by Jeff Abbott
What had Eben Garza said about Hal acquiring the booze and the pills? He found a delivery service. It had been Lizbeth, but she had brought the means with malice aforethought. Mariah couldn’t speak. “How could you…”
“Am I really the one you want to judge in this little tragedy?” Lizbeth cleared her throat. “I stood in a neighbor’s yard, behind a tree. Watched Bethany and Andy come home from school, watched Sharon arrive, watched the police arrive. Just a kid, watching all the excitement. Then I went to the bus station and went back to Houston.”
“Who erased the line about Penny in his suicide note?”
“Sharon, probably. Erasing that line about my sister was all she could do, probably in a panic. She couldn’t destroy the note. She needed the note to stop the investigation, make it just a plain suicide. But in the news report, there was nothing about his rough draft of his suicide note.”
“Andy found the rough drafts of the suicide note. I’m guessing they explained more of what he and Sharon had done. Meant for Bethany. But Andy took them when they arrived on the scene and found Hal. He used them as leverage against Sharon, even if he didn’t know who Penny was, that there was a secret Sharon didn’t want known. To get her into bed, to do whatever he wanted her to do.” Mariah shook her head. Andy, the endless opportunist.
Lizbeth shrugged. “Hal didn’t bear all the guilt. But he destroyed my family with his lust, and he lived with a woman who was capable of running down a child and then covering up the crime, cool as could be. Veiled herself in faith and respectability.” She cleared her throat. “But I killed him. Just by telling him that my parents were both dead because of him and Sharon.” She smiled at Mariah, and Mariah felt dizzy, nauseous. “I killed him with a visit, smiling at him. What could I do if I really applied myself?” She gave the softest of laughs, and it felt like a knife blade on Mariah’s skin.
Keep her talking, Mariah thought. “You had your revenge. Why did you need to come after Bethany?”
“Bethany wouldn’t go outside with Penny. You saw the video she made. If she had, Sharon would have stopped.”
“They were four…You can’t blame a child for what her mother did.”
“Oh, I disagree. Responsibility is responsibility,” Lizbeth said. “It was all their fault. But I wanted to hurt Sharon, and the best way to hurt Sharon was to take her daughter away from her. Piece by piece, step by step. I just had to wait until I was old enough. And until Bethany was happy. I wanted her happy before I came after her.”
“You need help, Lizbeth.” Mariah took a step forward.
The gun centered on her. “Actually, I’m the healthy one here. I’ve dealt with my emotions. Not you or Reveal. And I don’t think you should judge me. You’ve done worse.” Her grin was back, slightly crooked.
Mariah didn’t know what Lizbeth meant, but she stayed still. “So you came after Bethany.”
“I thought it would be better to destroy her before I destroyed Sharon. So. I studied her life. For four months. Then I befriended Bethany. She had no idea who I was. She didn’t remember much of that day. She’d blocked it out.”
Mariah felt nausea twist her guts.
“And I made sure to steer clear of Sharon, in case she saw my mom or my sister in my face.” Mariah thought of Sharon telling her about the time she’d seen Bethany eating lunch, and Lizbeth—the new friend—had ditched the table. “Bethany was lonely. She was bored. I followed her. She was interested in writing. She got a job. So I got interested in writing and got a job at her business. I recognized Andy as the boy who came home with her the day her dad died. Andy wasn’t going to hire me, but I convinced him. Right there in his office, with the door locked.” Her smile was cold and crooked. Her fingertip played along her lip. “He’s not the sharpest pencil in the cup. I found out soon enough he needed money, constantly, for his Champagne tastes, and I thought of a way to get it. Because I couldn’t have Bethany getting wealthy off Jake’s company. That could have put her out of my reach. I had to hurt her, ruin her, before she was rich and could enjoy it.”
“You embezzled the money,” Mariah said.
“I don’t dirty my hands. I planted that idea with Andy. If you make a man think it was his idea, he’ll run with it.”
“Then Andy stole the money.”
