a part too. That’s what I say. It’s fifty percent determination and hard work, twenty-five percent skill and ability, and at least… at least, twenty-five percent luck.”
“Luck’s something I’ve been down on recently,” he mumbled, still not looking at me.
“Luck?” I said. “You don’t feel lucky? I could change that. Just tell me exactly what it is you want.”
But he turned abruptly, suddenly catching my gaze like a fish on a hook. “We do need to have a little chat,” he said. “You’re right.”
I felt my lips tremble into a small smile. You could hear it in the breath I exhaled, measure its molecules in the air dancing between us. Finally, finally we’d deal with this. I’d find out once and for all if they knew anything and what exactly they wanted from me. But I heard myself say, “About what?”
“About your husband,” Dan said.
That very same relief quickly morphed into a heart-jammering dread.
“You might want a drink,” Dan suggested. “I realize the subject is very, very sensitive.” He left the room with purpose. Kate stood like a bouncer against the door. Jen’s gaze followed me, her eyes wide. The look on her face was sympathetic, almost apologetic. Dan came back with a bottle of Mumm, popped the cork and filled up my Thermos to the brim. “Let’s not pretend anymore,” he said, giving me one of his winks and white, flashy smiles. Dan’s charm was almost like a separate being, with a separate soul. Disarming. He was like a professional actor. The very same smile filled his pockets every day with generous tips from desperate women. Women like me. But his false charm meant nothing to me now.
Up until now I had stopped the Mumm. I was trying to stay alert. But I didn’t want to make waves, so I gulped down the champagne. My mouth felt dry. The truth was, the bubbles were deliciously welcome.
Lifting my eyes to Dan’s sickeningly handsome face—because it did now make me sick—I said, “What exactly do you want to talk about?”
“Can’t you guess?” Did I detect a trace of a smirk edging up the corners of his lips?
I opened my mouth to speak but instead raised the Thermos to my mouth and swallowed another gulp. My heart scampered all over the place, my mind pacing up and down, scanning the galaxy of possibilities of what could happen next.
Dan looked at his sisters then said, “This accident that you say happened? That involved your husband.”
“That I ‘say’ happened? What, you think I invented it? You can read about it in the news!”
“Oh, we know there was an ‘accident,’ but what kind of accident, that’s the million-dollar question.” His choice of words held more weight than he realized.
“What the hell are you getting at?” I said. The stench of fear made it hard to breathe.
“It’s funny,” he continued, “because we found out that Juan Trujillo may not have definitively died in that accident. No body was ever found. The California Highway Patrol even searched with dogs.”
“That means nothing,” I retorted. “Juan’s car flew off that cliff! It exploded on impact. It’s no wonder they found nothing. Everyone was perfectly satisfied with the circumstantial evidence, even the insurance company.”
“Handy,” Kate joined in, “that you benefited so nicely from Juan Trujillo’s life insurance policy. With him being such a high earner. That was a shitload of money they paid out. Enough to pay off all the federal estate tax for Cliffside and a shitload more into the bargain.”
My pulse skipped a beat. “How do you know how much insurance was paid out?” Had they been snooping through my files? Most of my paperwork was locked, but the hiding place for the key was an old tea tin in the kitchen. “How do you know about the life insurance payment, Kate?”
“Just a good guess,” she said, her face a little flushed. “Him being a lawyer and all.”
“Anyway, everyone knows what happened,” I said, “that Juan was driving to the airport and en route he swerved on that nasty bend near Ragged Point—there are skid marks still on the road, all this time later. Everyone knows how treacherous that highway is, particularly there. It’s not the first time a car has ended up on those rocks below.”
“But nobody saw the actual crash,” Kate went on. “At least, not till the car had already been in flames for a while. Car debris was found, yet no body parts.”
“What are you insinuating?”
“We’ve been thinking that maybe, just maybe, he didn’t