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“The way you’ve been acting.”
After that little confrontation with Dean, he’d explained the situation to Elaine. He shouldn’t have. Paris’s mother must’ve told her.
Placing his hands on her shoulders, Butch tried to reassure her with a squeeze. She had to put up with so much because of him. He felt bad about that. If only he’d curbed his appetites when he had the chance. If only he hadn’t been so careless! “Paris—”
“We should’ve gone to the police,” she whispered. “Right when it happened.”
He lowered his voice. “And tell them what? That you accidentally killed a girl I was having an affair with?”
“Yes! Why not? It was an accident!”
“You were upset when you pushed her. That’s manslaughter. A felony.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t expect her to fall. I just wanted her to leave you alone. We shouldn’t have let her live here in the first place!”
“I know that, and you know that, but no one is going to understand. The police won’t care. The D.A. will paint what happened in the worst possible light. Are you willing to go to prison for a crime you didn’t mean to commit?”
She shrank even deeper into that fluffy robe. She’d lost weight in the past twelve months, was thin as a rail. The burden of their secret weighed too heavily on her. “Of course not. But living in panic and fear…all the time. I’m not sure that’s any better.”
“I won’t lose you,” he said hoarsely. “I won’t let Champ lose you, either.”
She wrung her thin fingers. “But if they find her body they’ll take me away no matter what.”
“They won’t find anything. I’m getting rid of it right now. That’s our only alternative.”
Her eyes flew wide. “No! You know what my mom said. It’s best to leave the body here, to keep it under our control. We can’t risk someone else stumbling across it.”
“The situation has changed, Paris. We have to get it off the premises. Thanks to those missing panties, and the evidence they probably contain, the cops could show up with a search warrant. If they do, how long do you think it would take them to find Julia?”
She covered her face as if she couldn’t bear what he was telling her.
“Paris?”
“Not long,” she admitted.
“Exactly. Now go inside. This is my fault, and I’ll handle it. Forget it, like I told you before.”
“I can’t forget it!” she whispered. “I haven’t been able to forget since the day it happened. She haunts me. She—she’s trying to make me as crazy as Dean!”
“Julia Cummings is dead and gone, Paris. There’s no such thing as ghosts. Go on in. You don’t want to see this.”
She broke into sobs, but he didn’t have time to comfort her. “Didn’t you hear me? Go!”
Her hands dropped to her mouth, but she talked through them. “Where will you dump her?”
“Somewhere no one’ll ever find her, okay? We’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine if you leave this to me.”
“Right. You’ll take care of me,” she muttered, but he couldn’t imagine she really believed it. If he hadn’t cheated on her, they wouldn’t be in this mess. But when it came to other women, he couldn’t stop himself. He’d tried. The best he could do was damage control. And Julia had been so accessible, so easy and eager to please….
“If I wanted anyone else I would’ve let you go to prison,” he said. “Instead, I’m here for you like you’ve been here for me, ever since the day we got married.”
When she looked up at him, her expression was so miserable, so pitiful, he almost couldn’t stand it.
“We may not be perfect, but we love each other, Paris,” he whispered. “Just remember that.”
This elicited only a feeble smile and a nod, but he didn’t have time to try for more. It was getting late, and he had a lot of driving to do.
“I’ll join you as soon as I can.” Waiting until she left, he singled out the key to the padlock from the ring in his office.
