“When I realized who she was, I told Velma. It was that first day. I was terrified. You have to understand that.” Her tone turned pleading, to the point where Maddie almost wondered if she was telling the truth. “I thought Velma would help me escape down the mountain without anybody noticing, but instead she decided to confront Rosie. I knew it was a mistake, but she wouldn’t listen.”
When Carrie stopped talking, Maddie held out her hands. “Is that it?”
Carrie nodded, morose. “It’s my fault Velma is dead. I should’ve said something the day it happened. I knew in my heart that Rosie was responsible. I was too afraid, though. That’s on me. If I’m guilty of anything, it’s that.”
Maddie kept her eyes on Carrie — for obvious reasons — but she knew the minute Nick was close. She could feel him. Wisely, though, she kept herself from looking through the window. She didn’t want to tip off Carrie.
“It’s an interesting story, and it does fill some of the gaps,” Maddie said finally. “The thing is, it doesn’t hold together quite as well as Cadence’s story.”
The relief on Cadence’s face was palpable. “You believe me.”
“I believe most of the story,” Maddie confirmed. “I’m sure you prettied things up to make yourself look better. You’re still a grifter looking to take advantage of people, and that doesn’t make you a good person.”
“No.” Cadence immediately started shaking her head. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. That’s not who I am.”
“That is who she is,” Carrie argued. “She’s a horrible person. She ruined my life.”
“Honestly, I think each of you damaged the other,” Maddie countered. “I think that you were scammers, living together, and one of you stumbled over what you thought was a foolproof way to make money. That person was Cadence.”
“You’ve got it wrong,” Cadence countered. “I admitted I went into the business thinking it would be easy. It was hard, though. I had to learn the cards, and how to read people.”
Maddie waited for her to understand what she was saying, but the moment of clarity never arrived, which caused her to heave out a sigh. “Knowing what cards mean and figuring out what people want to hear doesn’t make you a psychic.”
“See!” Carrie triumphantly jabbed a finger in Cadence’s direction. “She’s a scammer. I’m not a scammer. I’m the real deal.”
“No, you’re something else entirely,” Maddie countered, rubbing the back of her neck. Weariness was starting to catch up with her. It had been a long couple of days. “You’re just as bad as Cadence. You wanted to take advantage of the hopes and dreams of others. You also wanted to take the easy way out. At least she was willing to work for it, no matter how misguided her attempts.
“You, however, are the worst kind of grifter,” she continued. “You are willing to kill to get what you want. For example, the boyfriend you mentioned. You can try to pin him on Cadence all you want, but the truth is, he reported you missing because you were the one involved with him. Why else would he do it?”
“To cast suspicion off the two of them,” Carrie replied, matter-of-fact. “By reporting it, they made sure the cops wouldn’t look at them.”
Maddie’s forehead wrinkled. “How? Everybody knows that the first person the cops look at is the person filing the report. That’s one of those things everybody knows. Besides, Cadence was a prime suspect, and I’m willing to bet the police termed Brad a person of interest back then. I wonder what ever happened to him.”
“Ask her,” Carrie hissed. “He was her boyfriend.”
“Oh, he was not,” Cadence argued. “I didn’t care about him in the least. He was gross ... and stupid. He let you lead him around by the nose and never once argued. He was willing to kill for you. I heard you guys that night when you thought I would be late at the party. I know everything.”
“You know nothing,” Carrie shot back, her temper flaring. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You were the one dating him.”
“She wasn’t, though,” Maddie countered. “It was you. Ignore that for now, though. Cadence doesn’t have a motive for killing Velma.”
“I just told you the motive.”
“Except Velma would never put herself on the line to protect you. She wouldn’t even expose herself to protect her own daughter. She definitely wasn’t going to do it for you.”
“You didn’t know her,” Carrie argued. “She was a good woman.”
“She was a horrible woman who got off on lording it over others,” Maddie shot back. “I’m willing to bet that she only joined forces with you in the first place because she liked torturing her daughter. Now, I’m not going to pretend Melanie is a good person, because I think her mother taught her to be evil, too. She didn’t kill her mother, though. You did.”
“I didn’t.” Carrie’s eyes were narrow slits of hate. “I’m innocent. Why would I kill Velma? Without her, I have nothing. If she can’t name me her successor, then I literally have nothing.”
And that right there was the problem, Maddie realized. “She was never going to name you her successor. That big announcement? I’m betting it had something to do with naming her daughter to the position you thought was going to be yours. She’d just gotten seven figures in her account. I’m betting she signed on for something ... some deal. She wasn’t going to share that money with you. It was always going to her daughter, no matter what games she played.
“You couldn’t deal with that — you were certain she was serious when she offered the gig to you, which is why you were willing to essentially lick her boots for two years — and you lashed out,” she continued. “That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
“You don’t know anything about my relationship with Velma,” Carrie seethed. “We were close. Closer than close. I loved her like a mother.”
“And yet
