“Chris,” Natalie then whispered to herself, thinking of assumptions she had made. “Not Michael Christopher … Christina. Or Tina for short. You. You’re Audrey’s Chris.”
“Yeah,” said Tina, followed by a sigh of regret coupled with a sad little laugh. “That was Audrey being clever. She wasn’t going to tell you about us, not then anyway. We were still planning to stay a secret, and I’m sure she didn’t know Michael’s middle name, so—unlucky coincidence there.”
Natalie’s eyes traveled downward, noticing Tina tapping her fingers against her legs, moving them in a rhythmic pattern. It was something she’d seen her friend do countless times before, but when Audrey described it to her, she had attributed it to Michael.
Natalie replayed the numerous incorrect assumptions she’d made about Audrey’s Chris, applying them now to Tina, not her husband:
Goes to this gym. Check.
Married. Check.
Two kids. Check.
Brown hair. Check.
Fit and athletic. Check.
Nervous habit. Check.
“It was your damn lunch with her that started all of this,” Tina said with a scoff. “You got her thinking about living an authentic life, how secret affairs only perpetuate sorrow. Either come clean and be together or break it off, that’s what she said you told her. But you didn’t know her history, Nat.
“Suddenly, she wants to tell her mother all about us, finally come out of the closet, be her authentic self. I mean, Audrey marrying a man? What a laugh. She did that for her mother. She was so terrified of being rejected by ‘Mama,’ what with her super-religious views, and let’s be honest—the Bible isn’t really a playbook for living a gay life. So Audrey kept it quiet all these years, thinking she couldn’t add to her mother’s heartache by telling her she was a lesbian. Poor Audrey lived with such pain, so much sadness.”
“Tina, what did you do?” Natalie asked softly.
“Do? I had the best sex of my life, that’s what I did. And that’s what it was. Great fun. Exhilarating sex. But come on, I couldn’t be Audrey’s partner, not in real life! I have a husband, children, not to mention a job that I would certainly lose if it came out that I was sleeping with my employee.”
“Tina,” Natalie breathed.
“She demanded that I get a divorce,” Tina went on. “Said she’d quit her job so that I wouldn’t get in any trouble with our company, but that’s not how it works, not in this day and age. No, I told her that was a big no, but she wouldn’t give in, she kept on insisting.”
“You did it,” Natalie said.
“Come on, Nat,” Tina spat back. “I couldn’t let her destroy my life.”
“She was stabbed I don’t know how many times, Tina,” Natalie reminded her.
“Her demands, her threats, made me kind of angry. I wasn’t in my right head.”
“I can’t … I can’t … I think I’m going to be sick.”
Natalie’s world tilted. She leaned against the locker for support.
“Michael went to see Audrey. He left our house to go see her,” said Natalie, talking more to herself than to Tina.
“Honey,” answered Tina, closing the short gap between them. “I don’t know where Mike went off to that night, or who he was sleeping with, honestly I don’t. But I can assure you, it wasn’t Audrey, and he definitely didn’t kill her.”
Natalie understood Michael’s admission then and there. He believed she was going to be arrested for Audrey’s murder, because that’s what she’d told him when she demanded his confession. Believing he was dying, he had lied to save her.
So many wrong assumptions.
And she couldn’t blame them all on her insomnia.
“I wouldn’t have come here with you if I thought you had my locker key,” Tina said. “I wouldn’t have brought you into this mess.” She chortled her incredulity. “I would have found another way to pin the murder weapon on Michael, bury it in your yard or something. This just seemed too easy. Put it in his locker.”
It took Natalie a moment for Tina’s words to register. She repeated them to gain clarity.
“Put the knife … in his locker,” Natalie said in a low voice, turning her head in that direction.
When Natalie looked back, she saw that Tina had slipped a latex glove over one hand. In that same hand, she now held a bloodstained kitchen knife, the kind used to carve up meat.
“I’m so sorry about this, Natalie,” Tina said. “I really am.”
CHAPTER 45
NATALIE
“Is that what I think it is?” Natalie asked. Tina took a threatening step forward, wielding a bloodstained knife, her hand perfectly steady.
“The murder weapon I used on Audrey?” she said. “It is. Yes. Like I said, if I thought you had my key … if I had any idea that my key was even missing, this wouldn’t be happening. But I was so excited because this was going to be too easy. I figured I could distract you and then just slip the knife into his locker, make it seem like you missed seeing it.”
Tina had tears in her eyes.
“You brought the murder weapon in your bag to plant in Michael’s locker?”
“I’m so sorry about all this,” Tina replied, sounding genuinely contrite. “I don’t want to do this, but this is a real mess now. How can I trust you to stay quiet?”
“I will, I will,” Natalie assured her. “I won’t say anything. I promise.”
Tina didn’t look at all convinced.
“And let Michael take the blame for something I did? You won’t last. You’ll crack like an egg. I know you too well. You’ve got too good a heart for that.”
“What are you going to do?” Natalie asked. “Stab me? Kill me in cold blood?”
Natalie had come here already in a weakened condition after her string of sleepless months. How would she find the strength to wrestle a knife from someone well rested and supremely motivated? She had to think, plan her next move with extreme care.
“I don’t know,” said Tina forlornly. “This wasn’t my plan. But I guess I’ll say we found the knife hidden in your house. We were bringing the knife to the police when you suggested we should come here to look in his locker, see what else there might be. But we got into a fight because you got cold feet about turning on your husband and handing over the evidence. We argued. It got heated. You came at me with the knife.
“It was self-defense, yes, that’s what it was. You already stabbed someone, they’ll believe me.”
Natalie realized that she was hearing a woman coming to grips with how she’d explain away a murder. Her murder.
Any hint of lingering fatigue left Natalie in a great rush. Thoughts of Addie and Bryce only added to her resolve. She’d do anything to be there for them.