The Homewreckers(108)

“You’re disgusting,” Hattie said.

“I’m disgusting? Riiiight,” Elise said. She crumpled up the paper and tossed it at the trash can—and missed. “Admit it, Hattie. Davis has always had a thing for you. Always.”

Hattie blinked. “That’s not true.”

“My problem was, I was always too available. His folks loved me. God knows my mother loved him. He was from an old Savannah family, they owned a successful business. Speaking of engagement rings, did you know his mom picked out mine? She wanted to make sure I had the biggest rock in town. Which I did.”

Elise leaned forward and fluttered her left hand in Hattie’s face. It was true, the diamond solitaire in a platinum setting was approximately the size of a hubcap. A diamond as big as the Ritz.

“You were the one he had the hots for, not me. I was always second best as far as Davis was concerned. Being with me was convenient, that’s all.”

“I don’t … I don’t believe that,” Hattie said. “But even if it’s true, I never, ever did anything to encourage him.”

“Just being unavailable was a turn-on. He wanted you because Hank had you. He was obsessed with Lanier Ragan because he knew she was getting it on with Holland Creedmore.”

Hattie clutched the edge of the desk with both hands. “How do you know that?”

“Back in high school, Davis and I used to go out to the beach behind his granny’s house and smoke weed and fool around. One night we were out there and we saw Holland, with a girl. They were skinny-dipping, jumping off the Creedmores’ dock. We snuck over there, to try to see who the girl was. There was a clump of bushes right by the seawall. We hid there, and waited, and sure enough, after a while, they came running up to the house, both of them naked as jaybirds. I didn’t know who the girl was, because I went to Country Day. But Davis said it was his coach’s wife. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, and when I looked down, he had the biggest boner I’d ever seen.”

Elise’s smile reminded Hattie of a crocodile’s. “After that, Davis started going out there on Friday nights, after the games were over. That’s when the two of them met up, at the dock house, because the Creedmores figured out that all the football players were using their house to hook up with their girlfriends, and they changed the locks. He got off on watching them. He wanted me to go too, but even dumb as I was back then, I thought it was pervy.”

“You knew Holland was sleeping with Lanier Ragan, and you never said anything after she went missing? All these years you just kept quiet?”

Elise clasped her hands on the top of her handbag. Hattie realized she was staring down at that diamond solitaire on her left-hand ring finger.

“My parents would have killed me, and his would have gone ballistic if they knew what we were up to out there. Anyway, everyone said that she’d run off with some other dude.”

“And you believed that?”

“I did, right up until I saw on the news that they’d found her body this week. At Holland’s house.”

“Listen to me, Elise,” Hattie said. “You need to talk to Detective Makarowicz, and tell him what you know. This proves it. Holland Creedmore killed Lanier Ragan.”

“But what if it wasn’t Holland?” Elise’s pointed chin quivered, but her pale blue eyes stared directly into Hattie’s.

“I don’t understand.”

“We were there that night,” Elise said. “At Granny Hoffman’s beach house. We stole a bottle of vodka from my dad’s liquor cabinet and drove my Toyota out to Tybee. Davis wanted to fuck, but I wouldn’t, because he didn’t have a condom or anything. We had a huge fight. He called me a tease and all kinds of nasty names. I was so mad, I jumped in my car and left.”

“This was the night of the Super Bowl?” Hattie asked. “The night she disappeared?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive. We started watching the game, and drinking, and fooling around. I didn’t know anything about football, but he was a big Patriots fan. We even had matching jerseys.”

“Did you see Lanier Ragan that night? Or Holland?”

“I didn’t see anyone. I went home right after the game started.”

“What happened after you left? How did he get home?”

“He said he rode his bike back home that night. To Wilmington Island. He did that a lot in the summertime.”

Hattie pulled her phone from her purse.

“Wait. Who are you calling?” Elise asked, suddenly sounding panicky.

“I’m calling Makarowicz. So you can tell him what you just told me.”

“No way,” Elise said, standing abruptly.

“If you won’t tell him, I will,” Hattie said.

Elise stepped over the wadded-up engagement ring receipt. “You repeat one word of what I just told you, and I’ll tell everyone in town that you’re a fucking liar. I’ll make it my business to ruin you and your shitty business. And don’t think I won’t sell that alleged engagement ring of yours.” She turned and walked out the door.





57

A Moment of Zen




“Who was that skinny-ass bitch?”

Hattie looked up to see Zenobia standing in the doorway.