Chapter 60
Inside Ingrid’s house was dim and quiet.
The familiar musty smell Ingrid thought the renovations had eradicated rose over the smell of new fabric and fresh paint and wallpaper now, hitting her nostrils.
She closed her eyes and breathed it in: Edie’s brewed tea, her smudges of lavender, the smell of her warm, sweet, wrinkled hands.
Home.
Ingrid switched on a lamp. The living room was strewn with clutter. A wadded-up Arby’s bag. A handful of Miles’s Warhammer figurines. Empty Coke Zero cans. Pretty much like she’d left it before the wedding.
Before the wedding.
When everything had been different. When her life had been simple, her future assured. Now, all that was over. Rill was dead, Cas was dead, and Boney was in jail. And she had promised Sailor she would fix it all.
She found Miles upstairs in Edie’s room. In her bed, sprawled out in the middle, his blond curls on her pillow, Litha stretched out luxuriously beside him. Ingrid pounced on him, rousing Litha, who sprang off the bed and out of the room.
“Miles! Wake up!”
He groaned and flung a hand at her, shooing her away.
She threw open the closet door and started rummaging in the back. “You have to get up. You have to get ready.”
“No,” he groused.
“Miles!”
He sat up, yawning. “Hey.”
“You have to get up.”
“Ingrid, look.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry for how I was to you at the wedding. I saw you dancing with Rill, and I got jealous. Like, scared, I guess. I thought you were going to ditch me. I don’t know—”
She brought out an old Samsonite suitcase, splitting it open on the bed. “Cas and Rill Loeffler are dead.”
Miles stared at her, blinking slowly.
“And they’ve arrested Boney,” she said.
“What?” He looked away from her. “Whoa.”
Her heart hammered painfully. “You don’t look surprised.”
“I’m not, I guess,” he said quietly. “Not really.”
She stilled, feeling her gut twist ominously. “Miles. What the hell? What the hell? Talk to me. What’s going on?”
He rested his arms on his knees and stared at the tangled bedding. “I always worried something like this was going to happen.”
“Miles! What are you saying?”
He looked at her, eyes full of pain. “I didn’t want to tell you, Ingrid. Because I know how you … how y’all are …”
She reddened.
He shifted his eyes away from her. “I ran into Boney last week, over in Tybee. He was selling drugs to some guy.”
“No.” Boney had never been into that kind of stuff. Yes, smoking it, but not selling. At least she didn’t think he had.
“I felt bad for him, so I took him to get breakfast. We were talking about Sailor’s wedding, and, you know, I mentioned I was going to it.
He asked if he could come so I said yes.
And like, I don’t know. We might’ve talked about how the house would be empty.
No alarms set, that kind of thing—and he knew how to get in through that back door, the one that led to the kitchen, where we got the food that time—”
“Oh, Miles, no,” she said softly. “What have you done?”
Miles cracked his knuckles, looking pained. “I was just trying to help him out. We only ever go to these things for the leftovers, you know? I thought at the most he’d take some booze or a ham or something.” He paused. “Okay, maybe a laptop at the most.”
She said nothing, feeling the enormity of what he was saying crashing down on her.
On both of them. How would they keep this from the police?
Those two detectives who had interrogated her at the mansion were smart.
They knew who Ingrid was—and that she hung around with Boney.
They’d start to put things together soon enough.
“I need to think.” She gazed out the window. The birds were almost dementedly cheerful this morning.
“I know it was a bad idea,” Miles said. “I admit that in hindsight. But those people have so much. They don’t need it all. And I didn’t think he was going to kill them. I swear to God.”
“Shut up, Miles! I said I have to think!”
He looked abashed. Hurt.
“You were threatening me last night,” she said. “Don’t act like you weren’t.”
“I was mad.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO?” she screamed.
He leaped off the bed, eyes blazing. “I didn’t do anything, Ingrid! It was you! All you! Your curse on Rill!” He was shouting now, too.
She glared at him, tears spilling in anger and desperation.
“It wasn’t a curse. It was a spell. Only a spell.
It couldn’t have …” She gathered herself.
“It’s not just Rill, Miles. All the other things …
Scoot’s accident and the fire at the marina …
those weren’t me either. It was never me, was it, Miles? It was you. You all along.”
“No—”
“I saw you with her at the wedding. With the girl from Peregrin.”
He frowned. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“The bartender who spiked my drink at the Peregrin, Miles! Darya! You were dancing with her at the reception.”
“Who cares? We don’t know that she was the one who did that to you. And I wasn’t with Scoot that night, I told you. It wasn’t me.”
Ingrid blinked. “I know because Boney told me you got him to do it. To get Scoot drunk at Peregrin and into her car. For you.”
Miles looked away from her. “That doesn’t mean I did this Rill and Cas thing.”
She wanted to grab him and shake him. This Rill and Cas thing? How dare he? What was he thinking?
“You know it wasn’t Boney,” she said bitterly. “He could never do this.”
“And you’re saying I could?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” she wailed. “Their heads … they had these holes—”
“You’re tired, Ingrid. And probably hungry.” He sent her a patient smile. “Come on. Let’s just table this, get some dinner, and we can figure this out.”
She turned back to the closet and started hauling clothes out and dumping them into the suitcase.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Miles asked.
“Packing.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to the Loefflers’ … until the estate is settled and Sailor has a firmer foundation under her feet.”
“All right. That’s nice of you. I guess I’ll stick around here and keep the home fires burning.” He sounded petulant.
“If you don’t mind, yes.” She threw in another armload of clothes.
“I don’t mind.” Now his voice was soft. Sincere. “I’d do anything for you, Ingrid. You know that. I told you. I’m sorry for being a dick last night. But, honestly, Ingrid, I don’t feel bad for them and neither should you. They don’t deserve your pity.”
“Cas does. Cas never hurt anybody.” She started crying and sat on the bed. Miles rubbed her back.
When she finally quieted, she could hear a bird sing just outside Edie’s window.
Could hear people talking and laughing on the street below.
A dog barked. Life was continuing on all around them.
No matter that Cas and Rill were dead and Boney was in jail.
The birds and the dogs didn’t know. They didn’t care.
They would all die soon. And so would Ingrid.
They all really only had just a little bit of time here, didn’t they?
“Best to use it wisely,” Ingrid said absently.
“What?” Miles asked.
She sighed. “I said, we should make the most of our lives.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “I couldn’t agree more. Why not, after how hard you’ve worked. After all you did for us. To take care of us.”
She nodded. “I better go.”
“I love you, Budgie.”
It pained her to say it back to him, but she couldn’t let him know how much she distrusted him now. There was no predicting what he’d do.
“I love you, too. But you should take a shower and get dressed. The police are probably on their way here soon. To talk to you.”
She would not be here when he told his story about Boney to the cops. She couldn’t bear to hear it again.