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S arah laughed again. "Didn't you hear? It was so sad, really. You were screwing up poor Charlie's case because of your drug use. So your grief-crazed client went berserk and shot you and then himself."

I stared at her in disbelief. "How can you be so evil? You're a lawyer!"

Charlie and Uncle Nathan both blinked. Charlie spoke up first. "I'm thinking that's kind of the point. No offense."

I realized how stupid I'd sounded, then went with that. People had underestimated me before because I looked like a blonde airhead. I could only pray they would this time.

"What about Uncle Nathan? How are you going to explain him?" I asked, trying to get her monologuing. She seemed like the type.

Addison sneered. "We'll dump him overboard and let the police figure it out. Karl said if you wrap enough chain around a body, it will never surface."

I noticed Uncle Nathan fiddling with his wrists, which were tied behind his back on the chair.

Go, Nathan.

Edging sideways, I asked another question to distract them as I partially blocked Nathan from their view. "Why? That's all I want to know. Why would you go to the length of murder to protect a client – especially a client who covers up something as terrible as insulin tampering? What happened to your vows as an officer of the court?"

Sarah and Addison look at each other and started laughing. "You unbelievable moron," Sarah said. "You never would have figured it out."

"Shut up, Sarah," Addison hissed.

I looked back and forth between the two of them, suddenly sure my suspicions were true. "It's you. Somehow — some way — you tampered with the insulin to build more business for yourselves. BDC knew nothing about it."

"Well, it took you long enough to figure it out. Do you think yacht payments come easy? Or house payments?" Sarah said, then she pointed at Addison. "He has five kids in private schools and colleges, plus a wife with a weakness for really big diamond jewelry."

He agitatedly stepped closer to me, still pointing the gun at my head. "There weren't any big drug cases in the past five years. The attorney fees were drying up. We had the toxicology experts and the insider contacts at the FDA. Hell, we know more about the science of pharmaceuticals than most people who worked at the drug company do ."

Sarah slapped a hand on the bar, making me jump. Addison flinched, too, and his finger tightened on the trigger, making my heart leap into my throat. "It wasn't even difficult," she pointed out. "We planned to tamper with a batch of insulin, just a little, and make enough people sick so that the resulting round of mass tort cases would keep us all in business until the next bad drug case came along."

Addison broke in, glowering. "But your goon screwed it up, Sarah. Something went badly wrong, and over two dozen people died."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You killed all those people? Plus the hundreds who went into comas?"

Charlie looked bewildered. "What are they saying, December? They ruined the insulin on purpose?" Sheer rage transformed his bloody features, and he lunged at Addison.

Addison swung the gun almost casually and smashed it into the side of Charlie's head. I screamed and jumped on Addison, but he swung the gun back toward me as Charlie crumpled into a chair.

Sarah walked over to us. "We never meant for anyone to die. But it was way too late to back out."

I glared at her, wanting more than I'd ever wanted anything in my life to get my hands around her throat. "So poor Marion Ziggeran? And Richard Dack?"

She snorted. "More sloppiness on Addison's part."

He glared at her. "I said shut up, Sarah. It was your associate."

"Oh, shut up yourself, Addison. I'm tired of you telling me what to do. Yes, my associate, who slipped that invoice into your document production. Your stupid people never double-check a discovery production?"

"It was on its way out the door," he said, looking like he wanted to shoot her, too.

"Whatever. We knew he'd found out and was trying to tell somebody. So he drove himself off that bridge. How sad," she said, smirking. "We wouldn't have had any loose ends, either, if you would have just taken a hint and gotten out of town after we had those very personal messages painted on that piece of shit you call a car."

Langley was seething. "Right. No loose ends. Except you hired those damn thugs. What kind of moron tries to get somebody to drop a case by talking to her about his allergies on the phone? Or throwing rocks at her? Or shooting at her doorframe? Let's not even discuss the damn alligator!"

