Chapter 59
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
“Drive.”
My knife is at her side, just touching. I won’t use it, but she doesn’t know that.
The most important piece of advice I can give about murder is that you should never rush.
I wanted to get rid of Grace for years, but I knew it was almost impossible to do alone.
My incentives for killing her were too strong.
My affairs, her affairs, the money—all flashing red arrows pointing to the only potential culprit.
I had to hire Brie first. I had to convince Grace that she needed another Caroline to act as her muse. Then I had to use Grace’s petty cruelties to push Brie into my arms. I had to make her love me, intensely and truly.
And now, I have to kill her. But again, I can’t rush it. The security guard knows about her. The receptionist knows I’ve been looking for someone. Hell, even the whore Stella’s testimony might come up in a murder investigation.
No, I need to work carefully.
First, I need to find out if she’s working alone.
“Tell me everything.” She’s crying—I forgot how Brie always cried, especially after Grace’s death. “Cut the waterworks.”
She takes a breath. We’re on the highway now, heading east.
“You set me up,” she says. “You killed her and made the police think it was me.”
“No,” I say. My performance begins. “Never.”
“What about all the evidence the police found? The knife? They were diving for the rock you killed her with, for Christ’s sake. How did they know where to look?”
“Not me, I swear it.”
“Don’t lie!” I see her fingers grip the steering wheel. I need to be careful. She’s a woman scorned. “I know what you did!”
“Darling.”
“Don’t darling me!” Tears again. “You said you loved me, just to suck me in. Then, as soon as the police sniffed around, you pretended you barely knew me!”
“That was always our plan! Wasn’t it? Didn’t I tell you that we couldn’t be seen together? Didn’t I tell you to be patient? I had to pretend, darling! For both of our sakes.”
“I thought I was heading to jail for the rest of my life.”
She takes an exit, and we’re soon driving through a forest. I have no idea where we are. Does she? I think of the dress on the mooring, the note to Stella, the water in my room, the fake name, the rock. It’s elaborate and petty.
And none of it is something Brie would do on her own.
“Stop here.”
“But—”
“Stop!”
She pulls into the dirt and switches off the car.
“Who are you working with?” I demand.
“What are you talking about?”
“Jesse! Where is he?”
She looks at me with hatred in her eyes. “Jesse tried to kill me. He kidnapped Neil and lured me to Pine Ridge. I think he was planning to kill me, then himself. He would have, too.”
I try to process what she’s saying. “And?”
“The police showed up. Jesse took Neil’s phone, but Neil has a work phone, too.
He managed to secretly dial 911.” The tears come back, and this time my heart fills with pity for this poor woman.
I’ve put her through so much. Don’t worry, I want to say.
The end is near. “After that night, the police dropped the investigation.”
I feel the blood drain from my face. No investigation. What does that mean? I search for a response, but I feel like an actor on stage, grasping for his lines.
“They’ve ruled it a suicide. The detectives think I did it, I can tell.
But there’s not enough for a case. And the coroner’s report said suicide.
And with someone like Neil and the lawyer he hired, I guess they thought it wasn’t worth the risk.
” She wipes her eyes. “So that’s why I’m here.
I’m a free woman. But I couldn’t just let you get away with it! ”
“You scared me half to death,” I say, smiling—and it’s for real, this time. No acting. The case is over. Jesse is in custody. No one knows what really happened, except for me and Brie.
Soon, just me.
“Good. I was done, by the way. I was leaving. I knew it wouldn’t be much longer till you found me.”
Her hands haven’t left the steering wheel. She’s scared of me. That means she doesn’t believe me. Not yet.
I place the knife on the floor and touch her arm. “Brie, I was acting. You have to know that. I was doing it for both our sakes. I knew it would all work out.”
“They were going to lock me up for life.”
“No. Never.”
“You made me look like a crazy person.”
Movement up ahead. A hundred feet away, a deer walks onto the road and then pauses. Could I do it here? No. The body. The car. The hotel. Her belongings. Does Neil know where she is?
Too many questions. Go slow. Be safe.
“I feel terrible,” I explain. “But I couldn’t stay. If it seemed like we were too close, then I’d look guilty. There was nothing I could do.”
“You could have said you did it.”
“You’d be in jail, too. That wouldn’t solve anything. Plus, you didn’t do it, Brie! That’s the best defense. And it clearly worked, because you’re here. They didn’t convict you. They barely suspected me. And now it’s over.” I lean in closer. “Brie, baby, it worked! I have the money! We’re free!”
She glances at me with uncertainty. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this.” I touch her face with my hand, then lean in to kiss her. She lets me, just for a second, then pulls away. “OK, we don’t need to rush. But I love you. I was worried I’d lose you forever. I know it was hard, but we did it!”
She looks ahead, staring at the deer as though it had something to tell her, some scrap of earthly wisdom beyond its own blundering idiocy.
“Come to the hotel with me at least,” I say. “Hear me out.”
The uncertainty is in her eyes, but so is that yearning, that desperate hope for a different life. It’s still enough, I can tell. She’ll come around.
And soon enough, she does.
“I can do that.”