Page 39 of The Getaway

There’s definitely someone else here. Maybe Lily. We found the pink jacket.

Suzy clutched Wintour and the candleholders to her chest and turned around. “Lily!?” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “Lily, are you here? If you’re here, please just come talk to me!”

The only answer was the roaring of the wind. The creaking of the eaves. Wintour barking.

Suzy felt like crying. Or maybe yelling again. The yelling had actually felt good. Next to her, Sean sighed, putting his hands on his hips.

“Listen,” he said. “I’ve been thinking.”

Never a good sign, Suzy thought.

“What if Lincoln really was going to replace me with Grant?” he said.

“How is that even possible?” Suzy asked. She dropped the sweater back on the assortment of cushions but held on to the candlesticks, just in case it wasn’t Lily. She didn’t want some random woman making off with stolen property. “You and Lincoln are . . . were . . . like brothers.”

“I know, but I did a little research last night, and Grant has a lot of experience in international dealmaking,” Sean said. “Experience I don’t have.”

“Oh,” Suzy said.

“Exactly. And you know Lincoln had been talking about expanding into new markets,” Sean said, pacing the vast, empty room. “And that I had advised against it. Our brand is so uniquely American. I didn’t think it would translate. I told him we should do some major market research first and that we’d be able to compete without getting our feet wet with a small-scale rollout. You know, like we did initially. And that would take time, and I could use that time to brush up on international business law. But he wanted to go in full force, guns blazing, right away. Rapid expansion. With Grant, he’d be able to do that.”

“You’re always underestimating yourself, Sean. You could have done it too.”

Sean groaned. “That’s not the point!”

“Oh my God, so what is the point?”

“I talked to Grant about it last night, after you and Gemma went to go try to find Lincoln. He really didn’t know he was supposed to be taking my job. He thought Lincoln was offering him something new. But he’s pretty sure the whole reason Lincoln invited him here was as a sort of final audition.”

“I don’t understand,” Suzy said.

“Maybe Lincoln wanted to see if Grant and Gemma got along with the rest of the group? Maybe he wanted to sort of pit us against each other in some way? I don’t know. We’re talking about Lincoln. He was probably going to have the two of us run an obstacle course and give the job to whoever won. Whatever his plan was, he didn’t get a chance to see it through.”

“Okay, well, not to be crass, but what does it matter now?” Suzy asked, adjusting Wintour and the candleholders in her arms. It was becoming a bit awkward to hold both. “He’s gone, and you’re still employed.”

“It matters because of the notes,” Sean said, as if it were obvious.

Suzy swallowed hard. She’d finally caught up. Just when she thought this nightmare couldn’t get any worse.

“You said it yourself . . . it’s possible Lincoln was murdered, as much as I don’t want to believe it,” Sean said.

“Oh my God, Sean.”

“And if anyone wants to dig, they’ll find out I actually have a motive,” Sean said. “All the other notes . . . Who knows if they’re true or not? But yours and mine . . . they’re definitely true. I mean, not the jail part, but still. If I lost my job, we’d lose everything.”

As if she didn’t know that. What Sean didn’t know was what her note actually said. With Lincoln’s death, her blackmail income really was gone. They were going to lose a lot even if Sean kept his job. How was she supposed to explain the money she’d sunk into Nantucket now? They were going to have to sell mid-construction and at a loss.

Suzy shook her head, trying not to think about it. Trying to focus.

“So wouldn’t that give you more of a motive to kill Grant? Take out the competition?” she asked, hardly able to believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.

The wind suddenly roared so loudly it sounded as if a freight train was bearing down on the house. Suzy had visions of tornadoes, flattened homes, people wrapped in silver blankets staring at the remnants of their lives with vacant expressions. They really should have listened to Rainn. Imagine if they’d stayed home? If they’d never seen those horrible notes? From now on she wasn’t letting anyone talk her into doing anything she didn’t want to do. She stepped toward Sean and pressed against him.

“If we die out here, I’m going to be so pissed at you,” she said.

Sean exhaled a laugh. “It’s okay. We’re okay.” He ran his hands up and down her arms. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d done anything that comforting for her. It made her feel a touch desperate, and she let her guard down.

“What’re we gonna do?” she asked, her voice small as she looked up at him.