Page 133 of Take Your Breath Away

“Detective Hardy,” I said. “Sorry, you were probably wanting to speak to Jayne.”

“No, in fact I was hoping to reach you. I tried your number and it went straight to voice mail.”

“My phone’s broken,” I said.

“I need to see you right now.”

“Sorry, I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment. What’s this about?”

“I think you know. Your name just popped up on another matter. Something that happened up on Wheelers Farm Road.”

“Figured I might hear from you.”

“There’s a dead man in the woods and an open grave. I’m heading up there shortly. Meet me there.”

“He wasn’t dead when I left him, but he said his name is Matt,” I offered. “He killed Brie. Her remains are in that grave. I think if you do a DNA test on them, that’ll be confirmed. He lured me up there, made me dig her up on the off chance I might be able to say whose bones they were, and then he intended to kill me.”

“But he didn’t.”

“No. I got lucky. Norman—Brie’s brother-in-law—happened to be in the right place at the right time and created enough of a distraction that I came out of it alive.”

“You killed this Matt person.”

“Like I said, he was alive when I left.” I was surprised how easy it was to lie about this. “I’d sent Norman to call for an ambulance. He went up by the road to wave them in. I stayed with Matt a few more minutes, talked some, then made my way back to my car and said goodbye to Norman.”

“Why was Norman there?”

“He wanted to thank me.”

“Thank you?”

“For never telling Isabel what I told you. For not ruining their lives when I had every reason to. You can ask him, if you want. He saw me driving out of town and followed.”

“Meet me there. I’m not going to ask again.”

“That’s good,” I said, “because I’d be getting tired of having to say no. I know who did it, Detective Hardy. I know who hired him to kill my wife.”

“This Matt told you?”

“Yes.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I guess he felt a need to unburden himself,” I said.

“Tell me. I want the name.”

“Soon,” I said. “I’ve got a few questions to ask first.”

“Mr. Carville—Andrew. Please, just meet me at—”

There she was, asking again within seconds of saying she wouldn’t. I ended the call. And then, in case she could use Jayne’s phone to track me, I powered it off.

I imagined she’d be putting out a description of my car. I hoped I could get done everything I wanted to do before I was spotted.

First stop was to drop off Norman’s phone.

I wanted to have a word with Isabel. Who’d been up in Boston, with her husband. Far, far away when Brie was abducted and murdered.