Very nearly did it too. She didn’t get the wheel to fully stop until it had gone about three feet too far for the passengers to make a safe exit.
But it didn’t matter. Because they weren’t passengers.
They were mannequins. All female, all unadorned. Well, nearly.
Gloria Fenwick looked around and began to feel very afraid.
A single word was painted, in bold red, on each of the mute amusement-park-goers.
Read across, the message was:
YOU’LL BE SORRY
TWENTY-FIVE
BILL Gaynor had to bring in one of those companies that cleaned up crime scenes. The detective—Duckworth, his name was—had given him the name of a firm. Not local. There weren’t enough crimes like this in Promise Falls to justify a service that catered to this exclusive a clientele. But there was one in Albany, and they came up in the late afternoon, once the crime-scene investigators were finished doing whatever it was they did and had cleared out.
They did a good job in the kitchen. They’d managed to mop up all the blood in there. The carpet on the stairs and in the second-floor hallway was a different matter. Gaynor had tracked blood through much of the house when he’d gone in search of Matthew. The cleaners had gotten up some of the stains, but they’d told Gaynor he’d probably want to have all that carpeting ripped up and replaced. It was a light gray, and there was only so much they could do.
Sure, he’d replace the carpet. And then he’d put this house on the market. There was no way he could live in this place, raise his son here.
It hadn’t occurred to Gaynor that he’d have to pay for the cleaning. The head of the crew handed him the bill without blinking. “We take Visa,” he said. “You might want to check with your insurance company. This might be something they’d reimburse you for.”
“I work for an insurance company,” Gaynor said.
“Well, there you go,” the man said. “Every cloud, as they say.”
There were so many things one had to do, he thought, but he didn’t know where to start. As he’d told the detective, neither he nor Rosemary had immediate family. No siblings, no living parents. Truth be told, neither of them had ever really had many friends. He had the doctor, of course. As far as he knew, his wife really had no one. She loved to talk to Sarita, and probably considered her a friend, but really, Gaynor thought, you couldn’t be friends with the help.
What they had was Matthew.
The strangest random thoughts went through his head. Questions, images. Where would he sleep tonight? In that big empty bed? What would he do with Rosemary’s toothbrush? Throw it out? Why’d she have to be killed in the kitchen? Of all the rooms in the house? Why not the garage? Or the basement? He might even have been able to hang on to the house if she’d been killed in a room he didn’t have to spend so much time in.
But how could one avoid the kitchen? How could he not, every time he had to go in there, see his wife’s body on the floor?
He was going to have to go in there.
He’d retreated to his second-floor office a couple of hours ago after putting Matthew down in his crib for a sleep. He’d informed his employers of the day’s events, and soon after took a call from the president of the company, a man named Ben Corbett. He offered his condolences and told Bill to take as much time as he needed.
“And we have a lot of investigators at our disposal,” Corbett said. “I can put one on this if you want. I’m betting the police in a town like that can’t find their asses in a snowstorm. Am I right? I know a guy I can call up there. Weaver, his name is. Cal Weaver. Used to work for the local cops but went solo. Lived out around Niagara for a while but I think he moved back.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary, Mr. Corbett, but I thank you,” Gaynor said. “The police have a pretty good idea who did it. Some crazy woman. She’s got a history.”
“Of killing people?”
“No, but from what the detective said—he called me a while ago—she tried to steal a baby out of the hospital a while back. A nutcase.”
“Well, the offer stands. You need anything, you call me.” A pause. “Oh, and Bill.”
“Yes?”
“As much as I would like to expedite matters where your wife’s life insurance policy is concerned, I have to take a hands-off approach with this and let things go through the usual channels.”
“Of course, Mr. Corbett, I understand that.”
“Especially considering that the payout in your wife’s case . . . I don’t feel very comfortable discussing this with you at this time, Bill, so I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“That’s okay,” Gaynor said.
“As I was saying, the payout in your wife’s case is a million dollars. So the firm will be doing its due diligence, but you’ve indicated that the police already have a pretty good idea what’s happened.”
“Yes, they do.”
“Okay, then. My thoughts are with you. We’ll be in touch.”
Gaynor hung up the phone, took a deep breath, and put a hand to his chest. His heart was pounding.