Kevin would very likely have been friends with Derek. Good men. Good cops. Good Doms.
And they both had shitty brothers.
“He loved me. He helped me and turned me around. He would not want you to do this.” How long did she have before he made his move?
“What he wants doesn’t matter anymore. He was always the one our parents loved, you know. He was the smart one. He was the one who didn’t get into trouble. ‘Why can’t you be more like Kevin?’ That’s what I heard all my fucking life. I even told my mother about the shit he was into. I told her that he was a pervert freak who liked to spank women and you know what she said?”
Karina could only guess. Her mother-in-law had been an amazing woman. Tolerant. Loving. Faithful. Karina could have given him a speech about what a true lady his mother had been, but she wanted him to do the talking so she shook her head. “No.”
“She told me that if it made him happy, it was okay. It was only okay because she couldn’t see how wrong it was. Because she couldn’t see that you had brought her precious son low.”
“He introduced me to the lifestyle, but I don’t think your mother saw it as being low.” It was love and it was between them. Her mother-in-law might very well have said anything that brings a couple closer together was perfectly fine.
She was starting to get used to the light again. She could see more of him, and the first thing she noticed was his bright blue cast. “It’s a fake.”
He smirked a little. “Yeah. Oh, if anyone asks for my X-rays, I can provide them. I really did break it a couple of months back. It was right about the time I found out Kevin had a life insurance policy none of us knew about. I had to dig through some old files to find the access to ma’s old bank accounts. Kevin hadn’t touched them so there was still ten grand and a safety deposit box. I guess he decided to use it for his papers. One million dollars just sitting there.”
At least she knew why he wanted to kill her. A million would likely buy him a shiny new boat. Terry was always complaining that he didn’t get a good deal. After their mother had died, she’d left the money to Kevin because Terry had gotten their dad’s boat and his business. Kevin hadn’t wanted it and she hadn’t even thought about it after he died. She hadn’t even realized he had another life insurance policy. “It won’t work. Derek will investigate.”
“Your new pervert boyfriend? He can investigate all he likes. He’ll go exactly where I want him to go. He’ll end up here at this house and he’ll find your body. I’ll even make a little call after the scene is set. Well, I’ll let my girl call it in. She can call 911 and say she heard you scream or some shit. The police will get where I want them to go.”
She knew something he didn’t. “What girl?” She sighed. “Starr. Of course. You’re going to pin everything on Will Daley.”
“Hey, he’s the one who got himself into this freaky crap. After Starr tells the cops about how he liked to beat her, they’ll believe anything. You know as well as I do that perception is the key to getting a conviction. Kevin taught me that. I knew I had to come down here and handle you because I’m pretty sure there’s paperwork in that box Grant sent you. He said there were some files in there. Kevin always kept a second set of records. I couldn’t let you find out about the policy. I’m the secondary on Kevin’s life insurance, but I’m not on yours at all. Once you got your hands on that money, I wouldn’t be able to get it away.”
She had to die before she could claim the policy in order for Terry to get the money. She would have very likely claimed it and set up some sort of charity to help at-risk kids. It would have been a worthy way to honor her husband.
She had to give it to him. The cast worked. No one would think he could do this much damage with a broken arm. A cast was easy to fake with nothing more than a sock and sticky gauze bandages. Unless someone touched it, they wouldn’t know it wasn’t hard. That was what she’d felt when he hugged her. His arm had been soft where she should have felt the cast.
“How do you know Starr?”
He moved down her body. She shivered because she hated the feel of his hands on her. The ropes shifted and she could feel him twisting, making new knots. Her torso was completely frozen, but he hadn’t tied her lower legs yet. She just had to wait for the right time. “She’s from the neighborhood. I went to school with her. Caught back up when she worked on a boat I was sailing for some rich guy. She’s the one I broke my arm over. She came back to New York with me and we hatched this plan to get the money. She got a job at the therapist’s office so if the cops look, they’ll find records of me coming in every couple of days. She also found the Daley guy. He’s perfect. He’s got a whole hidden life. He lies to everyone in his circle. He’s perfectly set up. I can see it now. ‘But he seemed so normal.’ Yeah, that’s how all serial killers seem. They’re going to find your body in his house and his system full of drugs. He got high. He got violent. He got sloppy. That’s the only way to catch serials. By the time his trial starts, my girl and I will have a sweet new boat and we’ll be in St. Lucia, far away from here.”