Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead(Finlay Donovan #2)(45)

“Someone give the lady a prize,” Theresa cooed. “Finlay finally gets it.”

I wanted to smack the haughty smirk from her face, but she was right about one thing. I did finally get it. It didn’t matter that Mrs. Haggerty caught them screwing in my house. Steven had been plotting to leave me anyway, and Theresa knew it.

Theresa shrugged, her expression cool. “Steven hired me to find him a silent partner. Someone willing to put down the cash for the farm and transfer the deed to his name after the divorce was settled. I found him two.”

“I thought you were his partner. That it was your money that helped pay for the farm.” Theresa’s lips pursed. I tilted my head as all the clues came together. “He didn’t want to partner with you, did he?” I asked, certain I was right when she averted her eyes. “That’s why he kept stalling the wedding date. That’s why you agreed to take custody of my kids. Because it was the only way you could get him to agree to marry you. So you could stake a claim over his farm.”

“I loved him!” she shot back.

“Which you so clearly demonstrated by boning Feliks Zhirov in the back of his car.”

“Daaaamn,” Vero whispered.

Theresa’s mouth snapped shut.

“What’s his name?” I asked, pointing at the dead guy.

She ground her teeth. “Carl Westover. He and his cousin, Ted, paid for the land. They drafted a private contract with Steven, agreeing to turn the property over to him once he’d earned enough to buy them out. The agreement gave Steven the right to farm the land and run the business as he pleased, as long as the profits were being distributed to the partners in accordance with their contract.”

“Let me guess,” Vero said. “Steven did something to piss them off and the deal went sour.”

“No.” Theresa shot Vero a nasty look. “Everything was going great. The farm was making money. More than any of us had expected. Between Steven’s business plan and my real estate contacts, we were able to secure some of the area’s biggest developers as clients. He was on track to pay off the farm in less than five years.”

“So what happened?” I asked.

Theresa paled. She stared at the packages on the floor, shaking her head. “He’ll kill me if he finds out I told anyone.”

Vero nudged the pile with her foot. “I promise, this guy isn’t doing any talking.”

“Not him, you idiot! Feliks Zhirov!”

My body recoiled at the name. “Feliks did this?”

Theresa nodded.

“But you told the police Feliks had nothing to do with Steven’s business. You told them Steven didn’t know Feliks was using the farm.”

“He didn’t.” Her voice broke. “Because I never told Feliks that Steven had an ownership interest in it. I wanted to keep Steven out of it. So I gave Feliks the name of one of Steven’s partners instead. I figured if one of them consented to letting Feliks use the land, that would be enough. And if they were making money off the deal, why would they refuse?” Theresa drew a shuddering breath. “I took Feliks to see Carl. Carl and Steven weren’t as close; they hardly even talked. Carl and his wife had recently split up, and Carl had a lot of medical bills. I knew he was struggling financially. I thought he’d be more likely to take the money and less likely to tell the others, but…”

“But Carl refused,” I guessed.

Theresa nodded. “Carl said he had seen Feliks on the news. He said he didn’t want his good name soiled by doing business with criminals … only that’s not exactly what Carl called him.”

“So Feliks killed him.”

Theresa swatted away a tear. “Andrei slit Carl’s throat. On Feliks’s orders.”

Of course he did. Because Feliks never did his own dirty work. But now Andrei was dead, Feliks was in jail, and Theresa was stuck holding the bag—literally.

“So you and Feliks made an agreement to let him use the farm. And you never told Steven or the other partner?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t want anyone else to die. I told Feliks I had a close relationship with the person who owned the land. I told him I could get him and his men in and out of the farm whenever he needed to use it, and he didn’t need to speak to anyone else. Feliks agreed.”

“And you were more than happy to take his money.” Vero tsked.

“If you and Feliks came to an agreement,” I asked Theresa, “why didn’t the two of you just bury Carl on the farm with the other bodies?”

“I told the police the truth. I never knew Feliks was using the farm to bury bodies.” She choked out a dark laugh. “Believe me, if I had, that would have made my life a whole lot easier. I never would have been stuck dealing with this!”

Theresa covered her mouth with a trembling hand, as if she’d said too much. But something didn’t make sense. If Feliks and Andrei killed Carl, why had Theresa gotten stuck with the body? Why risk leaving an amateur to clean up the evidence of their crime? Unless …

“They killed him and left,” I said, picturing the scene playing out in my mind as if it were a chapter in my own book. “Feliks left you to deal with the body because he wanted you to be culpable. If you were an accessory to the crime, you’d be a fool to report it, so he made you clean it up. And you didn’t think to use the farm. Instead, you took Carl across the state line.”