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I reached around her and shoved the door open.
“And then I shot Lydia,” Alice whispered. “A lot.”
The woman who’d been with Alice, the one who’d injected me the first time, was more or less in the tub. A pile of clothing was in there, too.
“I didn’t want to call the housekeeper, so I figured I should just get rid of my bloody clothes,” Alice explained in a tone that was more pride than sorrow. “I cleaned the floor. Bleach. Like the internet says. I washed all the blood off Tres, too. His hair. Gave him a clean shirt. And I tucked him in. It’s what Alvin would’ve wanted if he knew Tres could survive.”
I thought about the fact that the senior Mr. Chaddock belonged to SAFARI, a hate group, and I had more than a few doubts about Alice’s theory.
“I was wrong aboutdraugr,” Alice said calmly. “I mean, my Alvin wouldn’t want to be dead and biting, but after Tres said what you did for Jimmy Odem—I mean,mostlyTres yelled that if I had waited, you could have healed his dad. I still don’t think he would want to be a . . . walker.”
“You can’t heal death.”
Alice waved her hand in the air. “I should’ve just trapped her, so Tres had something to eat when he woke. I’ve been worrying you wouldn’t come because of that misunderstand—”
“My attempted murder?” I turned to walk away.
“I never wanted you dead. Icried.” Alice grabbed my arm, and I lost my temper. I jerked free and shoved her. She stumbled against the wall.
My voice was anything but calm. “You killed a woman, poisoned your stepson, stored the woman you shot in your bathroom, and—"
“It’s a guest bathroom.”
I shoved into Alice’s mind.
“Do you want to go to jail, Allie?” The woman, Lydia, sat at a table. Low lights. Tasteful music. Privacy. Cocktails sat in front of them on a white linen tablecloth.
“N-no.”
“Do you want me to kill Tres? Let him come back and kill you?” Lydia withdrew a syringe from a box inside her undoubtedly expensive designer handbag. She put it out beside the drinks. “I answered an ad for a research project.”
“What is that?”
Lydia leaned back in her chair and smiled. “Thatis what killed your husband, Jimmy, and my Edward. Among others. They wanted a few influential men, SAFARI members, injected. It’s a clinical trial.”
“It’s murder.”
“It’s a way to get around the prenups, so I picked people I liked. Ifreedyou. You should all be grateful.” Lydia wasn’t even pretending to whisper.
“Patty Odem wasn’t a second wife. They were together for longer than we were alive.” Alice sobbed. “And I loved Alvin. I wanted to be together forever.”
“If only Edward died, it would look suspicious.” Lydia sounded as irritated as I often felt as she stared at Alice. After a moment, she downed her martini. “I need four more. Your littledraugr-killer is one or Tres. Your choice. Or I call the police and tell them all about your murder spree.”
With more force than I meant, I jerked myself out of Alice’s memories. I hated her a little extra for being honest. She really wasn’t lying. Lydia had blackmailed and threatened her.
Eli stepped between us. “Geneviève.”
I closed my eyes, counted to ten, and resisted the urge to point out that she was a grown-ass woman. Her failure to adult was remarkable. She was roughly my age. The same age as Tres. How was she like this?
I let my magic flow toward Lydia.
Wake and speak to me, Lydia Alberti.
She was so newly dead that it took but a moment to open her eyes. The animated corpse of Lydia Alberti sat up, the bullets in her body pushed out as her wounds sealed. They fell with a series ofplinksonto the tile floor and tub. When she resumed death, the wounds would reappear, but the bullets were no longer in her body.
“Bitch.” Lydia looked past me to the shrieking widow Chaddock.
Answer me, Lydia Alberti. Who hired you? Where did you see the ad? What do you know about the source of the venom?
