At 6:45PM, I gulped down the rest of the whisky.
At 6:58PM, I heard the window shove open, and a grunt as something heavy dropped through onto the floor. A moment later, another thud, a croak of defiance from Quoth, and a strangled cry. Oscar barked with enthusiasm as we clambered out from behind the desk and burst into the Children’s room.
“Gotcha!” I cried, shining a lamp into the middle of the floor.
Morrie lay on the rug, clutching his head and moaning. Behind him stood a figure dressed in a black catsuit, their arms pinned by Heathcliff as Sherlock struggled to tug off the balaclava that obscured their face. Quoth hopped along the windowsill, croaking encouragement.
“Let go of me,” the killer snapped, jerking their head from Sherlock’s grip.
I flicked on the largest lamp just as Sherlock wrestled off the balaclava, and all five of us got the first look at ourrealkiller.
Morrie’s lip curled back into a smirk. “Hello, Kate.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
One formally dead cosplayer glared at each of us as she struggled against Heathcliff’s grip. She didn’t look afraid, only faintly amused. “How did you figure it out?”
“I’ll let Mina bore you with the details later, while you’re rotting in jail.” Morrie staggered to his feet. I rushed to his side. That blow she’d given him must’ve been nasty. “For now, suffice it to say that Mina isalmostas clever as I am.”
Kate regarded me with a detached interest. “I’d be lying if I said it was a pleasure to meet you, Mina. What gave me away?”
I reached into my pocket and held out the silver button. “This. At first, I assumed it belonged to Grant because it matched his old public school uniform, but then I realized I’d seen you wearing the exact blazer in one of your costumes. You made it into a Hogwarts uniform.”
“Mmmm. I wondered if anyone found that button.” Kate stared down at my hand. “Grant tossed that blazer into the office rubbish bin after his reunion, and I saw it was the perfect color to go with my Harry Potter costume. I had to take the picture off the wall when I returned to see Dave, in case anyone put it together. I embroidered the house crest by hand, you know.”
“I figured. You’re very talented.” I listened hard.Where’s Hayes? He had to have heard Morrie’s phone call, and I even left the front door unlocked for him. Why hasn’t he burst in here yet, guns blazing?“I’ve got most of the details straight now, but I just have one question. Why did you do it? Why come back to England, pretend to be murdered, and frame Morrie? Why murder your husband?”
I didn’t think Kate was going to talk, but at the mention of Dave’s name her whole face tensed. “Dave was an-an-an-accident. I went to see him, to tell him I was alive, and that he could return to the Philippines with me and we could be together. But then Tara walked through the door, hanging her coat on the hook and kicking her shoes off like she owned the place, and I just saw red. I grabbed my staff from the wall and lunged at her, and Dave must have stepped in front of me, because the next thing I know he’s on the floor and his blood… his blood was everywhere…” her chest heaved. “Tara ran out of there and I knew there was only a matter of time before she told the police she saw me. All I wanted to do was escape my life, and things got so out of hand. But what’s another couple of bodies, right? I came here tonight to get rid of Morrie, and then I was going to deal with Tara, and then empty out Dave’s bank accounts of the insurance money and head back to the Philippines.”
“Why did you leave in the first place?” Morrie narrowed his eyes. “I provided you with exemplary service. You escaped your life. Why ruin it all just to come after me?”
“You don’t get it,” Kate screamed. “It was never about you. It was always about Dave. I did all of this for Dave, and because of you, he was worse off than he was when I was alive.”
“You’re talking about the insurance,” I said.
Kate nodded. “Dave is everything to me. He’s my whole world, and he’ll do anything to see me happy. He only agreed to spend our savings on the events business because I wanted to leave Ticketrrr so badly and because he believed in me. But I let him down. I spent all our money and I couldn’t make the business work. We lost everything, and the bank was coming for more, and I just couldn’t take disappointing him. And then…” Kate lifted her head. “And then I remembered a guy at last year’s management retreat, Clarence someone. He looked a bit like that dude—” she nodded at Sherlock, “—except his beard was more impressive. I probably got a bit drunk after Grant tried to paw me, and I was spilling all my secrets to Clarence about how depressed I was and how I wished I was brave enough to kill myself so Dave could have the life insurance money. This Clarence spent all night telling me about this guy he was in love with who’d left him to start a death-faking business, and it occurred to me that if I could find this friend, he’d make all my problems go away.”
I glanced over at Sherlock, whose face had gone pale. “I thought you saidhirehim, not frame him and then try to kill him.”
“And that’s exactly what I wanted,” Kate shot back. “Grant was getting worse. He started dating Tara, but he never stopped pursuing me. He said that if I didn’t sleep with him he’d make sure I never worked as a developer again, and he got Tara to badmouth my company online until our reputation had been completely destroyed. Dave had quit his job to work on our startup, and then I was the only one bringing in money, but I couldn’t work with Grant any longer. I justcouldn’t. I didn’t care what he did to me, but Dave…
“I wanted to murder him, but I’m not a killer. At least,” she laughed bitterly, “I wasn’t back then. So I decided to kill myself, on paper. I found Morrie and he said he could help me. A suicide note placed on my shelter on the wilderness retreat, and he’d whisk me off to a new life in the Philippines and make sure Dave collected the insurance. I wanted to tell Dave so badly, but Morrie said I couldn’t. If the police or insurance investigators thought for a moment my death was fake, they’d decline his claim. Dave had tobelieveI was dead. He’s not a good actor, not like me.” She smiled at that, but it was a sad smile. “I hoped that in a few years, once I’d saved some money, I’d send for him and we’d run off into the sunset together. How wrong I was.
“The morning of the wilderness retreat, I loaded my things into the car, kissed Dave goodbye, like everything was normal. I drove to Wild Oats and I endured Grant’s gross comments and inappropriate touches. I waited until the last night, when Sam sent us off by ourselves, and then I scribbled my suicide note and hiked to a backroad to meet Morrie, who helicoptered me to a private airport, handed me a box containing my passport, drivers license, birth certificate – a whole new identity. My picture, but not my life. Not myname. Not the name I’d taken when Dave and I wed.”
Tears streamed down Kate’s cheeks, but she kept talking. “I went to the Philippines and got a job, and did my best to forget about Dave and everything I left behind. And it worked for about a year. Then a man showed up at my apartment. He knew about Morrie’s business, he knew who I was and what I’d done, and said we had a mutual interest in bringing Morrie to justice.”
That bastard.
The final pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. I tugged a crumpled brochure out of my pocket and handed it to Kate. “Is that the man?”
Kate nodded at the picture. “That’s him. Grey Lachlan.”
Heathcliff grunted as the reality of what Kate just admitted sank in. Morrie winced, probably more pissed he hadn’t figured it out than concerned about what it meant. That was okay. Plenty of time to be concerned later.
“Why did Grey come to you?” I asked.
“He said he’d been following my case in the news, and he thought I should know what happened in my absence. Morrie had drummed it into me how important it was that I didn’t try to contact Dave or follow his social media, so I had no idea how much… how…” Kate struggled through her tears. “Grey showed me evidence that Dave never received the insurance money. He lost our home. He had to rent that tiny flat, and go back to work as a plumber for his dad’s business, a job he hated. He lost all his friends because of our business. He losteverything. Meanwhile, Morrie had been living the high life while my husband suffered. Swanning around Argleton like he owned the place. Grey showed me photographs he’d taken of Morrie at this shop and down in London, and he asked all sorts of questions about the survival course and all the things I learned. He said he could help me bring Morrie down.”
