Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Me?” Emma battled to remember what part she’d played in this fiasco.
“You and your boyfriend. You came by here on Tuesday, asking a bunch of questions about Tina.” Ashley spat the name out. “I never cared that Sonny was getting in her pants. Hell, I was happy with anything or anyone that kept him from wanting to be in mine. But Tina was so damn smug about it.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t see what any of this has to do with me.”
Ashley huffed. “You and Eric are friends. I knew what you were really up to. You wanted someone else to lay the blame on. As soon as you left, I called Patrick, and he told me he’d seen your boyfriend chatting up the police detective.
We knew we needed a backup plan. You told me Sonny left the business to Tina, so she was the logical one to take the fall.
Patrick was supposed to either get a copy of the business agreement or manufacture a document and plant it in her office. ”
Emma had to admit, it was a good plan.
“Then yesterday morning, Patrick came over and got me outta bed. He’d been so calm—so in charge—except now he was freaking out.
Your boyfriend was caught digging around the construction site.
The cops showed up and called Patrick, asking more questions.
He realized they weren’t gonna give up until they found out what really happened.
” Ashley ran terrifyingly steady fingers through her blonde hair.
“It would’ve been perfect if he’d only buried Sonny deep enough in the first place.
I told him so, too. Patrick kept saying he’d realized this whole coverup had been a bad plan from the start, and he wanted to come clean.
He said a good lawyer could get me off on self-defense. ”
Emma agreed with him, but telling Ashley wouldn’t be wise.
“I refuse to lose my baby girl to the system. I won’t.
” Ashley’s knuckles whitened as she clenched both fists, including the one gripping the knife, in front of her.
She inhaled, exhaled, and appeared to relax.
A little. “I asked Patrick if he’d planted the evidence on Tina like we planned, and he said he had.
” Ashley smirked. “I thought, good. That way Tina would look like the guilty one. Not only for Sonny’s death, but for Patrick’s, as well. ”
A chill raced across Emma’s shoulders and up her neck.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked. Sure, I cared about Patrick, but I wasn’t going to let anyone threaten me and my daughter.”
Anyone. That included Emma and Nell.
Emma had been hoping she could somehow convince Ashley to give up the knife. Patrick was right. A good defense attorney could likely keep Ashley out of jail… for killing Sonny.
But not for killing Patrick.
“What did you do?” Emma whispered.
Ashley shrugged. “I told Patrick I’d turn myself in for killing Sonny.
Self-defense. I said I wanted to see firsthand that there wasn’t anything at the construction site that might make it look premeditated.
He assured me there wasn’t, but I wouldn’t let up.
He finally agreed and said he would go there first and shut down the security cameras so I wouldn’t be seen.
That left me with one big problem, though.
Daphne. I didn’t dare call a babysitter who could then blab to the cops about me going out.
So, I gave her some Benadryl. That stuff knocks her out for a good six hours.
I strapped her into the car seat, and she slept the whole time.
I grabbed a couple cans of gas from the shed out back and put them in the trunk.
Then I got the gun out of Sonny’s desk. He’d bought it for protection.
His.” Ashley snickered. “Lotta good it did him. Anyhow, once I got to the construction site, dear Patrick was already there. Already had the cameras shut off. He mentioned which house your boyfriend was snooping in, so that’s the one I told him I wanted to see.
Once we got inside, I walked around, pretending to check stuff out.
He started yammering again about how everything would be fine if we turned ourselves in.
I told him one last time that I wasn’t putting Daphne in the hands of Children and Youth Services.
Then I shot him.” She said it so simply, as if she was talking about buying a blue shirt instead of a yellow one.
Emma couldn’t breathe. Sweet Ashley, high school cheerleader, devoted wife and mother. All a facade. Or perhaps she truly had been all those things at one time. Somewhere along the line, though, she’d broken.
Sonny had broken her.
“Then you burned the house,” Emma said, barely able to get the words out. “With Patrick in it.”
“Yep. I wiped the gun down and was going to toss it in the dumpster. Glad I didn’t, though. I realized I needed it for one more thing.”
From the kitchen came a soft thud. Not the sound of an object being knocked over. Nor the sound of Nell falling. Not even the sound of her crutches.
Emma managed to hold Ashley’s gaze, processing her words. One more thing. “Tina,” Emma said.
“Tina,” Ashley echoed, sounding annoyed.
“That didn’t go quite as planned. I meant it to look like a suicide, but the bitch spotted my gun and tried to take it off me.
We wrestled for it. I won.” Her expression soured.
“She was heavier than she looked, but I did manage to get her into her chair. There was too much blood to even try to clean up. I just had to pray the cops were stupid enough to buy the letter I left for them.”
Had they been? Emma doubted it. Matthias was too good at his job to buy a sloppily staged crime scene.
