It took two hours, and a pot of coffee laced with whiskey, but Brad had told me everything. He told me how he’d spotted the sheriff’s car in front of his place early in the evening. He’d panicked, driving straight by his cottages, then heading out to his dad’s fishing cabin in Lebanon. He’d nearly decided to stay the night there, but then began to think that it would look strange, like something a guilty man would do. He’d driven back to Kennewick, going straight to Cooley’s instead of going home, and that’s where he’d found Lily Kintner waiting for him in Cooley’s parking lot. They’d talked in his truck; she’d told him that she knew all about the murder. She knew that Brad and I were having an affair and that we’d planned on killing Ted together. She knew that Brad had driven down to Boston, had broken into a neighbor’s house first to make the murder look like a burglary gone wrong, then knocked on Brad’s door, asked to be let in, and shot him.
“How’d she know all this?” I asked.
“I didn’t ask, Miranda. She just knew. She knew everything.” Brad’s voice had risen an octave, and his hand was shaky as he drank from his coffee cup.
“Shh. It’s gonna be okay. I’m here now.”
“I know. I was going to call you first thing in the morning, let you know all about it.”
“Baby, I know you were. But it’s good I drove over tonight. It will give us more time to figure out what to do about her. What does she want?”
Brad hesitated. “I’m supposed to tell you she wants money.”
“What the fuck does that mean, you’re supposed to tell me?”
“Just listen. I’m telling you everything. I’m supposed to tell you she wants money from you, a million a year to keep quiet, and that she wants to meet with you tomorrow night at the house on Micmac. She wants to hear from you that you agree.”
“Tomorrow night?”
“Yeah. At ten. I drive you over, and you two meet in the house, one-on-one.”
“Jesus.”
“No, Miranda, you’re not listening to me. This is only what I’m supposed to tell you. She wants to kill you. She’s planning on killing you. That’s what she told me.”
“How?” I asked. It was the first question that popped into my mind.
“She has a stun gun, and then she said she was going to strangle you.” Brad swiped at his nose with the back of his hand.
“I don’t understand why she told all this to you.”
“She hates you. She said she’s known you since college and you’re an evil person.”
“Wow. Jesus,” I said.
“You look happy about this.”
“Do I? No, I’m freaked out.” I was freaked out, but I had another feeling I couldn’t quite define. It was like being in high school and finding out that the cutest boy in class had been talking about you to his friends. I’d gotten under Lily’s skin and I hadn’t even known it.
“How did she think she was going to get away with it? How did she think you were going to get away with it? They already suspect you. There was a fucking witness down in Boston. Someone saw you, Brad, going into my house. That’s why the sheriff was at your house tonight. You’re going to be questioned.”
“What are you talking about?” Spittle flew from his lips, some of it striking me in the face.
“Relax, it’s no big deal,” I lied. “You have an alibi, remember? But that’s why I drove up here in the first place. You’re going to be interviewed by the police. I don’t know when, but it’s going to happen. You just need to remember everything we talked about. Stick to the story and everything’s going to be fine.”
“But now this other person knows.”
“I know. Give me a moment to think.” I took two deep breaths, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Lily knew everything, that Lily wanted to kill me. “Did Lily say how she knew Ted?”
“No. I thought you’d know. But she knew everything about what had happened.”
“How does she think she’ll get away with it, get away with killing me?”
“She said she’s going to hide your body and your car, and that it will look like you skipped town. She said that it’s the only way I won’t get caught by the police. I’m supposed to drive you to the meeting tomorrow night, and then I’m supposed to help her get your body back to your car. She’s got it all figured out.”
“And what? You told her you’d be happy to do this for her?”
“I was having a goddamn heart attack, Miranda. She knows everything. I told her I’d think about it. I’m supposed to call her phone from Cooley’s tomorrow if it gets set up. Just let it ring a couple of times so it shows up on her caller ID. Obviously, I was going to tell you all about it, but I went along with her. What else could I do?”
“No, you were right. You did the right thing. I’m proud of you. Let me think for a moment.”
Brad tugged at a sideburn. “I know what we need to do,” he said. “I know what I need to do.”