Page 38 of X-Ray in the Xanth (Lovely Lethal Gardens Rewind #3)

Doreen nodded. “That too, and I get it. I mean, I really get it. You’re probably pissed off that I’m here.”

“Yeah, you’re not kidding,” Mrs. Woodstock snapped. “You don’t belong here, and you don’t need to be here.”

“If I wasn’t here, I would be down at the police station, telling them everything. In the meantime, the cops are all over at your friend’s house.”

“She’s not our friend,” Mrs. Woodstock snapped.

“That’s because she was blackmailing you.… After all, Meghan didn’t have an income either.”

Mrs. Woodstock eyed Doreen resentfully.

Doreen nodded. “I get it. I mean, it was hard enough to live on that money, and then, with all the inflation and the blackmail payment and everything else, it was getting worse, wasn’t it? It’s bad enough that Eli was in that grave the whole time and that you guys buried him there,” she muttered.

The older woman stared at her, totally clear-eyed.

“But then you killed Eli’s sister,” Doreen added, noting no remorse at all coming from Mrs. Woodstock. “As far as I know, the sister, although she may have had a brain tumor, that doesn’t mean that she died from it. I’m still awaiting the autopsy report.”

Mrs. Woodstock glanced at her husband, then back at Doreen. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, see? That’s the problem,” she pointed out. “I might not know everything, but I know an awful lot.”

“You know too much,” the young man snapped.

She looked at him and nodded. “For you probably, yes, because your aunt and uncle won’t necessarily live very much longer. Now you on the other hand? You will spend a fair bit of time in jail.”

“I won’t go to jail,” he declared, glaring at her.

“It’s called theft, fraud, and murder,” Doreen noted. “So, I’m not sure what planet you’re living on, but all of those things are illegal.”

He took two steps toward her, and she backed up, almost falling in her rush to avoid him, and he laughed. “Look at you. You’re just a little scared busybody.”

“I’m hardly scared of you, though you’re way bigger than I am and could definitely cause me some harm. I’m sure Eli’s sister really didn’t appreciate being threatened by you either.”

Welford roared, “We didn’t touch the sister.”

Doreen studied him, and, with a sadness that came from the heart, she stated, “You might not have, but these two did. They killed Hope.”

He blinked at her, then turned to his wife and to the young man at her side.

Doreen pointed. “Just look at them. You can see the truth in their eyes.” Doreen looked at the wife and said, “This is your nephew, I presume.”

She nodded.

“And the sister came looking for her brother, didn’t she? But you couldn’t have that, could you? You couldn’t have Hope telling everybody that Eli wasn’t here. You couldn’t have her saying things about Eli, causing someone to come and investigate, could you?”

“But what were we supposed to do?” Mrs. Woodstock cried out. “There wasn’t any choice.”

Welford turned to stare at his wife. “You didn’t tell me.”

“No, because you wouldn’t be happy about it.”

“Of course I wouldn’t be happy about it,” he bellowed. “What we did wasn’t against the person, it was just the government.”

Doreen laughed at that. “Of course. Who cares about defrauding the government? I mean, they steal from you guys all the time with taxes, right?”

“Yes,” he agreed, “exactly. And we never hurt anybody. But…” He turned to face his wife and his nephew and saw the truth in their eyes. “Good God.”

“Exactly,” Doreen murmured. “ Good God , that poor woman died because she came to see her brother, for whatever reason, needing to reconnect. She wanted to see her brother, and that’s a lovely sentiment,” Doreen noted. “But you couldn’t even let her do that, could you?”

Mrs. Woodstock shook her head. “We couldn’t. We would have ended up in jail for the rest of our lives if she sounded the alarm.”

“News flash, lady, you’ll still end up behind bars.”

“Maybe,” she said resentfully. “But, at this age, it won’t be for very long. Even Welford here has very few days left.”

“You know what’ll happen in those days?” Doreen asked. “You and the rest of your family here are about to find out.” She turned and looked at the young man, who even now stared at Mugs, then looked around, as if seeking an escape route. She smiled at him and said, “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

He snorted. “You don’t know me, lady.”

“No, I don’t know you, but I do know my animals.”

He frowned at her. “You think these will stop me?” He laughed. “No way.”

She smiled. “I get that your aunt and uncle are too old to run, but they aren’t too old to tattle on you. I get that you think that they won’t because they’re family, but just look at Welford here. He’s not very happy about what you and his wife did to Eli’s sister.”

“No,” Welford confirmed, staring at his wife in shock. “That is just too much,” he said, shaking his head. “How could you do that?”

She stared at him. “It’s not as if we had enough money to live on,” she explained, shaking her head. “What was I supposed to do?”

There were tears in Welford’s eyes, and his wife finally realized that she had misjudged him. He really did separate out the good and the bad in his life, and, in his twisted way of thinking, the government or the rich were fair game to defraud.

It wasn’t the first time Doreen had heard that sentiment.

Welford had no idea what his wife and his nephew were capable of. It was literally right there in his expression.

