Her sigh was heavy with remorse when she finally spoke. “Now that we’re all clear on why we’re here, would you please call Detective Tran and ask him to meet me at the station? I’m ready to offer him my full confession for the murder of my husband, Gilford Dupree.”
The women in the book club cried out.
Mrs. Haggerty reached for her. “No, Penny! You mustn’t!”
Penny took Mrs. Haggerty’s frail hands in her own. “A man has been murdered, Maggie. The police won’t stop looking until they identify the person who killed Gilford.Iam that person.Imurdered my husband, no one else. And once I come forward, that investigation will close and no one else has to suffer.” Penny cast a meaningful look at her friends. The subtext was clear. As far as the police were concerned, there had only been one murder. Only one body.
One confession would put the investigation to rest.
She squeezed Mrs. Haggerty’s hand. Mrs. Haggerty squeezed back.
Mrs. Haggerty sighed and turned to Nick. “I suppose I’m ready to confess, too.” The women all gasped, including Penny. A few of them began to cry as Mrs. Haggerty confessed, “I was there the night Penny killed Gilford. I helped her cover up her crime, and I concealed the truth from the police. I have a responsibility in this, too. If Penny is willing to tell her story, then so am I.”
“I’m listening,” Nick said with an encouraging nod to both of them.
Penny drew a shuddering breath as she prepared to explain. “I fantasized about it all the time,” she began. “I felt so trapped. I had never been so relieved as I was on the days when Gilford would pack up his bag after one of our fights and leave for our vacation home in Florida. I didn’t care what he was doing there, only that he was goneand I could finally breathe. He always returned in a better mood, so apologetic, bringing me flowers and gifts, and I would have to put on a smiling face and pretend I was happy he was home.
“I had met Maggie at the library that spring. I was so glad to have a friend—Gilford never let me have any, and it was a relief to finally have someone to talk to—someone he didn’t know about. I was so careful to keep our friendship a secret because I was terrified he wouldn’t let me talk to her anymore if he knew. Things at home had gotten so bad, I cried to Maggie about it all that summer, imagining all the ways I could make my problems with Gilford disappear. To makehimdisappear. But I couldn’t do it alone, and Maggie said she couldn’t go through with it. It was too risky, she’d said. Too frightening. I was so desperate, I didn’t care. My life with Gilford felt like a far worse punishment than the consequences of killing him, but Maggie was convinced we would both be caught, and I was more worried for her than for myself.” Penny and Mrs. Haggerty exchanged a tearful smile. “The next time Gilford left for Florida, Maggie met me at the park. We went for a long walk, and I told her I couldn’t live one more minute trapped in his house, walking on eggshells, waiting for him to snap. It was him or me, I told her. I had todosomething.
“Maggie convinced me to run. To pack up and leave town while Gilford was gone. She said I should only take what I needed for a few days, that she would send me enough money to deal with the rest later. I packed a single suitcase. I was just getting ready to leave when Gilford came home and surprised me. He saw my hatch open in the garage with the suitcase inside it and he exploded. He demanded I unpack my car but I refused, so he reached inside to unpack it for me. I don’t know what happened—I guess it was my turn to snap,” Pennysaid through an anxious laugh and a sniffle. One of the women pulled a tissue from her pocket and passed it to Penny. She blew her nose before resuming her confession.
“While Gilford was turned away from me, I grabbed the garden shovel from its hook on the wall, and I struck him across the back of his head with it.”
Nick listened, silent, every ounce of his focus on Penny, as if he was committing her confession to memory.
“Gilford fell over into the back of my car. His legs were just hanging out of the hatch. When he didn’t move, I panicked. The only person I could think to ask for help was Maggie. I knew if I could just get to her house, she would know what to do. I lifted his feet and stuffed the rest of him inside the car. Next thing I knew, I was parked in Maggie’s driveway. She told me her landscaper had just finished installing her new rose garden. She said the dirt was soft and the sod around it had only been there a few days. That it would be easy to pull up. We backed my vehicle into her garage, snuck Gilford through the back door into her garden, and had him in the ground just before sunup.”
“Owen slept through the whole thing,” Mrs. Haggerty recalled with a soft but bitter laugh. “He was a drinker. Had been for years. He had three glasses of scotch after dinner every night and passed out by ten like clockwork. When Penny and I were finished in the garden, I cleaned us both up, washed the shovels, and told her to drive straight to her vacation home in Florida. I told her to wait a full day after she got there before calling the police.
“When Owen woke up the next morning, I told him I needed to run some errands. I drove to the park near Penny’s neighborhood, walked the rest of the way to her house, and snuck in through the back door. Then I took Gilford’s keys and his phone and left the house in his fancy coupe, right around the same time he usually departedfor work in the morning, to keep the neighbors from suspecting anything. I left his car at the park and took my own car home. I only knew Penny had made it to Florida when I saw that Gilford had been reported missing on the TV news.”
“You didn’t talk to her?” Nick asked.
Mrs. Haggerty shook her head. “Penny and I agreed we would only communicate by hand-delivered letters from then on out, and we would only meet when absolutely necessary.”
“It was weeks before we spoke to each other,” Penny said. “I thought it would be safer for Maggie if the police never figured out we knew each other. If Finlay hadn’t been so determined to prove her ex-husband was innocent, I’m not sure anyone would have ever known.”
“Now that we’ve confessed all our secrets, our only choice is to turn ourselves in.” Mrs. Haggerty’s eyes made a stern pass over their group, delivering an unspoken message to each of them. This was not up for a vote. Penny and Mrs. Haggerty had made their decision.
“But what will happen to you?” Gita asked them.
Penny and Mrs. Haggerty deferred to Viola. Considering her line of work, she was probably the only member of the book club who was capable of answering.
She frowned as she thought for a moment. “If Penny turns herself in and offers a full confession, she stands a much better chance of securing a plea deal. The prosecutor might consider a lesser charge that carries a shorter sentence. And given Mrs. Haggerty’s age and limited involvement in the crime, I don’t think the judge would expect her to serve for very long. Maybe six months in a minimum-security prison.” Viola looked to Nick for confirmation.
He nodded, carefully wording his reply. “Assuming they can prove to the court she’s not a danger to anyone.”
Mrs. Haggerty frowned. “Do they have video games in those fancy white-collar joints?”
Nick almost cracked a smile. “I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Then let’s get this shit show on the road,” she said. “The rest of you ladies, clean up this mess and get on home.” She handed Vero the keys to The Eggplant. “I’d be grateful if one of you would deliver my car to Cameron’s house. Tell him he can take care of it for me while I’m gone.” Nick waited while Mrs. Haggerty and Penny exchanged tearful goodbyes with each of their friends. Then, arm in arm, the two women started down the footpath to the cars.
Vero followed them.
Nick took my hand and held me close to his side as we walked. “You’re not off the hook yet. I’m assuming we’re going to talk about this tonight when we…” He paused beside the porch. I turned to see him staring down at the moonlit ground beside it. He frowned at the track Robert’s body had made through the pine needles and dead leaves.
Vero, Penny, and Mrs. Haggerty all turned to see why we’d stopped.
