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“Priors?” I asked, the word coming out as a pitiful little squeak. So much for maintaining my cool.
A careless shrug. “Possession…one count of assault. Nothing major.”
I didn’t exactly view assault as a minor crime, but I thought it was probably better to refrain from comment. “So, you picked up Lilith’s athame and stabbed her with it.”
The humorless, shark-like smile returned. “I figured that was a fitting end for her. She used the knife as a prop, so I thought I’d show her it actually had its uses. Of course, she wasn’t expecting me to come back after everyone else had gone. That was a fun little surprise for her.”
Once again, I tried to swallow against the dryness in my throat. “And then you left the crime scene.”
“Yes. I wiped the hilt and headed over here.” He glanced upward, as if to the room where poor Emily’s body must be lying even as we spoke.
I tried not to shudder. “Didn’t Emily ask where you’d gone?”
Boden shrugged. “I told her I’d left something at the ritual site and needed to go back to get it.”
“So…she lied to the police when she told them you were with her all night?”
“Yeah. She honestly wasn’t a fan of Lilith. She told me she’d only gone to the ritual because she was bored and looking for something interesting to do.” He stopped there, still wearing that unpleasant smile. “And someoneinteresting to do, too, I suppose. Anyway, she was just fine covering for me.”
I thought of Josie’s assessment of Emily Porter, that she was a flaky girl who didn’t spend much time worrying about the future. Even so, you could be a total flake and still not be okay with murder. “Even after she found out Lilith was dead?”
“Yeah. I told her Lilith had been arguing with one of her fans before the ritual, and maybe that was who was responsible. And she believed me.”
Of course she did, probably because it was easier to convince herself that Boden’s story was the truth than to admit the man she’d brought home the night before was a stone-cold killer.
“And today…?” I prompted, knowing I needed to hear the whole story, hard as it might be. I still didn’t know how in the world I was going to get myself out of this mess. A quick glance around the room didn’t offer much in the way of self-defense. Too bad Emily wasn’t a smoker. A heavy marble ashtray might have done the trick if I’d been able to catch Boden off guard.
At last, he let go of my wrist. The slightest pause, as if he was observing me closely and looking for any sign that I would bolt. I would’ve taken off like a runner from the starting block if I’d thought it would do any good. Unfortunately, he was still standing close enough that I knew he’d be able to tackle me before I traveled a foot.
“I didn’t want to,” he said. “But then Doug showed up, yelling at me that the accountant had records of all the money I’d stolen, and that he was going to start an investigation as soon as he got back to Southern California. I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about, that Lilith gave me access to that account so I could go shopping for her, but he still kept spouting off. Finally, he left, but the damage was done. Emily started asking all these questions, wanting to know if I was in trouble…and also if I’d killed Lilith to cover up what I’d done.”
He stopped there, using both hands to run through his hair and push it away from his lean, aquiline face. If I’d passed someone on the sidewalk wearing that particular ferocious expression, I would have hurried across to the opposite side of the street, but unfortunately, I didn’t have that luxury here. No, I was like someone trying to thread their way across a lava flow on a series of not-too-stable stepping stones.
“And so…?” I said, and stopped. I honestly wasn’t sure whether I wanted to know what he’d done. Emily was just an innocent bystander, guilty of nothing more than some spectacularly bad judgment.
“I told her to be quiet, but she wouldn’t stop asking questions. So…I made her stop.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t dealing with just a single chill down my back, but a sensation that felt as if someone had abruptly tossed me into a meat locker in a bikini. I didn’t know if I’d ever be warm again.
“Anyway,” Boden went on, as casual as though he was discussing what he’d had for breakfast, “she’s handled, and I figure I can take her car. It’s a pretty sweet ride, and I don’t have any wheels of my own because I drove here in Lilith’s car. We can go anywhere we want.”
The word squeaked out before I could stop it. “‘We’?”
Abruptly, his brows drew together in a fearsome scowl. “Yeah,we.Wasn’t that the point of me telling you all this? You needed to know the truth so you’d come along with me. Well, now I’ve told you. And we should go. I don’t think anyone’s going to come sniffing around here, but better not to take the chance, right?”
“‘Right,’” I echoed, even as my mind worked furiously. There had to be some way I could turn Boden’s delusions to my advantage. “But I drove over, so I need to take my car home. No point in leaving it here and letting people connect the two of us, right?”
Boden frowned again, but then his expression cleared as he nodded. “That makes sense. I can follow you and park a little ways away so it’s not too obvious we’re together. Then you can go get some things from your apartment.”
In preparation, I supposed, for the road trip he was imagining. Maybe he was visualizing us as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde…or as the two seriously skewed protagonists fromNatural Born Killers.
If that was the case, then he was in for some serious disappointment. A killer I was not, and I also woefully lacked the skills necessary to hold up a convenience store.
However, I figured that getting away from Emily’s house was a step in the right direction. At least in my apartment, I’d be on home ground, and could possibly come up with a strategy for incapacitating Boden Marsh. Too bad I hadn’t left the crystal ball out in the living room, although I doubted I’d be able to get away with that kind of maneuver twice in a row.
“Sounds like a great idea,” I said, summoning a false smile.
“Okay,” he replied. “My stuff is ready, so we can head out now.”
