Crazy In Love: A Standalone Christmas Thriller

by Ivy Smoak

  But I hated the way he was looking at me. I liked when there were stars in his eyes. When he was whispering sinful things against my skin. What if that was gone? What if I’d killed my future and my past?

  “Maybe I killed him,” I added. I didn’t want Aiden to look at me like that anymore. My husband was the monster, not me. He knew that. He’d worked with the lunatic. “I mean…I don’t know.” Everything felt upside down and turned around. Hell, for all I knew, I was still staring at my husband right now. Which meant the body rotting away in my house actually didn’t exist. Maybe.

  No, not maybe. I’d done it. Detective Torres was right. My husband did technically disappear on Tuesday night. But I hadn’t lied about seeing him the rest of the week. I saw him Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. That was the truth. But he’d been dead, in various states of decay the whole time. I’d kept checking on his body because I kept seeing his ghost outside my window, trying to get inside. And I stopped checking on his body on Friday when I got a phone call from him, asking me to meet up at that bar.

  I hadn’t realized that the ghost and the phone call were actually Aiden. I’d thought I was losing my mind. I was more than a little confused. Maybe a little regretful. Trying to hold on to anything I could to prove to myself I wasn’t a murderer. But I knew Aiden wasn’t Noah. Well, I knew that for sure now. I’d had glimpses of that over the last few days, going in and out of denial. For a few moments there, I thought he was my husband. The other moments? I thought he was…an imposter. One that might have the answers to what my husband was up to. One that might know where my money was. Because a man with my husband’s face should have the answers.

  And Aiden did have them. He knew everything I wanted. My husband was having an affair. I wasn’t crazy. “My husband didn’t have the money with him on Tuesday. So it’s safe to assume that it’s with Sophia right?” I asked. I wondered how many Sophia Tremblay’s there were in Canada and how hard it would be to track her down.

  He shook his head, like he couldn’t believe I’d changed the topic from murder to money. But a girl had to ask. The money was mine, after all. And my husband was already dead, so he didn’t need it anymore. I wasn’t going to let some chick with my face take my inheritance.

  “You killed him,” Aiden said slowly. “You pushed him down the stairs…on purpose?”

  Yes. “I think it might have been an accident. I don’t know. I’ve been on a lot of medication.”

  “Jesus, Ensley. You think it was an accident? Either it was or it wasn’t.” He shook his head. “Maybe it doesn’t even matter at this point. You’ve been lying to Detective Torres about it for almost a week.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think it matters. So, can we go back to the money thing real quick?”

  He started pacing back and forth, ignoring my very important question.

  “Please.” All of this had to be worth something.

  “The money wasn’t at Noah’s office, I checked this morning. No one even knew he was back in town. So yeah, it’s probably with Sophia.” He kept pacing.

  “So…what’s the plan?” I asked. I had a few ideas, but I was curious to see if Aiden could come up with anything better. Because I really, really, really didn’t want to go through with my original plan anymore. Not now that I knew him.

  He continued to pace, back and forth, back and forth.

  I cleared my throat. I only had one back up idea. “I was thinking we could set the house on fire…”

  “And torch Detective Torres along with everything else? Ensley, that would just make everything worse. We need to get the hell out of here before he wakes up.”

  “What about Noah’s body? I really feel like we should get rid of that. I looked up all sorts of stuff about lye, but I already went to the hardware store a couple times and thought buying the ingredients would look a little suspicious. And the lake out back is frozen, so we can’t sink him. I really think a fire is the best bet.”

  “Show it to me.”

  “The kerosene for the fire?”

  “No. The body.” He finally stopped pacing. “Where have you been keeping it? I don’t smell anything. Has he been on ice or something?”

  “Well, kind of. I haven’t checked on him in the last few days because…well…because of you. But his body is in the little attic above the garage. It’s really cold out there.” I think. I think he’s there. “You should probably just see for yourself.” Mostly I wanted him to see because having the two of them next to each other would finally put my mind at ease. I’d finally know the truth for sure.

