“So what?”
“I learned some things from him that I didn’t know before. About how some people with OCD have intrusive thoughts. They are afraid to go to anyone for help.”
Spencer continued to hack away at the ice, enlarging the hole he had started.
“I didn’t know that before. About how some people have thoughts about harming their loved ones. When they wouldn’t ever do anything like that.”
“I can’t deal with it anymore,” Spencer said. “I can’t shut them off. The only way to get rid of the thoughts is to get rid of the triggers.” He shook his head, his voice breaking. “I love my family. I can’t… I can’t keep seeing them like that.”
“There are other ways they can help you. There are medications. Therapies. You never talked to Dr. Snowdon about your thoughts, did you? You never gave him the opportunity to tell you that it was treatable. That there were things that he could do to help you. You don’t have to fight this alone, Spencer. There are people who will help.”
“They can’t do anything,” Spencer disagreed. “I’ve already tried everything else. I know the way my brain works. This is the only way to get rid of the thoughts.”
Zachary could see Kenzie out the corner of his eye, working away on her phone, using her own body and Molly’s to shelter the glow of the screen from Spencer as she called or texted for help.
“You’re a pretty smart guy, Spencer,” Zachary said in an upbeat tone. “You really thought things through and planned this out, didn’t you? You knew that Isabella would be distracted from watching Declan. You knew that the cough medicine would knock Declan out. Keep him from fighting back or waking up while you… took care of him. You fooled Isabella. You did leave the house without your summer jacket. You left it hanging there for her to see. In the bedroom, not at the front door where it belonged. You wanted her to believe that you were still in the house. She knew that you couldn’t leave without the coat.”
“I can leave without the jacket,” Spencer offered. “I just don’t like to. It’s comfortable. I know what temperatures it is good for. I always wear it… but I don’t have to. Even when I have a compulsion, I still have willpower. I can resist for a while… until it becomes too uncomfortable.”
“But her unconscious mind picked up on what her conscious mind didn’t. The color blue. It was wrong. It shouldn’t have been in the bedroom; it should have been at the front door. Did you know that was why she couldn’t paint the color blue anymore?”
“I didn’t know for sure.”
Zachary could hear the ice creaking as Spencer moved closer to Isabella. He grabbed her arms and dragged her toward the hole. Zachary was holding his breath, waiting for it all to collapse. In his mind, he was playing out what they would do. They would save Isabella first. He would lie down on the ice to spread his body weight across as wide an area as possible. They would need rope. Maybe his coat. He could take off his coat to stretch out to Isabella. If she were able to grab it.
She was murmuring to herself and didn’t seem to have any desire to move away from Spencer. He must have drugged her just like he had drugged Declan. Zachary watched Isabella, trying to hear what it was she was saying. Did she have any idea what danger she was in? What was going on?
“Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.”
Zachary breathed out, his chest hurting. “Of course, you were the one sending me threats,” he observed, still trying to keep Spencer talking. Trying to keep him engaged and occupied. “But you never said which case it was I was supposed to drop.”
Spencer looked up at him for a minute, frowning. “I thought you would know.”
“Not if you don’t tell me, amigo.”
“Oh.”
“Is this your first attempt on Isabella’s life?” Zachary asked. “Or had you tried that before too?”
“She tried to commit suicide before.”
“But was it really suicide? Or did you have a hand in that as well?”
“She was depressed. She felt guilty about Declan.” Spencer shook his head. “I don’t know why when she wasn’t the one who did it. I had to live with the reality of what I had done to turn off those awful thoughts.”
“You didn’t encourage those feelings in Isabella? Maybe give her a couple of nudges toward suicide? You were posting mother and child pictures on her Facebook.”
Spencer looked away. “Encouraging someone to commit suicide is against the law,” he said. “I never did that, but I might have… manipulated her environment.”
He wouldn’t encourage his wife to commit suicide because that was against the law, but he would kill her himself. It made no sense to Zachary.
But in Spencer’s mind, it did. With his disordered thinking, it was the best he could do.
“You had me fooled. I thought it was Isabella who had killed Declan.”
“Isabella? I told you she would never do that.”
“You can’t always tell what someone is capable of doing.”
Spencer looked at Isabella lying on the ice. “I know. There’s no way she could have done anything to hurt Declan. She loved him… like a mother. It was different for her. She didn’t have those thoughts. Those visions.”
“You would have gotten away with it. The police didn’t find anything suspicious.”
“And then you had to come along. Why couldn’t you just leave us alone?”
“I was just doing my job.”
“They said that you were paralyzed after the car accident, and I thought I was safe. But they were wrong. That car accident should have killed you. The fire should have killed you. None of that worked. The only thing that worked was this.” Spencer gestured to the pond and his wife. “I hit on the magic combination the first time, and I didn’t even know how lucky I was. Isabella
