Page 134 of Forever Gone

Selena stretched until her shoulder burned. Her fingertips reached the base of the grip but could not close around it.

Carol kicked the weapon. It skidded beneath the workbench, but she made no move to retrieve it, her grip tightening instead around the knife. Selena pulled her arm back before the blade could come down.

“You’re making this worse,” she said.

“No.” Carol stood at the bottom of the stairs. “You did that when you came inside.”

Selena glanced toward the beam from the fallen flashlight. It reached the lower wall but left Carol’s upper body in shadow. Kelly would have difficulty seeing from the doorway.

“Kelly,” Selena called. “Cellar. Armed suspect.”

Carol stepped toward Deb.

Selena moved between them.

Her injured wrist dragged against the floor. A cry escaped before she could stop it. She lowered herself across Deb’s upper body, shielding the woman’s neck and chest with her own.

Deb stirred beneath her.

“Help...” she whispered.

“I’m here.”

Carol stopped an arm’s length away.

The knife rose.

“Move away from her so I can finish this!” she said.

Selena pressed her right forearm against the concrete and held herself over Deb. Blood from the cut near her temple fell onto Deb’s blouse.

“Please don’t do this.”

“Move!”

“No!”

Carol’s expression tightened. “She took my life from me!”

“Andrew chose to remarry. Deb didn’t make him do that.”

“She told me to leave.”

“You asked her what she thought.”

“I trusted her.”

“Then blame her for bad advice. Don’t pretend that makes murder reasonable.”

Carol’s grip changed around the handle.

From the staircase came the muted scrape of a shoe.

Selena kept her attention on the knife.

“Karen, Ruth, and Linda couldn’t give you your marriage back,” she said. “Killing Deb won’t either.”

“You don’t know what they did.”