  Snuggle Muffins woke up when I opened the door to the garage. He came running over. Part of me didn’t want him to see what I had done. But holding him brought me comfort. And he was my main accomplice. We were in this together. I lifted Snuggle Muffins into my arms as we all made our way out into the garage. He sighed when my arms started shaking.

  Please let it have all been a nightmare. Please don’t let this be real.

  Aiden stopped and stared at me, waiting for me to point him in the right direction.

  “You have to get a ladder in order to reach it. The entrance is right there,” I said and looked up.

  Aiden grabbed the ladder, climbed up, and pushed the trap door open. I took a deep breath and followed him into the garage attic.

  “Fuck.” Aiden covered his mouth. It looked like he was going to hurl.

  I stepped around him to see what he was looking at. There was a clear Sterilite storage container in the center of the attic. It was the same kind I stored my Christmas decorations in. But this one wasn’t filled with lights and wreaths. It was filled with Dr. Noah Collins. My dearly departed husband. Well, it was filled with pieces of him. I remembered he didn’t quite fit. I had no choice but to remove some of his limbs to try to wedge him inside properly. There were a pair of bloody hedge shears lying next to the container.

  And the blood. It was everywhere. Seeping into the wooden floor beams. I’d been too tired to clean it after scrubbing the basement so thoroughly. I’d always meant to come back and clean up the stains. But then…Aiden fell into my lap, along with a new plan to get out of this. The blood didn’t matter for that. Actually, it kind of helped. I hugged Snuggle Muffins tighter. But now I kind of wished I’d cleaned it up. Because I didn’t want to follow through with my plan. I didn’t want to frame Aiden. I wanted us to be able to run away together.

  My eyes lifted from the blood stains to the plastic container. Even after removing my husband’s arms, hands, a few fingers…he still hadn’t quite fit. I was usually so good at packing things. It was quite a failure on the part of a housewife.

  “You cut him up?” Aiden turned away and started gagging. This time he did throw up, heaving in the corner.

  And all I could think about was how perfect that was. Now his DNA was up here. And mine wasn’t, because even though I hadn’t cleaned up the blood, I had wiped my prints off the hedge shears. Stop.

  I kneeled down to let Snuggle Muffins out of my arms so he could explore the new space. “He wouldn’t fit,” I said. I studied the decapitated head resting on top of the container. And then looked back at Aiden. The resemblance was uncanny. But it was definitely my husband that was dead. I waited for that guilt to set in like it had right after I’d done it. The shock. The repulsion. But I didn’t feel anything but relief. Even though I’d assaulted a detective and was going to be wanted for murder, my life seemed a lot less hellish now than it had while Noah was still alive. And I didn’t think that made me a monster. The world was a better place without Noah in it. I knew that. I’m not a monster.

  I took a deep breath and was glad I didn’t smell anything too repulsive. “He’s not really rotting that much,” I said.

  Aiden nodded, but he didn’t turn back. “I think we have to take him with us,” he said. “We’ll find somewhere to drop the body. Maybe we can bury it somewhere.” He finally turned back around to look at me.

  “We?” I asked. “You still want to run away wi
th me? I…I murdered my husband.” I gestured to the container of body parts.

  “You said it was an accident. Like when I slipped down the stairs?”

  “Yeah. He just…slipped.” But I knew that wasn’t true. I remembered it, just like I remembered how I’d “slipped” down the stairs a few months ago. My husband had wanted me to fall. He’d smiled. And on Tuesday, I’d wanted to make sure that he knew that I knew the truth. I wanted to get even. I pushed Noah down the stairs on purpose. Shoved him really hard, actually. But I didn’t think he’d die. So in that sense, it kind of was an accident.

  With Aiden’s fall though? I thought it was an accident. He was my last chance at answers. All his sexy muscles made him extra heavy. I hadn’t wanted to hurt him. I knew it in my gut. I bit the inside of my lip as I stared at him. He could be my future. All I had to do was think of a better plan then the one rolling around in my head. The only problem was that it was a really solid plan. It had been my plan since the beginning. All the question marks at the end of my list were just for show. I’d always planned on framing Aiden for the murder of my husband. I’d just gotten a little lost along the way.

