Page 104 of Exposed

“What is it?”

“BEARLY12.”

“Good job. Did you have to beat it out of her?”

“No, I did what you said. I showed her the picture and told her I’d kill her partner if she didn’t tell me. It worked.”

“Nice.”

Listening, Mary felt a wave of guilt that Bennie was worried right now about whether she was alive or dead. She couldn’t imagine how horrible that picture was of her, and it must have horrified Bennie no end. It killed Mary to think they were using her to hurt Bennie. It struck Mary then that Bennie was in her family too.

“Ray, we need to talk. I want to understand the plan you’re making.”

“Hold on, let me look in the laptop. I want to see if she sent that email.”

“Fine, we can talk while you’re lookin’. I want to understand how you expect me to kill these women, exactly.”

“What do you mean?” Ray asked, sounding preoccupied.

“I mean, what’s the plan? Exactly. Shoot them? Or stab them like Todd? How am I supposed to do this?”

“Hold on. Here we go, I’m into the computer. Now all I have to do is get to the email. Let’s see. She uses Thunderbird.”

“Ray, can’t you talk while you look through her email?”

“What’s your rush? Cool your jets. Here we go. I’m in her sent email.”

“So did she send it?”

“No!” Ray shouted, triumphant. “I told you! That bitchliedto you!”

“But we don’t have wireless. Maybe it didn’t get it? Or download it? Whatever?”

“It should have been there. She lied straight out. That’s why she didn’t want to give you the password. She was bluffing.”

“Okay,whatever. I want to talk about the plan.”

Listening, Mary was starting to remember more. The email they were looking for was about evidence. It was coming back to her now. A fire at one of Todd’s accounts, that they had found out about online. Mary had wanted to tell the police. She had hoped to get it to the detective before they arrested Simon. But she had been too late. She had asked Bennie to send it, but Bennie must have forgotten. She wasn’t sure why it mattered.

Mary kept her eye on the phone, not daring to move. She prayed they didn’t come into the bedroom right now. They would see exactly what she was up to, but they sounded busy. Ernie was more agitated than before. Mary didn’t know why.

“Ernie, what do you want to know about the plan?”

“How do you want me to kill them?”

“Well, the way I see it, we’re going to do what’s quick and easy. We’re going to shoot them.”

“And why is that?”

“Why not? I’m not worried about the noise, like with Todd. There’s no reason to stab them. It’s more of a mess to clean up. No one is ever gonna find these bodies. So we don’t have to be careful.”

“So whose gun are we going to use? The only ones who have guns are me and Mo.”

“We use yours.”

Ernie hesitated. “Why mine?”

“Again, why not? What’s with all the questions? What difference does it make what gun we use?”