“Me, the dogs, Charlemagne.”No use in lying to her.What good would it do me at this point?And it wouldn’t take much for her to figure out I’d tried to put one over on her if I told her Ben was home and we weren’t alone.With the way she was holding that gun so assuredly, I didn’t want to chance pissing her off.
“He needed money,” she rasped, the gun twitching in her hand.“Gerry lied to everyone but especially himself.He’d pay it back.He’d strike it big.He didn’t owethatmuch...He’d run through everything.His inheritance, his savings, credit maxed out, friends—ha!—people he called friends tapped dry.Except for Beth.”She worried her lower lip for just a second, a flash of insecurity, of uncertainty, before schooling her expression back into sterner lines.“That boat was the last thing he owned worth any real money.When he heard you lived here now, he seized the chance.Play up your connection, show what agood guyhe was now, hiring you on when you’re at such a low point.You’re desperate, too,” she teased cruelly.“We’ve all been there, Damien.Just some of us don’t linger as long as others.”
“He wanted to make the movie about her death...Or was it just a ploy to get his hands on some of her estate?He’d faxed some paperwork to a law firm in Los Angeles.One that specializes in probate.”
Gwendolyn’s cheeks flagged red.“Even dead, she was worth money to that bastard.Pamela was inconsolable when she found out.Beth had a clause...We all did.It was a joke, something silly one weekend in Big Bear over wine coolers and hash.A clause to allow our estates to fund a single biopic no less than twenty years after our deaths, not more than fifty.Pamela had changed hers a few years ago—we were laughing about it at some fan convention.Gerry...”She closed her eyes for just a second, pain and anger washing over her face.“I guess he thought it was his ticket.Beth had been dead over a decade by then.Hell, over two.”Gwendolyn’s eyes snapped open as I shifted my weight, trying to slip my fingers into my hip pocket.“Sit down!”
Gun aimed at my face again, I shakily eased into the seat behind Ben’s desk, keeping my hands where she could see them.Her gaze darted around the room, lips twisting in annoyance.“If you move, I will shoot you in the head, do you understand me?”She didn’t wait for me to so much as nod before she was moving around the room, yanking plugs out of the wall and destroying anything electronic, anything I could use to call for help.She motioned me to hand her my phone.“It’s in your pocket.Don’t act coy.”
“I just got this replaced,” I sighed, setting it down on the desk.Maybe I could arrange with the shop in Malm’s Corner, if I survived, to start purchasing in bulk.
Gwendolyn patted the back of my cast with her free hand.“Well, you won’t be needing it, will you?This is what we’re going to do, Damien.You’re going to make a name for yourself.The fame you keep missing out on will finally be yours.You’ll have a legacy.And I’ll be a free woman because you,” she gasped, pressing her hand to her stomach and closing her eyes, a picture-perfect display of shock and despair.“You tried to kill me, Damien.I came to talk to you about the movie Gerry had mentioned.Pamela and I were going to take over the project Gerald left behind.To honor both him and Beth.But you...”she sighed, shaking er head sadly.“You justsnapped.You were irate, refusing to work with us, refusing to touch anything Gerald had a hand in.”
“I hate to admit it, but that sounds believable to anyone who doesn’t know me.”
“And a lot of people don’t know you, Damien.More’s the pity, really.You had so much potential.Should we make a movie about you one day?”
“I don’t think you’d get much pull at the box office,” I quipped, eyeing my phone in her hand.If I moved just a little bit, maybe feigned a leg cramp or something, I might be able to reach it.Get hold of it just long enough to hit the emergency call button.
Gwendolyn smirked, tucking my phone into her cleavage.“I’m not going to villain monologue.”
“You already are.”The door hadn’t closed all the way behind her when she followed me in here.Out of the corner of my eye, I could see it move.Wild hope flared in my chest—Ben home early?—but died just as quickly.We’d only just texted less than an hour ago.Even if I’d told him to come home then, driving at top speed with zero traffic and all green lights, he wouldn’t be in Lester Cove by now.Heath maybe?But no, the front door was locked.I didn’t dare turn my head to look.Gwendolyn was watching me with a curious, almost tender look on her face.“Are you feeling guilty now?”I asked softly.“Feeling bad about deciding to kill someone who didn’t deserve it?”
