Deciding I had enough to go to Eric with, I started packing up my shit to put away when something caught my attention. I studied the information about the mine again, looking closer at the company that owned the mine. It looked familiar. I opened my computer back up and went through all of Arlen’s holdings. There it was in black and white. Blackwood Mining Company, run by Blackwood Corporation, a subsidiary of an umbrella corporation that belonged to Arlen Henning. He fucking owned the mining company. He was responsible for it closing, and Murray was right there beside him. She didn’t kill Murray because he found out about her secrets. She killed him because he was responsible for what happened to her family. She was introduced to Arlen by Murray, and when Murray died, she went after the big fish, killing off the man truly responsible for making her family destitute.
I sat back and stared at the screen, all the information blurring together. I had failed to do my job. I had become so wrapped up in all this shit that I didn’t even see what was right in front of me, because I fell for her. I fell for a woman that killed other people in cold blood, all in the name of revenge. But was she really so different than Carly? If she killed these people out of revenge, out of a need to avenge her family, could I really blame her? And then there was the biggest problem, no matter how much I learned about Lorelei tonight, I was still fucking in love with her.
Lorelei
I had a driver pick me up at the airport and take me back to the estate. Walking through there was painful, not because Arlen was dead, but because I hated this place so fucking much. And as soon as I walked through the door, who was there to greet me? Bartholomew and Elena. I hated them, but I had to keep up appearances.
Plastering a sad smile on my face, I asked, “How are you both doing?”
“Oh, cut the shit,” Bartholomew spat. “We both know you killed our father.”
I flinched back in surprise, though I’d been expecting it. “I understand you’re hurting, but I didn’t kill your father. He died of a heart attack.”
He sneered at me, but Elena, the little bitch, walked right up to me and slapped me across the face. My face stung, but I didn’t show that it affected me at all. She was just a spoiled brat, but I would win in the end, and I would make sure they got nothing.
“Elena, it’s so good to see you again.”
“I don’t wish I could say the same. What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be hiding somewhere?”
“This is still my home, and I have nothing to hide from.”
“That’s not what I hear,” Bartholomew smiled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Apparently, the police would like a chat with you.”
“And I have no doubt that you put that thought in their heads.”
He shrugged. “They came by to talk. I just told them what I know.”
“And what exactly is that?”
He grinned again. “Why would I tell you that? I wouldn’t want you to have time to craft a story for them.”
“Well, since there’s no story to craft, I think I’ll be just fine.”
I walked past them up the stairs and ignored them the rest of the day. I decided I couldn’t stay in the master bedroom anymore. The last thing I wanted was to be reminded of my time with Arlen.
I wasn’t surprised when Callum called me just a few hours later and said that he set up an appointment for me with the police. Apparently, they weren’t interested in meeting at the estate and asked me to come down to the station for an informal interview. I met Callum downstairs and slipped into the back seat of the town car, looking as nice as possible, without looking like a snob.
“Christ, when I told you to look like a grieving widow, I didn’t expect you to wear a fucking black hat to match the dress,” Callum said.
“Too much?”
“Way too fucking much. If you walk in like that, they’re going to peg you for a gold digger. And let your hair down. You look too stiff with it pinned up. You should look nicely rumpled.”
I did as he said, removing the hat and then taking my hair out of the twist I had it in. Running my fingers through my hair, I knew that it still looked nice, but not perfect.
“Better?”
“Perfect. Now, when you go in there, remember, they’re going to try and get you to slip up. They want you to reveal something they can latch onto. Honestly, I’d like to take over as much as possible and lead them in the right direction, but that could make it look like you’re trying to hide something. I think it’s best if you speak.”
I nodded and took a deep breath. “I couldn’t do this without you.”
Callum was ten years older than me, and if we were different people, I would try to make something of our relationship, but we were in this for the same exact reason. Money. It was what drove us all these years, and without him, I never would have made it this far. He was my rock when I felt like giving up. He stood beside me at my mother’s funeral and held my hand, and when I told him I was ready to put our plan in motion, he did everything he could to get me on the right path. He was like my band manager. He took care of all the background stuff, and I was the face of the band. We were so close to our end goal, and that was all that mattered.
“You haven’t been in touch much lately.”
“I’ve been busy.”
He pulled on my hand, forcing me to look at him. “In the country? What exactly have you been doing?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed silent.
“Fuck, you went and found a man didn’t you?”
“It’s nothing serious,” I lied. It was very serious to me. I was falling for Andrew big time, and I knew that was a problem, because it was never supposed to be like that. He was a means to an end, but somewhere along the way, he became so much more.
“If it’s nothing serious, then why have you been ignoring me? We can’t afford to just sit back and wait for things to happen. We have to tackle this head on and get our money.”
