And after finally finding time to read the will today, she wondered if madness ran in the family. Leo Weinstein had mentioned in passing that it was “rather unusual,” but she hadn’t realized just how unusual.

Having read it, she knew the answer to Jack’s question as to why the people she hired wound up dead but she remained unharmed.

And now she was convinced more strongly than ever that the only solution was to destroy the house.

Then she’d be free of Thomas’s ankle-biting lawyers. And if insurance money came of it, she’d donate it to the Center.

And her world would be free of that house and all it represented.

6.

6.

“All right,” Kenny said as he came down the steps. “He’s stowed in the trunk. What next?”

Sam Baker stood in a cone of light in the basement of the Clayton house and wiped the bloody blade of the filleting knife on a rag. He wanted to take a chunk out of Kenny and make him eat it for screwing up tonight. But Kenny was family, his older sister’s kid, a broad-shouldered twenty-five-year-old with his mother’s red hair, and you didn’t scar up family, not even when they deserved it.

He’d punish Kenny and his partner another way.

“A number of things are next, Kenny. The first one is docking you and Mott five percent of your bonus.”

Kenny’s eyes widened. “Five percent? What the fuck for?”

“For letting that torch slip by you.”

“Shit, man, we caught him, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, after he was already inside and setting up his goodies. If you hadn’t smelled the gasoline, this whole place’d be up in smoke, and we’d all be out of a sweet gig.” Baker pointed the knife at Kenny’s chest. “He shouldn’t have got in in the first place.”

“Guy must be a magician. We never saw him, and I swear we weren’t goofing off.”

“Swear all you want, but don’t expect any sympathy from the rest of the crew. If this place had gone up, they’d have lost a hundred percent of their bonuses. You too. So maybe this’ll keep you on your toes during your next shift.”

“That sucks, Sam.”

“Don’t feel so bad. I’ll see that it goes to Grandma.”

Kenny made a disgusted face. “Yeah, right. Think she’ll remember to send me a thank-you note?”

Suddenly furious, Sam grabbed the front of Kenny’s shirt and jerked him close. Family or not, he was ready to do a tap dance on his nephew’s head.

“You watch your tone when you mention your grandmother, kid. Got that?”

Kenny looked away and nodded. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

Sam released him. “I hope not. Now, lug the rest of this accelerant upstairs and wait for the others.”