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“He hit me hard enough to knock me out,” I snapped, feeling the back of my head. There was still a big lump there, and when my fingertips brushed over it, pain lanced through my skull. “When the medical examiners do an autopsy, they’ll notice it, and they’ll be able to tell it happened before today. That’ll raise a red flag, surely.”
Two lines appeared between Nora’s brows. “There’s no delicate way to say this, so I’ll just say it bluntly,” she said. “I really don’t think we need to worry about that older head injury, because once you hit the rocks, there probably won’t be much left of your skull for the medical examiners to look at.”
“Besides,” Mr. Blythe interjected. “The police will want this case wrapped up as soon as possible to make the public feel nice and safe again. So I doubt they’ll get the medical examiners to look too closely.”
“You’re insane,” I said in a low voice, slowly shaking my head. “Both of you. Completely insane.”
“Oh, Kinsey. How ironic.” Nora sucked her teeth. “Once you’re gone and copies of your suicide note are all over the internet, the whole world will thinkyouwere insane. It’s not all bad, though. Think about it this way. Most people dream of fame, but they never attain it no matter what they do. Butyou…you’ll be famous forever.”
“They’ll probably make movies about you,” Mr. Blythe added, smiling smugly. “Or a TV miniseries. I wonder who’ll play you.”
“Fuck you.” I narrowed my eyes and squeezed my hands into fists. “I really hope they assign a medical examiner who acts like a dog with a bone when it comes to what’s left of my body. I hope he or she refuses to drop it until the police investigate further and catch you and all your nasty friends.”
“That won’t happen, darling,” Nora said breezily. “People like us always win, and people like you always lose. It’s the way of the world.”
Emotion suddenly clogged my throat, making it difficult to draw breath. “Why are you doing this to me?” I asked, rubbing at my eyes to stop the tears from coming. “I don’t understand.”
“We didn’t actually plan to kill you in the first place,” Nora replied, voice tinged with faux sympathy. “The original plan was just to frame you and make you genuinely believe that you were guilty of murdering Cerina so that you’d confess and spend the rest of your life in prison. Unfortunately, the drugs didn’t work as well as we intended, and you never believed you killed Cerina. Then you started digging a little too deep in order to prove your innocence. It was only a matter of time until you found something.”
“So we had to change the plan,” Mr. Blythe added. “That’s why everything’s been so chaotic over the last few days. We’ve been thinking on our feet.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I said, glaring at each of them in turn. “Whyme? And why did you kill Cerina?”
Nora rolled her eyes upward. “It’s a very long story, and you won’t be here soon, so it’s just a waste of breath for us to tell you. Don’t you think?”
“No. I deserve to know!” I said, springing to my feet. My hands were still balled into fists at my sides, fingernails digging deep into my palms. “Tell me!”
Mr. Blythe looked over at Nora. “I suppose we might as well tell her,” he said, rubbing his clean-shaven jaw. “It’s only three o’clock, so we have a bit of time before I need to take her. And it’s not like she’ll ever be able to tell anyone.”
Nora considered his words for a moment. Finally, she nodded. “All right, Kinsey. You really want to know the truth?”
I stubbornly lifted my chin. “Yes.”
“It might be a hard pill for you to swallow. It always is for people like you.”
“People like me?”
“People of your… background,” she said, upper lip curling in a disdainful sneer. “You don’t have a big family with a long, storied history. You know nothing about legacy.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So what?”
“So it might be difficult for you to understand.” She tilted her chin slightly to one side. “You see, inheritances don’t just come in the form of genes, money, or property. You can be heir to a tradition, too. That’s what we are.”
“We?” My eyes darted between her and Mr. Blythe again. “You mean the two of you?”
Nora let out a short bark of laughter. “Oh, no. Not just us. Every founding family in Crown Point,” she said. “We’re all heirs to a certain tradition. One that was created to keep us all on top no matter how the markets are faring. It’s evolved over the years, for reasons that will become clear, but the essence has always been the same.”
A pang of fear bit at my guts. “What’s the tradition?”
“I suppose it’s more of a practice, really,” Nora said, shrugging lightly. “It might be easier if I just show you.”
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped at the screen for a moment. Then she stepped over to me and turned it to face me.
Bile rose up my throat at the sight of the image of the screen. I stumbled backward on shaky legs and sagged on the cot, chest heaving. “What the fuck?” I choked out. “Is that…”
“Yes. It’s Cerina.”
“Why is she naked?” I shook my head as another wave of disgust crashed over me. “And why is she posed like that?”
