Leigh asked, “Have you been crying?”
Callie didn’t answer. “Are you sure Maddy is safe?”
“Walter’s mother took her on a road trip. She’s confused, but—”
Leigh’s throat worked. She was losing her nerve. Callie clearly wasn’t well. This was the wrong time. Leigh should wait, but waiting had only made it worse. The passage of time had turned her secret into a lie and her lie into a betrayal.
She said, “Cal, none of this matters. Andrew still has the original video tapes. But it’s not only about the tapes. As long as he’s free, you, me, Walter, Maddy—none of us is safe. Andrew knows where we are. And he’s going to keep hurting, possibly killing, more women. The only way to stop him is to turn myself in. Once I’m in custody, I’ll turn state’s evidence and take Andrew down with me.”
Callie waited a beat before speaking. “That’s your plan, to sacrifice yourself?”
“It’s not a sacrifice, Callie. I murdered Buddy. I broke the law.”
“We murdered Buddy. We broke the law.”
“There’s no we, Cal. You defended yourself. I killed him.” Leigh had watched the murder video from beginning to end. She had seen Callie strike out at Buddy in fear. She had seen herself deliberately murder the man. “There’s something else. Something I never told you. I want you to hear it from me, because it will come out during the trial.”
Callie ran her tongue along her teeth. She had always known when Leigh was going to tell her something that she did not want to hear. Normally, she found a way to throw Leigh off, and now was no different. “I stalked Sidney at AA, then I got her stoned, and we went to Andrew’s house, and she fucked me, and then there was a fight, but I kneed her really hard between the legs, and I think the original tapes are inside the safe in his closet.”
Leigh felt her stomach drop like a stone. “You what?”
“I stole this, too.” Callie pulled a knife out of her jacket pocket.
Leigh blinked, disbelieving what was right in front of her, though she could describe the knife from memory—Cracked wooden handle. Bent blade. Sharp, serrated teeth.
Callie shoved the knife back into her pocket. “I told Sidney to tell Andrew to find me if he wants his knife back.”
Leigh sank down onto the couch before her legs gave out.
“It was in the kitchen drawer,” Callie said. “Sidney used it to cut limes for our margaritas.”
Leigh felt like she was absorbing the story sideways. “She fucked you, or she fucked with you?”
“Technically, both?” Callie shrugged. “Sidney knows about the tapes, is the point I am making. She didn’t actually come out and tell me, but she let me know the originals are locked inside the safe in Andrew’s closet. And she knows that the knife is important. That I used to use it when Andrew was little.”
Leigh shook her head, trying to make sense of what she had heard. Stoned, fucked, fight, kicked, safe. In the end, none of it was worse than what she’d let happen to Reggie Paltz. “Jesus Christ, every day, we’re both more and more like Phil.”
Callie sat down on the couch. She clearly wasn’t finished dropping bombs. “That’s Sidney’s BMW outside.”
Grand theft auto.
Callie said, “I thought you’d be Andrew when you knocked on the door. He hasn’t come for me. I don’t know why.”
Leigh looked up at the ceiling. Her brain couldn’t absorb all of this at once. “You incapacitated his girlfriend. I chased off his private investigator. He has to be furious.”
Callie asked, “Is Walter okay?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Leigh turned her head so that she could look at Callie. “I’m going to have to tell Maddy everything.”
“You can ’t tell her about me,” Callie insisted. “I don’t want that, Leigh. I’m the soil. I grew her for you and Walter. She was never mine.”
“Maddy will be okay,” Leigh said, but she knew in her heart that none of them would come out of this unscathed. “You should’ve seen her when we first went into lockdown. All of my friends were complaining about their kids, but Maddy was so good, Cal. She had every right to throw a fit or do something stupid or make our lives miserable. I asked her about it, and she said she felt bad for the kids who had it worse.”
As usual, Callie found something else to focus on. Her eyes were glued to the Regency paintings on the wall as if they were the most important thing in the room. “Her father was a good guy. I think you would’ve liked him.”