  Aiden nodded slowly. “Okay. You grab one end, I’ll grab the other.” He started to pick up the container.

  I touched his arm, trying not to smile at the warmth our connection always gave me. The last thing I needed was to scare Aiden off by smiling at my husband’s dead body. “It doesn’t matter if we take him,” I said. “His blood is everywhere. We just have to go. Put as much distance between this and us as possible. I have a place already set up in Mexico. We can leave now. We can go together.”

  He looked down at the blood on the floor and shook his head. “Okay. But we have to hurry. Detective Torres is going to wake up. We have to get out of here now.”

  I nodded. We were still a we. He still wanted to come.

  “I’ll go pull the car into the garage,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He started down the ladder while I hung back to grab Snuggle Muffins.

  I almost screamed when I saw blood dripping from Snuggle Muffins’ chin. But after pulling him into my arms and inspecting him, I realized it was just one of Noah’s fingers in his mouth. “Where’d you get that?” I grabbed the finger out of Snuggle Muffins’ mouth.

  He blinked up at me.

  “No, I don’t want to frame Aiden anymore.”

  He sighed.

  “I know you’re right, boy. I know it. But I really like him.”

  Snuggle Muffins sighed again.

  “He didn’t look at me like I was crazy when I told him.” Maybe he looked a little scared. “Yes, he was surprised. But…he got over it. He just said he wanted us to get out of here together.”

  I swore he shook his head.

  I looked down at the finger in my hand. “Framing Aiden won’t necessarily get me out of this mess.”

  Snuggle Muffins eyes gravitated back to the finger.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll prepare a few things just in case. We have a long ride ahead of us to think everything through. We shouldn’t make any rash decisions.” I kissed the top of his head and then shoved Noah’s finger down the front of my Mrs. Claus costume. Just in case. Just to make Snuggle Muffins happy.

  Chapter 30

  Monday

  Aiden rolled down the window. “Get in.”

  “I need to grab a few things…”

  “Ensley, time isn’t on our side here. We need to leave. Now.”

  “My whole life is in that house. I just…give me five minutes to grab a few things. Five minutes and I’ll be ready, I swear.”

  He shook his head, but said, “Go.”

  I threw Snuggle Muffins through the car window and sprinted inside. There was nothing in here that I wanted. The house filled with memories of a man who terrorized me. For all I cared, the whole thing could burn.

  But there were a few things I might need. I grabbed a backpack from the hall closet and then opened the medicine cabinet, not surprised at all when bottle after bottle fell into the sink. It was stuffed so full of drugs to keep me numb. I grabbed the bottle I was looking for and shoved it into a backpack. Just in case.

  I put a bunch of Snuggle Muffins’ toys into the backpack too. He’d need to be preoccupied during the drive. An idle mind was a bad mind, especially in the case of me and Snuggle Muffins.

  I grabbed a knife from the knife block, just as a precaution, and put that into my backpack too. Who knew what kind of people we’d run into in Mexico. I also packed us some granola bars, drinks, and a whole bag of dog food for Snuggle Muffins in case any of us were feeling snackish. I doubted we’d be stopping anywhere for a while. And Snuggle Muffins and I both got whiny when we were hungry. Like Momma like dog baby.

  The only other thing I needed was Detective Torres’ phone. I couldn’t rely on chance to find Sophia Tremblay, whenever that time came. I needed her address. He might have it. I knew he’d looked her up. It was possible it was on his work computer, but didn’t everyone use their phones for everything these days?

  Detective Torres was still lying unconscious in the middle of the hallway. I crouched down in front of him. Before I reached into his front pocket, I saw his gun. A gun was better than a knife. And it definitely wouldn’t hurt to have both. Just in case. I pulled the gun from his belt and put it into my backpack. It squeaked against one of Snuggle Muffins’ toys.

