Chapter Sixty-Eight Savannah
| Sixty-Eight |
Savannah
Savannah was disoriented. Where was she?
She opened her eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room.
It was dark, the only light the illumination from the moon.
She got up, stumbled to the door, and flipped on the overhead light.
She tried to turn the knob, but the door was locked, apparently from the outside.
She was in a bedroom, but whose? Then she remembered.
Isabel. Sticking her with some kind of drug.
She said they were going to the farm. Walking over to the window, she looked out.
She couldn’t see much except the moon shimmering on the snow-covered ground.
There were no other houses in sight. What time was it?
There was no clock in the room, and Isabel must have taken her phone.
She had to think. Yesterday. It had been early afternoon when Isabel came at her with that needle.
That was the last thing she remembered. She had no idea how far from Bedford they had traveled.
Whatever Isabel had injected her with must have knocked her out for a while.
She had to get out of here, but how? She opened the window and the freezing air blew in. She was up too high to jump, and there was nothing to climb on. The sound of the door opening made her start. She turned around.
“I see you’re finally awake.”
“Isabel, you have to let me go.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Savannah. You know too much.”
She was pointing the gun at her. “Let’s go downstairs.”
Savannah didn’t move.
Isabel extended her arm straight out. “Don’t make me do it, Savannah. There’s an easier way. Now move! Down the steps, I’ll follow behind.”
Savannah played scenarios out in her mind. She had to try to get the gun away from her. But if she wasn’t quick enough, Isabel would shoot her, of that she had no doubt. She walked toward the door and down the steep wooden stairs.
“Stop.”
Isabel came halfway down, still far enough away that Savannah couldn’t reach her, but she could shoot Savannah.
“Turn right, then sit on the sofa.”
Isabel’s footsteps followed behind Savannah as she sat on the musty sofa in the living room. The house looked like something from one of those old English shows. All formal furnishings and dark wood. Isabel took a seat across from Savannah in a wing chair.
“What did you inject me with?” Savannah asked, trying to think of anything to stall for time.
“Ketamine. It doesn’t knock you out completely but makes you quite malleable.
Then in the car I added some benzos. Lots left over from Dad’s Parkinson’s treatment.
You lost a day and a half. I needed to get everything ready.
I wasn’t expecting to have to dispose of you.
My initial idea was for you to go to the police and give them everything they need to arrest Bennett. ” She shrugged. “But plans change.”
“I still don’t get it, Isabel. If you love him, why would you frame him? You can’t be with him if he’s in prison.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. He would have hated you for putting him there and then he would have had to rely on me again.
We both have plenty of money. The lawyers would eventually have gotten him off, especially since there are no bodies.
You know the saying. No body, no crime. But Bennett would never trust another woman again.
Now you’ve saved me all the trouble and expense. ”
“What do you mean?”
“Bennett will come home and see your note. He’ll call me, of course.
You’ll be another woman who left him. I’ll comfort him.
He won’t know that you and I met. No one he knows saw us together.
And this time when I move in to comfort him, I won’t move out.
My father’s dead. No reason for me to have to leave.
He’ll be sad at first, but he’ll soon realize what a colossal mistake he made in marrying such a pathetic little plain Jane. ”
“Please, Isabel! You don’t have to do this.”
“I’ll make it easy on you. You won’t die in the basement like the others. You’ll just overdose, and it will be peaceful. That’s because I like you, Savannah.”
“You’re pathetic,” Savannah said. “Bennett will never love you. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been with those other women. Married Poppy and then me. He doesn’t want you, Isabel. Why can’t you see that?”
Isabel’s face turned red and her eyes bulged. “What Bennett and I have is special. No one knows him the way I do.”
“Felicia said he thinks of you like a sister. Of course, if he knew that you killed his sister, he’d hate you. If he knew what a horrible person you truly are, he would never want to set eyes on you again.”
In a rage, Isabel rushed toward her, raising her arm to slap her. As Isabel connected with her cheek, Savannah yanked the gun from Isabel’s other hand and backed away. She pointed the gun at Isabel, shaking.
“Change of plans,” Savannah said.