“I always am,” she says. “I knew something wasn’t right with her the moment she walked in. I mean, who just invites themselves into a barbecue?”
“You did,” Ella grumbles.
“Yeah, but I’m boning your dad.”
Ella throws her hands in the air and walks away. As Gable goes to follow, he points between us. “You two sort this mess out.”
Despite the situation, it burns a little that I’m the one who fucked up. Sure, I had no idea who Kate was, but I should’ve been more diligent before inviting her to the goddamn house. The kids are here. How could I have been so reckless?
“Okay, you get her feet, I’ll get her arms,” Lina says.
I shake my head. “We’re moving the car first.”
“Good plan.”
Lina gets Kate’s keys out of her pocket, and together, we walk to the car. Lina is talking, but I’m not listening.
I’m a cop, and I just witnessed a murder and I can’t report it. Putting Ella, Gable, and the kids in the firing line just isn’t an option, but it goes against everything I stand for.
“Shit,” Lina mumbles, pulling me from my thoughts. She’s opened the trunk, and as I look over her shoulder, I whisper the same word.
Hacksaw. Body bags. Bleach. Gloves. And a simple leather bag reveals endless knives and other tools.
“She wasn’t going to just kill us,” Lina whispers. “She was going to torture us.”
And the kids were upstairs.
“Let’s get this over with,” I say, and slam the trunk closed.
We move the car further up the driveway, and I empty the trunk while Lina wriggles under the vehicle and disables the tracker.
When she reappears and stands, she winces, holding her side.
I eye her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, just a twinge. Are we dumping the car in the lake or town?”
Dragging my attention from her side, I say, “It doesn’t look like a rental, so the lake.”
“We’ll put her in the trunk.”
My spine steels at the coldness of it. Kate was going to kill us, sure, but this entire experience is souring my gut.
Still, I do it.
For Ella, I do it.
There’s nowhere for us to successfully roll the vehicle into the lake from the house, so we get behind the wheel of a dead woman’s car, and we drive off the property until we find a gap suitable. The ground is dry, so at least the tire marks will be easy to cover.
I turn off the handbrake, and together, Lina and I push the car into the water.
We watch it bob for a few minutes before it sinks, and we stand side by side until the last bubble pops.
My first body dump.
I feel sick. Thirty fucking years I’ve followed the law. I’ve judged those who haven’t, locked them up, and was happy to throw away the key. And now I’m one of them.
Anger and disgust burns in my chest, and I turn and walk away, leaving Lina behind.
