Trina finally opened the Misc. folder. There was only one document stored there. The details for the file showed that it was created and last updated nine months ago.
Trina opened the file, read it, and immediately thought she’d be sick. Her stomach heaved.
Two competing desires pulsed in Trina’s chest. She needed to show everyone what she’d just read. And no one could ever see what Dermot had written.
A rage-filled scream rose from her lungs. But she’d never get the chance to let her despair out.
From behind Trina, a voice broke into the quiet that had settled over the apartment. “So now you know our dirty little secret.”
The rope slipped around Trina’s neck smooth and supple, like a lover’s hands. She couldn’t work fast enough to move her fingers underneath the garrote before it tightened.
Trina realized she was dying.
It didn’t take long, Trina thought, her brain flooded with Tom’s brown eyes as he lay there with Simon bent over him, pain streaking across his face in short, intense bursts. At least it didn’t take long this time.
CHAPTER THIRTY LAURA
It was the second time Laura had been called by the police in under a week. Her brain buzzed with adrenaline as the uniformed officer guided her down the hallway and into the room, where the same two detectives who interviewed her about Dermot sat across the table. Bechdel had her hair down and tucked behind one ear. Kirkpatrick was flipping through paperwork, but he looked up with a kind turn of his mouth when Laura came into the room.
“I’m so sorry,” Bechdel said, reaching her hand out to pat Laura on the forearm. Laura was surprised by how good it felt to be touched in a kind way by a stranger.
“They wouldn’t tell me what happened,” Laura said. She’d been at Rosie’s, trying to process everything she’d learned at Dermot’s apartment. Rosie made scrambled eggs, even though it was dinnertime. She said her grandmother always made scrambled eggs when someone needed comforting. Extra butter, a dash of salt, and you don’t break the yolks until the whites are slightly cooked.
Laura had been surprisingly hungry, eating the entire plate before Rosie could sit down and join her. Then Laura’s phone rang, and even though she should have just let it go to voicemail she picked it up, thinking it might be Trina or Addy, calling to confirm they had her number entered right into their phones. She hadn’t had a chance to put them into her contacts yet, although she’d do it as soon as she could.
But it wasn’t one of them. It was the police, calling to say her brother was dead. That he had been shot, in a violent exchange he started. Just like when she found out about Dermot, Laura promptly threw up.
It was such a shame, Laura thought now as she looked across the table at the two detectives. She’d never want to eat scrambled eggs again.
The male detective was saying something, but Laura felt like she was underwater. She couldn’t understand the words coming out of his mouth. She reached underneath the table and pinched her thigh, but she couldn’t feel anything.
“Are you okay?” Kirkpatrick asked, waving his hand in front of Laura and snapping his fingers. He still had that kind look on his face, but Laura realized it was more like he was talking to a dog than a person. She tried to picture herself from the outside and see what the detectives saw.
Her hair was shoved into a low ponytail, and the shirt she’d worn to Rosie’s had speckles of vomit down the front. She couldn’t remember putting makeup on this afternoon, but she must have because when she wiped her hand over her face her fingers came back streaked with gooey black from her mascara.
“Tell me what happened, please,” she managed to say. Getting the words out winded her, like she’d just run a few miles. She tried to take a deep breath, but the pressure on her head clamped down on her throat, cutting it off.
“Your brother tried to rob a convenience store. He had a knife.” Bechdel gave her a steady look, as if she were trying to will Laura to just hang on.
“And he’s dead now?” That same fatigue settled into Laura’s chest as she breathed the words out.
“Yes.” Kirkpatrick cleared his throat. “There are witnesses to the entire incident. Your brother tried to take one hostage.”
“Oh,” was all Laura had to say to that. Sharp edges tore at her brain. She was totally alone in this world now. Her family was gone. Dermot was gone.
She touched her belly, like she had a stomachache. Not totally alone, she reminded herself. At least not for now.
Laura didn’t know what she was going to do about the baby.
“Do you know why your brother was robbing a store?” Kirkpatrick asked.
“No.”
“Did he need money?” Bechdel gave her a searching look. “Drugs. Booze. Maybe he got caught up in something he shouldn’t have?”
“We all need money,” Laura told them, which was true. “And Terry had been sober for six months. He was going to meetings, talking to his sponsor.”
“It sounds like he was getting his life on track.” Kirkpatrick leaned back in his chair and then seemed to realize he was being insensitive and pushed himself forward, elbows on the table.
“Yeah, he was.” Laura didn’t want to be here anymore. “Look, I really just want to go home. I can’t really handle much more today.”
“What else happened today?” Bechdel asked. She tried to hide it, but the detective’s voice had perked up.
Laura fought the urge to scream. Her throat burned from the eggs mixing with her stomach acid.
“Nothing.” Laura slouched in her chair. As far as Laura was concerned, this conversation was over.
“Do you think this is connected to what happened to Dermot?” Kirkpatrick asked Laura, which sparked a flame of anger to replace her weariness.
“Do I think my brother getting shot trying to rob a grubby corner store has anything to do with the love of my life being murdered in his hotel room while he was cheating on me?” She sucked in a breath of air. “No, I don’t.”
There’s a subtle shift in the atmosphere of the room, and the two detectives sat up taller and leaned in towards each other slightly.
“You and Dermot Carine were romantically involved?” Kirkpatrick asked.
“I told you that already,” Laura replied.
Bechdel shifted closer to Laura. “We’re just trying to get everything straight. Can you tell us again, about you and Dermot?”
