“And he dumped me,” Nel continued, not only anger in her voice now but hatred too. The kind that tainted every word. “He dumped me foryou. And it pissed me off. I liked being you. I didn’t want that taken away from me.”
“So you broke into my apartment and stole things from me?”
“I hit the jackpot when I found your tablet. I opened your Facebook account and started messaging Ethan. And he messaged back. He laughed at my jokes. He wrote that he loved me.”
“He thought you wereme.”
The next shove was so hard that Maggie fell into the dirt, her head slamming against a tree root.
Ouch.
“It wasn’tyou,” Nel snarled. “It was me! I can be all the things that you are. I can be smart and pretty. I can smell like peaches and make Ethan laugh. But he basically admitted that as long as you’re alive, it’syouhe’ll want. So…this is me fixing that little problem.”
The trees swayed. “How did you get into my place above Polly’s garage?”
“I heard Polly talking to a customer about you coming home and moving in there. She set the key on the counter, and it was like it was meant to be. So I took it.”
“Was Lilith part of this? Did she tell you I was coming this morning?”
“She mentioned it, but she didn’t know my plans. No one did. Just like no one will know what really happened today.”
They stopped close to the water, a small wooden rowboat sitting on the bank.
“Get in,” Nel growled.
She didn’t want to. Every part of her rebelled against the idea.
But then Nel’s fingers visibly tightened on the grip of the gun.
Maggie sucked in a breath and climbed into the boat.
“Move and I shoot.” Nel put down the pistol and picked up the oars. The boat rocked beneath them as she rowed into the river. The oars weren’t attached to the boat. So if Maggie couldgrab one, she might be able to use it as a weapon. But her wrists were bound.
“Have you killed or taken any other women?” Maggie asked, needing a distraction while she yanked at her wrists behind her back.
Nel frowned. “You mean those ladies who went missing? No. Why would I do that?”
Maggie wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It meant Nel wasn’t a serial killer. But it also meant that the killer was still out there.
“So, what’s the plan?” Maggie asked quietly. “You push me out of this boat in the middle of the river?”
The cruel smile made her shudder.
More tugs at her bound wrists. They actually weren’t that tight. If she pulled hard enough, she might just be able to get free. “Are you taking the boat back?”
“Of course. Then I’ll push it back into the stream.”
On her next tug, her wrist got halfway out. “Aren’t you scared of Polly telling people that you Tasered her?”
“Polly didn’t see me. Her eyes were glued to her phone screen.”
“Okay, what about Ward? He’s going to investigate this and realize I didn’t kill myself.”
Another laugh from Nel, this one almost hysterical. “Are we thinking of the same guy here? Ward’s never thoroughly investigated a crime in his pathetic life. Hell, let’s take your mother’s death, for example. I read the morphology report. There was Rohypnol in her blood stream—the date rape drug.”
Maggie froze. “What?”
“Yeah, Aunt Lilith got it wrong. If you were going to commit suicide, there are better ways to do it than taking a sedative and drowning yourself.”
