“Do you need any help today?” Ida Belle asked.
“No, thank you,” Nolan answered. “I don’t have that much to do, really. I guess I mostly just need some time to think.”
“And to rest,” Gertie said. “If you can manage it.”
He nodded. “I’m certainly going to try.”
Gail’s father stepped forward and I could tell he’d spent a good amount of time crying. “Would you like us to help with the, er, arrangements?”
Nolan gave them a sad smile. “You know Gail. Everything was prearranged and paid for. She always said that if something happened she didn’t want us dealing with such things.”
My eyes misted up a bit and I moved away from the discussion and went to stand at the back window, looking out over Marie’s well-manicured backyard. Bones, the old hound dog I’d inherited with the house and rehomed with Marie, was lying in the backyard, stretched out in the sun and enjoying the afternoon. He was completely oblivious to all the sadness and turmoil around him.
If only everyone could view life from the perspective of an aging hound dog.
*
Just after midnight, I peered over a hedge and checked out the house. The front porch light was on but that was it. Looked like no one was home. Perfect. I could retrieve the camera, and hopefully, Sinful’s latest nightmare would be over by tomorrow morning. I’d driven through downtown and spotted Carter’s truck at the sheriff’s department, then went back home and pulled on a black hoodie before setting out. I took a circuitous route to the house, making sure that Carter wasn’t lurking somewhere on foot, as he sometimes did, but all appeared to be clear. All I needed was ten uninterrupted minutes. Then I’d have the camera secured and would be back in my kitchen watching the footage that hopefully would nail a murderer.
I slipped down the side of the house and pushed up the window I’d left unlocked the night before when I’d placed the camera in an air vent in Nolan’s living room. I lifted myself over the window ledge and rolled silently onto the carpeted floor, pausing for a moment to listen. The house was completely silent, and I moved quickly to the couch and climbed on the back directly below the air vent. I pulled a screwdriver out of my pocket and removed the vent from the wall. I flipped the vent over, expecting to see the camera on the back of a vent slat, where I’d attached it, but it was gone.
“Looking for something?” Nolan’s voice sounded behind me and I turned around, still balanced on the back of the couch. He stood in the hallway that led to the guest room, a pistol with suppressor leveled at me. The camera dangling in his other hand.
“I set up my own little televised network days ago,” he continued. “I was afraid if I couldn’t get out of Sinful soon enough, something like this might be in the cards.”
“I see you’ve had a miraculous recovery,” I said, and pointed to his legs.
“I think we both know that’s not the case. You know, I wondered which of you it was. Carter couldn’t do it without a court order, and he needed a good reason and time to get one. Marie was out because, well, she would never have made the leap you did. But the three of you…you’ve managed to be in the middle of everything that happens in Sinful. I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep your nose out of this. I just didn’t expect you to hit on the answer so soon.”
“I’m so sorry I interrupted your murder-and-insurance-grab timeline.”
“No interruption. Merely a small delay that caused another shift in plans, like the one created by that idiot Derrick. If he hadn’t catfished that Latour woman and brought attention to all of this, Gail might have had another six months or a year of life.”
“You’re despicable.”
He smiled. “I’m clever. Derrick did it all wrong and got caught. Greed is the problem with the short game. If Derrick hadn’t asked for such a large amount, she probably wouldn’t have reported him. None of my victims came trotting forward until Beulah started braying like an injured donkey.”
“So you figured you’d make Gail another victim of the catfish, except this time, you’d escalate it.”
“It did seem to be the easiest solution for a speedy exit. By tomorrow, I’ll have a death certificate in hand and the insurance company is already prepared to expedite my check.”
“I’m sure your partner Francesca is only too happy to see to it that it happens. What’s her cut—twenty percent? Half? Or maybe she’s your partner in more than just crime.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re even more clever than I realized. Perhaps I’m not the only person in Sinful who isn’t what they seem. It’s almost a shame to kill you. You would have made a great criminal.”