The door opened and Nancy Wilcox walked inside, her belly bigger than Verna’s. “I’m here.” Her voice shook.
“Good.” Verna waved the gun toward the door. “You need to go and hide the two bodies at my sister’s house.” She rattled off the address. “We don’t want nerdy Valerie to get into trouble, do we?”
The world spun around Millie. “Valerie is part of this as well?”
“No.” Verna snorted. “Not my innocent sister who wishes she had my life. She’d never have the guts to plan a good future like I have. Come on, Millie. You know Valerie. She lives most of her life for me, and probably still loves Alex from their brief romance in the eighth grade. How pathetic.”
Nancy gagged as if she needed to vomit. “Listen. I’ll give that money back. Please don’t tell the police that I have it.”
Oh, for goodness’ sake. Millie stared at her. “Are you a part of this? Did you help kill Clay or know that Verna hired Henry Halcomb to kill us?”
Nancy hiccupped. “No. I didn’t know anything about my boyfriend’s business. I told you that. This lady called me this morning and said I was going to jail because I kept that money you said I could have. I just want to run away.”
“No, you’re not running anywhere. You need to take my car and hide the two bodies at my sister’s house before people show up for that stupid party.” Verna waved the gun as she issued orders.
“You mean your baby shower?” Millie asked, her brain feeling as if it was full of pudding. “This is crazy. How could you do this?” The woman was pregnant, for goodness’ sake. She sat back. “Does this have something to do with June seeing Clay?” Why else would Verna have tried to kill poor June?
“June never dated Clay.” Verna looked at her as if she was dumber than a box of rocks.
“But Valerie said—”
Verna winced and rubbed her belly with her free hand. “I told Valerie that June left the bar with Clay several times. Valerie thought she told you the truth when she gossiped with you. My stupid, sad sister who hangs on my life because she doesn’t have one of her own.” Verna’s eyes gleamed and she held the gun as if she couldn’t wait to use it. “Clay and I were soul mates.” She patted her protruding stomach. “I have the heir to his fortune right here.”
Millie clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from throwing up. When she’d gotten herself under control, she slowly lowered it, still holding the hungry cat. “You and Clay dated?”
“Yes. He had a real future,” Verna shrieked. “Not like Alex, who’s going to be stuck in this stupid town for the rest of his life, begging for scraps from somebody like you. We had to get married after high school because he knocked me up. I made a lot of mistakes.”
Millie’s body jolted at the venom spewed by Verna. Alex certainly didn’t deserve this. “Does Alex know you and Clay slept together?”
“Of course not. I mean, Alex and I aren’t that close anymore, but he thinks we should stay together as a family,” Verna scoffed. “But when I became pregnant with Clay’s baby, I knew I had a better future. He had an incredible future lined up. He planned to run for office and probably even rise higher than that idiot Skinner. He could have been governor.”
Millie highly doubted that, but now wasn’t the time to argue. “He never drugged you?”
“No.” Verna’s lips pressed together. “He promised me when we started dating that he would find a different hobby.”
Hobby? The woman considered drugging and raping victims a hobby? “So you knew? You actually knew that he was drugging and raping women and you still dated him?”
“He had changed, or at least he would have once we reached the governor’s mansion. I would’ve made sure of it,” Verna said. She pointed the gun at Nancy. “Get moving. If you don’t pick those bodies up before people arrive, we’re in deep shit. Go now.”
Nancy looked at Millie. “Fine.” She stomped out of the shop, tears streaking down her face.
Millie took a couple of steps toward Verna, trying to look casual. “I don’t know you at all.”
“You never did,” Verna said. “You always thought you were better than everybody else, creating those dorky inventions. But you know what? You haven’t made a dime from them. Everybody thought you’d be a billionaire by now, and all you do is work with those lugs in the government.”
“I love what I do,” Millie said, trying to get a step closer. If she was going to take that gun, she needed less distance between them. “So what’s your plan now? You’re going to kill me?”
“You’re lucky I didn’t kill you the other night in Clay’s cabin.”
Millie looked at her, shaking her head. “You’re not going to get away with this. You shot the chief of police.”
“I had to. He had the VCR tapes.”
Millie needed to keep her talking, just in case help was on the way. “What really happened that night?”
Verna eyed the cat. “I went to see Clay at the bar, and he sat drinking with you.”
“He drugged me!” Millie yelled.
