Page 90 of Her Dark Lies

Ana moves through the room like a gentle wave, takes the chair opposite Harper. She has Harper’s camera, which she sets on the table between them. She sits with her legs crossed, her look appraising. Calm.

“I suspect you want to know what’s happening?”

“Do you know what’s happening? If so, yes, I would.”

“We don’t know everything. Not yet. Brice’s people are still working on the injunction, for starters. I thought you and I could talk a bit while they’re getting the story quashed.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? About the women who’ve died here?”

“Accidents happen, Harper.”

“Henna fell down the stairs. Fatima’s mother went missing. Will’s wife drowned in the grotto. Eliza was shot. And Morgan—”

“Died when she went over the cliff wall. But she fell off the ledge, Harper. She wasn’t killed.”

“How do you know?”

“I was there.”

Harper feels the jerk of the live wire inside her. There is a story, after all. “What?”

“I was there the night Morgan went over the wall.”

“But Jack—”

“Arrived after she’d already fallen. They had a terrible fight—Morgan was quite unstable, as we came to find out—and she rushed out of the house into the storm. We all went looking for her. Jack and Fatima went down to the cottages, Elliot and I went up toward the cliff, Will and Brice went to the landing. We searched the whole island, and finally came across her, ranting, walking atop the cliffside rock boundary. The rain was so heavy; the rocks were slick. She slipped, and went over the edge, before we could catch her.”

Harper can see the cliff out the window. Imagining a body plunging from its apex into the sea is all too easy.

“By the time the storm abated, and we were able to send a boat around the promontory, the body had washed away.”

“Why would you lie? You said she died in California? That makes no sense.”

“Doesn’t it?” Ana sits back, hands atop her knees. “We are very private people. The last thing a family like us needs is extra scrutiny. Things were...well, that’s neither here nor there. Brice’s business dealings were especially fraught at the time, and we didn’t need anyone poking around in the island’s history. This is one of the few places we can escape to that is remote enough to keep the press away. It is a sacred place for us, in many ways. A quiet retreat. Our sanctuary.”

Harper shakes her head. “But her hand... Her hand washed up on a beach in California.”

Ana nods. “A well-placed fabrication. We needed the chapter closed. And we didn’t want any more publicity around Jack. He took Morgan’s death hard. We needed to protect him. Protecting my family is paramount, Harper. There is nothing I won’t do to keep my boys safe, and happy. One day you may even understand that.”

“Then who is Ami Eister?”

Ana sits straighter. “That we don’t know. But whoever she is, she is a danger, and she must be stopped.”

“I’m just...so confused. I looked her up. She’s totally legit. She’s on the masthead atFlair.I read some articles she wrote.”

“We think you probably saw a mocked-up and cached version of the website. Easy to do. It’s basically a well-executed phishing scam. An overlay. Her phone number would look like she was fromFlair, same extensions, just spoofed to go to the phone she possessed. Her email as well. She sent you links, right? For you to check her out?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sure, once we examine your computer, we’ll find the software that was planted. Keystroke analysis wouldn’t surprise me, she’s been keeping close tabs on things. It’s a ruse. All a ruse. We don’t kill people, Harper. We aren’t that kind of family. That’s for books and movies.”

“But you do broker in information.”

“Yes. That we do.”

Harper feels a tiny bit of vindication. “Then not everything she told me was a lie. You truly don’t know who it is?”

“We’re tracing her right now. She’s been texting my sons. Karmen has visuals of her visiting Claire in Nashville. We’ll have her identity soon enough. And then...” Ana’s face changes, goes completely feral, and Harper shivers. “And then, we will stop her. This...disruption...isn’t seemly.”