“Hi, Claudia!” She sounded in a good mood. For a change. Quinn had been such a sad sack lately. I was so sick of hearing her complain incessantly about her perfect life.
“Quinn,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Where are you? Are you free?”
“Not at the moment. I’m still at work.”
A lie. She was not at work—I know that now. She was already on the run.
But I didn’t know it back then, so I had to weasel her plans out of her. Find out how long Derek and I would have together. “What time do you get off? Do you want to grab dinner?”
“No, I… I have to work late tonight.”
I tutted and made some comment about how hard they worked her, and of course, she agreed. Even though she had a totally cushy desk job. Try massaging somebody’s muscles for six hours straight and see how you feel.
“Tell you what,” I said. “How about if I come over tonight with a bottle of wine?”
“No!” She sounded freaked out about the idea of it, and now I was curious. At the time, I thought she and Derek must’ve had an argument. I was desperate for more details. “I mean… I’ve got a headache and I… it’s not a good night. I don’t feel like socializing.”
I tried to get her to tell me, but she was resistant. “Fine,” I said. “But you owe me dinner out. Tomorrow night, Rob and I are going out… how about Sunday?”
“How about Monday?”
“Deal. Let’s meet at Donatello’s at seven. Don’t be late!”
Of course, she had no intention of meeting me on Monday. She expected to be long gone by then. She nixed the idea of doing Sunday because she didn’t want me to walk in and discover her husband’s body. She had no idea I was on my way to her house right then.
When I got to Quinn and Derek’s house, my body was almost buzzing with anticipation the way it always was when I was about to see Derek. I had a key to the house, so I let myself in. Usually Derek met me at the door—I loved the sexy smile that would spread across his face when I walked in.
But this time, I didn’t see him.
“Derek?” I called out. No answer.
I checked my phone, to make sure he hadn’t texted me and told me not to come. But there was nothing.
“Derek?” I stepped into the living room, looking around. “Are you here?”
He didn’t answer, so I went into the kitchen and…
I fell to my knees in front of his dead body. Yes, he was definitely dead. I didn’t have any medical knowledge, but I could tell that much. He was lying in a pool of drying blood, his beautiful face chalky, his lips parted, his eyes cracked open. I thought of this man as being so full of life, and here he was, totally and utterly dead.
I picked up his hand, which already felt stiff. Vaguely, I knew that I shouldn’t be touching things around what was clearly a crime scene. But I couldn’t help myself. I loved this man.
And now he was dead. Just like my parents.
“Who did this to you?” I whispered.
Unsurprisingly, he did not answer.
I got to my feet. I scanned the first floor of the house. “Quinn!” I shrieked.
I went running from room to room, screaming Quinn’s name. I wanted to smash everything in their beautiful house, but even through my haze of grief, I knew that would be stupid. Anyway, she was long gone by then.
I thought there was a tiny possibility that somebody had killed Derek and taken Quinn hostage. But I knew how Quinn felt about him. I knew they fought constantly. Really, there was never any doubt in my mind that she was the one who stabbed him to death.
I also knew she would get away with it. Okay, she was stupid to run—that would hurt her case. But she would use some sort of defense about how he abused her, and she’d get off scot free. He wasn’t abusive to her. I know how Quinn can be. Sometimes I wanted to smack her upside the head myself.
I had to find Quinn. And then I promised myself I would make her pay for what she had done to the man I loved.
I triple dipper promised with a cherry on top.
It was lucky I found her phone before the police did. It helped that Deputy Scotty Dwyer was such an idiot. I attempted to throw them off her trail, but it didn’t work. Quinn was too careless and managed to get herself pulled over. She couldn’t even do that part right. Even our hopelessly incompetent police force would find her at this rate.
So I went after her. To the Baxter Motel.
When I parked in the lot, the motel looked almost deserted. The lights were off in all the rooms. It looked like nobody had stayed there in years. For a moment, I thought I had made a mistake. Maybe Quinn hadn’t come here after all.