The Lies I Told(92)
“But we’re old friends, and we never get a chance to catch up. Besides, we’ve a few things to talk about.”
It was as if I hadn’t spoken. “You broke into my apartment.”
His casual, easy smile added menace, not charm. “So much for dashing to a lady’s rescue.”
“Why would I need rescue? Is it because I went to see David?”
“Let’s sit down. Have a drink. There are a few things we need to discuss.”
“I don’t drink.”
“That’s not true. Jo-Jo told me about your fall from grace.”
“That booze is not mine.”
He removed the bottle’s top. “I must say I was disappointed at first, but then decided it’s okay if you do drink. Booze always calmed you down.” He carefully filled each shot glass.
“Did you learn that trick from Brit?” I asked. “Keep her drugged so she’s easier to handle?”
“She told me you could get agitated when you were a child. She learned how to calm you down from your mother.”
“My mother? Richards thinks my mother might have been drugging me.” I thought back to all the lazy afternoons in middle school when all I could do was lie in my bed and stare at the ceiling. Or the nights when my belly had hurt so bad. Images of the blue pills clutched in Clare’s hand flashed. “Did Brit continue this sick practice? Did she get the pills she gave me from you?”
His jaw tightened, drawing the cords in his neck tighter and flexing the tail end of a snake tattoo. “Brit and I always helped each other out.”
“I’ll just bet. It was no accident that you gave me a strong dose the night we had sex.”
He raised a brow. “You wanted it. I didn’t have to ask twice. Besides, I thought if you relaxed, you’d have more fun.”
I’d been so out of it that I had never questioned his sexual advances. “Does Jo-Jo know you’re here?”
“I told her I’d take care of you. I told her not to worry. She knows I’m good at taking care of everything. She doesn’t ask too many questions. That’s why we get along so well.”
Had Jo-Jo shown me the camera because she wanted to help or because she knew I’d suspect David? What did she know about Jack that she’d failed to disclose? Jack’s DNA didn’t match Clare’s baby. But as Richards said, the baby daddy might not have killed Clare.
“You look upset. You don’t need to be,” Jack said. “We’re old friends, right?”
“Did you kill Clare?” I pressed.
“No. I didn’t hurt Clare.” He traced the wet rim of a shot glass. “I was with you the night she died, remember?”
“No, I don’t remember. You gave me enough to knock me out all night.”
His brow furrowed. “That was a mistake. I just wanted you to relax.”
“There were at least six unaccounted hours. Plenty of time for you to drive to Jo-Jo’s party and kill Clare.”
“I didn’t go to the party. And I didn’t kill Clare.”
“Where did you go while I was passed out?” I calculated the distance to the door behind me. Or if I screamed, would someone on the floor below hear me? The cameras in my apartment weren’t recording, and there was no alarm system to trigger. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“First, I need us both to take a shot for Clare.”
He might have lured me with drugs once, but not again. I wasn’t that stupid, desperate kid anymore. “I’m not fucking drinking it.”
His eyes darkening, he held up a glass and gently swirled it. “You want to drink it. I know that beast inside of you is growling with thirst.”
I took a step back. I had a lock and chain on the door. How fast could I unscramble them? “You strangled Clare, didn’t you?”
The lines around his eyes and mouth deepened. “I really didn’t. I liked Clare. I had nothing to do with her death.”
“Then why’re you here? Why do you want me to drink? You know I went to see David, and you’ve clearly put pieces of the puzzle together.”
“I’ll admit I wasn’t happy to hear you went to see David.”
“Why not? He’s engaged to my sister. We could have been talking about engagement pictures.”
“Come on, Marisa, you didn’t see him about pictures. Jo-Jo told me she gave you Clare’s camera. You looked at the pictures and figured it out.”
“You know about the camera?”
He searched my face intently. “Jo-Jo told me about it when she called me in a panic ten minutes ago. She’s really worried about you. Jo-Jo can be an airhead, but she was always so loyal to you and Clare.”
My stomach tumbled, and I wanted to throw up. “Jo-Jo told you I was going to see David, didn’t she?”
“She did.”
“And now you’re here. Why would you care about me seeing David unless you know that David killed Clare?”
He drained one of the shot glasses and refilled it.
My heart hammered against my chest. “Did David kill my sister?”
“Yes, he did.”
His words triggered a horrific but very fleeting sense of relief. A truth that had eluded me for thirteen years had been told, but the knot always balled in my belly wouldn’t release. “Because of the baby.”