Page 124 of One of Us Is Guilty

Harry looked as though he’d had a few stiff drinks. As he entered the suite, and passed close by, she could just about smell the whiskey on his breath. Not overpowering. Just there.

‘There’s a lot to catch up on. I think you should sit down,’ said Eddie.

Vanessa nodded, settled into the couch, Eddie and Harry on the couch opposite.

Eddie said, ‘My investigators are currently talking to the FBI. A friendly agent I know is handling. Basically, three men killed one ofyour husband’s lawyers, then tried to kill my investigators and our DNA expert after they found blood on the walls of your Hamptons home.’

Vanessa pressed her nails so deep into her palms she thought she might have pierced the skin. She looked at her palms, the marks there, and was thankful she wasn’t bleeding.

‘Why did they kill the lawyer?’

‘They were a clean-up crew. They don’t leave witnesses.’

‘What blood did they find? Is Patrick alright? Is he hurt?’ she asked.

‘He wasn’t there. It was old blood. The wall had been painted over to cover it up, but we have a damn good forensics guy called Raymond who is up on all the latest pioneering methods of detection. As long as the paint can be scraped away carefully enough, the old bloodstain can be analyzed. It’s not perfect, but it should help us. One wall of Molly Green’s apartment had been freshly painted, and he found Molly’s blood there too. Although, why someone would paint over blood on that wall when there’s a pool of the victim’s blood on the floor is still a mystery. But the fact that they painted over the stain established a pattern of concealment. That’s what took us to the Hamptons house.’

‘Why would that take you there?’

‘Because we believe a young woman named Teresa Chase was murdered in that house six years ago. A body was found in the woods, but the body didn’t have a head and no formal identification could be made. Patrick was seeing Teresa, and he reported that she’d been ripped out to sea while swimming at the beach. We think he killed her and had help covering it up. We’ll have a DNA sample from the Hamptons house to compare with the DNA from the unidentified body found in the woods. We think it will confirm that this Jane Doe was murdered in that house.’

Her hands flew to her mouth. Tears welled in her eyes, her fingers trembling.

‘And you . . . you think he killed Molly, and . . . and . . . had it covered up the same way?’ she asked.

‘We think so, but there are differences. This clean-up team cut the bottom of the lawyer’s foot to drain his blood. Molly had that same cut on the sole of her foot. The body found in the woods didn’t have a cut on the foot, so it’s not a complete match. The team that my investigators took out were professional killers, experts in body disposal. We think they were sent there by Patrick. You are now in a lot of danger, Vanessa. You have to stay indoors, and don’t move out of this room unless we’re beside you.’

‘But why?’

Harry said, ‘We think Patrick, maybe his father too, are now in damage limitation mode. They might think it’s cleaner to have you killed.’

‘Oh my God? Wait, wait, this doesn’t make sense. Why would Patrick kill this woman, and why would he kill Molly?’

‘You told us yourself,’ said Eddie, staring at Vanessa’s arms, always covered by long sleeves. ‘He’s violent. He loses it sometimes. I saw it. And you showed us those burn marks on your arms. We don’t know why he killed Teresa Chase. Maybe he just lost it and things went too far, but we think we have a motive for why he killed Molly.’

‘Why?’

‘Because Molly wasn’t who she said she was. We think Molly Green was an assumed identity. She had no relatives, and very few of the usual identification documents you might expect to find. We can’t find birth records, tax records only go back about eight months and the social security number looks to be fake. We can’t prove this, but we think Patrick found Molly’s journal in her apartment, and read it. A friendly police officer gave me the journal. We think Patrick figured out that Molly was Teresa Chase’s half-sister, a woman called Willow Chase. We think Molly was really Willow, out for revenge. That’s why he killed her, before she could do something tohurt him or kill him. And then Patrick had these men come to the apartment and cover up his crime.’

‘Jesus Christ, I can’t believe it . . .’

‘You said you went to Molly’s apartment on the night of the murder to warn her about Patrick and his temper. To tell her that she was making a mistake, that he could be violent. What did Molly tell you?’ asked Eddie.

‘She said she didn’t believe me, that I was just a jealous wife.’

Vanessa dabbed at the tears beneath her eyes now, trying not to smear her make-up. Her chest felt like it was going to explode and her head felt hot, as if it was boiling.

‘You can’t testify about Patrick’s confession to you that he killed Molly. But we need you to testify that you believe he killed her. We need you to tell the jury about his violence, about how he has physically abused you, burned you with spoons, everything. You need to tell them Patrick was having an affair with Molly and he killed her. It’s the only way out of this for you, Vanessa – you’ve got to tell the jury your husband went back and killed Molly after you left the apartment that night. Now, there’s a problem about what you can and can’t say on the stand, because of marital privilege. But Harry is working on a way around that.’

Vanessa nodded. ‘I’ll do it. I’ll tell the truth.’

She tried hard to listen to Eddie and Harry, but her mind was racing and her pulse was beating so hard she felt it throbbing in her throat, like a constant drum that echoed inside her head and through her whole body.

Eddie took a pen, made a note on a legal pad, tore off the page and gave it to her.

‘What’s this?’ she asked.

‘That’s what I want you to wear tomorrow,’ he said.