The Wife Who Knew Too Much

by Michele Campbell

  “You think your protectiveness of her justifies what you’ve done?”

  “I didn’t do anything. Just listen, okay? This isn’t just background, it’s my explanation, and you said you’d keep an open mind. About ten years ago, Lissa got her adoption records unsealed, and she discovered that her birth mother was Gloria. Gloria, the housekeeper here.”

  I knew that was true. Again, it didn’t justify his conduct.

  “So what?”

  “I’m about to tell you what. Lissa was desperate to know her birth mother. She wrote to her begging for a meeting, but Gloria said no, it would be too painful. That’s when Lissa found out the truth about her identity. Gloria wrote her a letter explaining that she’d been raped when she was seventeen and forced to give the baby away. Well, it didn’t take much digging for Lissa to figure out that Edward Levitt was the perpetrator—and her father.”

  “I believe that Edward would do something like that. But don’t think you can use it to excuse what you and Juliet did.”

  “I didn’t do anything. Will you please not say that, at least until you’ve heard the whole story? Okay?”

  “Go on,” I said grudgingly.

  “At that point, Lissa had nothing. She was twenty years old, a college dropout, with no money, no job, no prospects, fragile mental health. And she’d just discovered she was the daughter of this fabulously wealthy man. So, she sued for paternity. But the case wasn’t viable. Because she was over eighteen, Edward no longer had any support obligation, and there was no requirement that he give her a penny. She settled for a hundred thousand bucks, plus a no-show job at some shell company of Edward’s.”

  “Protocol Shipping Solutions?”

  “Yes, how did you know?” he said, taken aback.

  “Finish your story, then we’ll talk.”

  He nodded. “So, they settled. Lissa was required to sign an NDA and agree never to contact Edward or his family.”

  “You’re trying to tell me that’s the reason for the false name, so she didn’t violate the settlement?”

  “Partly. But the main reason for the false name was because of Gloria. Everything Lissa did—at least at the beginning—was because of Gloria. She’d never given up the idea of knowing her birth mother. But the lawsuit, which was something of a bust financially, had a terrible effect. It set Gloria against her. Apparently, Lissa’s lawyer had tried to subpoena Gloria to court, which made Gloria very uncomfortable. And after Edward died, when Lissa reached out again, Gloria basically said get lost and never contact me again. This just made Lissa crazy. To her, it was, like, this huge injustice. She couldn’t let it rest. She became fixated. She was obsessively following all things Levitt online, and that’s how she discovered that Nina was hiring an assistant. She decided to apply. I know that seems weird. Even twisted. But in her mind, it was a way into that world, so she could get to know her mother. But she had to do it under a different name, or they’d know it was her.”

  “Okay, fine. Say I accept what you’re saying as true. That only tells me about Juliet’s motive. She’s not my concern, you are. Let’s talk about you, Connor. Your motive, your lies, your actions.”

  “Me? I just needed a job. Lissa knew I was looking. She heard of the position in the Levitt Global PR department, and she passed that tip on to me. She offered to put in a good word, but only if I promised to keep her name change between us.”

  “And you agreed to that? At that point, you knew something really sick was going on.”

  “Sick? That’s an overstatement. You have to understand, Lissa was a friend, with a tragic story, who was trying to help me get a job. I thought what she was doing was weird, yes. But at that point, I’d never met Nina. And whatever Lissa was up to, it didn’t involve me. I didn’t feel any obligation to out her. Not then.”

  “Connor, just so you know, I’m not losing sight of the fact that you ended up married to Nina, and Nina ended up dead. This stuff about poor little Lissa is just some smoke screen. You better be honest, because I’ll know if you’re not.”

  “Yes. I swear. And here’s where the bad stuff starts. This is where I fault myself. This is when I should’ve known better, should’ve washed my hands of Lissa, and didn’t. As time went on, I realized she had a vendetta against Nina. She blamed her for everything. For forcing Edward to send her away. For making him be ruthless in the lawsuit. Which—I know Nina, and I know Edward by reputation—that just isn’t true.”

