The Good Liar(95)

Franny was shaking her head, but Kaitlyn could feel her tipping. She leaned forward.

“It’s pretty amazing that you got away with it. I’m impressed.”

“You are?”

“Of course I am. You must be very, very smart.”

“Everyone thinks I’m stupid.”

“I’ve never thought that. So tell me, Franny. Tell me, sweetheart . . . How did you do it?”

Franny smiled the slowest smile Kaitlyn had ever seen. “It was easy. People are stupid, you know? And they underestimate people. They underestimate people like me all the time.”

“I’ll bet they do.”

Franny’s smile spread. She was enjoying this. “I was working at Peoples Gas as a secretary.”

“You were living in Chicago?”

“I moved here two years ago.”

“That’s how you were following us around so easily?”

“That’s right.”

“And what happened at work?”

“All I was hearing about was how bad the pipes were. How one might blow at any moment and God forbid because it could bring down a whole building. And one day this guy, this technician, Carl, who was a bit sweet on me, showed me a map of where the worst pipes were. And he pointed to one, and it was like a sign or something. It was right under your building.”

Kaitlyn shivered. “And then what?”

“I asked him, all casual like, how could it happen? What could make something blow up? He told me it would only take a small hole in the pipe. Something that could easily go overlooked, especially if one of the sensors was out, which they were all the time. The gas would accumulate, and if it didn’t get repaired quickly, all it would take is a spark to blow the whole thing up.”

“How did you get in the tunnel?”

“That was easy, too. All the maps were there, and I swiped a security pass when a worker came in one day. I just had to be patient.”

“And that morning you went down and made a hole in the pipe?”

“Yes, and I turned off the sensor so no one would know there was a leak.”

“That was clever. What created the spark?”

“I found this thing on the Internet about how to rig a trash can to burst into flames on a delay . . . I put that in a maintenance closet where I knew one of the vents led down to the tunnels. The timing worked out even better than I expected.”

Franny smiled that smile again. The room turned cold. Kaitlyn leaned back in her chair. All she wanted to do was get up and run, but she had one last thing to do.

“I want you to leave town,” Kaitlyn said.

“You want to go somewhere together?”

“No.”

“What? I thought . . .” The color fled from Franny’s face. “You tricked me, didn’t you? You still don’t care.”

“Yes, I tricked you.”

“Well, I’m not leaving.”

“Yes, you will.”

“Why should I?”

Kaitlyn turned over the phone. The record function was on, blinking red. “Because if you don’t, this recording’s going to the police.”

“What? You wouldn’t do that . . . You’d be caught, too.”

“I’ll take my chances. You’ll leave tonight. Now.”

“No, I have to go say goodbye.”

“You’re leaving in thirty minutes. I even bought you a ticket. You can e-mail them once you get there. Joshua will be relieved. Trust me.”

“He chose me, you know. I didn’t even have to work that hard.”

Kaitlyn hit the button to end the recording. Franny tried to grab it from her, but Kaitlyn was too quick. She pocketed the phone.

“Don’t bother. See that guy at the door? I paid him five hundred dollars to watch out for me. If you try anything, he will be on you so fast.” She pushed a bus ticket across the table. “Take the ticket, Franny. Eileen. Go home.”

Franny looked at the location. Madison.

“I don’t want to go back there.”

“I don’t care. You can leave and go somewhere else if you want. You just have to promise not to come back to Chicago.”

“How will you know if I do?”

“I have something set up.”

It didn’t take Franny long to get there. “Cecily.”

Kaitlyn didn’t say anything.

“I made sure Joshua knew what you did with Tom. I knew he’d tell Cecily,” Franny said.

“Thanks for that.”

They glared at each other. Kaitlyn had a sickening thought that she and Franny weren’t so different after all. And wasn’t the explosion at least partly her fault? If she’d handled Franny properly, maybe none of this would have happened. They’d both spend the rest of their lives in purgatory. It wasn’t enough to pay for her own sins, but it was something.

“You’d better get going, Franny. You wouldn’t want to miss your bus.”

Franny’s eyes darted around the room, looking for an exit.

“There’s no way out. Take the ticket. Go to Madison. Then go where you want. Start over for good this time. And get some help. Forget about me. Forget about my family.”

“I can’t ever forget about you.”