Before I left the house that night, Lars and I worked out the details. Sitting behind his desk, I penned a fake suicide note from my aunt. In it, she cited no longer loving Lars and that she had fallen for a married man. Which, by the end of the evening, we’d discovered the man she was fucking in the woods was one of the caterers they’d used to help organize the parties for the past several years. So, God only knew how long that had been going on.
The letter also asked Audrey to make sure Lars was looked after. I held my arm at a weird angle to write the letter so it appeared to be close to her handwriting. Looking back at it, the handwriting didn’t really resemble hers at all, but it didn’t matter. There wouldn’t be an investigation. The letter was merely for show for Audrey’s benefit.
Lars would place the letter on his nightstand, as if Aunt Marlowe had done it herself before going to bed. Then, sometime after midnight, he would smother her. Lars would stage an empty plastic vial of the pain medication she took for arthritis next to the bed and flush the pills down the toilet.
As soon as it was done, he would text me, asking if I was awake, then a second text would come through, saying that my aunt was gone. A few minutes following the texts, he would call and tell me about the note he found, and he would tell me that the police had been notified. I was to tell him that I was on my way over. In my trunk, I was to have a travel bag prepared that would have enough clothes for a few days.
The police and an ambulance unit that Lars handsomely compensated to look the other way would come during the night, take the report, and question all of us. While Audrey, and possibly Riley, would be questioned in the study, the medics would put her in a body bag and place her in the trunk of Lars’s car. The police and medics would leave, supposedly with the body, and we’d sit in the kitchen with Audrey, distraught over the evening’s events.
At around six in the morning, Lars would say he needed out of the house and away for a few days, and he’d suggest going to his cabin in Clark’s Mills, Wisconsin. I’d comment that he shouldn’t be alone, he’d disagree, and hopefully, Audrey would agree with me. I’d then offer to go with him, and he’d relent. We’d leave the house by seven to make the hour and a half drive from Grand Rapids to Ludington and catch the ferry that departs at nine and arrives in Manitowoc, Wisconsin around noon. There were a few convenience stores along the way that we could stop at for food to last us a couple of days and then make our way to the cabin.
That was the plan.
I left my aunt and Lars’s house that night with a heavy heart, knowing I would never see my aunt alive again. It was close to eleven when I got home, and I was too hyped up on adrenaline to sleep. I packed the overnight bag with expendable clothes like jeans, sweats, and t-shirts, and set it by the door. I laid in my bed and stared at the ceiling until about twelve forty-five, then I bolted upright when a text alert rang out.
Lars: Are you awake?
With shaking hands, I held my cell phone and waited for the next one.
Lars: I lost your Aunt Marlowe.
My stomach sank. Even though I knew it was coming, it still hit me like a ton of bricks. I took a few deep breaths, knowing I had crossed the line to his side. No longer could I pretend that I didn’t know the heinous things the men in my family before me had done. Despite just being twelve when I helped my father, I was truly one of them now. The ringing cell phone startled me, and I dropped it on the bed but quickly picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Griffin,” Lars’s weary voice came through the phone. I sat silently with my heart pounding hard in my chest, waiting for him to continue. “Your Aunt Marlowe is gone. I came to bed and saw she had propped up a note on my nightstand. The note said that she had fallen in love with another man. She said she couldn’t go on with the guilt anymore. She’d taken the whole container of her pain pills.”
“Okay, take it easy. Are you sure she’s just not unconscious?” I immediately jumped into the role of being shocked but trying to calm him.
“I’m sure, Griffin. She’s gone.”
“Okay, shit. Did you call the police?”
“They’re on their way.”
“All right, I’m on my way,” I said quickly. As I pulled the phone away from my ear, I heard him say my name.
“Griffin,” he said, causing me to lift the phone to my ear again.
“Yeah?”
I wasn’t sure what to expect because we hadn’t rehearsed anything else, nor did he indicate that something else would be said.
“Drive safe, Griffin. I love you.”
I promised him that I would and ended our call. Quickly, I made my way down the stairs. I grabbed my keys as soon as I put on my coat and picked up the overnight bag that had been waiting beside the front door. Before I left, I made sure I armed the house alarm and locked the door.
My pulse rate soared, and I felt like none of this was really happening. When I looked down at the speedometer, I was surprised to see I was closing in on ninety miles per hour.Shit!I took my foot off the accelerator and tapped the brakes to get the speed under control. Though, it wouldn’t be considered out of the norm for someone to speed in this situation. However, I didn’t need to kill anyone on my way to Lars’s house. One death on my hands was enough for the day.
When I turned onto their private road, I could see two police cars and an ambulance out front. I parked my car out of their way, and as I got out, I could feel my legs shake. I raced up the steps and sidestepped between the partially open door and the doorframe. All eyes turned to look at me as I stood in the entryway.
My eyes found Lars, and I hurried toward him. I wrapped my arms around him in an embrace; this wouldn’t seem out of place given the situation. His arms wrapped around me and his hands settled on my back, instantly calming me. The few moments of our embrace forced my eyes to look down the long hallway beside the stairs. Pacing around nervously in a random pattern was Riley. He wore light gray sweatpants and one of the navy long-sleeved University of Michigan t-shirts that I had given him. Selfishly, I hadn’t even considered what the death of Aunt Marlowe might mean to Riley. This had been the only home Riley had known, and Aunt Marlowe was like a second mom to him.
Just as we had planned, everything from there followed seamlessly. I looked over the fake note that came from my own hand, then Audrey and Riley were escorted to Lars’s study to go through a series of questioning that would go nowhere. In silence, I waited beside Lars in the hallway as the two medics brought my aunt down in a body bag strapped to the gurney. From the entryway, we watched them load her lifeless body into Lars’s trunk. Two officers remained in the entryway with us, and once the ambulance drove away without the body, they looked at Lars.
“So,” one drawled as he gestured to me, though he spoke to my uncle. “Bringing in Miles’s boy?”
“Yes,” Lars confirmed. “It was time.”
