up. His horrified gaze found Julian.
“Wha?” his father mumbled, barely understandably, but Julian couldn’t hear anyway, the gunshot ringing in his ears.
“Dad, did you really think I believed you when you said that we’d talk about it later?” Julian went to his father’s side, speaking into his ear. “Don’t kid a kidder, right? As soon as you said you wanted to be my partner, I knew you were going to take my company. So I’m taking yours.”
His father shook his head weakly. Blood spurted from his chest, lower than before. There was increasingly less volume for his heart to pump.
“I knew you’d never let me run Browne, even though I’m fully capable of it. I’ve been working for you since I was little. After we talked, I knew this was my chance. And it wouldn’t come again.”
Julian’s father kept shaking his head, wobblier now. His eyelids fluttered. Pinkish bubbles slaked his chin. Blood drenched his white shirt.
“Almost finished, Dad. It will look like Mac stabbed you, but it won’t look like you shot him. Your fingerprints won’t be on the gun. There won’t be any residue on your hand. We have to fix that.”
His father’s eyes went glassy. He slumped lower in the couch. He was going into shock. He paled. Blood leaked from his mouth.
Julian placed the gun in his father’s hand, wrapped his father’s fingers around the handle, and put his father’s index finger on the trigger. Julian aimed at Mac and used his father’s finger to fire. It wasn’t easy, but it was doable.
Boom! Julian winced from the loud blast. Another crimson burst exploded on Mac’s corpse, around the shoulder.
Julian let the gun fall from his father’s hand. He stepped away, to watch. His father’s breathing began to slow. Bloody foam bubbled from his lips. His head dropped to the side. His legs twitched. His breathing stilled and finally ceased.
Julian double-checked the scene. It was perfect. When the police finally came, it would look as if the two men had killed each other. The police would investigate, find that Mac worked for his father, and assume that they’d gotten into a fight while drinking. The gun couldn’t be traced to Julian. He’d bought it on the street with the serial number scratched off. The hunting knife could be bought anywhere, and he’d paid cash.
Julian was getting the hang of this. You had to be good in an emergency—that was the key to everything.
He didn’t need anyone’s help to kill Allie. He would do it himself.
CHAPTER 76
Larry Rucci
Larry kept an eye on the dot on the screen that said ALLIE’S PHONE. He was still on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but Allie had gone over the bridge into New Jersey and had gotten off at an exit. He couldn’t understand where she was going.
Larry frowned, trying to figure it out. He had grown up in Clifton, in northern New Jersey, and lived his whole life in the state. He knew it well. He’d never heard Allie mention the name of anybody she knew there. Larry was dying to know what her secret was. It was almost impossible for him to believe that something that happened in high school could be that terrible, other than the fact that her sister had died, but he knew all about that.
Larry switched into the slow lane, hoping to pass the pickup in front of him in the fast lane, who’d been ignoring him flashing his high beams. Allie was about half an hour ahead of him, and he needed to catch up. There was less traffic now that rush hour was over, and he could see the orangey lights of the bridge to New Jersey up ahead, a tall arch that made a bright arc against the night.
Larry bit his lip, beginning to worry. He didn’t believe Allie was jerking him around. She’d sounded so certain. Determined. He’d feel better if he knew where she was going. He decided to call her and tell her he was following her. She could get mad at him, but she was the one with the big bad secret.
Larry picked his phone off the dashboard, alarmed to see that the battery icon was on red, at eight percent. He had no idea when that happened. He looked for his car charger in the slot under the radio, but it wasn’t there. He went inside the console and felt around, then remembered that he had taken the car charger out the other day and forgotten to put it back