Heads You Lose - Lisa Lutz [98]
That night, Lacey’s mind kept working at the mystery even as her body slept. By morning a new theory had formed. She called Sook to confirm her worst fears.
“What happens if I die?” Lacey asked.
“I’d be heartbroken,” Sook replied.
“I mean, what would happen to my money if I were to die suddenly.”
“Do you have a will?”
“No.”
“Then it would go to your closest relative. Paul.”
“Say I die, Paul gets my money, and then Paul dies. What happens then?”
“I take it Paul doesn’t have a will.”
“No.”
“I’m not sure what would happen then,” Sook replied.
“What if Paul was married?”
“Then everything would go to his wife.”
Lacey opened her nightstand drawer to make sure the gun was where she left it.
“You still there, Lacey?” Sook asked.
“I think I know who our killer is.”
NOTES:
Dave,
I assure you there was nothing passive-aggressive in my incrimination of Brandy. It just fits, if you think about it.
I’m too tired to make threats, suggestions, or even to offer encouragement. I don’t know what it is about us that makes working together so painful.
I’d like you to take this next chapter seriously and work within the confines of what we have already written. Of course, you’ll do whatever you want. While you’re thinking of ways to screw with me, remember this: Your next chapter is your last.
On a happy note, we’re in the home stretch, Dave. Soon we will be free of each other.
Lisa
Lisa,
Our troubles don’t seem like such a mystery to me. We have different values and standards. For example, is an anonymous note composed of letters cut out of magazines and newspapers really the best we can do? What’s next, THE KILLER WAS CALLING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE?
Since you haven’t taken up any of the leads I established in my last chapter, I guess I’ll have to lay everything out myself. I may not have the luxury of the final word, but I have a feeling I’m not going to need it.
Dave
CHAPTER 30
After the call from Sook, Lacey had realized that Paul wouldn’t be in real danger until he married Brandy—or until Brandy found out he knew her secret. So she let the couple sleep off their champagne. She’d give Paul the news when his fiancée was at a safe distance.
Paul woke with a smile on his face and Irving purring on his chest. Next to him was a note from Brandy to come up to Tulac whenever he got up. They were supposed to spend the day planning their wedding. Hangover aside, he felt great, and he knew it wasn’t just the engagement or the Babalato windfall. Lacey’s half-packed suitcase meant she was finally ready to give up her investigations and skip town. He looked forward to the day he could stop worrying about her.
Marv Babalato might be a problem when he discovered the truth about the property, Paul thought, but that would take a while. And even then, what could Marv do? He’d bought the place under a fraudulent pretense. The more Paul dealt with him, the more he seemed like a garden-variety opportunist, not a homicidal avenger. Irving half opened his eyes, and after a while, Paul got up.
Brandy was out when he got to her place, so he used the key she’d given him the night before. A note on her TV said she’d be back by noon, but it was already almost one. He started worrying about her, and before long he was worrying about everything. Was he crazy to think everything was fine? Only a few weeks ago, she was pretending to be an entirely different person. Was he rushing into things? On an impulse he went into her bedroom and sat down at her computer. Her e-mail account was password-protected, but he nailed it on the third try, with vonshtupp, a reference to her favorite Blazing Saddles character.46
He opened her Sent folder and started scanning for the dates he’d been collecting alibis for, starting with the pre-dawn hours of September fourth. He ignored the e-mails from earlier that evening and found three after midnight. Around one a.m. there was one to her friend Candi about how tortured