You Owe Me a Murder(79)

I hated her. “It’s not funny.” I reminded myself to stay calm and logical.

Her shoulders shook with laughter. “That would be where you are wrong.”

“I went to your mother’s house last night.”

“I know. I was watching.” She smirked.

“I want nothing to do with you.” I turned and began walking away. I was counting on the fact that she’d follow me. She wouldn’t want this moment to end. Like a cat who had cornered a mouse, she wanted to play with me first.

But what she didn’t realize was that I’d been paying attention too. After her comment about there being cameras everywhere in the city, I’d realized she was right and now I knew a place where we could truly be alone. And this discussion required privacy.

She trailed after me on the path, catching up in a few short steps . . . just the way I’d visualized it. She linked arms with me. “Okay, we’ll walk. It’s chilly just standing here.” She rubbed her hand up and down her arm. There was a red imprint where I had held on to her wrist.

“I didn’t see you leave the house,” she said. “But then that woman started screaming out the window like her hair was on fire, so I knew something happened.” She glanced over. “Even if the something wasn’t what was supposed to happen.”

“That woman wasn’t your mother.”

“Nope.” Nicki hopped over a puddle. It reminded me of that nursery rhyme: Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.

“I don’t get it.”

“I was just curious if I could make you do it.” She leaped lightly over another large, muddy puddle, like a gazelle.

I stopped walking and stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I wanted to know if I could make you do it,” she repeated. “How far you’d have to be pushed to take that action. What would it take to make someone like you”—?she paused to inspect me up and down—?“do something so totally out of character. You’re smart, but you’ve got no spine. I wanted to know what would happen if I pushed the right buttons.” She rubbed her hands from the chill and waited for me to respond.

I crossed the bike lane and headed out of the park. If she was being honest, then I’d gotten it all wrong again. I refused to believe that.

She chased after me. “Now, don’t be mad. It’s not your fault that you’re not as smart as me.”

“You can’t be serious. This was some kind of a sick game?”

Nicki snorted. “Not a game. Research.”

“You’re what? Some kind of fucked-up moral Dr. Frankenstein?”

She laughed. “I guess that makes you my monster.” She threw her arms up in the air. “It’s alive! It’s alive!”

I shook my head and crossed the street. “What about what you did to Alex?”

“I didn’t do a thing to him. He had an allergic reaction.” She stared at me as if she was trying to figure out how to explain it using smaller words. “I followed you and saw what happened. Bingo. Opportunity. I went out and bought the shrimp powder and sneaked it into your room so you’d think I did it. It was just lucky.”

“Lucky,” I repeated, my voice flat.

“Pretty much.”

“What about his EpiPen? How do you explain that it was missing?”

The traffic noise faded as we left the main streets behind. “I don’t know anything about his EpiPen. I guess he lost it.”

I searched her face, looking for a tell—?a twitch of the eyelid, or the licking of her lips—?trying to ferret out if she was telling the truth. “Alex always made sure he had that with him. Always.”

Nicki rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t touch lover-boy’s medication. All I did was let you think I did, to see if that would be enough to nudge you forward.”

“You’re lying,” I said. I was certain now. She’d done it on purpose and was trying to dance out of it.

She giggled. “Maybe. Guess you’re getting a bit smarter all the time, or at least more skeptical. Does it really matter if it was an accident or on purpose? The whole point is that it was the pressure point you needed.”

A train whistle blew in the distance and the sound broke through my thoughts like a bullet. “But you killed Connor,” I said. “That wasn’t just a lucky accident.” I made finger quotes in the air around the word lucky.

Nicki paused to look over the side of the bridge we were on and watch the tracks below. “It might have been.” She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “Or maybe it wasn’t. When doing research, some test subjects have to be sacrificed. Scientific progress can be messy. Look at any of it—?you don’t move forward without having to step on some people to get there. I mean, they blind little bunnies to test mascara.” She shook her head. “I feel worse for the bunnies than I do for someone like Connor.”

What she was saying felt like a punch in the gut. “You killed Connor to see what I would do.”

“Pretty much.” She sighed, sounding like my mother when she was disappointed. “Why are you looking at me like that? I told you the first time I met you what fascinated me: why people do what they do. How they can be influenced. You’re acting like all of this is coming as some big surprise. I would think it would make you feel better to know that Connor died for a greater purpose.”