Hailey would have to tell Mack, and soon: she could hear his footsteps, the tap of Gulliver’s nails behind him.
Mack came into the room holding out his phone, and for a minute she thought he wanted her to speak to Tilda. But no, he was showing her an email. His hand was shaking so badly that Hailey could barely focus her eyes on the screen. She caught the subject line first because it was in all caps:I WILL DESTROY YOU.
When she took the phone from him, she saw that the email had beensentfrom Mack’s address.
He’d cc’d himself, too, but the primary addressee was Richard Ashman @ Ashman Dental.
“What is this?”
“An email from me that I didn’t write,” Mack said. “Someone’s trying to set me up. Make it look like I have a motive to kill this guy.”
“But Richard Ashman is fine.” Hailey’s voice cracked as her eyes flew over the rambling threats that Mack had supposedly sent to this man and his family. “You said he was fine.”
“He was,” Mack told her. “This morning he was. But I’ve... now he knows who I am. He called the police on me, so the police know who I am.”
“So?”
“So now if anything happens to Richard Ashman—”
“Why would anything happen to him?” But even before she finished the sentence, Hailey had worked it out.
“The voice on the phone said there are others,” Mack said in a whisper. “Others like us. That if I didn’t do it, someone else would.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“Yeah.” Mack looked utterly defeated. “I do.”
60.
Why must dentists, even the decent ones, put all that apparatus in your mouth, all the cotton and the clamps and those horrible sucky hoses, and then ramble on like you’re out having a nice dinner together?Isn’t that mayor of ours something else?Or,Back again, hey? Can’t get enough of me, can ya?Try and get a word in edgewise, and you’ll end up with a sliced gum or a chipped incisor.
Knowing that Dr. Ashman’s reprieve is only temporary—I’ll kill the bastard myself if I have to—is its own special reward for this morning’s suffering. When he numbs me up, I’ll hardly feel the needle at all. I’ll just close my eyes and imagine the look on his face at the moment of impact.
Then, when Ashman really gets going, when he gets right down near my nerve where even the Novocaine can’t keep the edge off the pain, I’ll think of Mack and Hailey Evans and how they are about to get exactly what they deserve.
61.
Mack
Ican’t see a way forward. Can you?”
Please, he wanted to say,please don’t leave me alone in this.
“If we had more time, we could try to find these people... or this person. At least confront them.”
Even now, Mack knew, they didn’t have the slightest idea as to the nature of what they were facing. One person? A roomful?
“I guess I go to the police and try to explain.” Did he believe himself at all anymore?
“We should have done that a long time ago,” Hailey said, wearily. “Now who would ever believe this? You’ll end up in prison.”
“Maybe that’s where I belong.”
“Don’t say that.” Hailey took his hand. “This is not your fault. I just—who could hate us so much?”
“I don’t know.” Mack’s body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. “We’re not that bad, are we?”
For a minute she didn’t answer, and he could sense her tallying the two of them up, flipping through their case file in her mind.