  I recalled the words in Nina’s journal. “You sent me away.… You ruined my life.” Juliet had blamed Nina. I knew that much was real.

  “The point is, I knew she harbored these feelings towards Nina. She started talking about getting back at her. I thought she was blowing smoke. I never took her seriously until—”

  He paused, taking a deep breath.

  “Until she came up with this crazy plan.”

  “What plan?”

  “To throw me together with Nina and see where it went.”

  I stared at him, slack-jawed.

  “I prayed there was some innocent explanation,” I said. “But there isn’t. Your marriage was a conspiracy from the beginning. Juliet hadn’t succeeded in getting her hands on the Levitt fortune through the lawsuit, so you did it for her.”

  “No, it wasn’t like that. She never said, Let’s kill Nina and take her money. If she had, I would have done something. She presented it more as, almost, a practical joke. Let’s mess with her. To me, it wasn’t that. It was just … an opportunity. Hell yeah, I’ll go to this party. I’ll meet this rich, famous, beautiful woman. I’ll hang out with her, have sex with her, enjoy what she has to offer. I’m not proud I did that. But it’s not the same as conspiring to kill her. That, I would never do.”

  His eyes were pleading. I could feel how much he needed me to believe him. But I couldn’t get there. Not yet, not without more of an explanation.

  “Nothing changes the fact that you actually went ahead and married her without ever telling her the truth.”

  “Yes, and that’s wrong. But you have to understand, things with Nina went faster than I ever imagined. Within a few months, she wanted to get married. And I wanted to, too. It was an amazing life I could have with her, and I wasn’t about to miss out on it because of Lissa’s bizarre situation. I know it looks bad. But I didn’t see Lissa as my responsibility, and I didn’t want to ruin things with Nina by confessing my knowledge of this—impostor—in her midst.”

  I heaved a big sigh, partly convinced by his explanation, yet mad at myself for going along with it. I worried I was missing something. Then I realized that I was. Nina had ended up dead, and Connor with her money.

  “None of this explains why Nina’s dead, you’re rich, and I’m framed for her murder. Go on. Explain all that.”

  “Around Memorial Day weekend, Lissa told me she wanted to deal with Nina, as she put it. And she had this, like, delusion, that I’d help her. We’d kill Nina and split the money. And you know, it’s not like she’d never mentioned that concept. But I just put it down to her being crazy. I never thought it was real. And I told her no. I said, I will never agree to that. I want nothing to do with it, and if you’re serious, then I’m going to the police. That’s when she threatened to out herself in order to ruin me. She was going to tell Nina I’d been in a plot to kill her from the beginning. That was plausible enough that I knew it would ruin my marriage. There was no good explanation for why I’d concealed Lissa’s identity for so long. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. That’s when I went up to New Hampshire to think things through. And I found you.”

  “Can I ask you something? Did Juliet follow you there?”

  “Yes. It was her, outside the ski house that night. She took that picture of us and that gave her more ammunition to blackmail me with. But, by then, I’d found you again. And I came back here determined to tell Nina I was leaving.”

  “Yet, you didn’t.”

  “I was looking for a way to tell her without triggering the prenup.
I hate myself for dragging my feet over that, because in my moment of hesitation, everything went south. Nina found out about Lissa. She called us to her office after the Fourth of July party, told me she was triggering the prenup, and to get the hell out.”

  “What was your reaction to that?”

  “Honestly? Relief. I wanted to leave, I wanted to be with you.”

  “Relief? Not rage? Then, why did the night end with Nina floating in the swimming pool, dead?”

  “That wasn’t me. I had nothing to do with that. If you don’t believe me, ask Steve Kovacs. He saw me go.”

  “Go where?”

  “I called an Uber and left. I was on my way to the city when I got the news that Gloria found Nina’s body. I turned right around and came back. The next morning, after they took Nina’s body away, I confronted Lissa. She admitted everything, said she drugged Nina’s drink and pushed her into the pool. She did what I wasn’t man enough to do, she said.”

