Leave Me Love (12 page)

BRIDGETTE HELD THE
gun, her face a mask of shock, then she dropped it, shouting. She threw herself into my arms, crying and hugging. My tears came too, pouring out of me as the tension and fear drained away. We both wept, clutching at each other, shaking like leaves in a storm.

***

"It was all a set up," I said, sitting on a couch in the cabin between Bridgette and Ash.

Detective Gray waved his pen at Bridgette. "You mean, you never—"

Bridgette shook her head. "No one kidnapped me."

Gray jotted something down in his notebook as officers searched the cabin. "So why disappear? Why frame your friend?"

Bridgette grabbed my hand, squeezed it. "I was contacted by the Midnight Murderer while Catelyn was in the hospital. Lauren—though I didn't know who it was at the time—threatened to kill my family if I didn't cooperate. The only way she'd spare me and the people I loved was if I got ahold of Alice's book and research. I knew nothing about the book. She said my parents would die."

I leaned into Ash, who'd arrived before the police, and hoped he'd forgive me for what he was about to find out. "The weekend I got home from the hospital, Bridgette told me what the Midnight Murderer—what Lauren—wanted her to do, what she'd already had her do, like signing my name at the impound lot and switching out the hospital note that had the invisible ink."

Gray's eyebrow popped up. "You
knew
Bridgette did that? You could have saved me the annoying calls."

I smirked. "I had to keep you on your toes." I paused. "And I had to act realistic. We knew we couldn't tell anyone about the threats in case the killer followed through, so we came up with a plan. Bridgette would contact the killer and say she could get me to find the book, but first she'd have to disappear and frame me for it. If I wanted my friend back, I'd have to find the book."

"Still, why frame you?" Gray asked. "Why not pretend you had the book right away and set up the meeting?"

Bridgette rolled her eyes. "Because if I showed up at that meeting, fake book or not, Lauren would have killed me. Tie up loose ends, you know."

Gray kept writing. "So, you framed Catelyn to… get the killer’s trust?"

I nodded. "Because Lauren didn't just want the book. She wanted revenge. She and Lucky were probably lovers. He was probably a past patient of hers. At the very least, we assumed they were friends. So, if Bridgette could help Lauren get revenge then…"

"I could trick her," finished Bridgette. "I pretended to want Catelyn dead, told Lauren I was jealous of her and Ash. I would disappear, frame Catelyn for my kidnapping, Catelyn would get the book, then I'd kill her and pretend to escape. Lauren agreed to the plan and said she'd let me go afterwards. But of course, she'd have killed me, too, after Catelyn had been disposed of. She'd have made it look like we'd both died in a struggle."

"So how did you two, um, disable her?"

Bridgette took a deep breath. "When Catelyn and I fought in the basement, when I was supposed to kill Catelyn, I pretended to lose and pass out." Bridgette rubbed her shoulder and frowned at me. "Catelyn did a remarkable job of keeping the fight realistic. Thanks for that."

I gestured to my clothes, or rather, Professor Cavin's old clothes. "At least you aren't covered in shit. I smell like an outhouse."

Gray cleared his throat. "Then what?"

Bridgette continued. "When the killer came in, whose identity we still didn't know, I was supposed to stop them."

"It didn't go exactly as planned," I said. "We didn't expect her to turn off the lights."

Gray just paced the room as he chewed on his nicotine gum, making a smacking sound that irritated the hell out of me. He looked at us, his eyes narrowed. "I can't believe you girls did such a stupid, idiotic and dangerous thing alone. You both could have been killed. You should have contacted us and let us handle the sting."

"With all due respect," I said, "for all we knew, you were the killer. We couldn't tell anyone for this to work. Everyone was a suspect or a potential victim."

Gray scratched his head. "Still, I can't believe… there was just so much evidence against you, Catelyn. The journal—"

"I wrote some fake things," said Bridgette. "And set up the creepy room. Then I disappeared, hiding out in other small motels."

"You must have had a way of communicating," said Gray.

