She strode down the hall toward her study.
Max grabbed her purse and followed.
Caitlin burst into her study and went right for her wedding picture. Instead she stared at a blank wall.
She turned around and shouted, “Where is it? Where’s my picture?”
“Why?”
“You bitch! You don’t know anything!”
Caitlin lunged for her, but Max sidestepped away.
“What don’t I know?” Max said. “Did I get something wrong?”
“Do you know what it’s like loving someone who doesn’t love you? I’ve done everything for William. Everything. I love him so much and he hurts me again and again. Why am I not enough for him?”
Max wanted to say something cutting, but she needed Caitlin to go on. Because Max knew she had a lot of holes in her theory, and hoped Caitlin would fill them in. She needed Caitlin to confess. Right now it was all circumstantial.
“Lindy called me Saturday morning and told me that William got that slut Carrie Voss pregnant. She said to forget William, Carrie was going to tell him about the baby and William was going to be paying for the rest of his life. Lindy said I could do better. I didn’t want better! I wanted William! And then—I saw William’s car parked down the street and saw them. Saw them making out. She wanted William all to herself. I didn’t even believe then that Carrie was pregnant, it was all Lindy’s lies to get me to walk away. While she got him. That wasn’t right! It wasn’t fair! I walked and walked and came back and he was gone. Lindy wasn’t in her house, so I went to the clubhouse and … and I saw her there, dead. He killed her. And that’s what I’m going to tell the police.”
“Whose fingerprints are on the ultrasound picture? Yours? Or William’s?”
Rage and fear twisted Caitlin’s face until Max was certain she saw the ugly, broken soul underneath the surface.
She has no soul.
“Give it to me.”
The front door slammed closed and Max frowned. She hadn’t gotten a confession yet. No one should be here.
“Mommy? We’re hungry.”
Not Tyler. Not the boys.
“In here, baby!” Caitlin called.
“Tyler!” Max shouted. “Go back to the car!”
He came into the doorway, a confused look on his face. “Auntie Max?”
“Come to me,” Max said, crossing the room toward the four-year-old.
Caitlin got to him first and ran out of the room.
“Nick!” Max called.
Nick and his team were upstairs recording everything, listening for the confession Max had promised she could get. She had failed, and now Tyler was in danger.
Nick was already running down the stairs.
Max met him in the hall. “She went out through the side door. She has the boys.”
Nick ran out the front and Max ran out the side. Caitlin was already in her Range Rover. Max didn’t have time to get to the Jag, which was parked at a neighbor’s house.
Caitlin turned the ignition and Max ran to the driver’s side of the car. The door was locked. Max jumped onto the narrow running board, wishing she had smaller feet but glad she’d worn her sneakers.
The boys were crying in the backseat, and she could see that Tyler wasn’t buckled into his booster seat. Talbot was still in his car seat.
All Max could think about was that Caitlin had nothing to lose. That she would kill herself and the boys to hurt William the only way she could still hurt him—by taking away the two things he loved more than life itself, his kids.
As the SUV gained speed down the street, Max started to lose her grip. She grabbed the luggage rack on top and pulled herself up onto the roof. She faced backwards, holding on with both hands. She had no plan, her brain told her this was the stupidest thing she’d ever done, but she could not let Caitlin drive off with the boys.
Caitlin wove through the wide streets of Atherton at thirty miles an hour. In two minutes, she’d be on a main street and it would be easy to force Max off by slamming on the brakes. She’d go flying.
Nick was following them in his Bronco. Great, make Caitlin drive even faster. But he was gaining on them.
Nick’s head came out the driver’s side window. He was holding his gun.
What the hell did he think he was doing? There were two little boys in the car!
Caitlin slowed for a stop sign, but didn’t stop. Nick used that opportunity to shoot out both rear tires. Because Caitlin was slowing, the SUV rocked but didn’t flip over. She tried to keep moving forward, but the rear wheels were rolling on the rims, and the car slowed down.
Max jumped off the roof and ran along the slowing car. “Tyler! Unlock the door!”
Caitlin was crying, trying to steer, putting on the gas but not going fast enough.
Nick had jumped out of his Bronco and was running to catch up with them.
As soon as Tyler unlocked the car, Max opened the back door and climbed in. Her breath was coming in gasps. Talbot was crying hysterically. Tyler looked terrified. Max hugged him tight.
“No, no, no!” Caitlin cried as the car jerked forward, then came to a stop.
Max unbuckled Talbot and took the two boys out of the car. She sat on the side of the road holding them close and watched as Nick put handcuffs on Caitlin. He walked her over to his Bronco and put her in the back, then came back to where Max was still sitting, trying to console the terrified children.
Nick squatted next to her. “That was really stupid, Maxine.”
She nodded. She couldn’t talk. She kissed each boy on the head, breathing in their little boy smells.
And then Nick grabbed her face and kissed her.
Chapter Twenty-seven