Do Not Disturb(62)

“Yes,” he says. “Did you suspect Claudia was having an affair at any point?”

“No. Never.” Although now it makes me feel stupid to say it. I should have known. But how could I? I was too busy supporting my family. Digging rats out of pipes and all that crap.

“Were you and Claudia close with Derek and Quinn?”

“Claudia and Quinn were close.” I cough into my hand. “Well, I thought they were.”

“Do you think Claudia could have hurt Quinn?”

I frown. “Wait. Do you think Claudia might have been the one who stabbed Derek? And… done something to Quinn?”

Deputy Dwyer folds his arms across his chest. “We’re just trying to explore every possibility.”

“Oh,” I breathe. “Yeah, okay. Makes sense.”

“Do you think she might have, Mr. Delaney? Do you think she’s capable of it?”

I reach out and touch the scar on my hairline. The one that required five stitches in the emergency room.

“Yes,” I say. “She’s capable of it.”





Chapter 39


CLAUDIA



I had it all planned out perfectly yesterday.

I had a two o’clock massage client. And as soon as I finished with her, I was going to head over to Quinn’s monstrosity of a house.

Except I wasn’t going there to see my sister.

Yes, it’s true. I’ve been sleeping with my sister’s husband for the last six months. I should probably use the past tense, since Derek will not be sleeping with me anymore—never again—given that he’s lying on a slab in the morgue. After she murdered him.

I can’t even think about it. The sight of his dead body lying on the kitchen floor will be burned in my eyes forever.

That bitch.

Derek is superb in bed. Quinn never even mentioned that to me—she didn’t even appreciate it. I started sleeping with him because… Well, long story short, I hate my sister.

Surprise, surprise.

I didn’t always hate my sister. When our parents were alive and life was easy, we were close enough. But then they died—not just that, but they died on their way to Quinn’s stupid play. And they left us with nothing.

I was at the end of my freshman year of college. I had plans. Of course I did. And none of those plans involved babysitting my sister for the next four years. I wanted to finish college and go on to law school. That was my dream since I was a kid. But after our parents died, Quinn had nobody. Our closest relative was a third cousin out in the Midwest. I figured she could go there and stay with her for a few years. Then our cousin called me and started making me feel guilty. She said she and her husband didn’t have enough money and why couldn’t I take care of her? You are eighteen, after all. She’s your own sister, for goodness sake.

So I did it. I became Quinn’s guardian. Naturally, I had to drop out of college. Get a minimum wage job and borrow money to keep from losing the house. All the while, Quinn went to high school, and then she went on to college. Meanwhile, I never found my way back to college. After four years out of the game, it felt like another world. So I got my degree in massage therapy instead. Married Rob.

It wasn’t what I dreamed of. But it was good enough.

But then I saw Quinn living the good life. She finished college and got a good job at the bank. She met this obscenely gorgeous man, and he fell helplessly in love with her, because she’s always been prettier than me. I used to be the smart one, but a fat lot of good it did me without an education to back it up.

Whenever I would see Quinn with Derek, I would think of the guy I got stuck with—the balding plumber—and feel a surge of jealousy. Why did her life have to work out so well and mine so badly?

Then she married Derek. They built this obscenely large house and spent a fortune furnishing the place. And all she did was complain about him. Because Derek was mean to her. Well guess what? Rob is mean to me too, and I don’t get to live in a palace.

She just didn’t get it. She didn’t appreciate everything I gave up for her. She never even thanked me.

Last year, the roof of our house collapsed during a storm. Our attic filled with water, which then leaked down into our bedrooms. I remember standing outside the house with Quinn, showing her the damage.

“How awful!” she remarked.

“It’s eating right through all the wood,” I told her.

She frowned at me. “But you can fix it, right?”

“Yes, but it’ll cost a bundle.”

I stood there, waiting for her to offer to help. Derek was rolling in money, and even Quinn earned four or five times as much as I did from my massage clients. “Well, at least you can fix it,” she said.

That was it. No offer to help the sister that had sacrificed so much for her. And it wasn’t the first time either. She always expected me to be there for her, but she was never there for me. When Rob got laid off a few years back, she took some trip off to Bermuda with her boyfriend. She never cared about me. It was always the Quinn Show.

Can you blame me for hating her? Wouldn’t anyone?

You might wonder how I ended up sleeping with Derek. Like I said, Quinn is the pretty one. Why would Derek want to be with me when he already had the prettier, younger sister?

It happened when Quinn was away on a business trip. I had the key to her house, and she asked me to water her plants, because she knew Derek wouldn’t do it. Of course, she could’ve hired somebody to water her goddamn plants instead of me making the trek all the way over and do it for her, but Quinn never thought about it like that. What better thing did I have to do than take care of her stupid overpriced plants?