She nods.
‘However. If the police ever ask?—’
‘But why would they? Who would tell them? She’s fine, isn’t she?’
‘Exactly. She’s completely fine. I’m just saying, if it ever came to that, if the police ever asked?—’
‘But you said?—’
I raise a hand. ‘If ever the police were to ask, you would tell the truth, wouldn’t you?’
‘I don’t understand why they would ask if we never tell them!’
‘Except that she might want to make trouble – Teri. So I’m looking out for you both. I promise you that I’ll take full responsibility if anything happens. But in the worst-case scenario, would you tell them what you just told me? That the car wasn’t even on? That you saw Teri behind the tree, and she saw you, and she did it on purpose?’
‘My parents will kill me.’
‘I think that’s unlikely.’
‘You don’t know them,’ she mumbles.
Which is true enough.
‘But don’t worry,’ I say. ‘Nothing will happen. Everything will be fine.’
37
Blackmail. Money. That’s what she wants. She set the girls up. She saw an opportunity and created a fake accident because she wants money. She wants money from Max, too. She found out where he lived, and she moved in next door. God, she’s brazen. She wanted to surprise him.Give me lots of money, Max, otherwise I’ll tell your wife everything. You want me to leave? Sure. Give me lots of money and I’ll leave.No wonder she kept asking when Max was coming home.Where’s my paycheck? Is he coming home soon?That’s why she wanted to stay with us in the first place. She wanted to surprise him. Inflict maximum fear. Watch the shock on his face when he returned from Zurich.Welcome home, Max. We have a house guest. Surprise!
And what did I do? I befriended her, that’s what. He was going to be the mark, and now it’s me. Lucky me. I mean, really, my luck just never ends. And here I was thinking,I’m so smart. I’m going to take care of everything! I’m going to take care of Holly! Get rid of Max’s corpse.For Christ’s sake.
Instead, I got taken in by a common criminal. A cheap grifter.
Well. Not anymore. She wants ten thousand pounds? She’s about to get that and more. But she had better leave us alone.
I stop at an ATM on the way home and use Max’s card again to withdraw another five hundred from the bank. Back home, I find Holly in her room doing her homework.
‘I didn’t have time to shop. Order some pizzas. Whatever you like.’
She doesn’t reply.
I go into my bedroom and retrieve the other five hundred pounds I took from Max’s account and the pair of diamond earrings that Max bought me when we got married. I put them in my pocket, along with my engagement ring, which I know for a fact cost twenty thousand pounds.
‘I have to go out for twenty minutes,’ I tell Holly. She grunts in reply, which I take as a positive sign.
I knock on Teri’s door.
‘I was just thinking about you,’ she says, head tilted.
I am so angry, it takes everything I have not to strangle her right now. I look down at her foot. She’s wearing loose camel-coloured yoga pants and a sweater, socks and slippers. No bandage.
‘There never was an accident.’ I push past her into the house.
‘Excuse me?’
‘You heard me. Who the hell do you think you are,Beatrice?’
I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t the smile she’s giving me right now. The smug, triumphant smile.
