Page 2 of Crosshairs

She turned her head slightly toward the bedroom. He’d been right—she’d taken them to her bedroom. He rushed past her, knocking the old woman out of the way.

Sonny ignored the resounding crack her head made when it hit the floor. He found one diary on the table beside her bed.Where is the other one?

He quickly returned to the library and shook her. “Where is it?” he demanded, then frowned. She was so pale. He felt her wrist. No! She couldn’t be dead. Not until she told him where it was. Maybe in a safe somewhere?

The front door banged open. He froze.

“Cora! Wake up! There’s a tornado coming!”

Rose, Cora’s sister. But he thought she’d gone to bed.

“Where are you?” Her voice, so like her sister’s, rose to a high pitch. “We have to get in the cellar!”

Maybe he should kill her too. No. The police would assume Cora fell and hit her head, causing a brain bleed, but two deaths would cause suspicion. Ainsley was probably with Rose anyway.

He would find a way to return and tear the house apart if he had to in order to find that other diary. He could not take a chance on anyone else finding it. He dashed toward the secret passageway.

“Cora! Where are you?”

“You check her bedroom, and I’ll check the library.”

That had to be Ainsley. The door had barely closed behind him when he heard her cry out.

“Oh no! Gran, quick! The library!”

Seconds later he heard her say, “Siri, call 911!”

2

Ainsley Beaumont knelt beside her great-aunt as she identified herself and gave her location to the 911 dispatcher. “My aunt has fallen, and I’m not sure she’s breathing!”

“Can you give CPR?”

“Yes.” She’d applied the technique more than a few times, but never to a family member.

“Do I need to stay on the line with you?”

“No. Just get the ambulance here ASAP.” A slight rise in Cora’s chest sent relief washing through her. “She’s breathing, although it’s shallow.”

Ainsley had no sooner disconnected from the call than the blaring wail of the tornado siren assaulted her ears. A tornado was the last thing they needed. She felt her aunt’s wrist. Her heartbeat was too fast to count. When had she gotten so thin? And frail? She’d always been so strong.

Ainsley should have come home more often, but it’d always been easier to get her grandmother and aunt to come to her rather than for her to return to Natchez.

She was here now.You could have been here this past week instead of on that Caribbean cruise.Ainsley squelched the accusing voice in her head.

“Is she...” Gran’s voice shook. Cora was her only sister.

“She’s breathing.” If only she had her first aid kit to check Cora’s blood pressure. Where were those first responders?

Ainsley winced as the tornado siren raked her ears again. They needed to get to the basement, but Cora was as tall as Ainsley’s five-nine. While she was thin, she would be too heavy for Ainsley to get down the steps by herself. It would take a gurney or stretcher for that. “Is the front door unlocked?”

“I’ll check.”

When her grandmother opened the front door, Ainsley barely distinguished the sound of the tornado siren from an approaching ambulance. Once again relief pulsed through her. The paramedics would have the equipment to get Cora to the basement, where they all needed to be.

Within minutes, the paramedics were kneeling beside Cora, and Ainsley recognized the lead medic. Kanesha Davis. They’d grown up together. “Is my aunt going to be all right?” she asked.

“It’s too early to tell,” her friend replied. “You need to get to the basement.”

---