“Him trying to strangle you, that was all him. But the other.” Her ex-mother-in-law shook her head. “That was me.”
Cassie stumbled a bit from the bomb the woman had just dropped. “I-I don’t understand. If you were the one trying to kill me, then why would Eddie?—”
“That man is so in love with his pathetic wife despite her screwing my son on the side, he’d do anything for her. Including confessing to a murder he thought she had committed.”
“Wha…what?” Feeling as though she’d stepped into an alternate reality, Cassie’s mind raced to understand what was happening.
“See? This is exactly why Alastair and I tried to talk Russ out of marrying you. Not only do you not fit in our world, you’re an idiot to boot!” With a loud exhale, Barbara went on to explain. “After I received a phone call from Detective Knox telling me Edward had confessed, I immediately sent my lawyer to the jail to speak to him. As a show of representation and support, you see. But really?—”
“Your lawyer was there to spy for you.”
A slow, evil smile spread across the woman’s cold, uncaring face. “Maybe you aren’t as stupid as I thought.”
“So what did your spy have to say?”
“That Eddie had confessed because he thought Lori had been the one to kill Russ. They were each other’s alibis for that night, you see. Each said they were with the other, but really…Lori was with my Russ, and Eddie was home alone.”
“And since Eddie knew about the affair, and Lori wasn’t home the night the power went out and the poison was put into the bottle, Eddie assumed Lori was the killer.”
“Ding, ding, ding! Look at you being smart for a change.”
I’ll show you smart, you crazy bitch. Just keep talking long enough, and I’ll get my chance to show you exactly what I’m capable of.
“So Eddie confesses to cover for Lori, when really it was you all along.”
“Imagine my surprise when he said he did it. I mean, it couldn’t have worked out more perfectly than that. And when he actually did try to kill you, well…” Barbara chuckled. “That was icing on the cake.”
“I don’t suppose you had anything to do with that?”
“I may have mentioned your name a time or two during recent conversations. Might have gone as far as to suggest you were the one to blame for the whole entire mess.”
“And Eddie being Eddie, he bought your bullshit hook, line, and sinker.”
“It was a perfect plan, you know. I even paid him a hefty sum to put that paint on your house. I couldn’t be late to my own son’s funeral, of course. But his friend…I mean, things happen, right?”
Jesus, she was absolutely certifiable.
“So you convinced him he needed to kill me for real? Is that it?”
“That was all on him. Like I said, I put the bug in his ear, but what he did with that…” Barbara sighed. “Of course, if he’d succeeded in killing you with that damn rope, and then strung you up, like I suggested your death would’ve been ruled a suicide, and all that money you took from my son’s insurance policy would be mine.”
“Money?” Anger overshadowed Cassie’s fear. “Is that all you care about? Money? Your son is dead, Barbara! You killed him!”
“It wasn’t supposed to be him!” The woman’s wild gaze filled with unshed tears. “It was supposed to be you!It should have been you!”
She raised the gun in the air. Kept it pointed straight at Cassie. And then…she pulled the trigger.
Cassie didn’t feel the pain at first. She hadn’t even felt the bullet piercing through her flesh. Just a sudden, powerfulpressure followed by an unfamiliar heat spreading deep inside her gut.
She looked down. Put her hand over the single hole that had been burned straight through her beige coat. And when she pressed her palm against the fire that had begun to rage within her there, her fingers became coated with blood.
“B-Barb…” Cassie stumbled back several steps. She raised her shock-filled gaze to the woman still holding the gun. A woman who wasn’t showing even a sliver of remorse for having just shot her at point-blank range.
Her legs gave out, and Cassie fell to her knees beside Russ’s grave. “W-why?”
“Because.” The evil bitch raised that gun again. “It should have been you.”
“You won’t get away with this!” Cassie shouted. “Archer knows I’m with you. He knows you’re the one I came here with. They’re going to know it was you. There’s no way you’ll be able to cover this one up.”