I nodded, remembering the process from the countless times I’d been through this.
“I am the prime suspect, am I not?”
His head cocked to the side, as if he were trying to figure me out.Good luck, boy, I thought. No one could figure me out.
“Should we suspect you?”
“Of course not. I loved my husband. I simply understand that I was in the house and I was his wife, so therefore, don’t crime shows tell us that the spouse is always suspect number one?”
“Have a good day, miss.”
He turned his back on me and headed back to the car. As I watched him get in, I headed inside and closed the door. Moving to the window, I looked out from behind the lace curtains and saw him sitting in the car, on the phone.
Of course they’d have me under surveillance. This hadn’t been my first rodeo, but something felt different this time.
Something felt…final.
I pushed the feeling away and headed into the house, moving through the hall until I came to the button for the stairs to be descended from the attic. They filed down with ease, revealing my den of horrors. Oliver never came to this house, in fact, not many knew I owned it. It was the one thing I’d taken from my third marriage that housed everything I needed about my future, and my past, including my wall of potential next victims.
I ascended the stairs and sat at the desk I kept here, opening my laptop that was heavily encrypted, so that no one could trace it back to me. Pulling up the list of names I’d held onto for so long, I crossed Oliver’s off. I glanced down the list, a list that never seems to end, only grow, as my victims began to show their true faces and the true reason for them being on my list.
I picked a name at random and looked it up.
When his photo flashed up on the screen, I felt a smile appear on my face.Recently divorced. He’d be an easy lure.
Searching the internet for more information on Colby James, I started to formulate a plan for weaseling my way into his life. I was getting older now, which meant I wouldn’t be able to keep it up at this rate, not unless the men I claimed were a lot older and had no other options.
I leaned back in my chair and pondered the right amount of time I shouldgrievebefore I started my plan of attack on Colby. I swiveled my chair around and looked out the tinted window down at the car.
The detective was still here.
My phone dinged in my pocket. I pulled it out to look down at the caller ID. I had to fight to not roll my eyes.
Daisy.
Oliver’s adult daughter from his previous marriage. She’d considered us friends since the wedding day two years ago. I’d done everything I could to dispel her friendship but she was a stubborn little wench, sometimes I thought she’d done it to push me away.
Little did she know, I had a heart of steel and a resolve even stronger.
I forced tears from my eyes and willed the strength to put on a show as I clicked the green accept button.
“Daisy, oh, it’s so awful,” I wailed into the phone.
Daisy’s own tearful sobs were almost too painful to hear myself. She had this whine to her tone that had always felt like nails on a chalkboard.
“How did it happen?” she asked me in between sobs. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I only just got away from the house now,” I told her. “It was too horrible, I had to get out of that place.”
“I understand,” she said, softly. “Do you want to come here?”
Dear god, no.
“No, I’m with friends now,” I told her. “I will call you tomorrow. I just can’t right now.”
“Of course,” she sobbed. “I’ll call tomorrow.”
She hung up and I let out a sigh of relief. Closing my laptop down, I moved to the stairs again with my task in hand, while I waited for the police investigation to officially call me down. Once I was done with them, and once I fooled those simple-witted fools, I would start with Colby.
