His jaw was tight, trembling, and his eyes were glassy. Alcohol? Fear? Regret? Max didn’t care. She needed the truth.
“That night, when Lindy died, William came to my house after midnight and said he and Lindy had gotten into a huge fight. He admitted they’d been bed buddies for a year—even while he was dating Caitlin and Lindy was with Kevin. He said he’d been vicious with her, accusing her of all sorts of shenanigans, when she broke up with him. Said she didn’t want to go public, that she didn’t trust him, that she wanted a clean break. He left my house at one, and I went over to her house, just to talk to her. If William was that upset, she must be, too. I found her in the clubhouse. She was dead. I was … in shock. I stared at her body. Then I knew William was going to go to jail. I thought of you because—”
“Don’t. Don’t put me in this!” She pounded her fist on the bar. This wasn’t what she thought she’d hear. Why did she think that she would have accepted the truth better if Andy had killed Lindy?
Except, how could she even believe him? Maybe he was lying … again.
“William was like your brother. And I thought of me, because I’ve been his best friend our entire lives. I love him more than my own brothers, because he’s always been there for me. Always. So I was there for him. I picked her up and was going to put her in her pool knowing that would mess with any evidence, at least enough for reasonable doubt. But the pool house at the school was closer, and there was a car in her driveway, I didn’t know who might be home. And I thought the longer before she was found, the better chance that all the evidence would be gone.”
“If I believe you, that makes you an accessory after the fact.”
“I did it for you and William.”
“What did William say when you told him?”
“We never talked about it.”
“What?” She had to be hearing wrong. “You cleaned up after your best friend killed someone in anger and you never discussed it? Not even a wink, wink, nod, nod?”
Max shook her head. This just wasn’t happening.
“I think you killed her,” she said. Andy was capable of losing his temper. He was affable and charming most of the time, but as she’d seen the other night when he threatened her at the Menlo Grill, and then the attack on her to get the diary. William would never have wielded a hammer. It was laughable. And her attacker wasn’t as tall as William.
Her attacker wasn’t as tall as Andy either, she realized.
“I am telling you the truth.” He looked over her shoulder. “My flight is boarding.”
“No.”
“You can’t stop me, Max.”
“Why are you fleeing the country if you’re so innocent?”
“It’s a business trip. I’ll be back in ten days.”
“You’re not going. Do you realize Lindy might have been alive when you dropped her in the pool?”
“She was dead.”
“The coroner reported that there was water in her lungs. You’ll never know if you really did kill her. You might have been able to save her life.”
“You fucking bitch. That’s not true!”
Behind her, she heard, “Andrew Talbot, you’re under arrest.”
She turned and was stunned to see Nick with two Homeland Security guards and two Menlo Park police officers. She stared at him, not quite making the connection.
“Why are you here?”
“To arrest Mr. Talbot.”
She blinked, glanced from Nick to Andy. Andy looked as surprised as she felt. “How did you know?”
Nick tilted his head. “Know what?”
“Why are you arresting him?”
“We got the surveillance photos from outside your hotel. He was the person following you in the black sedan on Tuesday.”
Max whipped around and faced Andy again. “You followed me? Did you attack me too?”
“I would never hurt you!”
But he wasn’t looking at her. He was lying. She felt ill.
“He wouldn’t,” Nick said, “but he would hire someone. We found the guy, got his van on surveillance cameras outside the storage unit where you were attacked last night. He’s in holding. He’s already talked. He also admitted to breaking into Kevin O’Neal’s apartment when you were there last week.”
Max turned to Andy and said, “Where’s Lindy’s diary?” When Andy didn’t say anything, she said, “Where, dammit!”
Max reached back to hit him and Nick caught her wrist. “I would love to let you deck him. But I can’t, at least not in front of all these witnesses and security cameras that could very easily get leaked.”
She pulled away from Nick and walked down the terminal. She had to get away from Andy, from Nick, from everyone. She needed time to absorb the monumental screwup she was to have trusted people—again—that she should never have trusted.
William. She loved him like the brother she’d never had. She didn’t see him as a killer. She couldn’t.
But he’d lied. When she caught him in his lies, he could have easily made up another. Was she that easily fooled? Were her reporter instincts nonexistent when it came to her family?
Several minutes later, Nick caught up with her.
“Max, let’s sit down.”
“No.” She paced. She didn’t care that people were looking at them, or that she’d created a scene. “I wanted the truth,” she said quietly.
Nick steered her to a bench of seats as far away from the others as he could find. Max didn’t want to sit, but let him push her into the seat. “What did he say to you?”
“He made the anonymous call to frame Kevin for Lindy’s murder.” As she said it she accepted it.
“He admitted it?”
Nick sounded surprised.
“I knew it was him when I heard the dispatch recording. After the first day when there was a ruckus in the courtroom, the judge banished everyone. I was there that day, and the day I testified, and that was it. I never heard the tape before.”