A High-End Finish(84)

“You should’ve sued those people.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Did you drain my truck battery?”

She cocked her head and gave me a puzzled look. “Why would I do that?”

“Did you rig the bench-press rack to break while I was on it?”

She smiled. “That was almost too easy. And it was so sweet of you to think I saved your life.”

“Stupid of me.”

Whitney’s shrieks echoed from down below. I knew how fast the tide could come in. I estimated that it had been fifteen minutes since I’d called, so where were the damn cops?

The sounds of Whitney’s cries must have spurred Penny on to try to escape my hold. Without warning, her entire body quaked and kicked until she succeeded in throwing me off. I fell backward and she was able to push herself up and dash off.

“You’re not getting away,” I shouted.

She headed straight for the gun, but I dove at her, wrapped my arms around her waist, and pulled her back. She tossed me off again and ran blindly toward the cliff’s edge.

“Look out!” I screamed, and took a flying leap to tackle her sideways. It stopped her from going over the ledge, but she was furious now. She slapped me again and we grappled with each other, rolling and tumbling closer to the precipice.

Penny shoved my face away and I futilely punched her shoulders. I wasn’t much of a fighter, but I refused to let her get away. I also refused to fall off the side of the damn cliff, so I grabbed her jacket and yanked as hard as I could. It stopped our momentum just inches from the cliff’s edge. I don’t know how I did it, but I pulled her a few feet and flipped her over onto her back. Then I leaped on top of her again and straddled her, holding her shoulders down.

“Why did you use my tools?” I shouted. “Why did you try to frame me? And then you turned around and tried to kill me. Why?”

“I told you,” she said through clenched teeth. “You were getting too close. I saw that look you gave me that night at the gym. I could tell you suspected me. The only reason I went to dinner with you was to keep an eye on you. When you invited the cop to sit with us, that’s when I knew you couldn’t be trusted.”

I choked on a laugh. “I looked at you suspiciously because you were giggling with Jennifer. I couldn’t believe you had the bad taste to like her. I thought I wanted to be your friend, but that wasn’t going to happen if you were friends with her.”

She sniffed. “You can’t choose the people you fall in love with.”

“Oh, spare me,” I said. “She was just using you to get a bank loan.”

She froze. “That’s not true.”

“I’ve known her a long time,” I said. “She doesn’t do anything without an ulterior motive. Usually a self-serving or malicious one.”

Penny took a long, deep breath in and let it out slowly as she seemed to ponder that possibility.

I almost felt sorry for her in that moment, but knew the feeling would pass. “Okay, okay, you loved her. So why did you try to kill her?”

“She was starting to hound me about the loan,” she admitted. “She wanted more money. I’d already taken a chance by approving the original loan, even though her credit was too lousy to get one. Then I found out she told Whitney about me. They decided to have a little fun and blackmail me. I decided that both of them would have to die.”

As if on cue, Whitney’s screams grew even more shrill and earsplitting.

I must’ve looked alarmed, because Penny chuckled. “Oh, don’t pretend you wouldn’t love to see the end of that loudmouthed bitch.”

“I’m not saying I care for her, but you don’t get to go around killing people you don’t like!”

“Don’t see why not,” Penny argued. “At least it’s honest.”

Honest? I shook my head in revulsion. Try psychopathic.

“You tried to kill me, too. Remember?”

“Nothing personal.”

When Whitney shrieked again, it grated on my soul. I knew that even if Penny escaped me, she couldn’t hide from the police forever. Meanwhile, Whitney was probably close to drowning. I considered my options. There were only two: let Penny go and rescue Whitney, or stay with Penny until the police arrived. And Whitney could die in the interim.

Sensing my hesitation, Penny took advantage. She jerked her arm loose and swung at my head, clipping me above my ear, right where she’d pounded me with the hammer a few days ago.

I groaned and fell sideways. She pushed me off her and started to run, but her feet slipped on the wet grass and in the next instant she slid right off the edge of the cliff.

I screamed and scrambled to grab her.

She managed to clutch a thick tuft of the elephant grass that grew along the edge. Now she was hanging on precariously.

“Take my hand,” I shouted.

“Go screw yourself,” she yelled.

“I’ll pull you up.”

I could hear sirens now, growing louder and more urgent. Several cars screeched to a stop near my truck, and within seconds Eric was out of his car and running across the ground to my side.

“She’s going to fall,” I shouted. “Can you pull her up?”

As Eric sprawled by the cliff’s edge, Tommy came sprinting over, frantic. “Where’s Whitney?”