“I helped him. Except I made sure the theft was discovered. I told him we had to blame Bethany. He went along with it. There’s not too much to him, and then he was under my thumb. See, I knew I’d need a crime. One that Bethany’s death and eventually Sharon’s death could be tied to. Andy stealing that money was it. Money’s such a good, simple motive for murder. Make it look like Bethany was in on the theft, ruin her life, and then after I’ve gotten rid of her, Andy has a motive to kill her, whenever I want to play that card. I had proof he committed the theft, but I could place it so it looked like Bethany had it and he’d killed her to keep her quiet. Then months later her mother could”—she air-quoted—“‘find out,’ and I’d get rid of her, and then Andy would be done as my useful idiot. Poor mom and daughter who found out about his embezzlement. And the police wouldn’t look at any old crime, when they had a new, easy one to deliver simple answers.”
Mariah stared at her. “That also set up the chance to take advantage of Jake. You knew Jake would be desperate to protect his reputation, to protect his precious company.”
“So Andy could get money from both his awful aunt and the guy he hates most in the world. It made Andy feel so big.” Her mouth wrinkled. “But most of the money came to me, or I’d tell on him to Claudette. Julie is expensive, so he had to get more and more from Jake to keep his cash flow going.”
Past tense. “Where is Andy?”
She ignored the question. “I knew when Bill called that you’d follow him here,” she said. “You’re not the smart one here. I am.”
“Andy is desperate right now because his aunt knows he took the money, not Bethany.”
“Oh, he is,” Lizbeth agreed. “I told him I’d get you here and then we’d strike a deal.”
“A deal.”
“I’ll give you Andy. I think you’ll want him. You need someone to blame.”
“Blame.”
“For your mom. I thought she might have my DVD of the video that Bethany had made that day. I had shown Bethany a copy, finally, when I told her the truth and told her that if she didn’t do as I said I’d tell the police her mother had murdered my sister. There is no statute of limitations on that. But Bethany stole it and didn’t have it among her things in Houston. I didn’t know where she’d hidden it or if she gave it to someone.” Her mouth worked. “The obvious choice was her own mother. But I couldn’t reveal myself to Sharon. I had to wait to search her house when she wasn’t there. Then Andy and Julie, or anyone else Bethany worked with, or her friends in the writing group. It took me weeks. I had to lay low, not look suspicious, and I avoided people. I thought maybe she’d destroyed the video; she had every reason to do so. I watched everyone who mattered to her. I searched their homes when they were gone. But then I realized your mother might have had it. She met us for drinks, once. Bethany invited her. It was the only time we socialized with a third person who I didn’t know. I didn’t think Bethany had confided in your mother, because Beth Dunning would have gone to the police. But then I realized she might have proof but not know it.”
“Why?” Her voice was cold because she was starting to suspect the worst.
“I ordered Andy to get close to your mom, using their mutual worry about Bethany as a starting point. To find out if Beth Dunning had the video. Of course he had to go overboard and start sleeping with her. Sorry if that upsets you and your dad.”
You aren’t doing this to us, Mom. Who is this guy? Who is he? Dad says you’re having an affair…You aren’t breaking up our family.
We are not doing this right now. You’re not doing this.
Words, as if rising from a dream.
“You’re lying,” Mariah said through gritted teeth.
“I mean, what else were you arguing with your mom about that day?”
“Arguing.” Mariah repeated the word and it sounded like a question. “That day? How did you—”
They could hear the wind in the trees. A ghostly sound.
“I think, though, we need to bring all this to a close,” Lizbeth said. “You and Reveal shouldn’t have tried to link the cases. I had to follow him, follow you. I wanted to ruin Sharon without implicating myself, and you’ve taken that away from me. Everything gets taken from me.”
“You can’t kill us,” Mariah said. “People know I’ve come here. You won’t get away with it.”
Lizbeth gestured her out of the room with the gun, forced her down the hall, upstairs, and into a second room.
Mariah gasped.
Andy lay on the floor, unconscious, breathing heavily. Sedated but alive.
Her gaze went across the rest of the room, stunned.
