Part 22 (2/2)
”Oh, you mean because you thought the cops were looking for you in connection with my murder?” He chuckled. ”Is that it?”
”b.a.s.t.a.r.d.” Rebecca searched the displays on the wall. ”You were watching everything. We're all just little ants to you-living in your personal ant farm.”
Big Bill laughed. ”Oh, I like that. That's a good one, Rebecca.”
”You know who really killed her.”
”Yes, I do. It was you.”
”Did you record it? Let's see the video. Show me the video where I killed her.”
Gabby stepped closer to Rebecca. ”Look.” He handed her his phone.
Rebecca could not believe her eyes. ”Where did this money come from, Gabby?”
Big Bill interrupted. ”It's your payoff, Rebecca. For killing Mrs. Cinaway.”
”And who is supposed to have paid me?”
”My guess would be Harvey Hamstel. He was worried that Carly would sue the company into bankruptcy over my relations.h.i.+p with her daughter.”
”Relations.h.i.+p? You were raping her.”
”So, apparently Harvey paid you to kill her. And now he's dead.”
”Harvey Hamstel is dead?” said Rebecca. ”Oh, and I suppose I killed him too.”
”The police will think so-after they find a little silver charm on the floor of his kitchen, among the broken gla.s.s-you know, from a charm bracelet, like the one you're wearing.”
Rebecca held up her left arm, checking each charm on her bracelet. The pistol charm was missing. ”You son of a b.i.t.c.h. You took it off while I was pa.s.sed out.”
”But what I don't understand is why you killed Calvin.”
”I didn't,” said Rebecca.
”No, not you, Rebecca. Gabby killed him.”
”Huh?” said Gabby.
”Maybe Calvin suspected Rebecca had killed his wife, Carly, so in order to protect Rebecca, you s.h.i.+sh kabobbed Calvin with that big screwdriver. It must have taken a lot of rage to jam it all the way through his body.”
”I didn't do that.”
”Tell it to the cops. They received an anonymous tip that Calvin had been murdered.”
”From you, no doubt,” said Rebecca.
”And they found somebody's fingerprints all over the handle of the screwdriver. And I happen to know they're Gabby's.”
Rebecca turned to Gabby. ”Did you touch that screwdriver?”
”No. Of course not.” He thought for a moment. ”Unless...”
”What?”
”Unless that was the screwdriver I accidentally knocked off the workbench this morning. I picked it up and put it back.”
”c.r.a.p, Gabby.”
”c.r.a.p, indeed,” laughed Big Bill. ”But that's a great story for the cops. Be sure to practice it, so you'll sound believable.”
Rebecca whipped out her pistol and pointed it at Big Bill. ”Laugh at this, you son of a b.i.t.c.h.”
”Take it easy, Rebecca. You should be thanking me for sending the police out to that marina to pick you up before Bobby's guys had a chance to kill you.”
”The cops couldn't find us,” said Rebecca.
”Yeah,” said Big Bill, ”congratulations. You did a great job of hiding from them. I don't know how you pulled that off.”
”But how did you know Bobby took us to the marina? Did you have a camera on Bobby's van?”
Big Bill grinned. ”No. Just a tracking device-thanks to a loyal employee at Cafe Nue.”
Rebecca took another quick scan of the wall displays. ”So, you saved all the incriminating videos, and deleted the ones that would prove our innocence.”
Big Bill grinned. ”We didn't do much deleting. But we did a good bit of editing. Daniel is quite a wiz at it.”
”Any reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your head?”
”If I really thought you were capable of murder, I wouldn't have let you in here. Oh, and if you're having any crazy thoughts about erasing my little video collection, forget it. All of my videos are automatically backed up to a remote server. Not only that, Daniel is prompted for his pa.s.sword every four hours. And if he doesn't enter it, a prewritten email will be automatically sent to the cops with a pa.s.sword and link to my remote backup database.”
Rebecca studied the display of Kimberly in her bedroom. ”So, I guess you know what your lovely young wife has been up to. And Joey Ketrousie.”
”Yes, I do. And they're going to pay dearly for their disloyalty. Believe me.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca saw Daniel moving. He was going for a pistol in the drawer. But she kept her gun pointed at Big Bill.
Gabby was on top of Daniel immediately. He jammed the electrodes against his neck and pushed the fire b.u.t.ton.
Daniel lost control of his muscles. He dropped the gun, and fell out of his chair.
Gabby s.n.a.t.c.hed the pistol, and stored it in his waistband.
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