Jonathan Kellerman - Silent Partner

She ran over and sank to her knees. “That’s what amused her the most, Alex! That he’d never known the truth- all the time he thought he was doing it for me !”

She took hold of my shirt, pulled me to her, to her breasts. “She said that made me a murderer too. That when you really got down to it, we were one and the same!”

I helped her up, then lowered her back to the bed. She lay down, curled fetally, eyes wide open, arms wrapped around her trunk like a straitjacket.

I patted her, stroked her, said, “She wasn’t you. You weren’t her.”

She uncurled her arms and put them around me. Drew me down, bathed my face with kisses. “Thank you, Alex. Thank you for saying that.”

Slowly, gently, I drew myself away, still patting. Saying, “Go on. Get it out.” The therapist’s prompt…

She said, “Then her laughter got crazy- weird, hysterical. All of a sudden she stopped laughing completely, looked at me, then down at herself, all the blood, and started to tear off her clothes. Coming down hard. Realizing what she’d done: By destroying Paul, she’d destroyed herself. He was everything to her, the closest she’d ever come to a father. She needed him, depended on him, and now he was gone and it was her fault. She fell apart, right before my eyes. Decompensating. Sobbing- not play-acting now, real tears- just wailing like a helpless baby. Begging me to bring him back, saying I was smart, I was a doctor, I could do it.

“I could have calmed her down. The way I’d done so many times before. Instead, I told her Paul was never coming back, that it was her fault, she’d have to pay, no one would be able to protect her from this one, not even Uncle Billy. She looked at me in a way I’d never seen before- scared to death. Like a condemned woman. Started in again, begging me to bring Paul back. I repeated that he was dead. Said the word over and over. Dead. Dead. Dead. She tried to come to me for comfort. I pushed her away, slapped her hard, once, twice. She backed away from me, stumbled, fell, reached into her purse and took out her daiquiri flask. Drank it, slobbering and crying, letting it dribble down her chin. Then out came her pills. She took handfuls of them, began gobbling them down. Stopping every few seconds to stare at me- daring me to stop her, the way I’d done so many times before. But I didn’t. She lurched into my bedroom, still carrying her purse- stark naked, but with the purse, she looked so… pathetic.

“I followed her in. She took something else out of the purse. A gun. A little gold-plated pistol I’d never seen before. My new toy , she said. Like it? Got it on Rodeo fucking Drive. Broke it in today . Then she pointed it at me, tightened her finger on the trigger. I was sure I was going to die, but I didn’t beg, just remained calm, looked her straight in the eye, and said, ‘Go ahead, spill some more innocent blood. Get filthier, you worthless piece of scum.’ ”

“Then the strangest look came onto her face. She said, ‘I’m sorry, partner,’ put the gun to her temple, and pulled the trigger.”

Silence.

“I just sat there looking at her for a while. Watching her bleed, her soul pass out of her. Wondering where it was headed. Then I called Uncle Billy. He took care of the rest.”

My chest hurt. I realized I’d been holding my breath and let it out.

She lay there, gradually loosening, getting dreamy-eyed. “And that’s all there is, my darling. An ending. And a beginning. For us.”

She sat up, smoothed her hair, loosened the top button of her dress, and leaned forward. “I’m cleansed now. Free. Ready for you, Alex- ready to give you everything, to give myself in a way I’ve never given to anyone. I’ve waited so long for this moment, Alex. Never thought it would come.” She reached for me.

Now it was my turn to get up and pace.

“This is a lot to handle,” I said.

“I know it is, darling, but we’ve got time. All the time in the world. I’m finally free.”

“Free,” I said. “And rich. I never thought of myself as a kept man.”

“Oh, but you wouldn’t be. I’m really not an heiress. Mr. Belding’s will says the money stays in the corporation.”

“Still,” I said, “with Uncle Billy administering everything- the way he feels about you, life’s bound to be pretty luxurious.”

“No, it doesn’t have to be. I don’t need that. Money was never important to me- not for its own sake, or for the things it could buy. That was her thing. When she found out who she was, she freaked out, started screaming at Uncle Billy, accused him of ripping her off and threatened to take him to court. Such greed- she already had more than she needed. She even tried to get me to go along with her, but I refused. That really made her vicious.”

“How far did she go with the threat?”

“Not far. Uncle Billy managed to calm her down.”

“How?”

“I have no idea. But let’s not talk about her anymore. Or money, or anything negative. I’m here, with you. In this wonderful place, where no one can find us or soil us. You and me and Shirlee. We’ll make a family, be together forever.”

She came toward me, lips parted for a kiss.

I held her at arm’s length.

“It’s not that simple, Sharon.”

Her eyes went big. “I… I don’t understand.”

“There are problems. Things that don’t make sense.”

“Alex.” Tears. “Please don’t play games with me, not after what I’ve been through.”

She tried pushing against me. I held her fast.

“Oh, Alex, please don’t do this to me. I want to touch you, want you to hold me!”

“Sherry killing Kruse,” I said. “It wasn’t about the party- that may have been the final straw, but she’d been planning it, paying off D.J. Rasmussen for at least two weeks before then. Thousands of dollars. Priming him for the big job.”

She gasped, reversed her movements, trying to free herself from my grasp. Still I held fast.

“No,” she said. “No, I don’t believe that! As bad as she was, that’s not true!”

“It’s true, all right. And you know it better than anyone.”

“What do you mean?” And all at once her face- that flawless face- was ugly.

Ugly with rage. Empathic failure …

“What I mean is that you set it up. Planted the seeds. Sent her a six-year-old dissertation and confirmed her worst anxieties.”

Her eyes went wild. “Go to hell.”

She twisted, tried to free herself.

“You know it’s true, Sharon.”

“Of course it isn’t true. She didn’t read. She was a stupid, stupid girl, didn’t like books! And you’re stupid for even saying something like that!”

“This is one book she would have struggled through. Because you’d been priming her for it- using the same techniques Kruse used on you. Verbal manipulations, hypnotic suggestions. Things you suggested to her while she was under, then ordered her to forget- about Kruse and you, his liking you better. She was borderline from the beginning, but you pushed her over the border. The sad thing is, you’d gotten over there yourself, first.”

She snarled, turned her fingers into claws and tried to sink her nails into my hands. We wrestled, panting. I managed to get both of her wrists in one hand, used the other to hold her fast.

“Let go of me, you bastard! Ow, you’re hurting me! Fuck you, let go!”

“How long did it take, Sharon? To break her, turn her on Paul?”

“I didn’t! You’re crazy! Why would I?”

“To clean things up. Get free. Get rid of someone you finally realized had been manipulating you instead of helping you. What made you break? Finding the two of them? Up in her room, doing what they’d probably been doing for years? Or maybe she’d told you about it when you hypnotized her. Incest. The worst kind. Daddy fucking her. He was your daddy too. And, by doing it, fucking you over.”