On its walls were photos, from the past and the present, maps, schedules, a snapshot, she realized as she studied it, of Bethany Blevins Curtis’s life. Pictures of her and Jake out together. Of Jake leaving and entering his office. Of Bethany alone, writing in her journal in a coffee shop, typing on her laptop in a café, frowning at her words, having a lunch with her mother. Pictures of Bethany at a bar with Andy Candolet and other Ahoy coworkers. Her throat went dry: a picture of Bethany and Beth Dunning, both wearing conference tags for WebCon, laughing and holding margaritas.
Maybe the night they met, and even then Lizbeth had been watching her.
Mariah touched her mother’s face.
Penciled schedules next to pictures, with notes: “Read Bethany’s emails while she was connected to coffee shop server. She’s lonely. Tired all the time. Wants to write, not really happy in her marriage but loyal to Jake. Seems protective of him. Her coworker Andy flirts with her and she ignores him, this angers him. Could be useful.”
This was followed by several more reports.
HOW TO BE BETHANY’S FRIEND—A PLAN
1. Pretend to be a writer.
2. Be interested in true crime. Ha ha ha! She’ll have no idea.
3. Avoid Sharon—cannot take chance she will recognize you.
4. A crime that serves as the reason for the crimes that follow. Andy? Embezzlement? Make him think it’s his idea. Use the theft to make them all pay. Fear of this crime exposed is leverage you need.
5. Different colored wigs/contact lenses. If questioned why wigs tell Bethany you survived cancer. It will make you more sympathetic.
6. Step by step end her reasons to stay in Austin and then get her to Houston. This is the long game, the end game, and justice. Never waver. You take Bethany from them the way they took Penny from us.
You take Bethany from them the way they took Penny from us.
On another wall: pictures of Lizbeth Gonzales everywhere. Variations on her, like an artist studying her might make. Different hair colors. Different eye colors. Different makeup, different clothes. Frump Lizbeth. Hipster Lizbeth. Scholarly Lizbeth. Sultry Lizbeth. A woman of a dozen faces and looks.
A single picture of Beth, her mother. Under it, in thick black pen: WHAT DOES SHE KNOW?
Mariah repeated the words aloud, like they could mean something more than an awful dismissal of a life. Taped nearby were pictures of her mother and Andy together, at a café, at a hotel. Attention from a callow, attractive younger man, perhaps the antidote for an unhappy woman who had wondered if her husband would ever know what being cheated on felt like. Then more news clippings, pictures of Mariah and her father in the press scrum in the hectic days after Beth Dunning disappeared.
Then chillingly, handwritten, another list titled “What Beth said in her last days—asked for Mariah, would not say if she had the DVD, begged to go home.”
The words, rattling and echoing in Mariah’s head. She made a noise in her throat.
This room was like a madwoman’s brain.
Turn. Turn and see the monster behind you.
“I’m a visual person,” Lizbeth Gonzales said from behind her. “We believe what’s in front of us.”
Mariah managed to find her voice. “You’re a monster.”
“As are you.” Lizbeth’s voice, a quiet doom.
59
ANDY MADE A cough, moaned, fell back into a stupor.
“Do you want to kill him,” Lizbeth said, “for what he did to your mom, to your family? I’ll let you.”
“For what?”
“Andy took advantage of your mother. That’s what he did with Sharon. What he’s done with Julie. Find a weakness, seek to fulfill it, get what he wants. Don’t you hate him? He told me you beat him with a police baton.” Her mouth crinkled again. “I bet that felt good.”
Mariah said, “Did you drug him?”
“Animal tranquilizers. My stepfather keeps horses here. He does whatever I ask. He hates the Blevinses too, for what they did to my mother. I’m all he has, and he’s all I’ve got. People will put up with a lot to not be alone.” Lizbeth prodded Andy with his foot. “He wrecked your family, didn’t he? Bad boy.”
“Are you saying…are you…” Mariah could hardly look at Andy’s big frame, sprawled on the floor. “Are you saying he killed my mom?” To cover up their affair? Bile rose in her throat.
Lizbeth touched Mariah’s jawline. Gently. Like a friend. Mariah tried to think past the shock. Get your knife. Cut her. Hurt her. Run. Mariah forced herself to speak. “Or…are you saying Andy’s like Hal? Andy knows who killed her and he protected whoever it was?”