I knew he was right. I wasn’t the only one that had skin in the game here. I needed to take into account all he had sacrificed for me.
“I know, and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. It just…it felt good to not pretend.”
He sighed and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer. “I know that, but we’re so close to the finish line. We need this.”
“I know.” I knew what was at stake better than anyone. I wasn’t about to give up now. “I swear, when I leave here in a few days, I’ll stay in touch.”
“You’re going back?” he asked incredulously.
“I can’t stay at the estate. His kids are terrible.”
“Remember what I told you. You need Oscar on your side. He’s going to be the key in all this.”
“Maybe,” I said, staring out the window. “Don’t you feel bad though?”
“For what?”
“For Oscar. He’s the only good person in any of this. I feel bad taking all this from him.”
“He’ll make his own way in the world. He never wanted his dad’s money anyway.”
“Maybe not, but how does this make us any better than Arlen?”
“How does any of this make us better? Lorelei, we both knew what we were doing, the people we would hurt. We agreed there was no going back.”
I sighed and leaned against the window for the rest of the drive. I didn’t want to be this person anymore. I was tired of lying. I just wanted to go back to my house and live my own life.
“What are you going to do when all this is over?” he asked.
“You know what I’m going to do.”
“I know, but after that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just want peace.”
He was silent for a minute. “Have you heard from your dad lately?”
I shook my head. Callum still thought that my dad was wandering around drunk. For some reason, he had hopes that we would reconnect. “He’s probably drunk in an alley somewhere.”
“You know, he wasn’t always like that. I’m
not making excuses for how he handled everything, but he was just as much a victim of circumstance.”
We’d had this discussion many times before. Callum didn’t live my life though. He witnessed it and he helped in any way he could, but that wasn’t the same as experiencing what I did.
“It’s been too many years.”
“Lorelei, you’re dad’s not going to live forever.”
My gaze snapped to his and I scowled. “He hasn’t exactly reached out over the years. A cheap apology on a note doesn’t exactly make me think that he should be forgiven for what he did.”
He sighed heavily. “He’s still your father…”
My drunk, abusive father. Even if he was alive, I wouldn’t speak to him.
“Why are you pushing this so hard?”
He brushed some lint off his suit and stared at the floor of the car. For a minute, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me. But then he looked up with a sad expression.
“I’ve heard some rumors that your dad was seen around town. They say he didn’t look good, that he’s dying.”
Those rumors were still going around because I made sure they circulated. I had to keep up the idea that my father wasn’t actually dead. Every once in a while, I would call a friend back home, ask if my father had been seen. I would drop little hints about what he might be doing or where he might be. Suddenly, it was like everyone wanted to imagine he was there. They would try and comfort me, telling me that they thought they saw him at his old hangout. Soon, the rumor mill spread that my dad was back. It died down, of course, but it was enough for people to keep the idea of him being alive.
“How long?” I asked, pretending to swipe a tear from my eye.
“No one’s talked to him about it. It’s hard to say for sure.”
“Then how do you know he’s dying?”
He sighed heavily. “Lorelei, you know what cirrhosis of the liver looks like. The symptoms were all there, and I guess a few people even tried to get him to go to the doctor, but you know your dad.”
I huffed out a laugh. Now people were actually saying they had tried to help him…a dead man. If they ever found out that the man had been dead since I was a teenager, they would all feel like idiots. But this was good for me, and for Matthew. It kept us out of the spotlight.
“Look, there’s still time to go say goodbye.”
I said my goodbyes a long time ago, right before I helped Matthew dump his body in the mine. We had to carry him for a long time before we felt it was safe to dump his body. And that whole time, all I could think about was how glad I was to be rid of him. I didn’t have to live in fear anymore. I could just live my life. Little did I know that my decisions would change the course of my life so drastically. What I thought was making my life better turned out to be the worst mistake of my life, because I lost Matthew.
We pulled up to the police station and I took Callum’s hand as I stepped out of the car. Taking a steeling breath, I walked inside with my head held high. They had me wait around for about ten minutes, and I found it difficult not to fidget. I had been preparing for this, but I had hoped this day would never actually come.
When the officer led me back to a room to talk, I took a seat in the uncomfortable metal chair and did my best to sit still. Callum rested his hand on top of mine for just a moment for reassurance and when the door swung open, I felt like I could handle this.
“Mrs. Henning, I’m Detective Barnes. Thank you for coming down. I understand you no longer live in the area.”
“No, I moved after my husband’s death. I found it too painful to remain in the house.”
He frowned slightly, looking at his folder. “The house…right the ten thousand square foot house.”
“It was a little big for my tastes.”
He nodded, smirking slightly. “I’m sure it was.”
He took his seat and opened the folder on the table, flipping through some pages. He was trying to make me wait as long as possible, but I was ready for this. I had nothing to hide. Well, not about Arlen.
