CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
“You OK?” the woman says with a nervous laugh. I’m acting strange, but I can’t help it. The rock. The rock! Bradley put the goddamn murder weapon on the back veranda of the cottage. “Did you hurt yourself picking up that thing?”
And now Madeleine’s seen it.
I need to act normal.Now.
“No,” I say, after a pause. “Sorry, I’ve just realized that now’s not a good time.”
“For real?” she says, frowning. “It’s a forty-five-minute drive to get here. We’ll have to charge a call-out fee.”
“Sorry. Can you call…” I trail off. “Actually, someone here will call. Sorry for the misunderstanding.”
“Alrighty then,” she says, still looking annoyed. “I guess I’ll hit the road.”
The rock was outside my cottage.
Bradley put the murder weaponoutside my cottage.
Madeleine gives me a nod, clearly annoyed that I can’t even manage a thank you. I wait for her to go before running back inside.
Maybe I was wrong? I crouch beside the rock. There’s a definite reddish color along one section, and I know for sure itwouldn’t get here by accident. I lived here for weeks, and there was never a white rock lying on the veranda. No—this is it. This is evidence.Thepiece of evidence.
With this alone, they could convict Bradley, especially if they’ve already found the body.
I search for an alternate explanation, but soon circle back to the only possibility. Bradley put it here. He moved it here from the scene of the crime.
Why would he do that? I think about carrying the rock into the woods. Would that be enough? Even if they knew what to look for, why would they assume Bradley would be stupid enough to bring it back to the property?
It has to go, but I can’t do anything without Bradley. He brought it here for a reason. I should give him the benefit of my extreme doubts.
I go back down the path, intending to go inside to make dinner, but there’s no way I can concentrate on anything—not until he’s back. I end up striding back and forth along the driveway like a dog that’s been tied to a stake in the ground, straining for freedom.
When Bradley eventually arrives home,it’s getting dark, and I’m starting to wonder if they’ve taken him in for questioning. He looks tired when he gets out of the car.
“Well?” I ask.
“I need a drink.”
“Was it her?”
“I don’t know.”
“How could you not know?”
“They weren’t remains. She was just… ash.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, shit.” He shakes his head, as if unable to find the right words. “I have a confession to make.”
My heart sinks. I’m starting to get tired of Bradley’s confessions. “What did you do?”
“I moved the body.”
“Bradley, no. You didn’t!”
“I went to check the next day, just to see if I’d missed anything. And it’s a good thing I did. She hadn’t fallen into the river. She was lying on the rocks, and I knew I had to do something. So I waited till you were asleep, then drove her to the fires.”
