The Wife Who Knew Too Much(86)

“Flee the country? Never. That’s the same as a confession. And I’m not confessing to something I didn’t do.”

“It would only be temporary. You would go, and I’d stay behind to clean up this mess. I already met with a lawyer and a private detective. We have a plan to find out where Lissa’s got this evidence hidden. Once I have that glass, she has no power over me. I can go to the cops then, without having it come back on me.”

“You know what that tells me? After all that’s happened, you can’t clear my name because you’re worried about protecting yourself. I leave the country, and then what? How do I know you don’t tell the police that I fled because I’m guilty?”

He grabbed my hands, wild-eyed and agonized. “Please—tell me you don’t think that. I would never do that. I love you too much. How can I prove it to you?”

“By coming with me to the police station and telling them the truth. Now.”

“I want to. I really do. But it’s not that simple. We’d end up taking the fall for Nina’s murder. You and I—we need to keep our hands clean. If it gets out there that we were involved, even if it’s not true, it would only muddy the water.”

“Muddy the water?”

I looked at him warily, a terrible understanding dawning.

“Oh, my God. This is still about the money, isn’t it?”

“We can’t forget about the lawsuit. Tabby, if it looks like you or I were involved in Nina’s murder, the courts will rule against me, and Kara Baxter will inherit Nina’s money. This is about our future—our future as a family. I’m not just looking to survive. I want us to be happy.”

“You want us to be rich. It’s not the same thing.”

“You’ll never win by betting on Connor’s ethics. You haven’t figured that out by now?”

Our heads turned in unison. Juliet stood in the doorway, a gun in her hand.





40





Staring at Juliet down the barrel of a gun, I saw a woman transformed. With her hair down and her glasses gone, in jeans and boots, she looked tough and beautiful, a far cry from the demure wallflower she’d pretended to be. But this wasn’t just a costume change. She carried herself like someone else entirely. As I watched a sneer play about her lips, I had a vision of the Warhol hanging downstairs in the library, and realized who. That piratical smile. Those cold blue eyes. She was so like her father. Edward Levitt come back to life—younger, prettier, female, but just as dangerous.

“What do you think you’re doing? Stop that,” Connor said, jumping to his feet.

“Sit down and shut up.”

He advanced on her, hand outstretched. “Come on, Lissa. Enough. Give me the gun.”

“God, I’m sick of you.”

Before I knew what was happening, Juliet pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. A loud crack sounded, and I screamed. Connor threw himself between the two of us as glass fell to the floor in sheets, tinkling across the parquet floors. She’d shot out one of the tall windows. He extended his arms, protecting me with his body. Was he willing to take a bullet for me, or merely confident that his girlfriend would never shoot him?

“Are you crazy?” he said.

The drapes billowed inward. A damp chill invaded the room, and I shivered.

“Yes, I am, better not fuck with me. Give me your phones. Both of you, hand them over.”

“This is ridiculous,” Connor said.

“Now. Put them on the floor,” she said, and leveled the gun right at my head.

“Connor, just do it,” I said, my voice shaking.

I took my phone from the bedside table and dropped it on the floor at her feet. Connor followed suit. Juliet kept her gaze and her gun steady as she knelt down and grabbed the phones with her free hand. She walked over to the missing window, broken glass crunching under her feet, and tossed the phones out into the void.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” Connor said, as she walked back toward us, still brandishing the weapon. “But Tabitha has nothing to do with this. Let her go.”

“Are you nuts? She’ll go straight to the police. She’s a snitch, Connor. They flipped her. Steve told me a detective was here for an hour, wiring the place for sound. We’ve got to get out of here, and take her with us, as our insurance policy.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Neither are you. Let’s calm down and figure this out.”

Listening to their words, you’d think they were on the same team. But their body language didn’t bear that out. Juliet looked incensed, and Connor was so tense that he practically vibrated.

“Did you hear what I said?” Juliet demanded. “The cops could be listening right now. Ask her if it’s true. Ask her.”

“Fine. Tabby, did you let the police bug Windswept?”

I was too busy looking back and forth between the two of them, trying to read their expressions, to answer him.

“Tabby?”

He was worried she might shoot me. I could hear it in his voice.

“No. The detective was here to give me an ankle monitor for my bail. That’s all.”

“Satisfied?” Connor said.

“She’s lying. There’s only one solution, and it goes like this. Tabitha killed Nina. The cops caught her red-handed. The walls are closing in. She’s distraught at the prospect of life in prison. She decides to end things and—”