Leave Me Love (Call Me Cat Trilogy #2)(36)

I leaned into Ash, who'd arrived before the police, and hoped he'd forgive me for what he was about to find out. "The weekend I got home from the hospital, Bridgette told me what the Midnight Murderer—what Lauren—wanted her to do, what she'd already had her do, like signing my name at the impound lot and switching out the hospital note that had the invisible ink."

Gray's eyebrow popped up. "You knew Bridgette did that? You could have saved me the annoying calls."

I smirked. "I had to keep you on your toes." I paused. "And I had to act realistic. We knew we couldn't tell anyone about the threats in case the killer followed through, so we came up with a plan. Bridgette would contact the killer and say she could get me to find the book, but first she'd have to disappear and frame me for it. If I wanted my friend back, I'd have to find the book."

"Still, why frame you?" Gray asked. "Why not pretend you had the book right away and set up the meeting?"

Bridgette rolled her eyes. "Because if I showed up at that meeting, fake book or not, Lauren would have killed me. Tie up loose ends, you know."

Gray kept writing. "So, you framed Catelyn to… get the killer’s trust?"

I nodded. "Because Lauren didn't just want the book. She wanted revenge. She and Lucky were probably lovers. He was probably a past patient of hers. At the very least, we assumed they were friends. So, if Bridgette could help Lauren get revenge then…"

"I could trick her," finished Bridgette. "I pretended to want Catelyn dead, told Lauren I was jealous of her and Ash. I would disappear, frame Catelyn for my kidnapping, Catelyn would get the book, then I'd kill her and pretend to escape. Lauren agreed to the plan and said she'd let me go afterwards. But of course, she'd have killed me, too, after Catelyn had been disposed of. She'd have made it look like we'd both died in a struggle."

"So how did you two, um, disable her?"

Bridgette took a deep breath. "When Catelyn and I fought in the basement, when I was supposed to kill Catelyn, I pretended to lose and pass out." Bridgette rubbed her shoulder and frowned at me. "Catelyn did a remarkable job of keeping the fight realistic. Thanks for that."

I gestured to my clothes, or rather, Professor Cavin's old clothes. "At least you aren't covered in shit. I smell like an outhouse."

Gray cleared his throat. "Then what?"

Bridgette continued. "When the killer came in, whose identity we still didn't know, I was supposed to stop them."

"It didn't go exactly as planned," I said. "We didn't expect her to turn off the lights."

Gray just paced the room as he chewed on his nicotine gum, making a smacking sound that irritated the hell out of me. He looked at us, his eyes narrowed. "I can't believe you girls did such a stupid, idiotic and dangerous thing alone. You both could have been killed. You should have contacted us and let us handle the sting."

"With all due respect," I said, "for all we knew, you were the killer. We couldn't tell anyone for this to work. Everyone was a suspect or a potential victim."

Gray scratched his head. "Still, I can't believe… there was just so much evidence against you, Catelyn. The journal—"

"I wrote some fake things," said Bridgette. "And set up the creepy room. Then I disappeared, hiding out in other small motels."

"You must have had a way of communicating," said Gray.

I nodded. "We hid notes for each other." We used the loose brick at Harvard, but I kept that secret to myself. "After I got arrested, the killer started to trust Brig more. Then, it was time to leak that I'd found the book. I told Max and I even told Ash, in case his place was bugged… which it was, Brig confirmed."

"What? Are you serious? Catelyn, why didn't you tell me?" Ash looked hurt by the betrayal.

"I'm sorry, Ash. I really am, but any changes to our house or routine would have tipped off the killer and not only would all of our lives be in danger, but we would have lost our chance to catch her. I was tempted at one point to tell Maxwell everything, but I couldn't risk it. Instead, I told him to come to me alone if he found out anything about my mother or her book." I held his hand tightly, the engagement ring on my right hand rubbing against his finger. "I had to keep you safe. I had to keep everyone safe."

"The time came for the plan to happen," said Bridgette. "Before Catelyn told the public about the book, I had to kidnap her. We faked the whole thing because everything might have been bugged, the house, the car, all of it. We had to be careful. The killer was at the cabin, like we'd planned, hoping to kill me in the end, and that's what led to this."

"What about the black outs and mood swings, were those real?" Gray asked.

"Mostly, yes. I exaggerated the mood swings to make you more suspicious, but I have had the headaches and some of the blackouts. That also put a crimp in our plans as we were both worried that I wouldn't be healthy enough to pull off my end.”

"So Lauren, the therapist, was working with Lucky all along. She was the brains behind the Midnight Murders," Detective Gray said.

"It looks like it," I said.

"But why? What was her motive?" Ash asked.

"Best guess," Bridgette said, "she was a high profile therapist. Alice was close to her and must have found out that she'd been involved in the other Midnight Murderer killings with Lucky. She was the brains, he was the muscle. After Lucky's death, she needed to find the book Alice had been working on, but also wanted revenge on Catelyn. At least, from our calls, that's what I've been able to piece together."