Chapter 37
Alice
The red LED on the microphone flashes at a steady rate. Jake sits opposite me, his own microphone set to record.
“Hey, hey, hey True Crime Lies listeners. I have a special episode for you today. You’ll never believe who finally agreed to sit down and give us the inside story. If you thought I was done with the Phoenix Fraudsters, you might have been right. If Alice Thompson didn’t have a change of heart.”
He winks at me, as if any of this was voluntary.
“Go ahead and tell our eager listeners hello.”
My mouth feels like ash, and sweat sticks to my skin. I blink against the tears threatening to fall as Nellie’s screams still ring in my head. “H-Hello.”
Jake already informed me this was only a recording, not live, dashing any hopes I had about crying out for help.
“Not only has Ms. Thompson joined us as our special guest, but we also have here one of the infamous Phoenix Fraudsters himself, Mr. Ernest Farnsworth. If you remember, Mr. Farnsworth had his case thrown out when the jury found the circumstantial evidence not strong enough to return a guilty verdict.”
Ernest cocks a bored eyebrow at Jake. Leaning over, he picks up Jake’s microphone.
“I think I’m going to take over this for a little while.”
Jake begins to protest, but one look from Ernest shuts him up.
Ernest sits on the corner of the table, one leg on the floor for balance. He turns toward me. “You’re hard to track down. It wasn’t until I put together that you’re friends with his ex-wife that I figured out exactly where you’d gone.”
Friends with his ex-wife? My brain works overtime as I sort through the clues in that sentence.
He means Whitney.
“Leave them alone,” I spit. The mere thought of my family’s troubles turning her life on its end again fills my throat with bile.
Ernest gives an unbothered shrug. “See, your friend, she’s smart. She moved away and kept her head down. Shacked up with a well-connected guy and lived happily ever after. But you?” he sneers, rising to his feet. “You just keep popping up.”
“I didn’t ask for any of this.” I bat at a tear with the back of my hand, fighting against the exhaustion threatening to drag me straight to the floor.
“You handed your own family to the cops and went on with your life.” He fake shivers. “You are one cold bitch. I mean, even I didn’t do that. I stuck beside your brother and his shitty-ass plan until the very end.”
“Then why aren’t you in prison beside him?”
He leans across the table, a glint in his eye. His palms flat against the wood disturb the thick layer of dust. “You know why.”
“I don’t.” I shake my head rapidly. I really don’t. I refused to follow the trial after my time on the witness stand.
“You do. You think I don’t know?” Ernest begins circling Jake and me at the table. “That little file you gave them… the one that put all the pieces together? That was you.”
I can’t do anything but shake my head again.
He nods in contradiction. “Yes. Not the ex. Not the cops. You.”
“I didn’t say anything about you! I don’t even know who you are!”
His fist crashes against the table, making me flinch.
“Yes. You. Did!” Spittle flies from his mouth.
“You wrecked everything. And now you want to do it again? You want to spill my secrets to this fucking podcast? All it took was them saying your name to get me back into the national spotlight. But I’ll let you in on a little secret.
” He leans closer. “I’m not going back to prison. ”
I lift my wrists in front of my chest, trying to push my palms out placatingly. My hands tremble, and I’m not sure if it’s fear or my blood sugar or both. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t answer him.” I flick my gaze to Jake, finding him wide-eyed and pale. “Tell him. Tell him I wouldn’t talk to you!”
Jake’s mouth drops open. The metal legs of his chair screech loudly across the concrete beneath our feet. “Hey, man. Let’s calm down. This isn’t the deal we had. We just wanted a taped confession. Rough her around a little to get it.”
Ernest completes his circle until he’s back on the other side of the table. His fingertips play with a 2x4 piece of lumber leaning against the endcap. “You’re right. That was the original plan. Thanks for your help, Jake.”
“What—”
Jake doesn’t finish his question.
Ernest picks up the piece of lumber and swings it across the back of Jake’s skull with a deafening thwack. His eyes roll back in his head, and he drops to the ground without the ability to brace for the fall. His head lands with a sickening crack against the concrete.
“Now it’s me and you having this discussion.”
“No.”
“You ruined my life.”
I blink against blurred vision. “I didn’t.”
“You did. You handed over information, and you were about to do it again.” He flips the 2x4 over in his hand, studying it. “And I can’t let you do that.”
Nausea cramps my stomach. “I wouldn’t.”
He reaches behind his back and sets a handgun onto the table. The sound of Nellie choking on sobs reverberates from the back corner of the room.
“It’s you or her, sweetheart. One way or another, I’ll keep you quiet.”
“Me,” I choke instantly. Oh god. Tears cascade down my cheeks in rivulets. The last time I cried so earnestly was the night in Sutton’s arms. Was that just yesterday? It feels like a million memories ago. A different lifetime that I let him hold me against his strong chest while I sobbed.
I’m sorry, Sunny.
“Do whatever you want to me. Just let her go.”
Ernest showcases yellow, crooked teeth as he smiles. He walks back behind me, leaning down near my ear. “I was hoping you’d say that. I don’t much like children, but you?” I flinch from his fingers reaching for my hair. “I wouldn’t mind giving that a go.”
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. “Fuck you,” I rasp.