And Now She's Gone(75)
Tea whispered, “No.”
“At your house in Westchester?”
“No.”
“Should I bring Pastor Dunlop into this? He asked me to keep him—”
“No.”
“Ian didn’t poison Morris,” Gray said. “Mrs. Tompkins did. And she gave Isabel cash as apology. That’s just an F.Y.I.”
Tea’s mouth moved but no words followed.
“Who is Elyse Miller?”
Tea started to respond, but then she squinted at Gray. “Who?”
“Elyse Miller.”
Tea blinked at her, then shook her head. “Sounds familiar but I don’t know her.”
“She has mail.”
“Where?”
“At Isabel’s.”
Tea kept shaking her head. “Maybe she rented from the Gardners before Isabel.”
And that’s why there’s a Social Security card, résumés, and shit at your cabin?
“Maybe,” Gray said. “Maybe I’ll ask the cops. They’ll want to know—”
“I’m telling you the truth,” Tea said, voice raised. “She told me to do all of that.”
“Do all of what?”
“The picture—she told me to send it. The text messages—she told me to send those, too.”
“How did Isabel meet Noelle Lawrence?” Before Tea could deny knowing Noelle, Gray interrupted with, “Noelle called me and told me many interesting things. She was gonna tell me things about you but she disappeared. How did two such different women become friends?”
Tea chewed her bottom lip, unsure of the answer. “Mentoring program?”
Gray shrugged.
Tea said, “Some program through UCLA, I think, for young women who were in jail. Wait. Noelle told you things about me? I don’t know her. I’ve never met her, but I do remember Isabel telling me that she stole.”
“From?”
“Someone she was with in jail, something that has nothing to do with me, with this.”
“Why are you doing—”
“Because Ian hit—”
“Don’t lie to me.” By now, Gray’s heart was moments away from popping.
Tea swallowed her lie, then licked her lips. She frowned, not liking the taste very much.
Gray chewed the biscuit. The honey butter coated her mouth, and she didn’t like that. Nick was right: weird shit.
“Once she found out that Ian had hired someone to look for her,” Tea was saying, “she gave me a list of things to do.”
“What happened to the BMW?”
“What BMW?”
“Isabel’s.”
“She drove a Honda Civic.”
“Was the Bimmer Noelle’s car?”
“I told you, I don’t know Noelle. I don’t know what Noelle drives.”
“What about the car accident with the Maserati?”
Tea sat up like a beagle. She knew the answer to this question. “Her ex-boyfriend—he kept telling her that she owed him more money. She kept paying him, but he kept jacking up how much the repairs cost.”
Pity seeped into Gray’s spirit and she gaped at the young woman. A “palooka.” Tea was the very definition of the word. “Do you know about the money that Ian left on the breakfast counter right after she disappeared?”
“I took it. She asked me to.”
“And?”
“And I…”
“And you what?”
“I drove to the cabin and left it there. And then I drove back home.”
“Are there any pictures of you hanging on Isabel’s walls?” Gray asked.
Tea cocked her head, thrown by the sudden change in topic. “Huh?”
“Are there any pictures of you on her Facebook or Instagram—”
“Yes,” she said, chin high. “I have pictures of us.”
“On her pages. That you didn’t share.”
Tea called up Facebook on her phone. She didn’t say anything as she tapped and swiped up and up and up, but by the way her shoulders slumped and her face darkened, it was clear she knew … and she didn’t like the answer.
Gray leaned forward and touched Tea’s arm. “She only became your friend to get what she wanted. She wanted that condo and you introduced her to the couple who owned it. She wanted to destroy Ian, so she has you as a witness to episodes of abuse that never happened. She’s a liar, and she also tried to pull me into her lies.”
“No,” Tea snarled. “You don’t know anything about me or about her.”
Gray stared at the young woman. “Did she take out any insurance policies recently?”
Tea’s eyes skirted to look past Gray’s head. “Why would I know that?”
“You’re the beneficiary, aren’t you?”
Tea didn’t speak.
“Did you know that she has a separate policy on you?”
Tea’s nostrils flared and she furrowed her eyebrows.
“When you die, she’s getting paid.”
“But I’m healthy. I’m not dying.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Gray sipped from her cup. “She’s not your friend, Tea.”