  His phone was easy to find. It was in the second pocket I checked. But when I slid my finger across the screen, it requested a fingerprint in order to unlock. I grabbed Detective Torres’ limp hand and pressed one of his fingers to the screen. It immediately unlocked. There was just one problem. I wasn’t super familiar with iPhones. I was a Samsung kinda girl. And I had no idea where to look to fix the settings so that I wouldn’t need his fingerprint over and over again. Shit.

  I bit the inside of my lip as I looked down at Detective Torres. I already had one of Noah’s fingers shoved down my shirt. What difference would two fingers make? But Noah deserved it. Detective Torres was an innocent bystander. He didn’t deserve to lose his thumb.

  I heard the clock ticking down in my head. The last thing I needed was for Aiden to storm in demanding it was time to leave, catching me red handed with Detective Torres’ phone. Aiden didn’t understand my need to track down my money. He didn’t understand what I’d been through. I had my whole life to catch Aiden up. But I only had this one chance at getting the upper hand on my doppelgänger.

  Yes, Detective Torres was innocent. But Sophia Tremblay wasn’t. And he’d believed her word over mine. He said I didn’t have evidence. That time had erased it. Fuck him. Time didn’t erase my pain. And Sophia was the liar, not me. My husband was stalking her? Yeah right. He was replacing me with a younger model.

  I took a deep breath and pulled the knife out of my backpack. I didn’t have a choice here. I spread Detective Torres’ fingers wide on the wooden floor. He’d be fine without all five fingers on one hand. And really, this was his fault. If he’d believed me…or at least validated me? Maybe we’d be in a different position.

  Thinking better of it, I grabbed his left hand instead of his right. The odds were that he wasn’t left-handed. He'd miss this thumb less. Hopefully.

  I cringed when the knife went through bone. I was getting used to the crunch of metal on bone. But I wasn’t used to the person I was cutting waking up. Luckily Detective Torres was more focused on his hand being mutilated than on who was doing it. He opened his mouth to scream, but I slammed the handle of the knife against his head, again and again, until his body stopped moving.

  God, double assault on a detective? And cutting off his thumb. I lifted the bloody digit. And then there was the bit about murdering my husband. If Detective Torres ever caught me, I’d go to prison for life. And I couldn’t let that happen. I liked fresh air too much.

  I grabbed a few tissues and wrapped them around the bloody stump on his hand. He wouldn’t bleed out. He’d wake up soon and get the best m
edical attention in the city. Detective Torres would be fine. I pressed my hand to the side of his throat, waiting to feel a pulse. For a second, I felt nothing. My heart started racing. I’d just wanted his finger, I hadn’t meant to kill him.

  But then I felt the light thumping of his pulse. It was slow, but it was there. I’m so sorry. I leaned down and lightly kissed the top of his head. But you should have believed me.

  I wrapped his finger in some tissues too, and then shoved it and his phone into my coat pocket. I grabbed a coat for Aiden too, lifted my backpack over my shoulder, and ran out into the garage.

  I climbed into the car and Aiden tore out of the garage before I was even safely strapped in. There were already families outside drinking hot chocolate and cider, Christmas music blaring. It wasn’t dark yet, but the Christmas light competition festivities had already begun. The whole neighborhood would be filled with lights, costumes, and tons of drunk parents until well past midnight. It was the biggest neighborhood party of the year. A tradition I used to love. One that I’d actually miss.

  I watched my house disappear in the rearview mirror. And for just a second, I wondered if maybe this year I would have won. Aiden turned left out of the neighborhood. I thought I’d feel better when we got out. But my heart was still racing.

  I glanced at Aiden out of the corner of my eye. Maybe my heart was racing because I still had no idea who he was. I pulled Snuggle Muffins onto my lap. We’ll be okay, boy. No matter what happens, I promise we’ll be okay.

  He sniffed my coat pocket and I moved him away from it. The last thing I needed was for Snuggle Muffins to eat Detective Torres’ thumb. It was the key to getting my money back. I pulled out some dog food to preoccupy him.

  “Do you still have my phone?” I asked Aiden. I had my whole life to question him. Right now I needed to figure out if my mutilating Detective Torres’ body was all for nothing.