“I’m sorry for you because your wife and your nephew are murderers,” Doreen proclaimed. “And, for that, they will pay the price, but everybody will know what you guys have done, and you will be tarred by the same brush.”

Welford slowly shook his head. “She was a nice girl,” he muttered, turning to look at Doreen. And this time the tears dripped from the corner of his eyes.

“Yes, she was a nice girl ,” the wife stated, “but I had no choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” Doreen noted.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” the nephew yelled.

She looked at him and noted, “I don’t even know what your name is.”

“His name is Welford too,” Welford shared. “He was named after me.”

“ Right ,” she muttered, “a chip off the old block. And now that chip will spend a long time in jail.”

At that, Welford Junior bolted. She looked at Mugs and said, “Go.”

With Mugs barking away, racing behind him, Junior headed down the block.

Mugs was catching up, getting closer and closer.

Just as Mugs was about to get him, Goliath raced ahead and took a flying leap, landing on the back of Junior’s shirt, sending him screaming to the ground in agony, Goliath’s claws digging into his back all the way.

“Oh my God,” Mrs. Woodstock cried out. “Stop, stop.”

“There’s no stopping,” Doreen announced, “but don’t worry. All kinds of people will be stopping in any minute now.”

Sure enough, Mack tore into view on foot, stopping when he saw Goliath sharpening his claws on the man’s back and Mugs’s teeth wrapped around the man’s ankle. Mack looked over at Doreen, his hands on his hips, and asked, “Where the heck is Thaddeus?”

Thaddeus poked his head out from Doreen’s hair and cried out, “Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.”

Mack looked at him and sighed. “How come you’re not having part of the fun?”

Thaddeus flew down to strut all over Junior’s shoulders and arms. “Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.”

“Too little, too late, Thaddeus,” Doreen cried out.

He glared at her and said, “Thaddeus is king. Thaddeus is king.”

“Oh my,” she muttered. “Who the heck taught him that?” Then she turned and glared at Mack.

“Don’t look at me,” he said, raising both hands in mock surrender. “That would be Nan. They were playing some game, and she told him that he was the king to her queen or something like that.”

Doreen laughed and laughed. “Thaddeus, in this case, maybe you are the king.”

He cackled. “King of the castle. King of the castle.”

Mrs. Woodstock declared, “He’s demented.”

“He might be,” Doreen conceded, “but, even if he’s demented, he’s my kind of demented.” She glared at the older woman. “He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t steal, and he surely doesn’t hurt anybody.”

“He’s hurting my nephew,” she snapped.

“In that case, I would reckon it’s well deserved.” She looked over at Mack and said, “You won’t believe it.”

He glared at her. “I’m sure I won’t. Yet, after seeing what’s going on here”—he pointed to Mugs, Goliath, and Welford the younger—“I guess I’m about to hear it anyway.”

She quickly laid it out, and he stared at the trio in shock. “Good God.” Then he looked back in the direction of the house where he had just come from. “What about her? What’s her connection?”

“Meghan’s been blackmailing them all this time,” Doreen shared, “but her conscience kicked in, and she realized that, since she was about ready to die herself, she wanted to clear her conscience. She had cancer, was seeing an oncologist.”

Mack stared at Doreen, then looked at the others.

The old man nodded. “I didn’t have the heart to argue with Meghan. I’m just tired,” he admitted.

“Yeah, well, how much heart did you have when it came to killing Meghan?” Mack asked.

He shook his head. “That wasn’t me.” He waved at his wife. “That was these two.”

Doreen looked at Welford and asked, “Are you sure about that?”

He nodded. “I draw the line at killing people,” he muttered. “I might be old and cranky, but I still wouldn’t ever hurt anybody like that.” He turned and glared at his wife. “But her, on the other hand? She’s got a mean streak a mile wide.”

She snorted. “I absolutely do, and it’s one that you’ve loved all these years.”

“I know,” he admitted, sadness in his gaze, “but, at some point, you’ve just got to stop.”

Mack asked, “Has she killed anybody else?”

He frowned at his wife and replied, “I didn’t know about her killing Hope. That was Eli’s sister, so you’ll have to ask her.”

Mrs. Woodstock shook her head. “Only self-preservation put me into that position in the first place.”

Doreen wasn’t sure if she believed them or not. She turned to Mack and noted, “I think we’re finally getting somewhere.”

“Getting somewhere, or is it done?”

“This part’s done,” she said, “but I haven’t found the senator’s daughter.” She paused, then turned to Mrs. Woodstock. “Unless you killed her too.”

“No,” she cried out, “I don’t know anything about her.”

“What about your nephew?”

“No, he’s not into anything that gets his hands dirty.”

At that, the old man snorted. “He’s also not into anything that resembles work.”

“ Right ,” Doreen muttered, “so I’m guessing he really didn’t appreciate burying Eli’s sister in the same grave.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” Mr. Woodstock whispered, turning to his wife.

She shrugged.

He shook his head, then looked back at Doreen. “I’m sorry. Hope was a lovely girl.”

“Yeah, she was. She also fought hard with her own health issues. Too bad she didn’t realize that the real danger in her world was coming from the people who were supposedly looking after her beloved brother.”