Bobbie shakes her head emphatically. “Lacey wouldn’t do that to me. It was Keegan. How dare Chip go around my back like that. He was so jealous of my success, he couldn’t see straight. He was committed to humiliating me. He not only wanted to hurt my heart, he was coming after my brand.”
Fish yowls, Get away, Bizzy. They were both in on it, can’t you see? They’re dangerous.
She’s right.
But my feet remain screwed to the ground.
The security footage that took place in front of my cottage comes back to me. Those specks of light—they were flesh-colored. My eyes widen. It was a hand.
“You were both in on it.” The words come out in jagged breaths. “Bobbie, it was you who pulled the trigger and killed Chip, wasn’t it? And Jill, you hit her over the head. That supposed grazing to your side, Bobbie? It didn’t come from a bullet, did it? I bet you did that to yourself long before you showed up that night. It was the perfect plan. Make it look as if someone intercepted you—that they used your own gun against you. That this imaginary person staged it to set you up as the killer. I’m not sure how you ever agreed to go along with that. Lacey could have easily killed you, too.”
Bobbie’s eyes never leave Lacey’s. Now what?
“Everything about that night was a setup.” I shake my head. “The two of you put those pictures in the envelope that night. Bobbie, you knew about the affair weeks before. You weren’t really surprised that night when you opened that envelope. You were trying to set Keegan up, weren’t you?”
“She did this.” Bobbie nods.
“No,” I tell her. “The two of you did this. The security footage from my cottage shows Chip falling before you were shot, Bobbie. You said you were knocked over the head first. That’s not true, is it?”
She glances to the ground a moment before looking to her partner in crime. “We need to do something, fast.”
“Don’t worry.” Lacey coolly pulls a gun from her purse and points it my way. “I’ve got this.”
Sherlock and Gizmo bark up a riot, and Lacey is quick to point the barrel their way.
“Shut up! Or you’ll go first.” She bellows out the threat, and the two of them are quickly reduced to whimpers. Lacey smears a wicked smile my way. “Yes, Bizzy. We did this.”
I nod. “And you had an affair with Chip. Admit it.”
Lacey rolls her eyes. “So what?”
“No!” Bobbie’s chest pulsates as she shouts out the word. “That’s not true.” Her voice continues to hike. “You wouldn’t do that to me. It was Keegan. I saw her.”
Lacey clucks her tongue. “You saw nothing. They had their clothes on. And who the heck cares? He’s dead. We have the money. You hated him, remember?”
Bobbie’s face bleaches out. “I hated him because he was having an affair. I thought he was sleeping with Keegan. You let me believe that. You lied to me.”
“She did.” I give a furtive nod her way. “Did she tell you about her husband? Don? He died in a tragic boating accident. Drowned. I bet you she collected a huge payout, didn’t she?”
Bobbie looks my way. “So what? An insurance policy is not a crime.” The exact words Lacey said to me a few months back—right before we convinced Chip to increase our life insurance policies. And right after we concocted the plan to kill him.
“Bobbie”—her name expires from me just as a horrific thought hits me—“she’s the beneficiary on your life insurance policy, too, isn’t she?”
“It had to be believable.” Bobbie’s voice trembles as she says it. “Both Chip and I trust Lacey to distribute the funds. We just owed so much money to other people. If anything happened, this would have been best.”
“And you made sure it happened,” I say. “When she does away with you—and don’t think for a minute she won’t stage it to look as if you did it to yourself—she’s going to take the money and run. She works in patterns—deadly patterns, Bobbie. And she’s sucked you in.”
Bobbie shakes her head as she looks to the woman she thought was her friend.
Fish yowls as she walks forward with the elegance of a tiger hunting its prey.
Just say the word, Bizzy, and I’ll pounce.
“She wouldn’t do it.” Bobbie holds fast to her delusions, and even looser to Sugar.
Bizzy? Sugar yelps as she tumbles from Bobbie’s hands to the ground, and Fish quickly nudges the tiny furball over to herself. What’s happening? How could my Bobbie have done something like this? It’s not possible, is it?
“Lacey has lied to you before,” I’m quick to point out to Bobbie. “She lied about Keegan. She admitted to having an affair with Chip. She hid that from you. Think about what else she’s hiding from you. Something darker, like your soon-to-be departure from this world, by her own hand.”
Bobbie’s entire body trembles as she looks to Lacey, but the blonde beside her doesn’t say a word.
“She was stealing money from you, Bobbie,” I continue. “She convinced Chip to give her every dime you gave him. He was paying her rent.”
“What?” Bobbie’s voice pitches. “I was helping you out. I borrowed money from Diane so you could get yourself out of debt.”
“She had plenty of money from her husband’s death,” I say. “She was robbing you blind. But why?”
“Yes, why?” Bobbie asks as she takes a step back from the woman next to her.
Lacey’s chest rumbles with a laugh. “I wasn’t enough for Don, just like you weren’t enough for Chip. But I knew what to do, and I did
