Page 82 of The Last Girl

No, she was certain of what happened. The account she told Vee was true. Jackie had tried to push her down the stairs.

And Vee was right about that too. Jackie hadn’t only tried to push her down the stairs; she had tried to kill Luna and the baby.

Anger lit inside her. She needed to tell Jerome what had happened. All of it. But what if he didn’t believe her? Jackie was his mother. Was he going to believe such a horrible thing about his own mother?

But it was true. No matter what anyone said, it was true.

The only problem was that hardware store receipt.

Luna got to her feet. She couldn’t take this anymore. She had to know if there was an issue with the time she’d checked out at the hardware store or something else she had forgotten. Maybe she had made another stop and couldn’t remember. She may have driven around ... God, she just wasn’t sure anymore.

She grabbed her phone and her fob and walked out of her beautiful home. The one her sweet husband had built for her and their family.

Luna couldn’t sit back and let anyone ruin their lives.

35

Erwin Residence

Washington Street, 4:30 p.m.

“Quantum Leap?” Erwin sat on the sofa in her eclectic living area and seemed to contemplate the question. “I recall hearing Lena talk about it, but I can’t tell you a whole lot about the organization. I know it’s focused on like the betterment of mankind. What does that mean? I have no idea. It was Lena who got involved, and Thomas bankrolled whatever his wife wanted. That’s all I can tell you.”

Bent had apparently gotten a text, since he was doing something on his phone. So Vera moved on with the questions.

“But the donations stopped, and Quantum Leap was taken out of the will after Lena died.”

Erwin stared blankly at her as if she didn’t see any reason to respond.

Vera gave it another go. “If this particular group was so important to the woman he loved—so good for mankind—why did Thomas suddenly end support?”

“Like I said,” Erwin stated flatly, “Lena was the one who started it. She never talked to me about it directly.”

“Started it? Who else was involved?”

A half-hearted shrug lifted one shoulder. “I can’t remember his name. Some guy.”

Vera took a chance. “Is this the man Thomas suspected was having an affair with his wife?”

Erwin’s eyes flared to saucers. “I ... I don’t know.”

“But she was having an affair? You should know,” Vera pressed. “You seemed to know a good deal about Alicia’s indiscretions.”

Erwin sat up straighter and looked directly at Vera then. “Yeah, okay. It was a shock to everyone, but yeah, Lena was having an affair. Thomas was devastated. They fought—privately. I don’t think anyone outside the house ever knew. He found out, and then the next thing we knew, she had that terrible accident.” She made awhateverface. “It was sad, but you’d think if she was such a big-deal champion, she could have stayed in the saddle.”

That was the thing about a narcissist—they could never help themselves when it came to belittling others. “Meaning what?”

“Just that when she took her crazy-expensive horse for a ride that last time, she got thrown.”

This part was in the autopsy. “Had this happened before?”

Erwin shook her head. “Don’t think so.”

Vera wasn’t schooled in horseback riding, but she did understand that a well-trained horse didn’t just throw off its rider for no reason. “Did anyone figure out what caused the animal to throw her off?”

Erwin squinted as if trying to remember. “Something about saddle panels. I guess she wasn’t keeping her gear properly maintained.”

Or, Vera countered, someone wanted it to look that way. “Was anyone on staff having trouble with Lena?”