Chapter 7

Delphine stepped past Mari into the electrical room and closed the umbrella. Water ran off it onto the concrete.

"Roy, go back to the house," she said. "You're upset."

"I'm not going anywhere," Roy said.

"Go."

He didn't move. Delphine looked at him for a long moment, then turned to Mari.

"Whatever you think you heard, this isn't the place to discuss it. There are guests."

"There are twenty people in the next room eating off your china," Mari said. "One of them is my fiancé. One of them is the man you framed."

Delphine's expression didn't crack. That was the thing about her-she had spent forty years practicing composure in rooms where other people were falling apart.

"I protected this family," she said. "That's what I did. When Daniel died, this farm was three months from foreclosure. Roy had made bad investments. The trust was leveraged. If the truth had come out, the bank would have taken everything-the gin, the land, your home, your school, everything your father built."

"So you let an innocent man go to prison."

"I let a man who was already ruined take a deal that kept a family alive."

Eli laughed-a short, flat sound with no humor in it. "I wasn't ruined. I was twenty-nine."

"You were nobody," Delphine said. "You had nothing. You still have nothing."

Mari stepped between them. "Don't."

"Mari, listen to me." Delphine's voice softened, and for a moment she sounded almost gentle. "You have a wedding in six weeks. Clay's family has money, and his father is on the board of the bank that holds our notes. If this becomes public, we lose the gin. We lose the house. We lose everything your father worked for. You don't have to like what happened. You just have to be quiet for six more weeks."

"Be quiet."

"Yes."

"Like Eli was quiet for twelve years."

Delphine's jaw tightened. "That's different."

"No," Mari said. "It isn't."

Roy had backed into the corner, mopping his face. The smoke from the junction box was thicker now, and somewhere down the hall someone was shouting about the lights.

Eli smelled the burning wire again. He looked at the breaker panel, then at Roy.

"Cut the power," he said. "Now. Before this whole building goes."

Roy didn't move. Eli crossed the room, shoved him aside, and threw the main breaker himself. The generator coughed and died. The electrical room went dark except for Mari's flashlight.

For a second, the only sound was rain.

Then, through the open door, Marcus the security guard appeared with a flashlight of his own. He'd been checking the perimeter. He'd heard everything-Roy's confession, Delphine's cover-up, all of it. He stood in the doorway with his mouth slightly open.

Delphine saw him.

"Marcus," she said. "Go call the sheriff."

"I don't think-" Marcus started.

"Go call the sheriff," Delphine repeated, "and tell him Eli Corrigan is trespassing and threatening my family."

Marcus didn't move. He looked at Mari.

Mari looked at Eli. Eli looked at the green ledger lying open on the floor.

"Call the sheriff," Eli said. "But tell him to come to the gin. Tell him Roy Bellrose has something to say."

Roy sat down on the floor with his back against the wall and put his face in his hands.