on his jeans and a T-shirt and creeps out of the room. Once she’s asleep, she should be out cold until the twins start to cry around 6 a.m. He’ll be back by then. With any luck, she won’t even notice he’s gone. And if she does, he’ll say he couldn’t sleep and went for a drive to clear his head.
He gathers his wallet and keys and sneaks quietly out of the house, locking the door carefully behind him. He gets into his car, backs out of the driveway, and doesn’t turn his headlights on until he’s down the street. He takes the highway to Newburgh.
Erica is awakened by the sharp sound of her apartment buzzer. She lifts her head and looks at her clock radio – it’s 2:54 in the morning. The buzzer goes again, insistently.
She throws off her covers and pads in bare feet to her door. She speaks into the intercom. ‘Who’s there?’
‘It’s me. I want to talk.’
She recognizes Patrick’s voice. Her heart begins to beat more rapidly. ‘Okay. Come in.’
She wonders fleetingly if she should be afraid of him. She is, a little, but she thinks he’s finally ready to talk business. This could work out well for both of them – maybe he’s beginning to see that.
She’s pulling on her robe when she hears his knock. She finishes tying her robe, then opens the door.
He stares at her for a moment before he brushes past her to enter the apartment. She closes the door, trying to gauge his mood. He turns around to face her.
‘What brings you here in the middle of the night?’ she asks.
‘You need to stay the hell away from my wife!’ His voice is threatening.
This is not exactly what she was hoping for. She was hoping he would realize that the death of his current wife would be in their mutual interest. Whether it’s what he would have chosen or not. But instead he’s being protective of her.
‘Why would I do that?’ she says, in an equally hostile tone. ‘She deserves to know the truth – to know what you’re capable of.’
‘Cut the bullshit!’ he thunders. Then he walks closer and lowers his voice and says venomously, ‘I’ve had just about enough of this – and just about enough of you.’
She doesn’t pull back; she pushes her face up closer to his. ‘Don’t try to tell me you didn’t have something in mind for her before I came along. You married a woman you knew would inherit a fortune. And now she has. And let’s not forget the life insurance.’ She smiles coldly at him. ‘If I hadn’t come along, how would this story have ended?’ She sees the fury in his eyes. ‘Struck a nerve, have I? Ruined all your plans?’
‘You miserable, lying bitch,’ he seethes. ‘You’re so caught up in your own fantasies that you actually believe them!’
‘In case you haven’t noticed,’ she says, ‘I’ve got you in a tight spot. If your cheapskate wife dies now, before I go to the police in Colorado, no one has to suspect a thing, if you do it right. You’ll be free of her, and you can split her money with me – there’s plenty of it.’ He glares at her, speechless with rage. Erica says coolly, ‘The alternative is being investigated for the murder of your first wife. Once that happens, regardless of the outcome, you’d never be able to get rid of Stephanie, would you? You wouldn’t dare.’ She waits a beat and adds cruelly, ‘And maybe she’d divorce you and take her money with her.’
‘You selfish, amoral, greedy bitch,’ he snarls.
His opinion doesn’t bother her in the least. ‘So what are you going to do?’ she asks.
He looks back at her, his face so close to hers. She can see a vein throbbing with tension in his temple. She waits for his answer.
‘You’re assuming I’m a killer,’ he says, in desperation.
‘Aren’t you?’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ON THURSDAY MORNING, Hanna decides to invite Stephanie and the twins over for a playdate. She’s grown increasingly concerned about her neighbour. Stephanie is clearly exhausted, and Hanna can tell she’s finding it hard to cope. Who wouldn’t, with colicky twins and no mother of her own around to help? Hanna is more grateful to her own mother, who lives nearby, than she ever thought she’d be, and Teddy is an easy baby.
It had been upsetting, the other day, finding Stephanie’s door wide open and seeing her in such a state. Theirs is a nice neighbourhood,