  “You’ve known for months that Nina was murdered, that it wasn’t suicide, yet you never came forward?”

  He sighed. “I wanted to. But when I told Lissa I was going to the police, she laughed. She said she had to do it alone because I was a coward, but she wasn’t taking the fall alone. She would tell the cops we did it together, and they’d never believe my denial. But just to make sure, she had an insurance policy. My fingerprints on the glass that she used to drug Nina’s drink. Mine, not hers. She has it hidden somewhere. That’s why I haven’t turned her in.”

  I wanted to believe that Juliet acted alone. I really did. But there was one big, glaring loose end.

  “If she really acted alone, why am I getting framed for this? Why didn’t you stop her? Why not come to court today to proclaim my innocence?”

  “Why you is easy. She wants you out of the picture.”

  “And you’re letting her. Connor, she tried to kill me. She was the one in the Suburban, I’m sure of it. She ran me off the road. I could’ve been killed, the baby, too.”

  He looked crestfallen.

  “I didn’t believe that before, but I’m starting to think you might be right. When you first told me about that incident, I was sure it was Nina. That car is a company car. Anybody who worked for her had access to it. Lissa did, too, and the more I think about it, the more sense it makes that it would be her. Especially since, to my knowledge, Nina was not aware of your existence.”

  “Juliet tried to kill me, and now she’s framing me.”

  “Yes, that’s a fair conclusion to draw,” he said.

  The sadness in his voice made me angry. It was for her as much as for me. He still cared about her—this woman who’d murdered Nina, who’d tried to kill me and his baby.

  “You’re letting her. You still care about her.”

  “I understand her. I feel sorry for her. But it’s you I love. And sweetheart, there is no way I’m letting you take the blame for this. I spent today working out a plan. That’s the only reason I wasn’t in court. I was moving assets around, looking for an apartment in Dubai—”

  “Flee the country? Never. That’s the same as a confession. And I’m not confessing to something I didn’t do.”

  “It would only be temporary. You would go, and I’d stay behind to clean up this mess. I already met with a lawyer and a private detective. We have a plan to find out where Lissa’s got this evidence hidden. Once I have that glass, she has no power over me. I can go to the cops then, without having it come back on me.”

  “You know what that tells me? After all that’s happened, you can’t clear my name because you’re worried about protecting yourself. I leave the country, and then what? How do I know you don’t tell the police that I fled because I’m guilty?”

  He grabbed my hands, wild-eyed and agonized. “Please—tell me you don’t think that. I would never do that. I love you too much. How can I prove it to you?”

  “By coming with me to the police station and telling them the truth. Now.”

  “I want to. I really do. But it’s not that simple. We’d end up taking the fall for Nina’s murder. You and I—we need to keep our hands clean. If it gets out there that we were involved, even if it’s not true, it would only muddy the water.”

  “Muddy the water?”

  I looked at him warily, a terrible understanding dawning.

  “Oh, my God. This is still about the money, isn’t it?”

  “We can’t forget about the lawsuit. Tabby, if it looks like you or I were involved in Nina’s murder, the courts will rule against me, and Kara Baxter will inherit Nina’s money. This is about our future—our future as a family. I’m not just looking to survive. I want us to be happy.”

  “You want us to be rich. It’s not the same thing.”

  “You’ll never win by betting on Connor’s ethics. You haven’t figured that out by now?”

  Our heads turned in unison. Juliet stood in the doorway, a gun in her hand.

  40

  Staring at Juliet down the barrel of a gun, I saw a woman transformed. With her hair down and her glasses gone, in jeans and boots, she looked tough and beautiful, a far cry from the demure wallflower she’d pretended to be. But this wasn’t just a costume change. She carried herself like someone else entirely. As I watched a sneer play about her lips, I had a vision of the Warhol hanging downstairs in the library, and realized who. That piratical smile. Those cold blue eyes. She was so like her father. Edward Levitt come back to life—younger, prettier, female, but just as dangerous.

