JOSIE
The visual assaults me so hard that I almost puke. I feel the blood draining out of my face.
No. No. This is insane.
Teeth clenched, I try not to say anything, but I have to know what happened next.
“Did you do it?” I ask so quietly I can barely hear myself. I’m afraid of the answer, but I need to know how far this woman can go in her twisted games. “The glass…” I say. “Did…”
Mallory Blain picks between her teeth with her pinkie. She stares around, running her tongue along the inside of her lips. “See, Derek brought out the best in me.”
She’s deranged, clearly.
“The version of myself I’d always been afraid to confront,” she continues.
“Not that I could. You never can with people like Al and Vic. Those two brought the worst out in me. And so did Ma Boots. Gah!” She strokes the gun on her lap, her face contorted in anger, and I hold my breath.
But she continues. “I couldn’t stand her entitlement.
Her pride in Alysha, like she was a golden child.
I worked at her bar, yet she didn’t trust me with the extra key.
Al? She’d found out a long time ago where Karen kept it hidden in the house.
She knew the camera hookup. All she had to do when she needed booze was to disable the electrical box outside the bar so the cameras went off, then sneak in, take a bottle or two, and sneak out!
Yes, precious Al was a thief. Your mother was rotten all the way through. ”
She gives me a once-over filled with disgust. Or hatred. Her entire speech is laced with so much anger, envy, and pure spite.
“Unfortunately, my little trick with the glass didn’t work out,” Mallory Blain goes on.
“I timed it perfectly, too, when Karen’s tumbler was out of the camera’s view.
By the time she picked it up and moved it to the cash register counter, Derek walked in.
I almost wanted to laugh. It was just too easy.
Karen fumed. Oh, how she fumed! She didn’t even realize that she’d been biting the inside of her cheek.
No one in my time working at Ma Shirley’s, no one, you hear me, made her froth at the mouth.
Except Derek. Too funny, really. Once she saw him, she was all fangs and claws.
When Karen picked up her tumbler, I held my breath, waiting for her scream of pain to split the air. But stupid Cherry ruined it all.”
She looks disappointed, but then her face lights up. “You know what? Now that I think about it, probably for the best. If Karen had gone to the hospital with her trap all cut up, Al would’ve probably been with her, and the story wouldn’t have been the same.”
I stare in shock. Mallory Blain stares back, her lopsided grin getting bigger.
“What?” She gives me a backward nod, that slurpy chuckle bubbling up in her throat again.
“What you looking at me like that for? Look at you. Eyes all round. Yeah? Surprised? Did your grandmother tell you any of this? No? Of course not. Because she was too stuck up to put two and two together. She thought she was all important and tough and had everything under her thumb. Nah. Nuh-huh.”
Mallory Blain killed Sarah Holes, though many people suspected Derek Sickler had. I don’t think anyone ever even considered that Mallory might’ve done it.
That’s not what makes me speechless, though. I’m pretty sure I know where this is going, and if it is, then this woman fooled the entire town.
“What about Doug Hartzel?” I ask. “Was that your doing, too?”
“Huh.” She’s quiet for a second as she scratches the underside of her chin with the barrel of the gun. “Well, that depends on how you put it, I suppose.”