AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A vacation?”
Crane Mitchel is about to take off for good, and Noah is nowhere in sight.
I have no choice but to stall the woman.
She nods. “This place has inspired me. My mother has a timeshare out in Hawaii that my family used to frequent when I was a kid. I’m just dying to get back there.”
“Hawaii?”
Wow, Cormack just inspired the killer to hatch an escape plan.
Winslow flies this way as Weenie gives chase to the cat.
Poor Thirteen is yowling so loud you’d think his tail is on fire.
“What’s happening, Lottie?” Winslow pants as he combs back his hair with his fingers. “Is this the killer?”
“I’m afraid so,” I whisper and Crane leans in.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” she says. “What was that?”
“Crane, the night Bella died, we met up in that alley—and as we stood over her body, you smiled. I thought it was odd at the time, but I’m beginning to understand why. You weren’t that broken up that Bella was gone. In fact, you all but apologized about the murder taking place where it did. You said you hoped it didn’t impact business. You seemed to feel very remorseful about that.”
“Remorseful?” she balks. “Lottie, I have no idea what you’re implying, but I was genuinely remorseful for what happened to both Bella and your business that night. However, I wasn’t apologizing for doing the deed, if that’s where your mind is headed.”
“She deduced that quickly,” Winslow points out. “A guilty conscious, perhaps?”
I’m beginning to think so, too.
“Crane, the afternoon we were standing outside my bakery, both you and Danya were upset that Marlena went to Bella’s home without you. There was something in Bella’s home that you wanted to procure for yourself, wasn’t there?”
Crane gulps for air.
“Bella was forcing you to help write her books, wasn’t she?” I press on. “I read an old interview where she hit her head in a car accident and had a hard time concentrating afterward. That’s why she took on Marlena—that’s why she blackmailed you.”
The woman shudders. “I wasn’t helping her. I was outright penning each and every one of her novels. Bella was a monster when she wanted to be. I wanted to pull anything that was in my handwriting out of her office. The last thing I needed was to be pinned with her death. I shouldn’t have given so much weight to what she was lording over me. But I thought my career would be finished if my readers knew what I had done. And my career as an attorney? I had already abandoned that long ago.”
“It was a felony charge for arson,” I say softly and she closes her eyes tight.
“That’s right. And I regretted it. It was all in the name of some silly research. I wanted to make my characters as believable as possible. And I swore I’d never do anything as foolish ever again.”
Winslow shakes his head. “It doesn’t sound as if she stopped at arson.”
No, it doesn’t.
“You carry a gun,” I say to the woman.
Her mouth contorts itself. “Lottie, I didn’t do this. It’s true I carry a concealed weapon with me. Bella did as well. We frequented the range together many times. But I didn’t do this. In fact, I voluntarily gave my gun to the homicide division as soon as they asked. I haven’t fired my gun in months. Surely, their forensics lab will be able to determine that, won’t they?”
“If it’s true, they will,” I say, and she gasps at the implications of my words. “Crane, when we were at the bowling alley for the Bare Exam event, you mentioned that you witnessed my sister and me finding the body. You saw us screaming our heads off. Nobody was in the alley while we were doing that. If you saw us screaming, then you must have been nearby. That’s because you shot her, didn’t you?”
Her chin pitches back as if I struck her. “That’s not true.” She closes her eyes for a moment and catches her breath. “Okay, I was in the alley, but that was because I was telling Bella that I wasn’t going to be writing any more of her books for her. It was getting out of hand. I told her she needed to end her thriller series and focus on the books she was duping Marlena into writing for her. But that was it. I went down the street to collect myself—we were both shaking with anger. When I got back, that’s when I saw her lying there, and then you and your sister started to scream.”
“She seems sincere,” Winslow points out.
And I hate that I think he’s right.
It doesn’t matter what I think anyhow.