  “What do you think you’re doing? Stop that,” Connor said, jumping to his feet.

  “Sit down and shut up.”

  He advanced on her, hand outstretched. “Come on, Lissa. Enough. Give me the gun.”

  “God, I’m sick of you.”

  Before I knew what was happening, Juliet pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. A loud crack sounded, and I screamed. Connor threw himself between the two of us as glass fell to the floor in sheets, tinkling across the parquet floors. She’d shot out one of the tall windows. He extended his arms, protecting me with his body. Was he willing to take a bullet for me, or merely confident that his girlfriend would never shoot him?

  “Are you crazy?” he said.

  The drapes billowed inward. A damp chill invaded the room, and I shivered.

  “Yes, I am, better not fuck with me. Give me your phones. Both of you, hand them over.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Connor said.

  “Now. Put them on the floor,” she said, and leveled the gun right at my head.

  “Connor, just do it,” I said, my voice shaking.

  I took my phone from the bedside table and dropped it on the floor at her feet. Connor followed suit. Juliet kept her gaze and her gun steady as she knelt down and grabbed the phones with her free hand. She walked over to the missing window, broken glass crunching under her feet, and tossed the phones out into the void.

  “I’ll do whatever you want,” Connor said, as she walked back toward us, still brandishing the weapon. “But Tabitha has nothing to do with this. Let her go.”

  “Are you nuts? She’ll go straight to the police. She’s a snitch, Connor. They flipped her. Steve told me a detective was here for an hour, wiring the place for sound. We’ve got to get out of here, and take her with us, as our insurance policy.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. Neither are you. Let’s calm down and figure this out.”

  Listening to their words, you’d think they were on the same team. But their body language didn’t bear that out. Juliet looked incensed, and Connor was so tense that he practically vibrated.

  “Did you hear what I said?” Juliet demanded. “The cops could be listening right now. Ask her if it’s true. Ask her.”

  “Fine. Tabby, did you let the police bug Windswept?”

  I was too busy looking back and forth between the two of them, trying to read their expressions, to answer him.

  “Tabby?”

  He was worried she might shoot me. I could hear it
in his voice.

  “No. The detective was here to give me an ankle monitor for my bail. That’s all.”

  “Satisfied?” Connor said.

  “She’s lying. There’s only one solution, and it goes like this. Tabitha killed Nina. The cops caught her red-handed. The walls are closing in. She’s distraught at the prospect of life in prison. She decides to end things and—”

  “No,” Connor said, taking a step toward her menacingly. “That is not happening. You let her go, now.”

  “What’s the attraction here? I honestly don’t get it. She’s all right, but I’m better. We could have had it all. You were in line to be a very rich man. And you go and bring a wild card into the mix and screw up everything I worked for, everything I planned.”

  Connor lunged for Juliet, but she was too quick. She stepped back and fired, this time at the ground near his feet. Connor yelped and collapsed onto the bed, grabbing his left wing-tip in his hand. Crimson blood leaked between his fingers.

  “Jesus Christ, you shot my foot! You lunatic.”

  “You need to understand that this is not a joke, and I am not playing. Next time you try anything, I’m shooting her.”

  Connor tugged frantically at the laces of his shoe. The smell of burnt shoe leather and fresh blood made me gag.

  “You,” Juliet said, turning the gun on me. “Where is the bug? Tell me now. You know I’m not afraid to use this.”

  “There is no bug, I swear. Just an ankle bracelet.”

  “Then, why was that cop here for so long?”

  “He had to set up my ankle monitor. I don’t think he knew what he was doing, and he couldn’t get the signal to work. Do you want to look at the bracelet? It just looks—I mean, I don’t know how one is supposed to look—but it looks normal to me.”

  She nodded, gesturing with the gun. Next to me, Connor had gotten his shoe off. He groaned in pain. The tip of his third toe was missing, and blood spurted over his hands. We could die here, I thought, as a wave of nausea swept over me. I slapped my hand over my mouth, fighting the vomit.