He sneered at her. "A little discretion next time, Sarah, if you please."

Sarah snarled at him. "You should talk. You think having a man's throat cut in the museum in the middle of the damn day is discreet? Just because he could testify about the date of the camera shoot? We had a dozen people to testify against him and say he had it wrong, or a big, fat bribe would have been even easier."

"You're insane. You're both insane," I said, my hopes of ever making it out of this alive sinking down to my shoes. "You can't just go around killing people and keep getting away with it."

They both smiled identical smiles of triumph – so horrible I shuddered.

"But we got away with it. And we're going to keep getting away with it," Addison said softly.

I noticed Charlie stirring but didn't look at him, hoping Addison wouldn't shoot him.

Sarah flipped her hair back and shot an almost-flirtatious smile at me. "Too bad that hunk Jake Brody has to be next. He knows too much. We tried to send him on jobs out of town, but he turned them down to stay here and babysit you."

"No! He knows nothing," I said. "Leave him out of this."

"Oh, it's not just him. We may do your precious Aunt Celia just for fun," she said, and something in my mind snapped. I shouted "NOW!" as loudly as I could.

Charlie lunged forward, right on cue, and slammed his head into Addison's side, knocking him off balance. I launched myself at them, grabbing a lamp on the way and yanking the cord out of the wall socket.

Sarah screamed and rushed me, but I slammed the lamp down on Addison's gun hand before she got there. He yelled, and the gun went skittering across the floor and landed under Uncle Nathan's chair.

Sarah plowed into me and flailed her arms around, hitting me. She clocked me on the side of the head, and I saw funny lights for a second. Addison punched Charlie in the shoulder, and Charlie hit the floor. I saw my chance and swung my foot back and kicked Addison in the crotch as hard as I could. He made a weird moaning sound and sank to the floor like a stone.

Sarah jumped on my back, shrieking, and yanked clumps of my hair out. My eyes teared up, and I screamed and rammed my elbows back. One hit empty air, but the other one knocked into her chest, and it was her turn to scream.

She let go of me and dropped to the floor. "I'm going to kill you," she yelled.

"Not if I kill you first," I said, breathing hard.

Uncle Nathan's calm voice broke in. "Fortunately, I seem to have the gun."

We both whirled around to stare at him. He stood, untied, ropes on the ground, aiming the gun at Sarah.

"What? Uncle Nathan, how did you—" I stumbled toward him.

"I write mysteries, my dear. You think I don't know how to escape bondage?" He grinned at me, unbelievably pleased with himself.

"I'd hug you, but I think we'll turn these creeps in to the police first," I said, picking up the ropes.

Charlie pulled himself up, looking a lot worse for wear. "I'll tie this one up," he said, nudging a howling, writhing Langley with his boot.

I tossed him the ropes and just stood there for a minute, sucking in air and enjoying the idea that we weren't going to die. Nathan stood there, smiling. "Nobody expected the old man to have it in him. Ha!"

Sarah stood there, shooting death glares at us, swearing at us in a low monotone.

"Would it be bad to throw her overboard and make her swim back?" I asked, not all that rhetorically.

Then I slammed my hand on my forehead. "Karl. He must have heard some of all this yelling. Charlie, tie Sarah up, too."

Sarah opened her mouth to scream, and Charlie clamped his hand over it, then he stuffed a rag out of his pocket in her mouth and tied it behind her head. Her face turned an ugly, mottled red with rage, but she could breathe through her nose, so I didn't much care.

As Charlie tied Sarah up, I took the gun from Uncle Nathan. "I'm going after Karl to make him take us back to the dock. Oh, and here," I said, fishing my cell phone out of my bra. "Try to call for help. Police, Coast Guard, whatever. I don't know if we'll have service out here, but there must be a radio, right?"

I crossed the room, nerves on high alert. Just as I reached the door, a huge, dripping-wet man burst into the room.

He had a gun, and it was pointed right at me.