Stephanie Doyle - Suspect Lover

“Ask me,” Anne insisted.

“Why?” It was barely a whisper because there was no saliva left in her mouth.

“Well, there’s Denny’s program. It’s going to be very useful to me when I take over the company. Daddy says we’re going to make more money than we have ever dreamed of.”

“Russell’s involved, too.”

“He knows about the program. He just doesn’t know everything I had to do to get it. And I did have to do a lot. The money I’m going to make will be my reward. In fact, I don’t know that all of this would have been worth it otherwise.” Then Anne seemed to reconsider that statement. “Or maybe it would have been. I’m not sure. Actually this has all been rather exciting for me. I had always heard that revenge could be sweet, but I didn’t know it could be fun, too.”

“Revenge against me for what?” Caroline asked. “I barely know you.”

“Not against you. Dominic, silly. Maybe you weren’t aware of this, but your husband did something no one else has ever done.”

“Rejection hurts,” Caroline said remembering what Anne had said about never being denied.

“I really don’t like it,” she said.

Caroline started thinking about escape. There had been no gunshot, so whatever she’d done to Nora, she hadn’t shot her. If she’d surprised her somehow, knocked her out, maybe she was recovering and calling for help. She had to believe that because physically she didn’t match up with Anne. The woman had arms forged like steel. There was only one place where they might fight as equals.

“I just couldn’t have it. I mean, look at me, Caroline. If Dominic was going to have either one of us, clearly I’m the logical choice.”

“Clearly,” Caroline muttered, her eyes once again falling to the gun. “So this all began when Dominic married me?”

“No. Before then. Right after he turned me away. You see, Daddy always taught me never to take no for an answer. That’s how you get what you want in life. But that wasn’t working with Dominic. It made me very angry. So I decided if I couldn’t have him, I would take the one thing he cared about most.”

“His company.”

Anne beamed. “Bingo.”

She was getting close to the end of her story. There was no sound from upstairs. Caroline was going to have to act soon.

“I started sleeping with Denny. Let me tell you what a chore that was, but it was the only way I could get the information I needed about Dominic. You see, Denny and Dominic knew each other long before Steven came along. I found out all about Dominic’s nefarious past and that’s when I decided how I would get even.”

“Doesn’t seem fair to Denny.”

“No, I suppose it wasn’t. And naturally he almost ruined everything by telling Dominic what he was working on. I wanted to have the program in my hand before I did anything. Not that it mattered. Denny had to die because by doing so, his shares in the company reverted to Steven and Dominic. I fixed the books to make it look like Dominic was embezzling money, then had the files saved on his hard drive. Serena was very helpful for the low, low price of one hundred thousand dollars. Turns out her niece back in Mexico was sick, poor thing. The visa for her brother was taking too long, so Serena was going to use the money to hire a coyote to smuggle her brother and niece across the border. I actually considered letting her keep the money, but of course I couldn’t. She knew too much.”

Caroline wanted to throw up as the woman casually rattled off her reasons for the multiple murders.

“Dominic goes back to jail, a very fitting revenge. He sells his shares to Steven to save the company. I produce a child that guarantees the company gets passed to us. I really mean to me. And I win. The one thing I didn’t count on was…”

“Me,” Caroline answered.

“You. You get pregnant and maybe Dominic doesn’t sell his shares. You have a baby and I have to share the company. I don’t like to share. The plan was to get you out of the way first, but, like I said, Denny ruined all that. If you had gone home and not come back, I could have spared you. I’m not a monster, Caroline. I’ve already gotten everything I want. But then Steven said you were both back, and well, you need to die. Sorry.” Anne shrugged as if she truly were.

“Steven is down at police headquarters right now. They know Dominic didn’t kill Denny. You’ve lost. You can’t possibly hope to avoid being caught.”

“Not if Dominic comes home and kills his wife and the FBI agent with her in a fit of rage because he truly is a twisted psychopath. I’ve heard prison can do that to a man. Then he kills himself and we’re back to square one. You’re a mystery writer, Caroline. You know how it’s done. You need evidence. You can’t arrest anyone without it. There is no proof that Steven killed anyone. And there is no proof that I did. Maybe people will have their suspicions, but there won’t be anything they can do about it. We’re going to go upstairs and wait for Dominic to come home and when he does, this is all finally going to play out. Lucky for me Daddy is at this moment taking a woman I set him up with-one who, coincidentally, looks very much like me-out on the town where a number of security cameras are sure to provide me with a solid alibi.” Anne shook the gun in her hand, indicating that Caroline should walk. “Go on. Let’s just get this over with.”

Yes. Over. Caroline took a deep breath and started to walk as if she were heading back into the house. Then at the last second she turned and threw herself at Anne.

Caroline had momentum and the element of surprise on her side. Both women plunged deep into the dark water.

“I have to talk to Steven.” Dominic told Mark. He must have conveyed his panic to the detective because Mark nodded his head once and escorted him back to the interrogation room.

Steven was still sitting there, looking as if his world had just crumbled around him. He might have seemed exceptionally guilty, too, but Dominic knew he wasn’t.

“Steven.”

The man turned around with a jerk and stared at Dominic. “I saw it happen. It was at that stupid Halloween party she threw last year. She wanted you. I could practically smell it on her. Then I saw her lead you down the hall to one of the back bedrooms and I couldn’t make myself follow you because I knew I would lose her.”

“I’m sorry you saw that. I didn’t know.” Dominic walked over and sat across from him. “Nothing happened.”

“I know. She was so furious when she rejoined the party. Said it was because the caterer messed up, but I knew. You had turned her down. She doesn’t handle no very well.”

Dominic closed his eyes. “You know, don’t you?”

Steven nodded and dropped his head between his hands. He chuckled hysterically for a minute and Dominic rested a hand on his shoulder to calm him. “Don’t you see? This is so like her. She’s so intense. Everything at full speed. Even her anger. Her revenge.”

“Where is she now?” Mark wanted to know.

“I left her at home. I told her you were back. That you’d been arrested and I had to come down and see what I could do. She said she would wait by the phone.” Steven’s breath caught in his throat. “She slept with Denny. She slept with him just to make all this happen.”

“Call her,” Mark prompted. “Tell her you need her to come down here to verify your alibi. Tell her the police suspect you and you need her help.”

Steven pulled out his cell phone and gripped it tightly in his hand. He looked up at the two men watching him and whispered, “She’s my wife.”

“She’s a murderer,” Mark told him coldly. “Make the call or we go and pick her up in a squad car.”