Dead to Her(107)

Keisha murmured in her sleep. Ah, the irony. Marcie had never wanted kids and here she was, soon to be saddled with coparenting a screaming brat. But it would be worth it for the final financial result. Keisha, for all her charm, was fragile and needy and like a child herself. For now, Marcie found it quite sweet, especially given all of poor William’s money Keisha had to spend on her, constantly trying to impress her and prove she loved her, but she was pretty sure that within a couple of years, it would get cloying. But still—they’d be married by then.

One thing all this had taught Marcie about herself was that she found love to be fleeting. She obsessed about a person and then she got bored. That was how love was for her. She’d gotten bored with Jonny, and she’d gotten bored with Jason. One day, she’d get bored with Keisha too. But Keisha had a history of mental health issues. She may have weaned herself off the Valium because of the pregnancy but it wouldn’t be that hard to get her back on them and then to arrange an overdose or an accident. Send the kid to boarding school and live a life of luxury.

Yes, she thought, kissing the top of Keisha’s head. The future was turning out very nicely indeed.





Epilogue

“Don’t be so angry. Some would call it poetic justice that you’re in here,” Elizabeth said across the visiting room table. On the other side, Jason looked as if he could murder her. “Life with no possibility of parole.” She shrugged. “Although I can see how it might not feel that way to you. Especially as it could—and will—get so much worse.”

“How could it get any worse?” Jason’s bitterness dripped from him. The guilty were so often bitter she found. Despite their own crimes, any small injustice stung them hard. One of life’s ironies. He hadn’t taken her confession well, it had to be said. He was going to take this snippet of information worse, although he really should have thought it through earlier. She was starting to think that Jason Maddox wasn’t too bright.

“When William dies,” she said simply. “Which he will, in the next few days. I’m tired of whispering to him what a shit he is. I think he’s gotten the message now. He’s giving up and shutting down. His organs are becoming more unstable. Even the doctors think that turning the machines off is for the best and after I leave here, I shall be persuading his legal representatives that death is the kindest route for him.”

“What are you talking about?” The first hint of fear cracking through his anger. “What has that got to do with me?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? If William dies, then you’re guilty of first-degree murder. And that’s the death penalty.” She smiled at him cheerfully. “And that will happen. Your appeal will fail. Admittedly you may spend some years on death row, but trust me, you will get the injection.”

“Bullshit. You can’t know that.”

“But I can. I do. I see it. The great Mama Laveau’s blood runs in mine. You can believe in it or not, but that doesn’t change mine or my mama’s powers. What will be will be.”

“Why the fuck are you here, Elizabeth?” His words were spat nails, but his face was pale.

“I wondered if you knew why you were here. Why I put you behind these bars.”

“Because you’re a psycho bitch?”

“Oh Jason, really. No need for insults. Actually, no, you’re here because I gave your wife a choice. I told her I could arrange for one of you to go free and one of you to go to jail. A choice between you and Keisha. She chose to set Keisha free and leave you to face all this. You, her husband. I guess till death do us part means something different to Marcie. But yes, she chose the money over saving your life.”

His eyes widened. “Marcie did this?”

“In her own way, yes.”

They sat in silence for a few moments while the truth of it all soaked into Jason’s skin, settling inside him like a strange acceptance.

“Keisha might be a dumb bitch, but she never did anything wrong,” Jason said eventually. “What if Marcie had chosen her to be guilty? You’d have let her face the death penalty?”

“Keisha was never going to end up in your position,” Elizabeth said. “I knew how Marcie would choose. She would always save the rich woman over her criminal husband. And anyway, Keisha was protected. As I told Marcie, not everything is a curse. Voodoo is a healing practice, that’s what most people don’t understand. And it works in balance. To do what I’ve done for Eleanor, to take this revenge for her, there had to be a balance of good. Keisha was the balance. A poor girl haunted throughout her life by someone else’s crimes. I have put her through the fire but she is now set free. She has money. She has no grasping family or domineering husband. She can finally be herself. No harm will come to her.

“I told Marcie that conjure balls and dolls can protect or curse,” she continued. “Keisha’s were to protect her always. Marcie couldn’t harm her. It had to be you. Karma for your father, don’t you think?”

The steely cold look on Jason’s face made it clear that he had no time for karma.

“Anyway,” she continued. “Giving people a choice is like a magic trick. You should always know what their answer will be in advance. With Marcie that was easy. She already killed one husband—I doubted she’d have any qualms about making a choice to kill another.”