Her eyes were blinking rapidly now, and her meager breasts were rising and falling with each strenuous breath. Her voice had grown shrill. Alex knew that if she was going to talk herself out of this, she had to tread softly. She was still trying to choose her next words when she caught the first whiff of smoke.
Her eyes moved beyond Sarah Jo to the hall. It was filling with smoke. Flames were licking up the walls of the living room beyond.
“Sarah Jo,” Alex said in a quavering voice, “I want to talk to you about this, but—”
“Stay where you are!” Sarah Jo commanded sharply, brandishing the knife when Alex took a hesitant step. “You came here and started causing trouble, just like her. You favor Reede over my Junior. You’re breaking his heart. Angus is upset and worried over Joe Wallace’s death, which is all your fault. You see, Angus thought one of the boys killed her.”
She smiled impishly. “I knew he would. I knew that the boys wouldn’t ask any questions, either. I depended on their loyalty to each other. It was the perfect crime. Angus, thinking he was protecting the boys, made his deal with the judge. I hated that Junior had to get married so young, but I was glad it was to Stacey rather than Celina.”
The smoke was growing thicker. It was swirling around Sarah Jo, though she seemed unaware of it. “You started asking too many questions,” she told Alex, drawing a sad face. “I tried to scare you off with that letter. I made it look like it had come from that crazy Reverend Plummet, but I sent it.” She seemed quite pleased with herself. Alex used her complacency to creep forward, moving slowly, one step at a time.
“You still didn’t take the hint, so I ran you off the road with one of the company pickups. Judge Wallace would probably still be alive, and the deal Angus made with him would still be a secret, if only you had died when your car crashed.” She seemed genuinely perturbed. “But, after today, I won’t have to—”
Alex lunged forward and struck Sarah Jo’s wrist. She was stronger than she appeared. She managed to maintain her grip on the knife. Alex grabbed her wrist and hung on, trying to dodge the stabbing motions aimed toward her body.
“I won’t let you destroy my family,” Sarah Jo grunted as she plunged the knife toward Alex’s midsection.
The two women struggled over control of the knife. They fell to their knees. Alex tried to dodge the downward arcs of the blade, but the smoke was getting too thick for her to see it well. Her eyes filled with tears. She began to choke. Sarah Jo knocked her into the wall. Upon impact, she felt the stitches in her scalp pop open.
Somehow, she managed to get to her feet, and began dragging Sarah Jo down the hallway, where smoke was billowing around them. All the rules of fire escape fled Alex’s mind. She tried to hold her breath, but her lungs demanded oxygen for the difficult task of pulling Sarah Jo along with her.
They had almost reached the living room before Sarah Jo realized that Alex had gained the upper hand. She renewed her efforts and came back stronger than ever. The knife slashed Alex’s ankle and she screamed. Its serrated edge caught her again in the calf, and she staggered back toward the living room.
Suddenly, she lost her grip on Sarah Jo. While seconds ago, she’d been fighting for her freedom, she now panicked at the thought of losing her attacker in the suffocating black smoke. It was so thick that she couldn’t even distinguish an outline of the other woman.
“Sarah Jo! Where are you?” Alex gagged on a mouthful of smoke. Stretching her arms far out in front of her, she groped for the woman, but touched nothing except the searing air.
Then, survival instincts took over. She turned, ducked, and plunged through the hallway. In the living room, she dodged burning furniture and ran blindly in the direction of the door. The door was intact, but smoldering. She grabbed the knob
; it branded the palm of her hand.
Screaming in fear and pain, she barreled through the door and out onto the porch.
“Alex!”
She stumbled in the direction of Reede’s voice and saw through smoke-damaged eyes the wavering image of a Jeep coming to a screeching halt only yards in front of her.
“Reede,” she croaked, reaching for him. She fell. He leaped from behind the steering wheel and bent over her. “Sarah Jo,” she wheezed. With an effort, she raised her hand and pointed toward the house.
“My God, Mother!” Junior went over the side of the Jeep and hit the ground at a run.
“Junior, come back!” Stacey screamed. “No, God, no!”
“Son, don’t!” Angus reached for Junior’s arm as he sped past. “It’s too late!”
Reede was already on the porch when Junior knocked him aside. Reede fell backward down the steps and onto the ground. He made an unsuccessful grab for Junior’s ankle. “Junior, you can’t!” he roared.
Junior turned and looked down at him. “This time, Reede, I’ll get the glory.”
He flashed Reede his most beautiful smile, then ran into the burning house.
Epilogue
“I thought you might be here.”
Reede gave no impression of having heard Alex approach until she spoke to him. He glanced at her over his shoulder, then back at the two fresh graves. For a moment, there was an awkward silence, then he said, “I promised Angus I would come out every day to check on things. He’s not feeling quite up to it yet.”
Alex moved nearer. “I stopped by to see him this afternoon. He made a feeble attempt to be the hale fellow well met,” she remarked sadly. “He’s entitled to grieve. I told him so. I hope he took it to heart.”