“Mrs. Henning, there have been some accusations that you had something to do with your husband’s death.”
I didn’t say anything, and he stared me down, waiting for me to say something.
“Mrs. Henning, do you have anything to say about this?”
“I would say that my husband died of a heart attack, and you can check the hospital records.”
“We did that. Your husband was a relatively young man. Can you tell me why you didn’t request an autopsy?”
“It wasn’t necessary.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “A forty-seven year old man dies suddenly of a heart attack and you don’t find an autopsy necessary?”
“Officer, I don’t mean to be rude, but since you already are, I’ll be fairly blunt with you. I talked with Arlen’s doctor after he died. I asked the very same question, how a young man could die so suddenly. He assured me that given the amount of stress that Arlen was under on a daily basis, a heart attack wasn’t that uncommon. And since he was home alone at the time of his heart attack, by the time we got him to the hospital, there was nothing they could do for him. So, you ask why I didn’t have an autopsy…I didn’t have one because the doctor explained things to me and it made sense. I didn’t want my husband to be butchered when he’d already suffered enough.”
“And this doctor…”
“Doctor Kinsley. You’re more than welcome to go speak with him if you want. I’ll have his medical record released to you, if that’ll make you feel better.”
The officer sat back, obviously not having any response for that. He flipped the folder closed and nodded. “Well, I think that clears things up, but I will be requesting his medical records.”
“And you’ll get them. Now, if there’s nothing else, I have a few errands to run before I head home.”
“And where is home now?”
I stood and smirked. “I’m sure you already have that in your database, detective.”
Andrew
I didn’t know what else to do. Now that I had confirmation of what Lorelei really was, I had to tell Eric. I couldn’t let him go back to that house, knowing what I knew. It was too dangerous for him, even if he wasn’t the target. If she suspected he knew anything, he would be a casualty in this whole mess.
I hesitantly walked up the steps to Eric’s house, trying to figure out how to tell him that I knew all along what she really was. He was going to be so pissed at me. I could always lie and say I just found out, but Eric would know. Besides, I was an adult, and I needed to act like one.
I knocked on the door, waiting for it to open. When Eric answered, he looked at me funny.
“Since when do you knock?”
“Just thought I’d try something new.”
He rolled his eyes at me, irritated for some reason. That was never a good way to start. “So, I have to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah? What did you do this time?”
I scratched my jaw and tried to come up with the words.
You’ve been working for a black widow this whole time and I knew about it.
Lorelei is a murderer and you can’t work for her anymore.
Or worse….I slept with a murderer and I think I’m in love with her. What should I do?
“Earth to Andrew,” Eric said, waving his hand in front of my face. “What’s going on?”
“We should sit down for this,” I gestured to the kitchen table, the very same table we played poker at every week. Would I be invited back?
“Shit, this is bad.”
I nodded. “I’m not gonna lie. It’s really bad.”
“How bad? Did you kill someone?” I winced, catching him by surprise. “Oh shit. You killed someone. Who did you kill? Never mind, I don’t want to know.”
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
Eric started pacing the house, not listening to what I was saying. “Was it Jack? I know he’s been giving you bullshit tickets, but that’s no
reason to commit murder.”
“I didn’t kill Jack,” I insisted.
“Corduroy? I mean, I would totally get that, but still…maybe not killing the sheriff’s deputy would be a good idea.”
“I didn’t kill anyone, and I wouldn’t kill Corduroy.”
“Seriously? Because I’m pretty sure we’ve all wanted to strangle him at some point. Don’t tell anyone I said that. Between your murder charge and Josh and Carly, I don’t need to be thrown in as an accomplice.”
“Christ, I didn’t kill anyone!”
He stopped pacing and stared at me. “Wait, you didn’t murder anyone?”
“No—”
“Then why the fuck did you say you did?”
“I didn’t say that! You just assumed I did.”
“Because you winced!”
“Oh, well, if that’s an admission of guilt, then lock me away now.”
He ran a shaky hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “Hell, that really shook me up. I think I almost had a heart attack. You can’t do shit like that to people.”
“I didn’t do anything to you,” I pointed out.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes before blowing it out slowly. “Alright, so what’s the actual problem?”
“Lorelei is a murderer.”
He stared at me for a second and then shook his head. “You know, I just got done telling you not to fuck with people like that, and then you turn around and do it again.”
“I’m not fucking with you. She’s a black widow.”
He stared at me deadpan and said, “I’m assuming you’re not talking about a spider.”
I shook my head. “I wish I was…but then she wouldn’t have such a sexy body, or be really good in bed.”
“Please, let’s not compare sexy bodies with spiders. It’s disturbing.”
“You have no idea. I’m the one that’s slept with her. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been worried about being murdered in my sleep?”
Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) Page 23