I nodded. "We hid notes for each other." We used the loose brick at Harvard, but I kept that secret to myself. "After I got arrested, the killer started to trust Brig more. Then, it was time to leak that I'd found the book. I told Max and I even told Ash, in case his place was bugged… which it was, Brig confirmed."

"What? Are you serious? Catelyn, why didn't you tell me?" Ash looked hurt by the betrayal.

"I'm sorry, Ash. I really am, but any changes to our house or routine would have tipped off the killer and not only would all of our lives be in danger, but we would have lost our chance to catch her. I was tempted at one point to tell Maxwell everything, but I couldn't risk it. Instead, I told him to come to me alone if he found out anything about my mother or her book." I held his hand tightly, the engagement ring on my right hand rubbing against his finger. "I had to keep you safe. I had to keep everyone safe."

"The time came for the plan to happen," said Bridgette. "Before Catelyn told the public about the book, I had to kidnap her. We faked the whole thing because everything might have been bugged, the house, the car, all of it. We had to be careful. The killer was at the cabin, like we'd planned, hoping to kill me in the end, and that's what led to this."

"What about the black outs and mood swings, were those real?" Gray asked.

"Mostly, yes. I exaggerated the mood swings to make you more suspicious, but I have had the headaches and some of the blackouts. That also put a crimp in our plans as we were both worried that I wouldn't be healthy enough to pull off my end.”

"So Lauren, the therapist, was working with Lucky all along. She was the brains behind the Midnight Murders," Detective Gray said.

"It looks like it," I said.

"But why? What was her motive?" Ash asked.

"Best guess," Bridgette said, "she was a high profile therapist. Alice was close to her and must have found out that she'd been involved in the other Midnight Murderer killings with Lucky. She was the brains, he was the muscle. After Lucky's death, she needed to find the book Alice had been working on, but also wanted revenge on Catelyn. At least, from our calls, that's what I've been able to piece together."

We were talked out by the time our statements were taken and Detective Gray finally released us. Bridgette and I hugged again and then her parents showed up, both teary-eyed and elated that their little girl was okay. I steered clear, still hurt by Mr. Beaumont's feelings for me after all these years and instead went to the back porch to talk to Professor Cavin, who had been called since this was his property.

"I'm so sorry this all happened here," I told him. "I know this is a special place for you."

He gave me a half hug and smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm just so glad you're okay. This place, it's over for me. Too much death here, anyways. First the cat, then this."

I turned to him, my heart skipping a beat. "The cat? My mom's cat? It died here?"

"Yes," he said distractedly, pointing to a tree hidden in the rainy night. "Buried right over there. She even made a little tomb for him with sticks and rocks."

"What did she call it, the cat?"

Cavin shrugged. "She just called him Cat."

I ran out to the yard, rain drenching me, my heart pounding, ears buzzing. It couldn't be. It would be impossible. Ridiculous.

I found the stones and dug them out, using a stick to dig through the dirt until it hit something hard.

A box.

I pulled it out, brushing off the mud and shielding it with my body as I opened it.

I prepared to see the remains of a cat, but instead I found a roll of battered papers wrapped in rubber bands. I opened them up and they were all in my mother's writing. Forcing myself to breathe, I read through the first page and froze. On the front it read:
The Davenports will be responsible for my death. Someone has to get close to them and find out the truth.

I tucked the papers into the pocket of my jacket, pushed rocks and dirt back over the grave hoping the rain would settle it, and rushed over to where everyone else was just starting to come out.

Ash hugged me. "What's going on? Are you okay?" He looked over to the tree.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just thought I was going to be sick. But it passed."

"We should get you home. You're soaking wet and freezing. You've been through so much."

I rested my head on his chest and looked at the ring on my right hand, then pulled it off and held it up.

"Ash, I've decided."

He looked down, seeing the ring and froze. "Yes?"

I slipped the ring onto my left hand. "I will marry you."

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When not penning toe-curling sexiness, she writes fantasy and science fiction with her husband as Karpov Kinrade.

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