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Now though, knowing she went to Samantha, that she spoke to her, and was inside her apartment, so close to a woman capable of murder, I need her here with me.
She’s not allowed to leave my side until this is finished.
I rub soothing circles along her hip as I look past Mason and out through the picture window in his sitting room. I need to feel her. I need to know she’s still here, alive and by my side. Away from any danger.
“Samantha was fucking Andrew, the dealer. They planned to kill James and it went sideways. He was supposed to do the coke, not give it to Evan to share with Tony.”
“Do you have evidence?” Kat asks, and I look down at her. She’s standing there as if she just asked for a receipt for an item she wants to return to Nordstrom, not at all affected in the least.
“Enough of it,” Mason answers and I look back at him when I can feel his eyes on me. “Shots of her with Andrew taken from his own surveillance feed. You can’t tell it’s him, since it’s his back and he’s wearing a hoodie. More importantly, my guy was able to grab a sample.”
We can plant the tainted coke. That’s easy enough. Send the picture anonymously to Detective Bradshaw, plant the coke and boom, there’s the evidence they’ve been after. There’s the matter of what she’ll say when they come for her, though. Who she’ll blame and throw under the bus.
The details still need to be decided, but the truth is there. Now we know what happened.
“She wanted James dead because the divorce wasn’t going to leave her with anything?” Kat asks Mason and he’s quick to respond.
“She’s the one who cheated and according to their prenup, if we go by the gossip columns, a divorce would leave her without a penny to her name.”
“Better to kill him than to finalize the divorce,” Kat comments under her breath and steps away from me, walking to the far side of the room to pick up the cup of hot tea she left on the side table.
“What about James?” I ask him. “He really had nothing to do with this?”
Mason shrugs. “Still a prick, and now he’s onto his wife because of the nudge we gave him, but I don’t have shit on him.”
I break eye contact and wipe a hand down my face. I feel like a fool. Guilt and regret swirl together, and the mix of emotions makes me numb. I have to remind myself that all I need right now is Kat, just my wife.
“You were wrong,” Kat says from across the room.
“I wanted to kill him … I would have,” I admit to them, and it hurts to do it. The past few nights I’ve lain awake, thinking about all the ways I considered murdering him. As I stood outside of his house, I knew it’d be easy. I craved to see his body lifeless on the floor.
“It’s because of her,” Kat speaks lowly, but her breathing picks up as anger gets the best of her.
“It’s not hard to focus on revenge,” Mason says as if reading my mind. “It’s not your fault for wanting this over so you could protect your wife.”
The clink of ceramic on glass gets my attention as Kat sets down her mug and makes her way back to me.
“So, what do we do now?” Kat asks then leans her back against my front.
Mason smirks at her and looks between the two of us. “See, this I love,” he says, tapping the folder in his hands.
“We came up with a plan. The cops have to find out. James and Samantha need to be focused on each other and forget about me.
“So … what’s the plan? Leak it to them somehow?” Kat questions.
Mason steps in and says, “James is going to post about how Samantha’s fucking a drug dealer. He’s going to write all abouthow he found coke and a grab bag of pills in her office and that’s why they’ve split.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because my guy has access to his email account. And he drugged him about two hours ago. James is going to wake up with a hangover and unleash hell when he realizes he emailed his contact at theNews Journal, who’s eager to post anything at all about this case.
“The cops are itching for something and they know they have nothing. This city talks, and Derek at theNews Journalwill foam at the mouth to have the inside scoop before anyone else,” Mason answers Kat.
I hope it’s enough to satisfy her. She can’t know the last piece. Just one more secret. One final release.
“James will be relieved more than anything else,” I add, trying to ease her worry. “He’s a time bomb of paranoia waiting to go off.” Mason backs up, leaning against the back of a sitting chair as he adds, “And Samantha will be behind bars by morning.”
“She can’t deny the pictures of the evidence,” Kat murmurs, grasping the plan, but quickly licks her lower lip and shakes her head, seemingly finding a gap in the details. “She’ll make bail.”