Page 190 of Homeport

“I watched you. I watched you for years. I planned for years. You were my goal as long as I can remember. I went into the same field. I was every bit as good as you. Better. I went to work for you. I married your useless brother, I made myself invaluable to your mother. I’m more of a daughter to her than you’ve ever been.”

“Oh yes,” Miranda said with perfect sincerity. “You are. Believe me, I mean nothing to her.”

“You’re the centerpiece. I’d have had your position sooner or later. You’d have been the one scrambling for scraps. Remember the David? That was quite a coup for you, wasn’t it?”

“So you stole it, had Harry copy it.”

“Harry was very enthusiastic. It’s so pitifully easy to manipulate men. They look at me and they think, She’s so delicate, so lovely. And all they want to do is fuck and protect.”

She laughed again, sliding her gaze down to Andrew. “I’ll say this for your brother. He had some good moves in bed. It was a nice side benefit, but breaking his heart was better. Watching him slide into the bottle because he couldn’t figure out what he’d done to turn me away. Poor, poor Andrew.”

Then her expression changed again, as capricious as the lightning outside and just as volatile. “I was going to reel him back eventually, after I’d finished everything. Finished you. What a beautiful irony that would be. I still will,” she added, with a smile blooming again. “That cheap little number he’s screwing now won’t even be a memory when I move back to Maine. That is, if I let him live.”

“There’s no need to hurt him. It’s not him, Elise. Let me call an ambulance. You can keep the gun on me. I won’t try to get away. Just let me call an ambulance for him.”

“Not used to begging, are you? But you do it well. You do everything so well, Miranda. I’ll think about it.” She cocked her head in warning as Miranda rose. “Careful. I wouldn’t kill you, not at first, but I’d cripple you.”

“What do you want?” Miranda demanded. “What the hell do you want?”

“I want you to listen!” She shouted it, waving the gun so that the barrel jumped from Miranda’s heart to her head and back again. “I want you to stand there and listen to what I say, to do what I tell you, to crawl when I’m finished. I want it all.”

“All right.” How much time? Miranda thought frantically. How much time was left before Elise snapped, before the gun went off? “I’m listening. The David was really only practice, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, you’re smart. Always so smart. It was backup. I knew I could put a chink in your reputation with it. But I’m patient. There was bound to be something bigger—with the way your star was rising, there was going to be something more important. Then there was The Dark Lady. I knew, as soon as Elizabeth told me she was sending for you, that there was an important piece coming in, I knew this would be the one. She trusted me. I made certain she trusted me. Kowtowing to her every whim for years.

“Standjo’s going to be mine too,” she added matter-of-factly. “I’ll be in the director’s chair by the time I’m forty.”

Miranda slid her gaze to the side, scanning for a weapon.

“You look at me! You look at me when I talk to you.”

“I’m looking at you, Elise. I’m listening. It was The Dark Lady.”

“Have you ever seen a more magnificent piece? Anything quite so powerful?”

“No.” The rain was pounding like battle drums against the window. “No, I haven’t. You wanted her. I can’t blame you. But you couldn’t do it alone. So you had Richard.”

“Richard was in love with me. I was very fond of Richard,” she said almost dreamily. “I might have married him, for a while at least. He was useful, he could have continued to be very useful. We ran the tests at night. I had the combination to Elizabeth’s safe. It was ridiculously easy. All I had to do was arrange for you to be delayed. I did specify that you weren’t to be seriously hurt. I wanted to keep you healthy until I could ruin you.”

“Richard made the copy.”

“As I said, he was very useful. I did some of the work myself. We wanted it to pass basic tests, even to fool some of the more involved ones. You were perfect, Miranda. You knew when you saw it, just as I did. It was unmistakable. You could feel it, couldn’t you? The power of that piece, the glory in it.”

“Yes, I could feel it.” She thought she heard Andrew stir, but couldn’t be sure. “You leaked the project to the press.”

“Elizabeth is so strict about such things. Rules and regulations, proper channels, integrity. She reacted exactly as expected—it didn’t hurt that I gave her subtle little nudges, all the while claiming that I was sure you didn’t mean it. You’d just gotten caught up. You were so enthusiastic. I was your champion, Miranda. I was brilliant.”

The phone rang while they stared at each other. And Elise smiled slowly. “We’ll just let the machine pick that up, shall we. We have so much more to talk about.”

• • •

Why the hell didn’t she answer? Ryan fought his way through the storm, tires skidding on wet pavement as he pushed for speed. She’d left the Institute to go home. She wasn’t picking up her cell phone, or the phone at the house. Steering one-handed, he punched in information and got the number for the hospital.

“Elise Warfield,” he demanded. “She’s a patient.”

“Dr. Warfield was released this evening.”

Ice gathered in his gut again. He punched the accelerator, sending the car into a violent fishtail. Going against a lifetime of habit, he called the police. “Get me Detective Cook.”

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