“Your mom finally pillow-talked and told him Bethany had given her something important to keep. Which is why I was following her…” Lizbeth said and then they heard the grind of gravel on the driveway. Lizbeth went to the window and glanced out. “Oh, thank you, karma. Sharon and Jake.”
Mariah barely heard the words. She was going for the knife in her boot, yanking it free, lunging toward Lizbeth as she turned from the window. Jake. He’d come. She had no idea why he’d brought Sharon, but she couldn’t let Lizbeth hurt Jake.
Mariah slashed at Lizbeth’s gun hand. The blade caught in the fabric of Lizbeth’s sleeve, scoring along the skin. Lizbeth was smaller, but she was strong and wiry and she knew how to fight. She hit Mariah, hard, twice in the nose and then the throat with the edge of her gun. Mariah staggered back, tears in her eyes, blood on her face. She swung the knife again and Lizbeth caught her arm, twisted it, made her drop the knife. It clattered to the floor.
“You slept with him. I’ll let you say goodbye. Plus I want to give Sharon my best.”
Lizbeth jabbed the gun into the side of Mariah’s head, and using her like a shield, hurried down the stairs.
* * *
Sharon stared at the two of them. They had made it to the porch, Sharon with a gun leveled at Jake, when Lizbeth and Mariah stepped out, Lizbeth’s gun on Mariah. Jake closed his eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” Mariah said. “I shouldn’t have told you where I was going.”
“Hi, there, Mrs. Meadows,” Lizbeth said, brightly. “Do you know me? I know you. I see you.”
Sharon stared in shock.
“Do you see some of my mom in me, maybe?” Lizbeth said. “Or my sister?”
“You look like Penny Gladney,” Sharon said. “The baby. Jenny.” Her voice sounded like it was made of dust.
“Lizbeth Gonzales,” Lizbeth said. “Your daughter’s mystery BFF.”
Sharon made a noise in her throat.
“My dad wouldn’t fight his cancer. My mom killed herself. You mowed down my sister. It all comes back to you.”
Sharon’s voice shook. “Is Bethany…”
“Here. Waiting for you.” Giving cruel hope.
“Sharon—” Mariah started, but Lizbeth didn’t let her finish.
“Bethany’s in a grave about two hundred yards away.”
It was as if Sharon didn’t understand. “She went to Houston.”
“She did because I made h
er. She knew I could destroy you with a phone call. I wanted her to see the house where I used to live. My stepfather still owns it. I flew with her to Houston as Jenny Gladney—my first name. She was scared to death I was going to expose you as the murderer you are. I’d told her who Penny was, who I was, and that you had murdered my sister and that I would expose you and you’d spend the rest of your life in prison. I wrote up a chapter of a novel about the day you ran my sister down, changed all the names, made it so that the father was driving, and made her take it to that stupid writers’ group. I listened to them critique it and watched her sweat. It gave her a taste of how you would be judged. She would have done anything to protect your worthless hide, Sharon, and to protect Jake. She did. That was why she left Jake and gave up a fortune. That was why I told her where there was a blind spot in the Houston airport cameras. We could vanish for a moment, change our looks, and walk out arm in arm. On the video, they would be looking for a woman walking alone.”
Jake made a noise in his throat. Mariah tried to lock her gaze on him, give him strength.
Lizbeth continued: “I sent Bill to Reveal’s group session, to see if he would talk about the case or if Mariah showed up. But he didn’t realize Sharon would be there. You recognized him, I think, Sharon—he was a neighbor across the street before he married my mom. You knew the past was closing in on you. You could have confessed to those good people, but you can’t, you won’t take responsibility. Do you know what that has cost you? Your daughter.”
“Lord, help me,” Sharon said, a whisper. “Lord, forgive me. Forgive this girl.”
Lizbeth’s tone was a knife. “Forget your forgiveness. I took Bethany to our house. Where Penny died. Part of the penance. See what she remembered of that day. Make her remember. And do you know what your daughter said to me?”
