34 Suzy
Suzy
“Sean, get Wintour and the bags,” Suzy said, swiping under her eyes with both hands. “We’re getting the hell out of here.”
The baby in Hazel’s arms began to cry.
“No! We need to wait for the police!” Hazel asserted, bouncing her son up and down. “We’ve already completely obliterated the crime scene. We all have to stay here to tell them what happened. What we saw. What we know. Who wrote the notes that gave everyone a motive to murder my husband.”
She slid a look at Lily as she said this.
“I am not sitting around waiting for someone else to die,” Suzy said, then added for good measure, “or for one of you to decide I’m next.”
“Suzy, calm down,” Sean said, reaching for her.
Suzy smacked his hand away. “Don’t tell me to calm down! Be a man and get me out of here!”
They all turned as Josh stumbled into the room, seething like a wild boar.
“Which one of you did it? Which one of you murdered my baby!?”
The child in Hazel’s arms began to scream.
She held him closer. “Everyone calm down,” she said.
“Josh, I’m so sorry about Juliet, but we don’t know what happened.
What I do know is that none of you seem to care what happened to Lincoln.
Don’t any of you want to find out the truth?
He was your friend! He’s the reason you’re all even here.
And all any of you seem to want to do is forget about him.
But one of you hurt him and Trevor and maybe Juliet too, and I am going to find out who it was. ”
She walked right over to Suzy, the baby’s cries growing louder. “And I swear to God, if you try to leave again before talking to the police, I have a few things I can tell them myself.”
Suzy stopped breathing. The intent in Hazel’s brown eyes was crystal clear. She knew. But how? Had Lincoln actually told her? It was the only thing that made sense. When Lincoln had told Hazel about the paternity test, he must have also spilled about Suzy.
“I’ll be right back,” Hazel said flatly, putting some distance between them again. “Nobody moves until then.”
Hazel left the room, headed back toward the new nursery down the hall.
Suzy, knees now weak, lowered herself into the nearest chair.
She didn’t dare meet anyone’s eyes in case one of them decided to question what that was all about.
What if Hazel decided to inform the police about the blackmail? Could Suzy be going to jail?
“Somebody better tell me what the hell happened to Juliet,” Josh snapped. “Right now.”
“We heard a scream, and I saw something fall past my window,” Marley told him, pressing the heels of her hands into her eye sockets. “We woke everyone up and came down here and found Juliet outside.”
“Stop trying to pretend you had nothing to do with this,” Marshall said, though much more calmly than before. “You have the motive, and it’s not like you’ve never threatened her before.”
“I would never hurt Juliet,” Josh said emphatically. “I can’t believe you’d even say that to me.”
Suzy looked up at Gemma, who was stone faced.
“Josh didn’t do anything,” Lily said, quietly.
“What?” Marshall asked.
“I said, Josh didn’t do anything,” she repeated, lifting her face. “We’ve been in the car for the last hour. Together. We just got here and came inside. You all saw us come through the front door. How could he have gone up to the third floor without me knowing? Magic?”
“Town isn’t an hour from here. It’s fifteen minutes, tops,” Marshall responded.
“So, what, I’m lying? Or am I in on it too, Marshall?
” Lily snapped. “And it is an hour away when there are downed trees and power lines and flooding on every other street.” Her tone was accusatory, as if Marshall had personally put these obstacles in her way.
She looked at Suzy, took a deep breath, and blew it out in a short burst. “If you do leave, I can’t guarantee you’ll even make it to the highway. It’s an obstacle course out there.”
“I don’t care. I can’t stay here any longer.” She couldn’t let Hazel’s threat stop her. There was no way she could know everything. But even if she did, all that knowledge did was make Suzy want to escape even more.
“Suze, think about the kids,” Sean said. “We can’t—”
“I am thinking about the kids!” Suzy’s exhaustion and frustration bubbled over. “What’s going to happen to them if we get murdered?”
“What’s going to happen to them if we get electrocuted by a power line?” Sean replied. “Or a tree falls on the car? Or some other idiot driver slams us off the road? I think we’re safer here. As long as we stick together.”
“Good idea,” Grant said. “Let’s all just pair off. As long as we don’t let each other out of our sight, we’ll be fine.”
Suzy sighed, eyes on the floor. Every inch of her needed to move.
She hated that all decisions were being made by committee.
It made her feel helpless and out of control.
Like a child at the whim of the adults in her life.
She couldn’t stay here a moment longer. Could.
Not. The very thought of Juliet’s body lying outside, of her cold, blank eyes staring up at the clouds. She shuddered and gritted her teeth.
“Magdelena is with Candice already,” Marley said. “Who’s Lily going to pair off with?”
“I’ll stick with Josh,” Lily said.
“And Hazel?” Gemma asked, just as Hazel returned, without the baby.
“And Hazel what?” she asked, looking both exhausted and suspicious.
“We’re doing a buddy system to get through the night,” Marley explained. “Lily’s with Josh. So you . . .”
“I’ll stick with Tini and the kids,” Hazel said. She seemed relieved, if not comforted, that they weren’t all fleeing down the service road. “We need to be near the kitchen to warm bottles, so we’ll stay down here.”
“I’ll stay with Cole,” Daisy offered. “And maybe we could have an actual bedroom?”
Hazel rolled her eyes. “Fine. Take whatever’s free.”
Everyone looked at Suzy. She felt anxious and itchy and about ready to scream, but with everyone looking at her, she found she couldn’t fight back. It would be easier to see on the roads in the morning, anyway, she told herself. And maybe the wind would have died down by then.
“Fine,” she said. “But I’m calling the cops again. If they can’t get out here by midday, I’m leaving.” She looked at Sean. “With or without you.”