“What goes on behind closed doors, the things parents do to their own children. We can never imagine, until it’s too late. It’s just crazy, and scary.”

“Did she kill her husband and Claudia for revenge on their affair?” Val asked.

“Probably,” said Gavin. “We’ll never know what her true motivation was.”

“What about Bethany’s death?”

“I’d have to guess she killed her for the reason she killed Claudia, but again, ‘probably’ is all we can say. We’re hoping that Bridget may, with some time, be able to fill in some of the gaps.”

Val was hopeful too. It was Bridget who told Val that the private greenhouse was Mrs. Morgan’s. When Val went up the staircase in the Morgans’ basement, she ended up back on the second floor, this time in the hallway. She found the Morgans’ bedroom, Mr. Morgan dead on the bed, and then located the secret greenhouse as she looked for a way out. Inside the greenhouse there was a dish with keys, and after grabbing them and trying them in the locked bedroom doors on the second floor, Val found the one that opened Bridget’s room. As soon as Val entered Bridget said, with her eyes on the key, “You were in mother’s secret garden.”

Val sighed. “But why now. Why kill them all now?”

“Gabrielle wanted the twins exhumed. The truth was going to come out,” Gavin said. “She had to kill Gabrielle to silence her.”

It chilled Val to hear the words. “Why kill her grandson?”

“He was a witness to Gabrielle’s death.”

“Max Chandler, Gabrielle’s first husband. I think he needs to be exhumed so we can see what he actually died from.”

“Agreed. Without his death, Morgan Foods wouldn’t have been saved a second time. This benefits Mrs. Morgan as much as Mr. Morgan.”

Val frowned. “There was one thing that bothers me though. It was Mrs. Morgan’s expression when she drank the tea. She seemed surprised.”

“Val, you never know what someone looks like when they’re overcome by poison and is about to die. There’s no script for that. They act as the body dictates. There was probably no time for conscious thought.”

“I know, you’re right.” Though Val said the words, she wasn’t convinced by them. She crossed her legs and sat back. “We still have one more person out there. Melinda Holbright. And she’s far from innocent.”

“There’s no proof that she killed anyone. Even with Jennifer Ballard witnessing the drowning of the twins, and even if Bridget became lucid enough to testify, there’s not enough to take this to trial.”