A High-End Finish(83)

She shook her head in disgust, apparently realizing that I wasn’t going to stop asking questions. “We had worked together on the Boyers’ bank loan, so I told Jerry to meet me there to discuss an issue that came up over the closing costs. So we’re standing in the kitchen and he starts coming on to me.”

“What a jerk,” I muttered, realizing that their confrontation must’ve taken place the night after our blind date. He really was something else.

“Yeah, so, needless to say, I refused his advances and that’s when he started taunting me. He threatened to tell my boss that I was in love with a woman. I was furious. He was throwing back in my face something I’d told him in complete confidence. I guess I went a little crazy.”

“So, you were in the kitchen, but he died in the basement.”

“I was just waiting for the right moment. I’d seen your big pink toolbox in the corner of the kitchen and was looking through it. Meanwhile, Jerry’s thinking everything’s going his way. He opens the basement door and says we should go down and check out the work that you guys were doing. Like he really thought I was going to go down into the basement for some kind of romantic interlude with him.”

“He seemed pretty clueless that way.”

“Exactly. So I grabbed that big wrench and followed him downstairs. He was chatting like we were best friends as he wandered around the basement. I waited until he turned away from me and smashed the wrench down on his head. When I realized that he was dead, I wrapped up the wrench and tossed it into the sump pump. Then I got the hell out of there. Oh, but first I stopped and grabbed a bunch more of your tools. Because you never know. It’s always good to be prepared.”

I let that go. “Why did you kill Wendell?”

“Oh, come on. That guy deserved to die.”

Her words gave me chills. There had been a point when I’d hated Wendell enough to be tempted to toss him over a cliff. But I wasn’t about to act on it. Apparently Penny didn’t have that same braking action on her emotions. No, for her it was Get mad. Take him out.

“But why did you kill him?” I asked again.

She didn’t answer. Instead she twisted and tugged under me, but I continued to hold her down. Finally, panting heavily, she admitted, “I needed to deflect attention away from me.”

“So you picked him out and just . . . killed him.”

“He was an easy target. I met him at a bar on the pier one night. He was such a prissy thing, I was amused. So a few nights later I ran into him on the street and walked back to your place with him. I praised him and pretended to take his side on everything he complained about. He was bitching about your truck in the driveway and that’s when I figured out what to do with him.

“I complimented him on his beautiful car and asked if we could take a ride. He drove around the block, but that was it. He didn’t want to waste any gas. He was another jerk. Anyway. We sat inside the car, talking, while I waited for my moment. When he wasn’t looking I pulled that screwdriver out of my purse and nailed him in the neck. I knew nobody in town would mourn his loss.”

I had to force myself not to shiver at her cold words. She was a sociopath. Pure evil. And the fact that no one had noticed was chilling as well. I wondered if the people she’d killed here in my town were her first victims. I doubted it. This had all been too easy for her. I just had to keep her talking until Eric showed up. Where is Eric?

“Didn’t you get blood all over you?”

She snickered. “I wore a plastic poncho over my clothes. I told him I thought it might rain.”

I sighed. “So, once Wendell was dead, the police stopped coming around, asking you questions.”

“Yeah. Pretty smart, huh?”

“Except that they turned their attention directly onto me.”

“Oops. Sorry,” she chirped in a mocking tone. She jerked her shoulder to pull her jacket away, but I grabbed it again. She jolted, trying to bounce me off, but that didn’t work, either.

“Even if you do try to run,” I said, “Jennifer will identify you once she recovers.”

“You think so?” she said through clenched teeth. “Well, maybe I’ll just sneak into the hospital and finish the job.”

I was certain that she planned to do it, anyway, and the thought of her sauntering down the hospital hall in a fake nurse’s uniform made my stomach turn again. I switched the subject back to her main issue.

“I still don’t get what the big deal is about you liking women. Just because Jerry knew didn’t mean he could hurt you with the information.”

“You’re really nosy.”

I couldn’t dispute that. “Well?”

“Fine. In case you never noticed, Jerry liked to research the people he was dealing with. After I told him about Jennifer, he delved into my past. It didn’t take him long to find out what really happened at my former job.”

“What a scumbag.”

“Yeah. And by the way, Jerry seemed to know a lot of dirty little secrets around town. He enjoyed using the information to get what he wanted.”

“I’m glad I kicked him,” I muttered. “Still, that was no reason to kill him. Nobody here cares that you’re gay.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she chided angrily. “A year ago I lost my job because the homophobic old bat who ran the bank didn’t want my kind working in her family-owned bank. I wasn’t about to let that happen again.”