AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The Chief turned to them. “This bastard is live, on the air, right now.” His acne-scarred face flushed bright red. With each word, his voice grew louder, until he was shouting. “His wife was violently murdered in his home on their wedding anniversary, then her assistant—his damn mistress—was murdered, and this jackass is doing a show about relationships right now. Did any of you know about this?”
They all shook their heads. Josie leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “We never discussed whether or not he would move forward with the show.”
Gretchen said, “I just assumed he wouldn’t be stupid enough to do live shows this week.”
The Chief pointed the remote over his shoulder at the screen. “Amber’s been working her ass off to keep the press out of this as long as possible so we could control how and when they found out. She worked so hard I gave her the morning off! This guy is going to blurt it out. Then we could have a nightmare on our hands.”
Gretchen stood and walked over to the Chief. She took the remote from his hand and pointed it at the television. “Or it could bring the kind of attention that makes it much harder for the killer to operate without getting caught.”
“I think this killer wants the attention,” said Noah. “What better way to punish Beau Collins—which seems to be the goal—than to bring him low in front of the public?”
The Chief shouted at the screen as if it were Beau himself. “Take a hiatus! Go off the air for a few weeks like a normal person!”
Josie said, “It would have gotten out soon anyway, Chief, even with Amber’s efforts. Trudy Dawson, the practice secretary, was planning to start calling Claudia’s patients today to inform them.”
Gretchen clicked a button on the remote and the volume increased. Beau’s voice was nowhere near as confident as it had been in the previous videos that Josie had seen.
“Faithful viewers, I know you’re all wondering, after Friday’s show, how the big anniversary dinner went! Maybe you were online this weekend, expecting to see photos or videos. Believe me, we were prepared to bring you what you wanted. Unfortunately—” His voice cracked. He lowered his chin to his chest for a long, agonizing moment. Then he sucked in a breath and looked at the camera once more. Tears glistened in his eyes. When he next spoke, his voice was husky, “Dearest viewers, friends, colleagues, I’m devastated to tell you that, over the weekend, I lost my beloved Claudia. She passed away unexpectedly. I can’t even believe I’m saying these words.” A tear slid from the corner of his eye and rolled down the side of his nose. He took another moment to compose himself. Still, his voice was unsteady. “I don’t know how I will go on without my partner, the love of my life. I don’t know what life is without Claudia. She was everything to me. She made me better in every way. You saw—you all saw how she brought out the best in me on this very show. We had so much planned for the future. Our future, the future of this show. We hoped to help so many couples know the deep, unshakeable connection that Claudia and I spent our lives building and refining.”
He paused. The camera was still tight on his face, close enough for them to see one of his eyelids twitch. More tears came and he wiped them away with a tissue that someone off-camera handed him. With another tremulous breath, he went on, “All that planning right down the drain. Sometimes life does that to you. Sometimes no matter how carefully you plan or how hard you try, things just happen. Sometimes it’s an unexpected external force.” He cleared his throat, swallowed twice. “Like an unimaginable tragedy.”
Josie was on her feet, moving over to Gretchen’s side as the camera panned out, away from Beau’s face, giving him time to shift in his seat. Then he looked to another camera and went on. “And sometimes it’s your own failure. We don’t always talk about failure on this show because we want all of you to succeed! But failure—it, um, it’s real and everyone goes through it. My, uh, wife, for example. You know, I think she would tell you—” He stopped and leaned forward, lifting a coffee mug to his lips. His hand shook as he took a generous swig and then used his sleeve to wipe his upper lip.
“My wife, Claudia,” Beau continued. “Would have told you that her greatest failure was not getting this position she wanted so badly when we were very young. She was a few years out of her PhD program. She wanted so badly to work with victims of domestic violence.”
Noah and Mettner now stood behind Josie, Gretchen, and the Chief. Noah said, “What is this guy doing?”
Mettner added, “His wife was just murdered and he’s on TV talking about her biggest failure? Is he for real?”
Josie held up a hand to silence them as Beau kept talking. “No one was better qualified than Claudia for that position. Maybe I’m biased”—weak smile—“but she deserved it, and she would have been a great asset to that program. Sadly, they went another way. Claudia didn’t get the position. To say she was devastated is putting it mildly. Of course, now we know that it was for the best. We went into practice together, eventually wrote a book, and we were lucky and privileged to spend the last few years with all of you!”
“I’ve seen enough,” said the Chief.
Josie went to her desk and snatched her coat from the back of her chair. “Let’s go,” she said. “We have to get over there.”
Everyone looked at her. “Right now?” said Mettner.
Josie said, “His wife’s greatest failure? What does that sound like to you?” She looked at Noah.
“A question from their Five Familiar Facts game,” he said. “Holy shit. The killer contacted him.”
Gretchen muted the television. “And told him to go on air today and answer that question.”
The Chief hollered so loud, it startled all of them. “Don’t stand here talking about it! Get your asses over to that studio!”
THIRTY-THREE
For the first time since the investigation started, Beau Collins looked frightened. Seated in a large leather executive chair behind the desk in his office at the WYEP studio, he also looked small. His gaze darted around the room, which had grown very crowded in the last few minutes. Josie was practically shoulder to shoulder with Noah and Margot Huff. Behind them were Kathy, the producer, and Marissa Parker, the floor director. Lingering at the doorway to the office were a couple of other people Josie remembered from Saturday.
Josie said, “Everyone except Mr. Collins, if you would, please go out into the studio and wait.”
When they were alone with Beau, Josie closed the door and advanced on him, leaning over the desk. She said, “Mr. Collins, did the killer contact you directly?”
He said nothing, glancing at the closed door. “Yes.”
Noah sighed. “Why didn’t you call us as soon as you heard from him?”
Beau held up his hands and shrugged. “What was I supposed to do? There wasn’t time!”
