Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I think through my last week and it hits me. “You were in my office.”
“I truly was,” she says. “I think we had a nice visit, don’t you?”
I study her and try really hard not to lose my mind. I remember her dropping her purse on the desk. “You took my paperweight.” I blink twice. “Did you kill Blythe Fairfax?”
“Oh no. That was a bloody mess,” she says almost chidingly. “I did take the paperweight, of course, but Marty over there is the one who, you know.”
“Bludgeoned Blythe to death,” I say slowly, looking at Marty. He’s the guy on the left who appears to be in his late twenties with a full beard and several scars across his forehead, and he doesn’t blink. Not even once.
“Yes.” Lillian pushes a plate of cookies toward me. “Would you like a cookie? They’re a nice apple oatmeal mix I created just for you.”
“You first.”
She sits back. “Well, I guess you’re not as dumb as I thought.”
I glance at the innocuous cookies. She’s trying to poison me? I’m trying really hard not to throw up on her at the moment. I scrub a hand over my eyes. “Why did you kill Blythe?”
“My initial thought was to set up Alexei,” she says. “But this turned out better because now he has a reason to kill you. Don’t you see? I love it when the universe gives me a helping hand. Manifestation really works.”
Reality finally hits me. Wait a minute. My hand starts to shake, so I place the cup on the saucer, where it clatters noisily.
She frowns, but no wrinkles show in her forehead. It must be quite a bit of Botox.
I can’t think. My mind spins. “When you stole the paperweight, you also took my letter opener.”
“I did,” she says cheerfully, crossing her legs.
I gag. This is unthinkable to me.
She frowns again. “If you throw up, I’m going to shoot you. Or rather,” she looks over her shoulder at Marty. “Have you shot. Maybe just in the shoulder or a kneecap or something. I should keep you alive until Alexei gets here.” Madness swirls in her eyes and she smiles again. “You should really try the cookies. They’re phenomenal.”
I gulp and sit back in my chair. “You took my letter opener.”
“I already said I did.” Now she sounds exasperated, but I am not sure I have the words.
“Did you kill Hendrix?”
Her jaw tightens. “He gave me no choice.”
Oh my God. I turn and start to heave.
“Stop that.” She throws a cookie at me.
I rapidly breathe in several times, barely preventing myself from throwing up. She fooled me so perfectly with her sad eyes and gray hair. In fact, she looks thinner in this outfit, even. “You killed your own son?”
She pales, but only slightly. “Hendrix was caught on that video throwing the knife into the pond—trying to frame Alexei. He was arrested for planting evidence and impersonating a police officer.” She sips on her tea again as if we’re just talking about the weather. “He gave me no choice. Our family had enough bad press when Alexei went to prison. Of course, I did bribe the judge and both attorneys to make that happen. I mean enough is enough. You would’ve done the same thing.”
“I most certainly would not have. Oh my God, you are freaking evil.” I try to concentrate. “You knew that Alexei took out David Fairfax.”
“I did know that, but he hid the murder weapon so well. It’s never been found.”
Fear prickles along my skin. “So the knife that Hendrix threw into the Fairfax pond seven years ago . . .”
She tugs on a bright amethyst earring. “You’re rather slow right now. Hendrix dressed as a police officer, entered the house, and took a knife from the drawer. Honestly, it wasn’t even the same type of knife. He dipped it in the blood on the floor and then tossed it in the pond outside.”
Wait a minute. “It wasn’t the same type of knife?”
“No. Nor were Alexei’s prints really on it.”
I can’t breathe. “So you bribed the coroner and somebody at the lab?”
“Of course.”
My chest actually hurts. “Hendrix worked for you at risk to himself. How could you murder him?”
“Hendrix wasn’t that good at charging the crystals,” she says, waving a hand. “So I didn’t see any other solution.”
I just look at her for several long moments. If she wasn’t talking, I would think she was normal and not an evil archaic bitch. “So you took my letter opener to frame me?”
“Or Alexei,” she says. “That was my original plan, but like I said, this has turned out so much better.”
How can she be calm about this? Her logic is so flawed. I look at the platter of cookies and wonder if I can get to it in time to bash her in the head before Marty shoots me. “But with Hendrix dead, nobody can charge the crystals.” Does she plan to abandon Hologrid Hub?