He sneered. “Laureen. Another story entirely. She was fat. I didn’t like her, but I took pity. Call me a softie. I gave her free samples of every diet product to come along. She misinterpreted my kindness and made a pass. Her overtures were blatant and borderline vulgar. I couldn’t imagine touching those revolting globs of flesh and was insulted by her assumption that I would want to. Well, you can figure out the rest.”
Before she asked, he told her about Betsy Calhoun, who according to him was popping antidepressants at the rate of eight to ten a day. When her
prescription ran out and her doctor refused to refill it, she asked William for more.
Where was the helicopter? Why hadn’t it come back?
“I agreed to meet Mrs. Calhoun at the bank parking lot. It was really a mercy killing. I put her out of her misery. Unlike all the others, she put up no resistance. Doped up as she was, she was the easiest to kill. But Millicent was the most enjoyable.” His narrow lips formed a cruel, reptilian smile.
“Tell me about her.” Was the helicopter transporting Tierney’s body off the mountain? They would think they had Blue. Rescuing her could wait.
“Millicent was a vain little slut,” he said. “She relied on me to supply her with contraceptives so she could fornicate to her heart’s content—and then she was careless with them. Who did she come whining to when she got pregnant? Me.
“For years I’d been giving her diet pills and amphetamines to keep her from gaining weight, but she took my generosity for granted. She flirted and teased. Once, just before closing, we were the only two people in the store. She came behind the counter and sidled up to me, rubbed herself against me, and asked if I had any flavored condoms. She said she was tired of the same old rubbery taste. ‘Think about it, William,’ ” he said, imitating a girlish, taunting voice. “Then she laughed and skipped away, like she’d been awfully clever and cute. The last time I saw her, she wasn’t laughing.”
He stared into near space for a moment, lost in his reverie. “Right up to the end, it was all about her. She kept crying, saying, ‘Why are you doing this to me? I thought you liked me.’
“As I was driving her up to the old house, I tried to explain that she was a horrible person, that she used people, hurt their feelings for no reason, played games with their emotions. I told her that she was destructive and therefore deserved to be destroyed. But”—he sighed—“I don’t think she ever understood.”
He was reflective for a moment, then said, “I was about to bury her when I received a call from an electrician that I’d been trying to get up to the house for months. He told me he was on his way. I had to stash her somewhere before he arrived. I knew you had sold this cabin, had overheard Dutch say you’d already cleaned out the shed. It was the closest and most convenient space I could think of on such short notice.
“I met with the electrician and walked him through the projects I needed him to do. By the time we finished, it was getting dark and I had to return to town. I decided Millicent could spend a day or two in your shed. I didn’t get back up here before the storm moved in.”
Suddenly, they heard several more bursts of gunfire. No closer than before.
“Now I wonder what that signifies?” William asked rhetorically.
Lilly wondered, too. She groped her mind for another question that would keep William talking. Before she could form one, he asked one of his own. “Is it true that you and Tierney met months ago?”
“Last June.”
“Dutch was right to be jealous, wasn’t he? I can see it in your face every time I mention Tierney’s name. You go all glassy-eyed and wistful.” He glanced toward the rumpled blankets on the mattress in front of the fireplace. When his gaze came back to her, he frowned with contempt. “Beautiful people. You always find each other, don’t you? Never looking twice at the rest of us.”
“I’ve never been unkind to you.”
“But if you’d been stranded in this cabin with me, that bedding wouldn’t stink of copulation.”
“William—”
“Shut up! I’m talking.”
She shut up and let him talk.
“It’s ironic, and sort of romantically poetic, the way it’s going to end, with both of you dead and everybody thinking that he killed you, when actually he was your lover. See the twist? Isn’t that rich? But one thing puzzles me. Why did he leave you here handcuffed?”
To keep me from trying to fight him, or trying to run from him when I saw Millicent’s body, she thought. Tierney hadn’t wanted her to do something that would precipitate a fatal asthma attack. He’d made a desperate and time-effective move to guarantee she didn’t. She understood that now. She understood a lot. She was in love with Tierney and had been since the day they met. Furthermore, she realized that he loved her.
Softly, very close to tears, she said, “He was trying to save my life.”
“Unfortunately for you, he didn’t try hard enough.”
Moving so quickly she couldn’t react, he slipped the blue ribbon around her neck and pulled it taut.
“No! Please!”
He smiled at her cruelly and pulled the ribbon even tighter. “I’m certain you realize the futility of begging. I’ll tell you what I told all of them. You’re about to die.”
She tried to kick him, but he sat on her thighs, anchoring them to the floor while he increased the pressure of the ribbon. “It won’t take long. Your asthma will speed it along. But if you could please accommodate me by dying quickly, because I hear the helicopter returning.”