Ashley held up the knife and considered it with obvious regret. “It’s too bad I left the gun with her body. I’d much rather shoot you than stab you. I mean, I’ve done both. Shooting isn’t as messy.”
Ashley wasn’t merely broken. She was psychotic.
In Emma’s peripheral vision, she spotted Nell in the kitchen doorway, balanced precariously on her good foot while gripping one crutch.
That was the thud. Nell hopping. Ashley, however, appeared oblivious to her.
Emma needed to keep it that way. Her mind raced.
Where was Matthias? Was he on his way? Or had her call never connected?
She needed to protect Nell. But Nell might also be Emma’s only hope.
She—they—had only themselves to rely on.
She knew she must keep Ashley talking but also prepare to react when the opportunity showed itself.
“Either is messy enough.” Emma looked down at the pristine carpet.
“If you stab me here, you’ll have to scrub your floor again.
” She intentionally didn’t mention Nell, hoping Ashley had forgotten about her.
“Besides, who’s going to help you move the body now that Patrick’s gone? ”
Ashley’s expression clearly told Emma she hadn’t considered that minor detail.
“You didn’t have to move Tina’s or Patrick’s bodies. So now, what’s your plan? You can’t very well just leave me here.”
Ashley pursed her lips, thinking.
Emma made a show of wincing as she shifted her weight to one side.
“Don’t move.” Ashley brandished the knife but didn’t advance.
Emma raised one hand. “I’m—I’m sorry—my knee is cramping.” Acting as if she was in agony, she brought one leg forward and planted her foot on the floor. At the same time, she shot a look at Nell, whose expression told Emma they were on the same page. “Ah. That’s better.”
“I’m so glad you’re comfortable,” Ashley said with a sneer, “because I’m done talking.” Faster than Emma would’ve thought possible, Ashley lunged.
The speed of the strike caught Emma off guard, but she managed to react, springing to her feet like she and Nell practiced in yoga.
The surroundings blurred. Except for the glint of steel driving toward her.
Instinct took over. Emma staggered backward.
Pivoted away from the blade. Noted movement behind her attacker.
Ashley was too fast.
Pain seared Emma’s scalp. Not the cut of the knife, but the blinding pain of her hair being ripped from her head.
Ashley was behind Emma, her fingers gripping Emma’s short tresses. The steel blade pressed against her throat.
Nell stood mere feet from her, balanced on one leg with the steadiness of a practiced yogi. But her grip on the crutch made her look like a wild-eyed baseball player, not a yoga instructor.
If Emma didn’t have a knife against her neck, she’d have laughed at her younger sister.
“Let her go,” Nell said, raising the crutch over her shoulder as if ready to swing for a home run.
“I don’t think so,” Ashley hissed. “Move one inch, and your sister loses her head. For real. Drop that thing.”
Emma spotted the doubt in Nell’s eyes. Ashley surely saw it, too. “You’ve painted yourself into a corner, you know,” Emma said.
“Shut up.”
The blade was so sharp, Emma didn’t notice the cut at first. Not until she felt the tickle of blood trickling down her neck and saw the horror in Nell’s eyes.
“Think about it, Ashley,” Emma went on, tamping down the burning sensation and her own fear. “You might kill me, but my sister is gonna knock your head off your shoulders. The police are on their way. Look under your sofa.”
Emma sensed Ashley shifting slightly to do as she was told. Nell shot a glance there, too.
“When you weren’t paying attention, I called Matthias. My phone’s been on speaker this whole time. He’s heard every word you’ve said.”
“You bitch,” Ashley hissed into Emma’s ear. “I’m gonna kill you just because you’ve destroyed my life.”
“Come on, Ashley. You were never a killer before all this happened. You’re a mom. Do you really want Daphne to come out here and see what you’re doing?”
As if hearing her name, the little girl stepped out of her bedroom. Emma saw her. Ashley’s sharp intake of breath told Emma she’d seen her, too.
Emma prayed she’d learned something during Matthias’s attempts to teach her self-defense. She locked onto Nell’s gaze and gave an almost imperceptible nod. Nell returned it.
Braced to ignore the pain, Emma reached back and took a vicelike grip on the wrist that clutched her hair.
With the speed he’d drilled into her, she shifted back into Ashley, hoping the move loosened the pressure of the blade.
Emma didn’t pause to assess. She spun toward Ashley and ducked under her arm, much like a dancer twirling their partner.
Except Emma kept a death grip, torquing Ashley’s shoulder, breaking her grip on Emma’s hair.
Ashley screamed, and the knife dropped from her fingers.
“Let me go!” she wailed, struggling to twist free from Emma’s shoulder lock.
Emma didn’t dare.
She didn’t need to. In that moment, the house erupted.
Nell’s crutch whooshed past Emma, so close she felt the breeze. It connected with Ashley’s head in a dull thud. Daphne’s shriek was drowned out by the explosion of the front door splintering.