The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2)(87)

“You’ve got to understand,” George Marsh said, “the thing had already started. We had to go through with it. I didn’t want to hurt her. I didn’t know what to do. She’s just standing there, holding her book like a shield or something, telling me she won’t say anything. And I’m standing there thinking, ‘What do I do with this kid?’ I think I said, ‘I can’t let you leave’ or something, and before I knew it, she jumped right into the open hole in the floor. I swear to you, she jumped. She jumped right down into that hole trying to get away.”

His voice splintered and it took him several minutes to recover.

“God, she must have hit her head so hard on the ground. That fall is what, ten, twelve feet? I climbed down after her. There was so much blood. She was groaning and trying to crawl, but she couldn’t make it. She was . . . sliding. Her skull musta been cracked wide open. If I left her, it would have been worse. I swear, it would have been worse. I watched her sliding on that floor, and it was so horrible that . . . I had my piece on me, but if I shot her, that would trace back to my gun. So I grabbed a pipe that was leaning against the wall—some stick or something, you must use it to prop open the hatch—and I just hit her the once and she stopped moving. . . .”

The sky began to properly darken.

“I don’t even know what my mind was doing at this point. It had all happened in seconds. I never wanted anything to happen to that kid. You were going to be coming soon. My only thought was—clear the scene. I put her in one of the liquor crates that was down there. It was full of wood chips for the bottles, so it soaked up some blood. I cleaned the floor with booze. I scrubbed my shoes with booze. I put the crate on one of the wheeled dollies and I rolled her up, I got her into my car.”

“Why didn’t you leave her?” Albert Ellingham asked.

“If there was no body, there’d be nothing to see. No crime scene. I could come back, clean it right later on. I had to clean it up. Then I went back up and took my place to meet you. I didn’t mean to hit you like I did—I was so jazzed up because of the kid. I took the money, I went back out of the tunnel, and I got in my car and left. I went to a roadside diner. I’d started having dinner there for a few weeks so they’d expect me. It was closer to your place than my house. I’d always tell everyone I ate before I got to your place because of all that French stuff you eat—crème de ooh-la-la when a guy just wants a burger. Everyone got a kick out of that. So I had a Salisbury steak and a coffee and waited for the call to come. I knew it would. That’s what everything was banked on. If calls came in in the evening and there was no answer at my house, Margo at the exchange would route my call there so I would seem to be at home. From there, I would wait for your call, which came. I would come to the house. I would be the one to go out and get Iris. When I got there, I’d give my guys their cut and I’d bring Iris home. That was the plan. But that’s not what happened.”

“No,” Albert Ellingham said. “It was not.”

“When I got there, I gave them the money. I was holding it together, but they were rattled too. Iris fought because of Alice. She struggled. And they weren’t as stupid as I thought they were, or as harmless. They said that Ellinghams were worth a lot more than two grand each. I offered them five. They both jumped me. I could have taken them under better circumstances, but one of them got me with a wrench. They said they were in charge now. They had moved Iris and Alice to another location and said they had another guy with them, and that guy was ready to shoot and kill them if things didn’t go as they said. They gave me the drop-off instructions. The situation was out of control.”

“So you came to the drop-off the next night,” Ellingham said.

“By that point, I’d had a chance to think,” George Marsh replied. “I had no idea what had happened to Iris and Alice, but I had to try to get them out of it. I would have done anything.”

“But you still took some of the marked bills from the pile,” Albert Ellingham said. “To cover yourself. To frame someone else.”

“I had to show the guys I had something I could use to get them out of trouble, something to make the whole thing go away. I always had a mark in mind—Vorachek. He was trouble. We would all be glad to see him busted. He’d threatened you before. All I had to do was plant some of the money on him. I was going to tell the guys that, that they’d walk away with no problems. I waited for them to contact me. They never did. So I threw myself into the case. I looked into everything I knew about those guys. I shook every contact I had, but that kind of money can put you into the wind. Then Iris turned up in the lake. . . .”

He looked off the side of the boat at the very waters Iris had been floating in.

“Who killed Vorachek?” Albert Ellingham said.

“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of his own popped him. Or it could have been someone in the crowd who was just angry.”

“Iris,” Albert Ellingham said. “Dottie. Anton Vorachek. Three people dead. And then there is my Alice. That is why we are here. That is what I must know. Where is Alice?”

George Marsh finally gathered himself enough to lift his chin and look Albert Ellingham in the eye.

“What good is it,” he asked, “us dying out here?”

“It is a price I am willing to pay.”