Daughter of Deceit by Patricia Sprinkle Read Free Book Online Page B

penthouse, kill him, lock the deadbolt, and arm the security system on the way out without being detected by cameras in the elevator or stairwell? Or had Winnie climbed on the parapet and blown out his own brains, then dropped the gun as he fell?
    Proponents of the first camp drew diagrams to show how a person could stand in the elevator and avoid the camera. Proponents of the second camp were divided between those who believed the suicide gun had been picked up by somebody on the street and those who believed it was still lodged high in one of the trees ringing the condo. Four months later, the mystery remained.
    Katharine said soberly, “I’ve heard several people say he adored his grandson, and Win’s death unhinged his mind.”
    “It could have. It certainly sent Bara into a tailspin. She had a complete breakdown. And then Winnie died—but you haven’t heard what Foley has done most recently?” Posey’s voice rose in astonishment.
    “Only what she told us today. I told you, I don’t know the Weidenauers that well.”
    Posey set out to educate her. “Bara’s family on both sides has been here forever. One of her many-great-grandfathers was mayor, back in the mid-nineteenth century, when the town was called Terminus.”
    Katharine nodded. “‘Regarded as a brash nonentity south of Marietta, never expected to be anything more important than the place where railroads came together.’ That’s more or less a direct quote from your brother.”
    “I’m surprised Tom hasn’t given you the whole history of the Paynes and the Holcombs, then. Their history is Atlanta’s history. Both sides of the family made a lot of money after the war, one in lumber and the other in cotton. Connor Payne, Bara’s granddaddy, ran for governor back when Nettie was in college. He lost, but he got the Buckhead vote, and Harold Holcomb, Winnie’s father, ran his campaign. They were real good friends. My mother used to say that Winnie’s marriage to Nettie was arranged before they were even born.”
    “Surely not!” Katharine knew that several Buckhead couples had grown up together, but she had presumed they’d chosen each other in spite of that.
    Posey was far more practical. “They could have decided to marry other people if they’d wanted to, but it united the fortunes and kept the money from outsiders.”
    “Outsiders like me?” Katharine teased.
    “You aren’t an outsider. Your mother grew up in Buckhead, so you belong here, whether you like it or not.”
    “But Tom wouldn’t have married me if I didn’t?”
    “Tom would have married you if you’d been born on Mars. He came home from the party where he met you and said, ‘Okay, Pose, there might be one woman I could stand to spend the rest of my life with.’ He’d sworn he was going to be a confirmed bachelor if all women were like me. But getting back to Bara and Winnie—”
    “I know about Winnie. ‘Football hero, war hero, outstanding architect, and founder of Holcomb & Associates, which has designed and built a number of the skyscrapers that grace our lovely skyline.’ That’s not Tom, that’s too many banquet introductions to count. But Winnie’s dead. Can we move beyond the past and get to the present?”
    “In a minute. Did you ever know Winnie’s son, Winston Arthur Junior? Of course you didn’t. He was killed before you came. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Art was a lot like Nettie—stuffy, rigid, self-righteous. I think he must have been a disappointment to Winnie, although I never heard him say so, but Nettie adored him. The light of Winnie’s life was Bara, who was five years younger. She—you weren’t here when she was in high school, were you?”
    “I wasn’t born until she was in high school.”
    “I wasn’t hardly born, either.” Posey conveniently forgot the five years she had on Katharine. “But I was fascinated by her. She was a track star, president of a lot of clubs, and always up to pranks. She also wore dreamy