Brenda Novak - The Perfect Murder

“Adrift, mostly. I’d let myself depend on him and on our lifestyle so much that it felt as if I’d lost everything. I’d been out of the workforce for several years-and I’d never made much money when I was working. I had a cosmetology license but not a college degree, and I was rusty even at cutting hair. I guess you could say I’d grown spoiled. Lazy.”

“So it was a financial shock, in addition to everything else?”

She sat on the bed, which was covered with a large blue-and-green comforter and lots of pillows. “It wasn’t a smooth transition. I had no choice but to go back to cutting hair. But it’d been so long since I’d worked I didn’t have a clientele. None of the nicer shops would have me-my skills were out-of-date. I was also an emotional wreck. So angry and bitter, so sure Oliver had been wrongly accused and Skye had deprived me of my husband, my child’s father, our breadwinner, my fancy house, my high-class friends. Even my membership to the country club,” she added with a disgusted laugh. “And I thought she’d done it all out of spite.”

Sebastian shoved his hands in his pockets. “Was there much proof that he was guilty?”

“He admitted being in her house. He had to admit that. They had his DNA, his blood on her bed. But he claimed she invited him over for consensual sex, then freaked out because she was on drugs. He said she tried to stab him.”

“So, as far as you knew, he cheated on you first.”

“That’s no excuse.”

“I’m not excusing you. I’m trying to figure out how it all happened. Did you know Skye at the time?”

“I’d never heard of her before in my life. It was all so confusing. I couldn’t understand why she’d point a finger at my husband. There was no way he could be what she claimed. I would know, wouldn’t I? That’s what I kept telling myself. I lived with him, loved him, went to church with him…”

He whistled under his breath. “Those accusations couldn’t have been easy to hear.”

“Believing adultery to be the worst of his sins was easier than accepting the truth,” she said. “I was determined to forgive him and reclaim what we’d had together.”

She would’ve been better off divorcing him while he was in prison. Then maybe she could’ve gotten away before he attacked her and left that scar on her neck. “So you believed your husband.”

“He said he loved me.” She was no longer looking at him-or seeing him, at any rate. Her voice had fallen to a whisper, as if she was talking to herself.

“Maybe he did, in his own way.”

She shook her head. “No, Oliver never loved anyone. He was incapable of it. But his brother was different.”

A twinge of jealousy surprised Sebastian. “How’d you get involved with Noah?”

“He started coming over to help out, to make sure Kate and I had everything we needed-fix up the place, hang drapes, get us moved, whatever.”

Sebastian could easily imagine the situation. At least Noah had been trying to do right by his sister-in-law. Or maybe it was just hard for Sebastian to blame Noah because he felt the same attraction to Jane. “And it turned out to be a little too much time alone?”

“I was so needy…” He saw shame, even anguish, in her body language. She was shouldering all the guilt, but this Noah deserved some of it, too, didn’t he?

“It takes two,” he reminded her.

She managed a wobbly smile. “He didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“Did you?” Sebastian countered.

“Of course not, but-”

“People make mistakes, Jane.” Sebastian suspected there were some who’d hold this against her. But he’d been through a similar situation with Emily and he knew that even good people sometimes got involved in relationships they shouldn’t. Besides, how could anyone say what he or she would’ve done in the same circumstances? Although he’d never cheated, he had his own regrets. Some bad decisions were easier to correct than others.

“This was more than a mistake,” she said. “Noah is dead because of me. He left a wife and three children.”

In light of what she’d told him, the painting on her wall took on greater significance. Did the colors represent the peace she longed for but couldn’t quite achieve? Her emotional burden was so heavy, he was astonished that she’d been able to carry it for the past five years.

Knowing what he knew now, Sebastian could understand why she hadn’t been able to heal. She wouldn’t let herself. She was still berating herself, still paying penance. That explained why she hadn’t met someone else and moved on, why she hadn’t made love since the attack. It even explained why she wouldn’t allow herself to enjoy making love with him last night. This morning, human need had won out-briefly-but she was already back to self-denial.

He sat on the bed next to her. “How did Oliver find out about the two of you?”

“Once he got out of prison, and he and I were trying to make another go of it, Noah’s conscience got the better of him. It was never as if I was trying to steal Noah from his wife and kids, I swear. I knew all along that our…relationship couldn’t continue. I cared about the entire family. I didn’t want to see them hurt.”

“How’d his wife take the news?”

“To this day, she won’t really speak to me. She thinks I’m the worst kind of…Well, you can imagine the names she reserves for me. And I can’t blame her.”

Although she’d long since closed her blouse, Sebastian glanced toward the tattoo he’d seen on her breast. “You had that tattoo placed right over your heart.”

She seemed confused by the statement. “So?”

“I think that’s significant.”

“How?”

“What are you mourning, Jane? Noah’s death or your own?”

She stood. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure you do. You’ve cut yourself off from any chance at love. You say you’ve gone through counseling, but you won’t forgive yourself. What good is the counseling you’ve had if you’re going to continue punishing yourself?”

She watched him in the mirror but said nothing.

“Maybe Skye saved you from Oliver, but who’s going to save you from yourself?”

Rubbing her chest as if the tattoo suddenly burned, she faced him. “I don’t deserve any more than I have. As long as I have Kate, that’s all I need, all I ask for.”

“You’re settling.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You stock your house with inanimate objects that portray the love and completeness you won’t allow yourself.” He motioned toward the painting as a case in point. “But life doesn’t have to be so lonely!”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Are you saying you’re the man I should trust?”

She had him and she knew it. He wasn’t any more whole than she was. “No,” he admitted. “I’m not.”

Although he could tell she’d been expecting his admission, the tightening of her mouth told him she was disappointed. “Then I guess we should say good-night,” she said and walked him to the door.

Malcolm had never gone inside Mary’s house. Not until now. In the past, he’d contented himself with skulking about the shrubberies and peeking in the windows. He hadn’t wanted to blow his cover until he felt sure he’d be welcomed. He’d stuck to the plan, and the plan was to woo her back, to set up their future together.

But now that he knew she was working with Sebastian, and probably had been from the beginning, plans had changed. She’d found out he was still alive. And she couldn’t be trusted.

It was time they met, time they came to terms with the past and the present, and who did what to whom. He’d thought he’d be able to wait for the meeting Sebastian and Mary had been trying to arrange. Turning the tables so perfectly really appealed to him. He’d imagined the scene so often… But then he’d realized that Mary wouldn’t show up at any meeting. Sebastian would come alone. And they’d only schedule it for a public place, where he couldn’t do anything because there’d be witnesses. He had to get to Mary while he could, in a setting he controlled-make her tell him where Sebastian was.