Chapter 42
CHAPTER 42
MONDAY, DAWN, SEPTEMBER 25
“I t was the thing that would get you committed for the rest of your life, but I covered for you,” said Tim. “I saw you run into Annie’s house, and I followed you. Unfortunately, by the time I got there you were already upstairs, stabbing that woman, Ava. She managed to get out one good scream before you got that crazy blade into her?—”
“I wouldn’t have done that! I was outside, seeing her fall against the window...”
“You ran out of the house and looked back up at her, Caroline. I know because you passed me on your way out, appearing to be in some sort of trance. I followed you, but you didn’t even see me.”
“That makes no sense.”
Something squeezed my ribs, tightening them around my lungs. “You wouldn’t have covered for me. You wanted me out of the way—back at the institute.”
“I had no choice.” Tim’s voice was unnervingly calm.
“If the police discovered what you’d done, they’d have investigated my activities as well. I would have lost the money I’d worked so hard to get.”
I stared at him. “Is there no end to your treachery?” The gun in my hand loosened and wavered.
Tim lunged, knocking me back against the wall, but his revelation already had me seeing stars. I reflexively forced my knee upward, missing his crotch but hitting the center of his stomach. As he doubled over, my survival instinct shot into overdrive, allowing me to scoot around him. I started forward but his fingers clamped around my ankle. Down I went, the gun flying out of my hand and skittering across the concrete floor.
Tim was right behind me as I got to my feet. Together we scrambled through the shadows, both of us searching for the revolver. Spotting it, I pounced, groping for the gun and clutching it, but Tim was stronger. Landing on my outstretched arm, he grabbed the hand gripping the firearm, and in one swift motion wrenched it from my grasp.
“See what I mean about you?” he gasped, his breath coming to him in pants as he clambered off me. “You’re scary unpredictable.”
“Look who’s talking,” I heaved, fury battling—and winning against—my fear. “Shooting off that thing, slicing knives across throats, and blaming me for the destruction. Again!”
“I had no choice. I told you, you wouldn’t be the only one the police looked at closely.”
My mouth dropped open as I realized what my crumb of a husband was telling me. “You’re saying you covered for me only to save your own ass. Now that I believe! The rest is fanciful, to say the least. If you recall, I reported what I saw to the police.”
“Luckily, I brained you in the foyer and cleaned up everything while you were out cold. By the time you summoned the authorities, there was nothing to see.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I snorted.
“How do you think you got in the pond, Caroline?” Tim raised both brows and puckered his lips in that superior way I hated. “You had so much blood on you that only an extended dunking could get it all off. Sadly, the cold water revived you too.”
My brain swirled in my head. This is not happening, Caroline. Tim is looking for a way to blame you for something you never did—never would do. “I have been looking for Mel... Ava’s killer for weeks, Tim.”
“You thwart me even when you’re not trying.” He sighed. “I was so careful to clean everything, get all the blood off you—I even rolled the empty baby carriage from the house to the pond. All I had to do was sit back and wait for you to realize what you’d done. If you’d recalled it, I’d have been able to hold it over you. Control you. But what did you do? You went out looking for the killer . You even went back to the house and found evidence of the crime. I know because I saw you discover Ava’s fake nail. I was at this house, double-checking I’d not missed anything the day you and that reporter broke in. I had to hide in the master bedroom closet. From there I saw you make your little discovery.”
“The louvered slats,” I whispered. “You saw me through them.”
“You don’t make things easy on me, Caroline. When I snuck into our house looking for your mother’s missing papers, I also had to find that nail fragment of Ava’s.” He shook his head, a look resembling admiration crossing over his features. “For a second there, I thought you might be a genius rather than a pyscho, but then I remembered all the other crazy shit you’ve pulled.”
I looked at Annie. She was strangely silent.
“Tell me you don’t believe this liar,” I pleaded. “He beat you up, Annie, and got you to shoot Mary!”
“I only wanted to scare Annie and Mary,” he said as we both looked toward the still form stretched across the floor. “That’s why I told Annie to hit her in the shoulder. A nonfatal shot to show I meant business.”
To my right, I heard Annie moan softly, clearly anguished by her role in harming the old woman.
“Mary’s eighty years old, asshole!” Hoping Tim felt properly rebuked, I ignored the gun for a second, and raced over to my neighbor. I knelt and placed my fingertips against her neck, searching for a pulse. My shaky digits made the task impossible. As I leaned forward to listen for breathing, her head popped up with surprising vigor. I jumped. “Mary, you’re okay?” I eyed her chest and shoulders in the dim light and tapped her upper body for wounds.
