One Stone Left Unturned by Marianna Heusler

Author:Marianna Heusler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult Mystery, Young adult suspense, mystery, suspense, last Russian tsar, Rasputin
ISBN: 978-1-61798-087-9
Publisher: Wild Child Publishing

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Present—A Ruined Life

“You did this on purpose.”

Those were the first words that Rita uttered to Augusta when they were finally alone. After she had sped down to The Infant of Prague Church and yanked Augusta away from the reporters, after she had accompanied her daughter to the police station to give a statement, after she walked to the parking lot, not saying a word to Augusta, not even looking at her.

“Because you hate me.” Rita was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that the blood had drained from her hands.

“You think I made a dead body fall over me on purpose?” Augusta was not surprised that this dire event was somehow about her mother. But really, Rita was giving her far too much credit. “I went there to pray.”

Rita faced her daughter head on. “Don’t you dare tell me that!”

Augusta opened her mouth to protest, but her mother didn’t give her a chance to utter a single word. “That might have worked on those dumb reporters, but I know better. You never once had any interest in praying.”

“Isn’t that why you sent me to a Catholic high school?” Augusta asked, trying to sound as innocent and pure as possible. “So I could learn to pray and become closer to God?”

“No. I sent you there to keep you out of trouble, although it obviously didn’t work very well. I must admit, though”— Rita turned her attention to the road and began blaring the horn at the car in front of her—“I would never have believed that this was the sort of trouble you were going to get into. And I sent you to a Catholic school so you could make nice friends. That didn’t work out too well either.”

Augusta figured that it would be best not to answer.

“What you have become, in spite of the nice, Catholic education you’re receiving, is a blatant liar. You really expect me to believe that you decided to go to church, a condemned church, nonetheless, to pray, when you know darn well that I was waiting for you at home?”

“I was praying for Grandma.”

It was the wrong thing to say.

“She put you up to this, didn’t she? And you’re so stupid that you listened to her. A woman who thinks she’s on a permanent cruise tells you to go into a condemned church and do what? Make a wish? And just look at you. There’s chocolate all over your face. She must have fed you too. What were you really doing in that church, Augusta?”

It was all too complicated to explain to her mother, who really had no attention span whatsoever. But worse than that, her mother wouldn’t believe her and would think that Augusta was still lying. She would demand to see the stone as proof, and she would keep it, unaware of its power. Although she would probably find that out soon enough.

“I’m waiting,” Rita said, and then miraculously her cell phone rang. Rita reached into her handbag and in one swift motion, dragged the small contraption out and started to talk.

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