"Unfortunately, Mother had to come by just then, and she saw me standing over Nila . She took the rat poison away and made me get out of there ---- and then, I suppose, she switched glasses so no one would find the poison in Nila's glass . I have to hand it to Mother ---- she's usually wimpy, but that time, she was pretty clever . She sure fooled you, and the doctors never even suspected Nila'd been poisoned ."

"On the other hand, Nila never drank enough of her cranberry juice to die, so I knew I'd have to try again . But, first, I had to get you out of the way . As soon as I found out you were the detective Uncle Charles had hired, I started thinking of a way to get rid of you ."

"I never even suspected you," Nancy said .

Cecilia's expression grew bitter . "Nobody pays any attention to me," she complained . "Their loss ."

"I could have died in that car," Nancy said, feeling the anger well up inside her .

"Yes should have died !" Cecilia shot back, her face reddening with fury .

Now it was Nancy's turn to smile . "I guess I'm just too good a driver," she said .

Cecilia ignored the comment . "I took the rag I'd used to wipe off my hands, grabbed Mother's key to Jack and Karen's house, and dumped it in his office waste basket ."

"That was you ?" Nancy asked . "I thought your mother had dropped it there ."

Cecilia shook her head . "Mother would never try to implicate anyone who was innocent," she said . "But I figure Jack deserved whatever he got . And he's so messy, he never throws out his trash, so it was easy ."

"Anyway, he wasn't the only one I was making look guilty . I had everyone thinking Nila was faking it all ." She giggled at the thought of it . "But when Uncle Charles made his new will, I knew I had to do something drastic . So I stole the copies . I was going to burn them ---- but Mother found me first and took the copies away . She locked them here in her room so I couldn't...