Just as Max was about to call her grandmother and make sure she’d talked to Caitlin, the front door opened and Caitlin rushed into the house. She stopped midstride and stared at Max.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. Her eyes darted down the hall. Toward her study? Toward William’s study? What would she do first? Make sure the gun was where she’d left it to frame him, or destroy the ultrasound picture she had stolen from a dead woman thirteen years ago?
Max figured she was here to destroy the picture. In fact, she was betting her life—and William’s—on it.
“You’re a lot smarter than I ever gave you credit for.”
“I’m calling the police. You’re harassing me and my family!”
“It’s my family,” Max said. “And please, call the police. I’m not letting you out of my sight until they arrive.”
Caitlin glanced back down the hall, but she obviously wanted to know what Max knew. “What are you talking about?”
“I know you killed Carrie Voss. I know you killed Jason Hoffman. Lindy? I’m not certain about. I haven’t figured out the logistics of how you killed Lindy and Carrie on the same night.”
“You’re insane.”
“I’ve been called worse.” Max sipped her mimosa. She’d only put a dollop of champagne in the glass, needing her full wits about her, but she wanted Caitlin to feel like she had the upper hand. That Max was sitting here drinking as she often did, casually. Chitchat. The Taser was accessible, but that was only if absolutely necessary. She needed Caitlin to confess. She wanted to believe in the system, that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict William, but sometimes the system failed. And sometimes the system hiccupped. And there were some people, like Kevin, who would die in limbo, neither guilty nor innocent.
Max didn’t want William to live in limbo. She had to settle this now.
“You broke into my house, you’re drinking my champagne, and you’re making awful accusations.”
Max tilted the flute in Caitlin’s direction. “Thank you for your hospitality. As for the accusations, they are truly awful. Awful crimes committed by an awful person.”
Tears welled in Caitlin’s eyes. “How can you say that about William?”
William? What the hell was she thinking? Max began to see that Caitlin had not only been rewriting history for the past thirteen years, she was rewriting the history of the last thirteen minutes, as if Max hadn’t already accused her of murder.
Caitlin said, “Do you know how many times he’s told me you’re like a sister to him? How often he’s defended you to the family when you go off and do embarrassing things?”
“William is flawed, like most of us, but he’s not a killer.”
“Get out of my house!”
Max didn’t budge. She took another sip, to steady her nerves. She hadn’t realized how difficult this was going to be. If she blew it, she wouldn’t blame Nick Santini for being angry with her for destroying his case. She’d never forgive herself, either.
“I have a theory about what happened the night Lindy was killed. I’m a little sketchy on the details, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. You followed William over to Lindy’s. Or you saw him leave. Whatever reason, you were so mad because you didn’t know that your best friend was sleeping with your boyfriend. At the time, your ex-boyfriend, but you and I both know you’d been obsessed with William for years. And honestly, I don’t blame you for being mad. William couldn’t keep it in his pants. He was rich, he was good-looking, he was charming. And a horny eighteen-year-old boy. And it’s not like he had a good role model. We all knew Brooks was cheating on Aunt Joanne long before I exposed him. Or, maybe, like you, she knew, but chose to look the other way.”
“William has always been faithful to me.”
“No.” Max stretched and put down the champagne flute. She rested her arms casually in her lap. “So you went over to confront Lindy. You could easily walk from your house. I don’t know what she said to you that set you off, or maybe it was nothing, because she was strangled from behind. Maybe you planned it all, heard William and Lindy fighting, and intentionally killed her hoping William would go to jail for it.
“Then, this is where I’m not sure, but the time line works. Carrie had lunch with Lindy earlier in the week. I’m thinking it was after Carrie’s appointment with the baby doctor. Carrie told Lindy she was pregnant and William was the father. She asked her for advice, why Lindy I don’t know except they’d been on the swim team together, so maybe they were sort of friends. Carrie didn’t know Lindy and William were screwing around behind your back.
“At some point, Carrie went home and fought with her mother, then said she was leaving for Europe. That bugged me because why would she say that if she didn’t have any money? Either she thought William would pay her off, or maybe Lindy said she’d give her money to leave. Because Lindy, for all her flaws and all her secrets, cared about you, she cared about me, she cared about William. And she knew William would marry Carrie because it would be the right thing to do. If not marry her, then he would support the baby. I know that in my heart because that is the person William is.”
Caitlin laughed. “God, you should write fiction, you’re so good at it. Or maybe you’re projecting on William what you wish your own father would have done. Oh, wait, you don’t even know who your father is.”
Max let it go. This wasn’t about her.
“For some reason—maybe for money or just a place to stay—Carrie goes to Lindy’s house. And she sees you standing over Lindy’s body. She runs and you kill her too. Maybe it’s an accident, maybe she hits her head, I don’t know because the police only found parts of her body.”
“What? What body?”
The fear was palpable in the room. Good. Caitlin was getting scared.