“Do you think Tubbs deserved to die?”she asked suddenly, turning my question on its head.“He was an awful, awful man.He made people miserable his entire life.One of his last acts on this earth was breaking a young woman’s heart just to get his rocks off.”
“I don’t think anyone deserves to die, not like this.”Though right now I don’t think I’d be too upset about someone getting cold cocked.“Why did you think it was okay for him to die?”I’d watched enough reality shows on the ID channel to know that keeping your potential killer talking would not only buy you time but also humanize you in their eyes.Or sometimes catastrophically backfire and get you killed.The door moved again, barely a bump, someone peering in and listening, I thought.Please let it be Heath if it’s not Ben.Hell, even nosy Moon sisters at this point!Someone to call for help.
“Beth died,” she murmured, gaze going distant and soft.Her thumb stroked the hammer on the gun almost absentmindedly.“He knew what happened and just...held it.Didn’t say a word for years.Years!Years, Damien!He knew.And saved it up.Waited until he needed to use Beth one more time.He stayed in our little circle, all this time!None of us liked him, you know.But the devil you know, I suppose.He was always there, always part of us...”She made a face at that thought, disgusted.“I’ve always hated the asshole.”
“I saw the video.The one he made of his visits with Pamela.The one where he told her he knew.”
She started to lower the gun before catching herself, lifting it back up to a more lethal height.Her hand had to be getting tired—even a small gun like that had some weight to it, at least the ones we’d used as props in theGet Luckymovies had.They’d been real guns without real rounds, just wax-filled shells that did the job but were still deadly if used incorrectly.Sooner or later, she’d either have to set it down or she’d get clumsy.I was seriously hoping for the former.“So there is one.Pamela thought there might be.The way he blocked the meetings, set the scene up...”
“Pamela visited Tubbs on theBeth.He tried to blackmail her for money.He had Beth’s autopsy reports.”
The gun lowered.“Those were sealed.”
Swallowing down that spike of anxious nausea, I pressed on.“Money opens a lot of doors.And I bet Tubbs was finding out fast how tight those doors lock once you lose the key.”We both winced at that ham-fisted metaphor.
“How...”She shook herself, the haunted look not quite leaving her eyes as she raised the gun again.“That makes it easier,” she said quietly.“Much easier.”
“Why did you want to frame me for the fire at the Old Yacht Club?They found your lighter.The one I picked up for you.You went back and put it there.”
“Drama, darling.And you’re disposable.Pamela panicked about evidence, things she touched on the boat.We wanted to get rid of anything that might draw unwanted attention.”
“A large fire is the most subtle means of disposal.I get it.”
She thumbed the hammer.“Pamela was good at those scenes, you know.The ones where she had to defuse a bomb, set some sort of explosive trap.Loved them.She would work for hours with the stunt coordinators and the techs to get the scenes just right.She was our little fire bug,” she added with a soft, distance smile.“We all learned some of the tricks for that sweeps week special in season three, where we had to switch jobs in order to free the kidnapped princess.”
Desperation started to boil in my gut, hot and acid.“She attacked Beth.When Pamela learned Beth was going to leave the show, she attacked her!I thought you were all best friends.How can you be okay with this?How can you be helping her?”
Gwendolyn trembled.“It was an accident,” she said, voice thin.“When she went to see Beth.Beth...Beth tried to hug her.Pamela pushed her away.She fell.”
“Are you certain?”I demanded.“Were you there?”
“Shut up!”She jerked the gun at me, jabbing it in my direction like an accusing finger.“Pamela wouldn’tlie.She loved Beth better than anyone else.They were inseparable.Beth shouldn’t have kept it from us.From her.”
“Blaming the victim.Nice.”
