The last secret_ a novel - Mary McGarry Morris [119]
“I've got it,” she tells Chloe. “You can hang up now.” She thinks she hears a click, can't be sure. She takes a deep breath. “Yes, what is it?” Coldly, to hide her relief.
“Listen to me. Listen to every word I say.” The hateful sting of his rage burns like lye in her ear. Interrupting, she tells Chloe again to hang up the phone. She already did, he growls, his last words about his child before launching into a diatribe so bizarre that she freezes, listening with a rising hysteria and confusion that border on giddiness. At first, his bitter demand that she call off her private investigator strikes her as pathetically funny, a sick joke, until she realizes that must be what Stephen meant by her “detective.” Stephen, pretending to be her confidant and playing both sides. And if she doesn't, Ken's crazed rant continues, then he'll be forced to take matters into his own hands. Which, given the delicate nature of the circumstances, he's reluctant to do, since making this a police matter will only embarrass everyone concerned.
“Imagine! Embarrassing us!” she says, pressing down on the top of her throbbing head. “As if it could be any worse.” She can't help laughing. A police matter! So, it's all starting to catch up with him, that rampant paranoia that always seems to affect the most guilty. Finally. Now it's his turn to twist in the wind. His turn to panic, his turn to feel watched and judged. Humiliated.
“You hired him, Nora, now you get rid of him.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Of course you do. You not only hired him, you set him up to come on to Robin, and how sick is that?”
“You can't be serious.” She swallows hard. “That's crazy.”
“I'll say it's crazy. He's crazy, and that's why, that's why you hired him. To hunt down Robin. To harass her, to scare her and the children, and not just them, but her mother. Emily, I mean, of all people. You've got to do something, you'd better. And if you won't, then goddamnit, I will.”
“I haven't hired anyone to do anything!” she shouts back.
“You paid him! I already know that!”
“No! That's not—”
“The money for your sister, but poor Carol, she never got it, though, did she? Not a penny of it, because it was for him. You had to pay him!”
“What're you … you … Eddie Hawkins?” she stammers. “Is that who you mean? He's not an investigator. I told you before, he's just someone … I don't even know who he is, really, or what he does. He's just … just this guy. It was the picture in Newsweek. He looked me up. That's all. I never hired him to do anything. And that's the truth.”
“Nora, I've got proof You withdrew money. You paid him! Thousands of dollars. He told Emily. He even tried giving it to her. He was irrational, he—”
“You're the one that's irrational!” she screams, then hangs up. Her heart is beating too fast. She sits on the edge of the bed, rocking back and forth. He's jealous, and he wants her to get rid of his rival. He better get used to it, because that's what his life will be like with Robin. Adorable Robin, pretending to care, probably doing everything in her power to make Eddie worship her, so what did she expect, always toying with people, a sickness really, her toxic need to be the center