her.
“I thought you lied to protect yourself. But it was your sister?” Gabriel asked.
“Maybe,” Emma admitted reluctantly. “I don’t know. I just know it wasn’t me. And I never thought it was you.”
“Am I supposed to say thank you for that?” Gabriel asked.
“No. Of course not,” Emma replied.
He considered her. “Why now?” he asked. “After all this time, all these years. You never once said anything that might make people look at Juliette, even when everyone called you a murderer. So what’s changed?”
“I won’t let my child grow up thinking I killed my parents,” Emma said.
“You’re pregnant,” Gabriel said. He ran both hands over his lower face. “Emma. Listen to me. Sell the house. Go live somewhere else. Have your baby, live a happy life with your husband.”
“I’m done protecting my sister. I need to protect my family, and she made it clear years ago that doesn’t mean her.”
“Exactly. You need to protect your family,” Gabriel said. “Maybe Juliette had something to do with your parents’ death. Maybe she didn’t. Either way, do you really think that whoever killed two people in cold blood is going to want you digging up the past? It could be dangerous.”
“Why does it sound like you know something?” Emma asked. They’d never spoken after the murders; their lawyers wouldn’t allow it.
“I know that two people died, and that if you’d been in that house, you’d probably be dead, too,” Gabriel replied. “I know no one in this town lets go of a grudge.”
“Ellis told me just about the same thing,” Emma said musingly. “He thought that’s why you helped me kill my dad. Because he fired yours, and called him a thief.”
“I’ve barely got the energy for my own grudges. Besides, he probably did steal something.”
“I never actually heard that whole story,” Emma admitted. “Just the version my parents told.”
Gabriel looked lost in thought. “Kenneth was always spending more money than he had, and it wouldn’t be the dumbest thing he ever did for quick cash.”
“Your father wasn’t a thief,” Lorelei said. Emma turned; she hadn’t heard the older woman enter. Lorelei’s hair was white, puffed out like a cloud around her face, but she stood as straight as ever.
“Nana,” Gabriel said. He sounded tired. Lorelei ignored him, looking at Emma. Her hand gripped the back of a kitchen chair.
“Kenneth was always a bit up and down with life. Struggled with his drink. Gabriel’s mother, God rest her soul, had about enough of him before she even started showing, and I don’t blame her a bit for kicking him out. He’d get on the wagon and get a job for a while, and then he’d fall off the wagon and we wouldn’t see him for a few months—”
“Or a few years,” Gabriel added.
“But he’d been sober for almost a year.”
“Seven months,” Gabriel corrected.
“He found something off in the numbers. He thought it was a mistake, brought it to your father. The next day, Randolph accuses him of stealing and fires him.”
“Something off in the numbers? Like embezzling, or something?” Emma asked.
“No, it was something about the weights. The weights on the trucks. I don’t know the details,” Lorelei said, shaking her head.
“Did he ever report it?” Emma asked.
“He certainly did,” Lorelei said.
“After getting hammered. He burst into Ellis’s office still drunk,” Gabriel said. “It’s not exactly a surprise Ellis didn’t take him seriously.”
“He could have at least looked into it,” Lorelei huffed.
But, of course, he wouldn’t have. Randolph Palmer was a pillar of the community, after all.
“Where is he now? Kenneth, I mean?” Emma asked.
“Probably dead,” Gabriel said. “He took off not long after that. He did that a lot. This time he didn’t come back.”