Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,110

God. My stomach lurched. The cremation oven?

Krissy motioned toward the door with the gun. “Not this time, Rhino. You guys have to get on the road. Now.”

He grimaced but ambled toward the doorway. “Fine. We’ll call you from Seattle.” Then he was gone.

“You’re completely in charge,” I murmured, shocked that Rhino had just left that easily.

“I know,” Krissy said, her plain tennis shoes shiny clean. “This is a great front, and believe it or not, selling illegal weapons is much more lucrative than funerals.” Now that the truth was out, she seemed to want to talk.

I looked for anything that could be used as a weapon in the room. “I had no clue you were involved,” I admitted, trying to keep her talking. “The whole battered woman farce worked well.” Then I paused and stared at her. “Wait a minute. In court, did you try to send Rich up the river on purpose? With your testimony?”

Her laugh was low, and then tears filled her eyes. “I love him, you know? Yeah, he beat the crap out of me, bu-bu-but we’re going to work it out.” She laughed harder.

“Wow.” So much surprise filled me that it might’ve been shock.

She preened. “I know.”

I thought back to my discussion with Pucci. “He said you started the fight the night before.”

She rolled her eyes. “I had to scratch him twice before he’d even push me. Oh, don’t get me wrong. That dick had no problem hitting a woman and had done so before. But yeah, I set him up. Him going to prison would’ve made things a lot easier for me. Of course, your boyfriend shooting him in the head worked just as well.”

Aiden could’ve died. I could’ve died. “You are such a bitch,” I said, my body tensing to attack.

“That’s just not nice.” She flicked her wrist to read her watch. “We’re going to have to make this quick. I told Kelsey I’d bring her lunch.”

I tried to focus and not drop into a panic attack. “Is Kelsey in on any of this?”

“Of course not,” Krissy scoffed. “Kelsey has never been able to deal with reality. She actually loved that moron Danny, if that tells you anything.”

Danny. I’d forgotten all about him. “You really disliked him.” I ran through the entire case. “Did you get in a fight with him in a bar?”

She laughed, and the sound was tinkly. “You mean when his neck got scratched? Yeah, that was me. The idiot told Kelsey that your sister had scratched him, and since I didn’t want her mad at me, I didn’t tell her the truth.”

Wow. What a wench. Wait a minute. Just how bad of a person was Krissy? I tilted my head and just stared at her.

Her smile was catlike. “Yes.”

My mouth dropped open. No way. “You killed Danny?”

She chuckled. “First, he hit my sister. Second, he figured out I was the one who’d taken the other half of the shipment. He threatened to tell Rich if I didn’t split the extra money with him. So much for family loyalty. That guy deserved to be put down.”

I levered up onto my knees and threw my arms out like I was angry. “Why did you kill him in Tessa’s apartment? Why get her involved?”

She kept the gun pointed at my head. “I slipped Kelsey’s phone from her at the concert and texted him that she wanted to keep him and figured out how. That she’d talked to Tessa, and they wanted to have a threesome. Can you believe it?”

“No,” I said. “He wasn’t that dumb.” Yet he probably was.

“I knew he kept trying to get back together with Tessa because Kelsey cried about it every freaking night.”

Even more anger started to uncoil inside me. “So you killed him there to cause Tessa problems? It wasn’t her fault.”

“Yeah, but the fact that she exists hurt my sister, and it was an easy way to get Danny where I wanted him. Your sister had left her window open, and the fire escape was close enough to climb in, so I just opened the door when he got there. Then I shot him.” Krissy sounded matter of fact now. “I had to get out of there fast, and I went back to the concert.”

The woman would have no problem shooting me, apparently. “Danny didn’t have time to use the toilet, so his fingerprint must’ve been there from a year before.” Another mystery solved.

“Hell if I know,” Krissy said, taking aim. “I’m sorry about this. You really