I’d like to think he wouldn’t. I’d like to think there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. And anyway, he didn’t kill Jack—Warner did. Why ask a question that will threaten our newfound happiness together?
Sometimes it’s better not to know.
LINDSAY
Well, it didn’t quite work out as I planned.
The DA is saying I’m looking at multiple consecutive life sentences, but my lawyer says there’s a chance he’ll get me off on an insanity defense. If that happens, I’ll serve a few years in a nice quiet psychiatric hospital, then I’ll be right back home. He said nobody will throw a pretty woman in jail for life. People are very superficial.
I think it’s unlikely I’ll get off on insanity though. Now that I’ve been caught, people are putting two and two together and figuring out what I’ve done in the past. All those other murders, although every single one of them was deserved. I thought I was so careful, but it turns out I left evidence behind. They will never let me go. I’ll spend the rest of my life in this cold cell and uncomfortable bed.
I have a lot of time to think in here.
What I keep thinking about are those last few moments in the cabin. I was so close. If only I hadn’t turned my back on Noah. I had forgotten he had that Swiss Army knife, and I certainly didn’t think he had it in him to use it. He only managed to do it because he thought I was going to shoot Claire. Nothing else could have motivated him. Despite what she did to him, he still loved her so much.
It’s ironic because I was the one who gave him that knife. I did it while we were at the rest stop while Claire was in the bathroom. I smiled helplessly at him and said I was scared to hold it because I might accidentally hurt myself. He took it without question. Men are so easy.
It was Warner’s idea to put the magnet in Noah’s sweatshirt, in that zippered pocket where he was unlikely to look. I took the magnet right off their refrigerator when I was visiting. All along, Noah was the one throwing off Jack’s compass without even realizing it. Jack suspected it, and that’s why he believed his best friend was trying to keep them lost in the woods for his own nefarious purposes.
That was back when Warner planned to pin it all on Noah. Of course, the magnet is still in there. Nestled inside the pocket of his dirty sweatshirt.
I wonder if Claire will find the magnet when she’s doing the laundry. After all, she’s the one who always washes the clothes—it’s something she complains about constantly. She’ll see it and she’ll wonder. Wonder if there’s more to Noah’s story than he’s letting on.
I know Claire so well—it will eat at her. They think they fixed their marriage, but that magnet will destroy them.
And they will finally get what they deserve.
THE END
Acknowledgments
I’m so thankful to all the supportive people in my life who help me through the painful editing process. Writing is a solitary process, but after that first draft, I need all the help I can get. I feel lucky to have all the support I get—friends and family who are always there to give me an opinion or more.
Thank you to my mother, for the encouraging feedback, and for helping me catch all those pesky typos. Thanks to Jen, for the thorough critique and talking through it with me. Thanks to Kate for the great suggestions. Thanks to Rebecca, for your great advice. Thanks to Ken and Greg, for giving me the opinion of a guy. It’s incredible to have that support in my life. And thanks to my writing group!
And as always, thank you to the rest of my family. Without your encouragement, none of this would be possible.
Did you enjoy reading One By One?
If so, please send me an email at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you. Or consider leaving a review on Amazon!
Check out my website at:
http://doccartoon.blogspot.com/
In the meantime, please enjoy a short excerpt of my new book, The Wife Upstairs…
THE WIFE UPSTAIRS
If I had hesitated even a minute, everything would have been different.
Her face would have slowly turned blue. She would have collapsed to the ground as her lungs screamed for oxygen. Then there would be an ambulance—too late. A trip to the hospital. Or maybe straight to the morgue. Somber calls to relatives—a husband, a daughter, a son.
I’ve never done anything heroic in my entire life. The leading candidate would be this cat I used to feed in an alley next to my building. But I’m not sure if feeding a stray cat counts as heroic. Also, I heard the cat eventually bit somebody, so maybe I was just aiding and abetting a bad-tempered cat.