I found none. Annie had clearly missed the mark.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Mary struggled to sit. “Feels like a truck ran me over.”
I released a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. “Thank God you aren’t shot.” My face flushed with anger as I started to stand.
“Sit down,” said Tim.
I sat but spun around to face him. The dawn was just creeping in through the basement window, glazing our dismal gathering in a deceptively cheery yellow light. Tim’s arms stretched out in front of him, the revolver trained on me. His wide-legged stance would make pivoting to Annie easy. I risked a glance her way. She seemed to be receding into the dark corner, getting smaller.
“What’s the plan now, Tim?” I taunted him, even as a voice in my head cautioned me to be quiet. Rage clouded my vision and crowded out the sensible warning. I shot off my mouth again. “Are you going to kill us all ? How are you going to pull that one off?”
“Don’t tempt me, Caroline. I got rid of the evidence once. I can do it again.”
“Oh yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes. “After I murdered a complete stranger in cold blood. Nice try, liar.”
“She didn’t seem a stranger to you. You called her Melanie,” he said in a low, measured voice. “Asked her how she could cheat on Matt?”
My blood froze in my veins. How could he know that? I’d never mentioned Matt and Melanie to anyone, had I? It had to be a trick. Tim was sneakier than anyone I’d ever met. Hadn’t he managed to take my family money right from under my nose? “You’re doing it again—making things up to get me committed. Figuring out how to make your theft legal. It’s been your goal for years.”
“Longer than you know.”
“What does that mean?”
“When your mother struck her bargain, I figured I got a pretty good deal. You didn’t look half bad in those days, and your snarky attitude was kind of appealing.”
My heart stilled.
“What bargain?”
“She told me where I could find you. Said if I convinced you to accept me, she’d leave us both a substantial sum of money in her will.”
“She did what ?” My body began to tremble. “No, that’s not true. Nothing you say is true.”
“Nothing she said was true, that’s for sure,” he yelled. “She promised to leave her estate to both of us, but when Annie read me the will, you were the sole beneficiary of... of everything!” His face turned crimson.
“But that would mean... we didn’t meet by chance?” I pictured Tim standing by my cart in the supermarket—sent there by my mother? He’d never loved me? That wasn’t true; it was a story he’d made up to hurt me because he wasn’t getting what he wanted.
What he wanted .
He wanted the money. That was all he’d ever wanted. The money. Not me. A sob escaped from my throat. My vision blurred as I studied the concrete floor in front of me. I couldn’t understand, couldn’t breathe. Nothing between Tim and me had been real?
“Don’t listen to him, dolly.” Mary’s voice floated through the dusty air as if on the wings of a specter. Why was she so far away?
“Stop right there, Caroline,” warned Tim. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will if I have to.”
“Kill me!” I challenged. “You want to be rid of me, just kill me!” I dropped to the floor as if fainting in grief, but I’d spied the corkscrew mere inches away. I made sure I fell on top of it.
“I wouldn’t do that, I’m not like that?—”
“You’re such a liar!” I struggled back to my feet, the implement once more secreted in my hand. “Because of you, Emmy is dead. You lie about everything, everything!”
“No, Caroline, no,” yelled Mary, but I had no time to look for her in the suddenly dark basement. Clouds must have been obscuring the dawn. I reached out with the corkscrew, my only intent to hurt Tim. I could hurt him as badly as he hurt me. An explosion rocked my body, sending flashes of bright light in a halo around me.
And then I was running, chasing nothing more than a shadow. Down the hall and into the kitchen. Following closely, almost reaching my target. Spotting the blender on the empty counter, reaching out, clasping the lid wildly and flinging it. Shoving my hand inside it and clutching the blade. The sting of it slicing my fingers, infuriating me, pushing me faster. Running, chasing the shadow up the stairs and through the hallway until there was no place left for either of us to go.
I pushed myself forward, feeling the resistance of him. Another deafening noise split the air around us as I thrust the object at him, slashing left and right, feeling a splatter of something warm and sticky coat my arm. He made an odd noise, like air whooshing from a bellows. I squinted through the dark, trying to see his face, and I could, I could! A cheekbone, and dark hair, a set of lips, and deep brown eyes. Eyes that apologized and pleaded with me to stop.
Her eyes , terrified, as I plunged the weapon into her again.
“I’m sorry,” she pleaded, her blood spurting into my eyes, blurring everything. “So sorry.”