Elsie shrinks back even farther against the wall.
“So was it an accident?” Paris asks her. “Or did you stab him on purpose? And what did he say to you to make you so angry? And if it was an accident, why the hell didn’t you call an ambulance?”
“Because it was too late!” Elsie shrieks, and then bursts into tears. “I was never going to get him back, so I was supposed to, what? Watch him be happy with you? I was so close—we were so close—and then out of nowhere, there you are, sweeping him off his feet.”
Elsie is sobbing so hard, she can barely get the words out.
“Jimmy and I had so much history, but all he wanted was to be with someone who knew nothing about the person he used to be. And then six months ago, he asks me to change his will. He wanted to leave the majority of his money to you. I told him he was out of his goddamned mind. And he literally was losing his mind, wasn’t he?”
“He left you money, too,” Paris says. “And Zoe.”
“But I didn’t want his money, I wanted him,” Elsie says. “I loved him. Don’t you get that? For fifty goddamned years, I loved that broken, selfish, arrogant man, and half the time he couldn’t even remember when we had plans. I came over that night after the charity gig because we were supposed to have some time together, and he forgot, because he always forgot when it was me. I went upstairs, and he was in the bathroom rehearsing his jokes, and the new will was sitting on his nightstand. I saw the amount he was leaving you, and I told him he was crazy, and he told me—”
Elsie is heaving, and she stops to catch her breath. “He told me it was none of my business and to get a life. Can you imagine? After everything I’ve done, that he would say that to me? I didn’t mean to do it. But the razor was right there, and I snapped.” Her knees give out, and she crumples to the floor.
“He was angry,” Paris says softly, looking down at her in wonder and horror. “Because he really did forget, Elsie.”
The song is over. A few seconds later, the cassette ends, too, with an audible pop.
Jimmy didn’t kill himself. Despite all the tech in all the world, Elsie is going down for her oldest friend’s murder over an analog Maxell cassette tape with no time stamp, no backup, no iCloud.
Jimmy was right.
Technology sucks, kid. Always best to go old school.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
The celebration of life is a lavish affair, with friends from Hollywood and all over the world flying into Seattle to pay their respects to the funniest man most of them had ever known. There are some tears, but mostly there’s laughter. It’s exactly what Jimmy would have wanted.
The only person who isn’t at the celebration is Jimmy’s oldest friend.
After she was arrested, Elsie gave a full confession to Detective Kellogg, explaining what happened the night she killed Jimmy. They were arguing, and Jimmy said something cruel. Elsie grabbed the straight razor on the counter and waved it in his face, but only to make a point, she said. She reminded him of the day she gave it to him, and their decades of friendship, and told him that she was sick of being taken for granted.
Jimmy laughed at her, and she lunged at him. He grabbed her wrist and they struggled for a bit, until she wrenched her arm away and the razor sliced his inner thigh. He fell back into the tub and bled out in less than a minute.
His death was an accident, Elsie said. It was not her intention to kill him, and the only thing she felt she could do was make it look like a suicide.
She plugged the bathtub and filled it with warm water. Using a washcloth, she carefully removed a different razor of an identical size and shape from his drawer, dunked it in the bloody water, and then put it in his hand so it could fall to the floor naturally. Using Jimmy’s phone, she wiped all the data usage from the smart home app. And then she wrapped the straight razor she had killed him with and took it with her, along with his copy of the new will.
She was afraid to dispose of the straight razor because it was engraved. Instead, she bleached it, and then put it back in Jimmy’s bathroom drawer once his underlying cause of death was officially ruled “undetermined” and the charge against Paris was dismissed. With the case closed, she figured nobody would question why there were three razors in the drawer before, and four now.
No one was supposed to be accused of murder.
Nico Salazar wanted to charge Elsie with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and obstruction of justice. On the advice of her lawyer, Sonny Everly, she agreed to a plea. Seven years for manslaughter, but with good behavior, she might be out in four. Due to her age, and with no history of violence, they agreed to send her to a small, medium-security women’s prison.