Eden Watts’ Mini Cooper was sitting in Devon Rafferty’s garage.
All the jagged pieces of the puzzle that Josie had been trying to force together for two weeks tumbled into place. “Son of a bitch,” she murmured.
“Are you okay?” Lilly asked.
Josie looked up. Lilly stood right beside her. Josie’s brain started making calculations. Lilly. Amber. The storm. Josie didn’t have a gun. It was her day off. She’d been making a social visit with Amber. Her phone was in her hand, fingers flying across the screen in a text to Noah. A red exclamation point appeared next to the text box. MESSAGE FAILED.
Josie took a deep breath, willing her heartbeat to slow. She stood up. “Lilly,” she said. “If your mom doesn’t want you in here, then I don’t think we should be in here. Why don’t we go back into the house?”
Looking disappointed, Lilly shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”
Josie placed a hand on her shoulder and steered her away from the car. “Also, I don’t think we should tell your mom that we broke the rules, at least not today. What do you say?”
“A police officer teaching my daughter to lie to her own mother?” Devon’s voice sent an invisible shudder the length of Josie’s body. Beneath her fingers, Lilly’s muscles tensed. They both looked up to see Devon in the doorway to the garage. A chilling smile curved her lips. “Lilly,” she said. “Please go into my office and ask our other guest to come out here. Then I’d like you to go to your room. Don’t come out until I come get you, do you understand?”
Josie expected Lilly to protest or ask questions but instead she said, “Okay Mom,” in a defeated tone. As she slipped out of Josie’s grasp and scurried toward the door, Devon stepped aside and let her through to the house. Then she closed the door. Instinctively, Josie’s hand reached for her gun even though it wasn’t there. It was muscle memory. Devon walked toward her. Josie wanted to back up, to flee, but she stood her ground.
Devon stopped a few feet away. Without taking her eyes off Josie, she reached behind a flower pot on a nearby shelf and pulled out a Glock 19. Before Josie could react, she racked the slide, pushing a bullet into the chamber. Now all she had to do was point and shoot. But instead, she held the gun at her side. “I trust you’ll believe me when I tell you that I hoped it wouldn’t come to this. I truly like and respect you. If Thatcher Toland hadn’t shown up here three weeks ago to tell me all about how Eden Watts confessed to him that her family lied to, manipulated, and blackmailed my father, you would have unearthed it yourself.”
Josie’s phone was still in her hand, but she couldn’t very well call for backup with Devon looking right at her, assuming she could even get service. Until she thought of a way out of this that was safe for all of them, she had to keep Devon talking. “Thatcher Toland came to you?”
“Dr. Rafferty?” Amber called as she stepped through the door from the house.
Devon didn’t take her eyes off Josie, instead calling, “We’re in here. Come on over.”
Josie met Amber’s eyes as she walked slowly toward them, weaving her way around the items scattered all over the garage. With her gaze, Josie tried to communicate a warning to Amber. But Devon was still holding the gun down by her side. Josie was sure Amber hadn’t seen it when she passed her. Even so, as she walked over to stand beside Josie, Amber again had the look of being marched to her doom. “What’s going on?” she asked, voice small.
With her free hand, Devon reached out, gripping Amber’s upper arm and yanking her off balance. Then she shoved her into Josie. Both of them went tumbling to the concrete. Immediately, Josie scrambled to her feet, putting her body between Devon and Amber’s prone form. Devon used both hands to hold the barrel of the gun to Josie’s chest. Josie wondered if Devon could feel the vibration of her thunderous heartbeat through the metal of the gun.
“What are you doing?” Amber asked.
Without taking her eyes off Devon, Josie said, “She killed Eden and your mother.”
Stumbling to her feet, Amber looked from Josie to Devon and back. “What are you talking about?”
Josie said, “She just told me that Thatcher Toland came to see her after he talked with Eden.”
The gun pushed into Josie’s sternum. “Your stupid sister told him everything, about how your family ruined my father’s life and drove him to suicide. He thought that either she or you should come to me and ‘unburden’ yourselves. He thought one of you should admit to what you had done. Eden told him that was never going to happen, so he took it upon himself to do it for her. He thought I deserved the truth.”
From the corner of her eye, Josie saw Amber’s lower lip tremble. “Why would he—?”
“Because unlike you and your horrible family, Thatcher Toland is not a liar. He’s genuine. Did you know that? This televangelist stuff? It’s not an act. That’s him. Eden told him what you and your father had done to my dad—setting you up as a patient, making you lie and say my father did terrible things to you, and then blackmailing him. Thatcher wanted me to know the truth. I waited thirteen long years to find out who killed my father and why. Thirteen years to find out why my life was destroyed. Did you think I would just let that go?”
Josie said, “When I came to see you, you asked me to talk to my sister about featuring your dad’s case on her show. You showed me your binder. You… but you already knew exactly what had happened by then. You lied to me. That was all for show.”
“Of course it was,” said Devon. “I had to keep up the appearance of being obsessed with my dad’s death. Everyone who knows me knows that it’s the only thing I care about. Imagine if one day, Denton’s most famous detective shows up at my house and I don’t even mention it? How would that look?”
“But it was just the two of us,” Josie said, still hyper-aware of the gun’s barrel over her heart. “You could have told me nothing and sent me on my way. Why the act?”
“It worked, that’s why,” said Devon. “You didn’t suspect me.”
That was true, Josie had to admit. Painful, but true. But there was another reason Devon had needed to put on an act and make sure suspicion didn’t fall on her. She had already killed Eden by then. She had already kept Eden for ten days by that point, and tortured her.
“You were going to kill all of them,” Josie said.
Devon smiled. “You’re damn right. Except Nadine had already been murdered by the time I found out where she lived. But her death did give me an idea. What could be more poetic than making each and every one of these monsters drown in the very place where my father’s lifeless body was found?”