going to make all of this go away.
“I never killed any of them.” He sounded so vulnerable. “I promise you.”
Claire put her hand to her mouth so that she wouldn’t speak. She wanted to believe him. She so desperately needed to believe him.
“I didn’t even know what Dad was doing until after the car accident. I went into the barn and I found all of his … stuff.”
Claire bit her fist to keep from screaming. He was making it sound so logical.
“I was just a kid on my own. Tuition was due at the academy. I had college to think about. It was good money, Claire. All I had to do was make copies and send them out.”
Claire couldn’t breathe. She had spent that money. She had worn jewelry and clothes and shoes paid for by the blood and suffering of those poor girls.
“I promise you. It was only a means to an end.”
She couldn’t take this anymore. She was so close to her breaking point that she could practically feel herself bending.
“Claire?”
She said, “The movies on your computer weren’t old.”
“I know.” He was quiet for another moment, and she wondered if he was trying to think of a lie or already had one and was just pausing for effect. “I was a distributor. I never participated.”
Claire struggled with the urge to believe him, to hold on to this one piece of her husband’s humanity. “Who is the masked man?”
“He’s just a guy.”
Just a guy.
“You don’t have to worry about him.” Paul sounded like he was talking about an asshole from work. “You’re safe, Claire. You’re always safe.”
She ignored his comforts because her only other alternative was to believe him. “What’s on the USB drive?”
He went quiet again.
“Are you forgetting who gave you that Auburn keytag, Paul? I know there’s a USB drive inside the plastic disk, and I know you want it back because you put something on it for safekeeping.”
He kept silent.
“Why?” She couldn’t stop asking the question. “Why?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Is that some kind of stupid joke?”
“The plan had to be moved up. There were other things in play. I tried my best to keep you out of it. But what happened with that guy in the alley, the sentiment was real, Claire. You know I would lay down my life to protect you. Why do you think I’m still here? You’re everything to me.”
Claire shook her head. She was dizzy from all of his excuses.
He said, “The people who are into this stuff are not nice people. They’re powerful. They have a lot of money and influence.”
“Political influence.”
He made a surprised sound. “You were always so damn clever.”
Claire didn’t want to be clever anymore. She wanted to be in control. “It’s your turn to listen to me. Are you listening?”
“Yes.”
“If you hurt Lydia, I will hunt you down and burn you into the fucking ground. Do you understand me?”
“God, I love you like this.”
The phone clicked. He’d ended the call.
THIRTEEN
Lydia stared into the darkness of the trunk as she listened to the hum of wheels on the road. She had already run through all the things you were supposed to do if you ever got locked inside a trunk. Obviously, Paul had run through them, too. There were steel plates bolted to the back of the taillights so Lydia couldn’t punch them open and stick out her hand to wave down passing motorists. The emergency release latch had been disabled. There was another thick, steel plate between the trunk and the back seat so she couldn’t kick her way to freedom. She was pretty sure the area was insulated for sound, too. She couldn’t imagine Paul had padded the trunk for her comfort.
Which meant that he had designed this car specifically to hold a prisoner.
Lydia could hear Paul in the front of the car talking on the phone. There were only a few words she could make out, and they were all useless—yes, no, okay. Paul’s tone was brisk, so Lydia assumed he wasn’t talking to Claire. His voice was different when he talked to her sister. It made Lydia ill to think about how different it was, because Claire had been right: Paul made a conscious choice when he showed his dark side.
She had seen it on full display when he’d opened the trunk to take Lydia’s picture. She had watched him turn the darkness on and off like a light bulb. One minute, he was telling Claire to go check Lydia’s phone