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“The Replacement Wife Project.”
“I see.”
“Melanie’s past puts it in grave jeopardy.”
Mark has a flair for paranoia. In his mind, something is always on the verge of failing. “How so?”
“It’s in the agreement, Tom. Not to mention the fact that we need this to work. If her history comes out, as shady as it is, the whole thing will crumble. No one wants to move from a sure thing to damaged goods. No one.”
He isn’t exactly lying, so I say the only thing that comes to mind. “Okay.”
Mark looks at me dead on. “I can trust that you’ll figure this out—that you won’t screw it up. Can’t I?”
“Who’s to say? I’ve never killed anyone before.”
He rolls his neck. “Don’t worry so much, Tom. Really, it’s not so hard.”
I glance down at the spreadsheet on my desk. Now doesn’t seem like a good time to bring up bad news about recruitment.
“The thing is,” he says, and I swear he’s a mind reader. “This has to work. We cannot afford for it not to. I’ve made too many promises.”
“What kind of promises?”
“You let me worry about that. Your job is numbers. Speaking of that, women coming in, women with children. Women seeking to join a church community…that’s a given. And it’s a good thing because what do we both know about women in most households?”
“They control the budget.”
“Correct. But they don’t earn the money. Which means we need buy in. We need a reason for the men to stick around.”
“I agree,” I say, hoping he’ll read between the lines. Killing three of them is counterintuitive to his goal.
“What do men want, Tom?”
I shrug. “Power.”
“Precisely.” He claps his hands. “But you know what else they want? They want to golf. They want time alone to watch sports. They want freedom to do what men do. They don’t care about parties and social standing and they especially don’t care about attending church on their day off.”
I know this better than anyone.
“We have to give them a reason to care,” he continues. “And how do we do that?”
Again, I shrug and tell him what he wants to hear. “We offer them a replacement wife?”
“Exactly,” he says. “Men are pretty basic, Tom. They only really want a few things: women, money, toys, play things. They want freedom and they want sex.”
I start to mention the former leads to the other. Cause and effect. But Mark is on a roll, so I keep my mouth shut.
“Freedom and sex, Tom. Both of which they feel are inhibited by religion. We have to offer them that.” He’s pacing my office. He stops to glare out the window, down at the city. “This is business. We have to show them that by committing to the church, they aren’t giving anything up. They have to see they’re not losing anything. They’re gaining a second shot at life. A do over, if you will.”
I don’t understand what this has to do with me killing anyone. “Why does Melanie have to die?”
“She is a liar, Tom. We cannot be associated with liars. If it gets out that her reputation is…you know…less than stellar, it’ll be the death of the project.”
&nb
sp; “So by erasing her past, by killing people…what? This makes her record clean?”
“Not exactly. But at least there won’t be any proof.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and turns to face me. “This is why I’m hoping you’ll choose the right path here… because boy, that wife of yours? She’s a looker. People look at you differently for landing a woman like that, don’t they?”
