rough stretch of late. You smack-talked your superiors in the department and went on a racist screed on Facebook. You were investigated for abusing your own sibling, who was entrusted to your care. You’re dependent on heavy pain medication for nasty burns. Your mentor was murdered, a crime you couldn’t solve. And to top it all off, your ex-husband, who allegedly tried to kill you, was released from prison, sending you into a tailspin of paranoia.”
Jessie didn’t mention that the first two items on his list were his doing and that she’d been exonerated on both counts, even if the public hadn’t fully accepted that. Nor did she note that neither of the next two allegations was accurate. She rarely took the pills and Garland’s killer was sitting in front of her now. Only the last claim had the ring of truth to it.
Kyle smiled cruelly, knowing he’d drawn blood. He happily continued.
“One could understand how that cascading series of events could send you into a deep depression, one you might not be able to pull out of. Friends and colleagues, looking back, would probably wish they’d seen the signs that fateful night, when you returned home, beaten down, in pain, and mourning. You decided it was just too much to bear. They’d be devastated but perhaps not surprised to learn that you killed your own sister and boyfriend, before trying to end your own, now-meaningless life. The note would explain it all.”
Jessie took it all in. It was quite a clever plan, almost poetic in a way. If he could pull it off, it would be quite a coup. He would actually be successfully enacting the scheme he’d plotted once before, when he killed his mistress and tried to pin it on Jessie. Two years later, he’d have completed an even more elaborate version, with her going to jail for not one murder, but two. And not for killing a stranger but instead the two people closest to her.
“That’s pretty good,” she conceded, replying not out of any genuine admiration but because if she didn’t speak, she feared she might scream. “But I was confused by one thing. You said I ‘try’ to end my own life? Do I not succeed?”
“That’s still TBD,” he admitted. “I’m thinking that after I kill Hannah and Ryan, I’ll ‘help’ you take your remaining pain pills. There are a lot of them left. After the one you took tonight, there are still seventeen. I’m no doctor but I’d imagine that could kill you. Or maybe result in permanent brain damage, or not. It doesn’t really matter that much.”
“It doesn’t?” Jessie repeated, legitimately surprised.
“Nope,” he said, pleased that he seemed to have stumped her. “Even if you survive and you still have your faculties, what are you going to do, blame it all on me?”
“I would think so.”
“Good luck. Hannah here will have been shot with your gun. I’m thinking I’ll take Ryan out with a knife from your set. The note will reference your paranoid suspicion that your boyfriend and half-sister were having a secret affair. It will serve as a confession from a woman who never expected to live. Even if you do survive, your protestations that your ex-husband somehow secretly snuck into your highly secure condo, despite police protection, and managed to kill your loved ones and frame you for their murders is unlikely to gain much traction.”
“You sure about that?” Jessie countered. “I know some folks in the FBI who might take my view of things.” But even before she finished saying it, her heart sank at the answer she knew was forthcoming.
“That’s the beauty of it. I’m fully aware of the operation your friend Agent Dolan has going, at least through the end of this week. In fact, I counted on it. He might believe your claims of innocence and accusations of my guilt. But that will only make it all the more painful for him when he has to admit that he has the very evidence that disproves your allegation. He’ll have to show the video of ‘me’ asleep in bed thirty-three miles away at the exact time these murders were committed. It’s delicious, don’t you think? What better alibi witnesses could I have than the FBI?”
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
The panic Jessie had been battling since this began reasserted itself.
Kyle was right. If this went as he planned, it would be like a boulder pushed down a hill. Unless you stopped it before it started down, there was no