there were some things he would have to do now if it was going to work.
“Please, Charlie, I’m dying,” Carrie managed. “Take me to the hospital. I won’t tell what happened.”
“I’m so sorry. I’m going to help you.”
“Thank you.”
Benedict looked around until he spotted Carrie’s purse. It was lying on the couch. He opened it and found the key to her Porsche and a ring that held many more keys. Benedict dangled the key ring in front of Carrie’s eyes.
“Which key opens your front door?”
“What?” Carrie asked dully. She was having trouble focusing.
“We’re going to the hospital, but you have to tell me what key opens your front door so I can help you.”
Carrie stared at Benedict. He wasn’t making sense, but she was also finding it hard to think clearly. She pointed to her house key.
“Are any of these other keys for a car Horace drives?”
“Jesus, it hurts.”
“Focus, Carrie. Are any of these keys for a car Horace drives?”
Carrie started to gag but she forced herself to point to a key.
“What car is this key for?” Benedict asked.
“Bentley,” she gasped.
“Good girl. Now let’s take care of you.”
Benedict picked up the wounded prosecutor. She was heavy, and it was a struggle to get her down the steps to the garage. He opened the Porsche’s trunk and dropped her in it.
“Oh, God!” Carrie shouted.
Benedict grabbed the towel, rolled it in a ball so that Carrie’s blood was on the inside, slammed the lid of the trunk, and raced upstairs. As he climbed the stairs he could hear Carrie pounding on the inside of the trunk. It was unnerving, but Benedict forced himself to ignore the sound. The farther he got from the garage, the more distant the thump-thump-thump became until the sound disappeared completely by the time he entered his kitchen.
Benedict found a Tupperware container and put the rolled-up towel in it. He sealed the lid, opened the freezer, and stashed the container in the back of the compartment. Then he grabbed some ice cubes and closed the freezer. His heart was racing. He dropped the ice cubes into a glass and fixed a stiff drink. He pressed the cold glass to his forehead and took deep breaths until he was calm. As he relaxed, Benedict remembered how Carrie’s naked body had looked when he maneuvered her so the sex would look real in the DVD.
“What a waste,” he thought as he surveyed his living room. He’d have to clean up the pieces of the broken vase. He didn’t see any blood, but there might be hair or fibers on the couch where Blair had sat when she viewed the DVD. He’d have to do something about that. His Dustbuster came to mind.
The alcohol he was drinking started to have the desired effect. When Benedict was calmer he began to fine-tune his plan. It was no secret that the Blairs’ marriage was on the rocks. He wondered how many people at the Rankin, Lusk cocktail party had seen them argue. But many married couples argue without resorting to murder to settle their differences. What made the Blairs’ situation different was their prenup. Had Carrie lasted until the end of this week, it would have cost Horace Blair twenty million dollars, and twenty million dollars was an excellent motive for murder. While Carrie was bleeding out in his living room it had occurred to Benedict that no one would suspect him of killing Carrie if Horace Blair was sent to prison for murdering his wife.
Charlie was very good at developing his own magic tricks. Plotting Horace Blair’s downfall was a lot like storyboarding a large illusion, like the one David Copperfield had created when he made the Statue of Liberty disappear. Benedict got a legal pad from his home office and started writing an outline. He’d have to get rid of the body, and he’d have to leave clues in the grave that would point to Blair. One clue would be the bullet that killed Blair’s wife. It would be found during an autopsy.
Of course the police would need the murder weapon to make the match, and they would have to find it where it would implicate Blair. That’s why he’d asked Carrie about the key to Horace’s Bentley.
Working on his illusion relaxed Benedict, and he was totally calm by the time it was complete. He had a good idea of where to bury Carrie. He’d had a brainstorm about a clue he could leave in the grave shortly after he’d given