Each of them had a role to play in my budding masterpiece. Back then, they fumbled around in their little games. Jumped to do my parents’ bidding. Now, they would do mine.
Stella, Marni, and Hanna. Theformers.All pretend allies. Parasites feeding off the flesh of my dead family’s infamy. Each one of them was an ex-something—friend, therapist, employee. All liars. It was the one skill they excelled at.
Marni being Mom’s former best friend even though Marni didn’t realize theformerpart until it was too late. My former “therapist,” Stella, who had been thirty or close to that whenshe’d gotten her degree and decided to practice her incompetency on me. For her current patients’ sakes, I hoped her skills had improved since then. That she’d attended some sort of training.
My cousin. She broke the rules to make Gramps happy. Passed on what she thought were my secrets. She sucked even as apretendtherapist. It’s a good thing I never told her the truth.
Then there was Hanna. The one who flitted in and out of our house and Dad’s private office for years like she belonged there. The baby momma who acted oh so innocent and shocked at every little thing. She was the one to watch. The others viewed her as weak. Acted like they had to drag her along and explain simple things to her. They got it wrong. Hanna had a spine. She just had to find it.
These bitches downplayed the importance of the Tanner name while soaking up the attention and security it provided. They acted as if they held some sort of power. They’d fooled themselves into thinking they ran the show.
Wrong. I set the rules of this game. I had a goal. Their job was to help me reach it and sacrifice themselves in the process.
Even at fifteen I’d been smarter than them. More resourceful. Infinitely more capable of doing what needed to be done. Now I was older. Ready. Tired of them.
This time I was in charge. They would learn that soon enough.
Chapter Seven
Marni
“Stop pacing before you wear out the carpet.” Cameron Vincent made the comment as I walked back and forth in front of the television in his family room. He sat in his oversized puffy-pillowed recliner, watching me without lowering the footrest or putting down his beer.
People depended on Cam for a few things—a correct prediction of incoming storms and a correspondingthis ishow much you need to worryassessment, rabid football enthusiasm for the Jets, and a ready speech about how it was never too early in the day for a Miller Lite.
Cam also possessed a photographic memory of the files of any open murder or missing persons case in Sleepy Hollow and the surrounding towns and counties. Being a retired detective explained the last one.
None of that stemmed the anxiety currently hammering against my rib cage. I stopped scrambling long enough to double over with my hands on my thighs. “I can barely breathe.”
I closed my eyes. Tried to inhale. Slowly counted to ten. None of the usual tricks worked.
“That’s enough, Marni.”
Cam also wasn’t a big believer in anxiety. He found the whole idea—the whole mental health industry—made upand had, more than once, droned on about how no one needed meds and therapyback in his day. The man was sixty-seven, not ninety-seven, and never bothered to update his thinking.
When I continued to fight for breath, he sighed and tried again. “Sit and calm down.”
Easy for him to say. “How can I?”
He reached for the remote and turned off whatever program he’d been watching. Also lowered the chair’s footrest. No power lift for Cam. No, he insisted on pulling the bulky handle on the side. Said the reliable clunking sound soothed him.
He drummed his fingers on the armrest. “You knew this was a possibility. That there could be another round.”
“That’s not true.” Well, it was but I’d spent years mentally outrunning the fear and worry about my past catching up with me.
“The Tanners were a story without a satisfying ending.” He acted like that reality made this moment better.
“The curiosity surrounding them will never be over. We don’t know where the bodies are, except for Aubrey. Her reappearing without a word of warning will kick off a tsunami of accusations and outlandish theories. Probably some not so outlandish, too.” I sat down on the couch, ignoring the rough scratch of the material through my clothes and against my arm.
“Probably.”
Only one of us thrashed around in panic. Cam looked like hisusual detached,all will be wellCam. That made me even more anxious. “Aubrey’s sudden reappearance could be a problem for you.”
“I don’t see how. I don’t know anything about what Aubrey did or didn’t do or where she’s been.” He shrugged. “I’d sure as hell like to know because that case sucked up a lot of energy and resources.”
All the words he didn’t say were the problem. He confined his comments to Aubrey. We were talking about an entire family, not just one member. He might not know about Aubrey, but I’d bet my small house and even smaller bank account balance that he did have information on the Tanners that he still hid and refused to share.
The covert behavior was my fault. Well, part of it. I called him that day fifteen years ago. Begged him to come to the Tanner house and not tell anyone until I could talk with him about what happened.
