Do Not Disturb(28)

The ceiling is still leaking, the same way it was when I came in. Why does the water look so red? I still don’t get it. But it’s none of my concern. I drop my keys on the desk.

I push the door open to escape the motel. The cold air hits me in the face, but at least it’s not snowing. I forgot to zip up my coat, and the wind slips between the folds of my open jacket. At least the roads should be clear by now, especially once I get on the highway. I should be home in two hours. And then I’ll turn myself in.

As I rifle through my purse, looking for my keys, I hear footsteps. I look up and see a figure approaching me. It’s so dark here, it’s hard to see who it is. I squint out into the blackness.

“Hello?” I say.

A raspy voice spits out, “How could you do that?”

And then a second later the knife buries itself in my abdomen, between the open folds of my coat. I stare at it for a moment, watching the crimson stain spread across my shirt. And then everything goes black.





Chapter 16


CLAUDIA



One Day Earlier

Every time I ask Deputy Scott Dwyer a question he has one of three answers: I don’t know.

I can’t say.

Why don’t you go home and I’ll call you when we know something?

I find the third one especially maddening. If your baby sister were missing after her husband was found in a pool of blood in their kitchen, would you just go home and chill until the incompetent deputy got his head out of his ass? No, I didn’t think so. Unfortunately, the police chief is out of town on vacation and won’t be back until Monday. God knows how badly Scotty will muck everything up by then.

“Mrs. Delaney,” Scotty says to me as we stand in the freezing rain outside my sister’s house. His freckles have faded from when he was in high school and he’s bulked up enough to fill out his blue uniform—he used to be passably cute when Quinn was dating him, but now he’s grown into someone the housewives love to ogle. “You should go home. We’re handling this.”

“Handling this?” I stare at him. “The same way you handled it when you came here a few hours ago, after getting a call from a neighbor that they heard screaming. And instead of looking inside the house, you just walked away? Handle it kind of like that?”

Scotty’s cheeks are pink. It could be because of the cold, but it could also be because he knows he royally screwed up. He was here. He was at this house, when my sister was still here and possibly in terrible danger. And he didn’t even check it out.

I was the one who discovered the body in the kitchen. It was much later. Too late.

I knew something was wrong when I spoke to her on the phone.

“She looked fine when I came to the door,” he says. “She said the neighbor just heard a movie.”

I don’t even know what to say to that. My sister opened the door for the police officer, and God knows if there was somebody pointing a gun at her head while she gave all the right answers. If Scott had only stepped inside…

“You’re sure you don’t know who those messages were from?” Scott asks.

“If I did, don’t you think I would tell you?” I snap at him.

That’s yet another piece in the puzzle. Besides Derek’s iPhone, he also had a burner phone in his pocket. Scott claimed that just prior to his death, he was texting with another woman. Planning to meet her for a rendezvous at his house while he believed Quinn to be at work.

“She could be a witness,” Scott points out.

“Or she could have killed my sister.” I glare at him. “You’re examining that possibility, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” he says. “We’re examining every possibility.”

There is one thing on Quinn’s side here, and that’s the fact that I’m pretty sure Scott is still in love with her. It’s been a decade since they dated in high school, but he still hasn’t gotten married. Doesn’t even have a serious girlfriend, from what I’ve heard. I remember the year after Quinn left for college, Scotty looked like a sad puppy dog every time I saw him. I stopped going into his father’s store because every time I did, he would be there sweeping the floor or working the cash register, and he would ask me about Quinn in that hopeful voice.

He was almost obsessed with her.

Another officer is calling to Scott from inside the house. He glances behind him, then back at me. He tries to blink away the frozen raindrops on his pale eyelashes. “I’ve got to go, Claudia.”

“You’ll call me if you find out anything?”

“I will. I promise.” He pauses. I’m sure it’s a lie. “And you’ll call me if you hear from Quinn?”

“Of course,” I say.

But that’s also a lie.

As he walks away, I reach into my purse and pull out my phone for the hundredth time. I select Quinn’s number from my favorites list. I let it ring.

And ring.

And ring.

Pick up, dammit. Please, Quinn. It’s me. It’s your sister.

“Hi! You’ve reached Quinn’s phone! Please leave a message at the beep.”

I grit my teeth. I didn’t expect her to answer, but I’d been hoping. I’m not sure if she even has her phone anymore. If she had it, she would have picked up by now. Even so, I leave another message.