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Arnie Meyer thought, There’s something wrong with that girl. What the hell’s gotten into the women in my family today?
“Get up.”
Lucy Meyer held the gun steady. Her voice was normal again, the same soft singsong that Alexia knew so well. All traces of her earlier hysteria were gone, replaced by a chilling calm. She means business.
Alexia stood up.
“You know, for someone so smart, someone who made it to the top of their game, you can be damned stupid sometimes.”
“That’s probably true. I—”
“Stop talking!” Lucy commanded. “I’m talking. Over there.” She jerked the pistol in the direction of the cliff edge. Slowly, Alexia walked to where she was directed until she heard Lucy say, “Stop.”
“I think the funniest part of all of this has to be you pointing the finger at Arnie. ‘I’m not accusing him of anything.’” Lucy mimicked Alexia’s accent perfectly. “That’s just flat-out hilarious. As if you, YOU, who killed an innocent child, are in a position to accuse anyone of anything! You smug, entitled, self-righteous bitch.”
“You who killed an innocent child.” Alexia’s mind raced.
“This is about Nicholas Handemeyer.”
“That’s right,” Lucy said simply. “Nicholas Handemeyer. The little boy you left to drown. He was my brother.”
Summer ran into the house, Lucy’s letter still in her hand.
“Where did they go, Dad?”
Arnie was slicing bread at the kitchen counter. “Where did who go?”
“Mom!” Summer practically screamed. “Mom and Alexia! Where are they? We need to find them, now! Right now.”
“Calm down, honey.” Arnie rested a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know where they are exactly. Somewhere on the north of the island. What’s the panic about?”
Summer handed h
im Lucy’s letter. After a few seconds she watched the blood drain from his face.
“Jesus Christ,” he whispered. “Call the police.”
Summer was already dialing.
“But . . . your maiden name wasn’t Handemeyer.” Alexia spoke without thinking. As frightened as she was, her need to understand, to know the truth, was overpowering. “It was Miller.”
“That’s right. Very good,” said Lucy. Finishing her bottle of drinking water, she dropped it on the ground. “Bobby Miller was my high school sweetheart. We married at eighteen. It only lasted six months, but I kept the name. Handemeyer held too many sad memories by then. Terrible memories.” She lifted the gun again, shaking the barrel at Alexia like an angry fist. “Do you have any idea, any idea, what you did to my family? You and Billy Hamlin?”
Alexia said nothing. Her eyes were fixed on the gun.
“Nicko was the sweetest kid in the universe, so trusting, so darling. It broke us all when he died, but my mom . . .” Tears filled Lucy’s eyes. “My mom was shattered. She never recovered. She killed herself two years later, on the anniversary of Nicko’s death. Did you know that? Hung herself in our barn with Nick’s old jump rope.”
Alexia shook her head in mute horror. She remembered Mrs. Handemeyer from Billy’s trial. Ruth. How dignified and gracious she’d been in the courtroom. How pretty she was, with her butterscotch hair and brown eyes, so like her dead son’s. She tried to remember Lucy back then, but drew a total blank. There had been a sister at the trial, a girl clasping the mother’s hand. But Alexia hadn’t focused on her at all. She couldn’t bring her face to mind now.
“Dad died less than a year after. His heart just cracked. You took everything from me. And you thought I was just gonna sit back and let you disappear, dance off into the sunset and live happily ever after, without paying for what you’d done? Of course, for decades, the longest time, I didn’t know it was you. Like everyone else, I thought Billy Hamlin murdered my brother. He was the one I needed to punish.”
“But Billy was punished,” said Alexia. “He went to jail.”
“Fifteen years? In a comfortable, safe cell with three decent meals a day? Are you kidding me? That wasn’t punishment. That was a joke.” There was no mistaking the loathing in Lucy’s eyes. “I thought about shooting him in the head as soon as he got out of prison.” Her tone was totally deadpan. “But that was way too swift and painless. Do you know how long it takes a person to drown?”
Alexia shook her head.
“No? On average. Have a guess.”
