“Fine,” I snap at him, “but you are completely out of your mind.”
“I know that’s what you think, Emma, and I probably am, but then something happened that I didn’t expect. Ricky told me that he had to think about it. He said he wanted to see if he could access Michael’s will. He needed to make sure you three would actually be the ones to inherit all of Michael’s money. He said he would let me know by Monday night.” David runs his hand through his hair and then drops it back down on to the arm of the couch. “But then we came back here on Monday, and that letter was in your mailbox. Evan had beaten us to it, taken Michael down with a baseball bat the day after I made my offer to Ricky. Only at that point no one knew it was Evan. But I knew that Ricky wouldn’t have gone through with the plan unless he had his money first. I had no clue what the fuck was happening, and I don’t think Ricky did either.”
“So then, you had nothing to do with Michael’s death? You didn’t end up paying Ricky to do anything?” I ask.
“Well, not exactly. It turns out that Ricky is smarter than I thought.” His eyebrows raise, and his mouth presses shut.
“How? What happened?”
“He showed up here on Tuesday morning.”
“What?” I snap. “Ricky was here last week?” My mind is racing, and my eyes are darting around the room. “He must have found my address at Michael’s house. Fuck. Why would he come to see me?” I am blabbering now, thinking out loud.
“Actually, he wasn’t looking for you. He was looking for me. He used my cell number to find me. I came back home after dropping you off at work, and Ricky was sitting on the steps of the building.”
I give him a what-the-fuck-were-you-thinking face.
“I know,” he says quietly. “It was stupid of me to use my cell phone. It wasn’t my finest moment. I don’t make mistakes like that, Emma. Ever. I was just so desperate to fix this. To get Michael out of your life. And I had a very small time frame in which to do it.”
“Jesus.” I am disgusted with all of it.
He takes a deep breath and continues.
“Ricky had no idea who beat Michael in that parking garage but said it had nothing to do with him. He assumed I found someone else to take care of it, but I assured him that that was not the case. Then he told me he wanted forty grand to keep his mouth shut about our potential arrangement.”
“What?”
“I told him he was fucking nuts. And then he smiled at me, and I knew instantly that he knew more than he was letting on.” David stops and takes another deep breath. He rests his elbows on his knees and his head is in his hands, looking at the floor. “Ricky said he knew that I had no involvement with TruTimber Imports and that I was trying to get rid of Michael for a very different reason. He said he came here wanting twenty grand to keep his mouth shut, but then he saw you and me get into my car together that morning. Everything clicked, and when he realized why I really wanted Michael gone, he decided to double his money. You said your brothers were assholes, Emma, but I had no idea.”
“That fucking cocksucker.” I stand up and start pacing the living room.
“I told him that you didn’t know anything about all this and that if he ever so much as looked at you again, I would take him down. I was so fucking pissed off at myself for underestimating him, and I needed it all to go away, Emma, and so I told him that I would get him the money.”
“Was he here when I called him on Tuesday night to confirm that Michael was really dead?” I am repulsed by the thought of Ricky being so close to me. And with the idea that David was the one who made it happen.
“Yeah,” he says, looking intensely ashamed. “And he was upstairs on Wednesday night when you came home from work.” He flinches when he says it because he knows what is about to happen.
I stop pacing and turn toward David. “He was in your apartment? Jesus fucking Christ, David! Is that why you were counting that money? To give it to Ricky?” I press my fingers into my eyes. I am boiling with anger. I pull my hands away from my hot skin and stab my finger at him as I talk. “You mean while we were down here fucking on my couch, my motherfucking brother was upstairs in your apartment waiting for you to pay him off?” I didn’t think it was possible for me to be as angry with David as I was yesterday, but right now, I am about to explode.
“Brad and a couple of other guys were up there with him. Ricky left with twenty grand that night. And then on Saturday night, when he called to tell you about Evan’s involvement, I knew it was really meant as a reminder to me. A reminder that I still owed him money and that he was still in control. That’s why I made that phone call to Michael’s house after you fell asleep. Ricky is living there now, and I called to tell him to leave you the fuck alone and to find out where and when he wanted me to deliver the rest of the money. He insisted I take it to him that night. He was worried that by Sunday morning, the cops would be all over him because they had just arrested Evan. I left to take him the money right after he and I hung up, knowing that I wouldn’t be here when you woke up.” He pauses for a second and draws in a long, steady breath. “I’m sorry, Emma.”