But I’m not there yet. My old life is still very much in the present. “Do you need me here?” I ask. “I’ve got to pick up my sons from school.” I should probably also pick up Bobby Masterson. God knows April won’t be doing it.
“Well, it would be good if you could stay…” He hesitates. “Any chance your husband could go pick up the kids?”
I snort. “Definitely not. And I’m not excited about calling him to ask any favors right now considering…” I take a breath. “I just told him I want a divorce.”
God, it feels so good to say those words out loud. I want to scream it from the treetops.
Riley’s eyebrows shoot up. “Really?”
“It’s been a long time coming.”
He cocks his head to the side. “I can’t say I’m sorry. Like I said, I never got what you saw in the guy.”
Me either.
“Maria! Maria, are you okay?”
Sean came home and saw all the police cars in front of his house—and was understandably panicked. He sees Maria and runs over to her. I watch as he wraps his arms around her and holds her while she starts to cry. He whispers in her ear, and she clings to him. It makes me ache for what could have been if I had married a decent guy like Sean.
Of course, maybe things would’ve been different for April too if she had married a decent guy. But she didn’t. And now Elliot has to live with the mess he created.
“Go get your kids,” Riley says. “Call me later today, when you have a chance to come down to the police station. We’ll want to get your official statement on the record.”
“Okay,” I agree. “And… thanks. For your help. For rushing over here.”
“It’s my job.” Except it’s not really his job. His precinct is all the way over in Queens, for God’s sake. “Talk to you later?”
I nod. “Looking forward to it.”
Chapter 56
JULIE
It feels so strange to be sitting in Maria’s kitchen after everything that’s happened.
April is in jail. In jail. I still can’t wrap my head around that one. When I texted her with that burner phone months ago, I never thought this would be the outcome. Of course, it’s not because of that phone. It’s her own damn fault.
Maria is checking on something in the oven. She looks pretty today. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail. And her eyes look less haunted than they have for the last couple of weeks. You almost can’t see the circles under them anymore.
“Two more minutes,” Maria announces.
“I can’t wait,” I say. Although that’s a lie. The last time I tried Maria’s cookies, they tasted like hockey pucks. I figure I’ll take one bite to be polite.
Maria slides into the seat next to me at the kitchen table. “I still can’t believe you left Keith.”
“It’s the best decision I ever made.” I take a sip of my coffee. “And I’ve got my resume out there. I can’t wait to get back to work.”
“So no regrets?”
“Absolutely none.”
Just the opposite. It’s like being free from shackles. And Keith decided to let me stay in the house, so I didn’t even have to move. Although I will eventually. I’ll be as relieved to get rid of our ridiculously extravagant house as I was to get rid of Keith.
“I’ve got to get Sean to go back to work,” Maria says. “He’s so scared to leave me alone after what happened.”
I can’t blame him. But with April in jail, we’re safe.
“I think,” I say, “I’m done with men for a while.”
A tiny smile plays on Maria’s lips. “Even that cute detective I saw checking on you the other day?”
Riley did come by yesterday. And the day before that. And so forth. He’s been checking on me regularly since the whole thing happened. He comes in, we chat for a little while, then he leaves. Nothing has happened. Nothing is going to happen—I’m not ready for anything like that now. Not yet. But it’s nice to know a detective is looking out for me.
The timer goes off. Maria leaps up from her seat and pulls the tray of cookies out of the oven. They don’t look too bad. They’re not black like her last batch.
“That looks promising,” I say.
“It’s April’s recipe.”
We exchange looks. We have made a pact not to discuss April anymore, but we break the pact on a daily basis. It’s hard not to talk about her. The woman murdered three people. She got her own mother locked up. How could we not talk about that?
I’ve only seen Elliot a couple of times since April was arrested. He looked awful. He mumbled something about going to stay with his parents for a little while, and also he’s selling the house. I can’t blame him. I don’t think he intends to stick by her through this whole thing, but you never know. They do have a child together.
“I wonder how she’s doing in prison,” Maria murmurs.
“She hates orange,” I say.
“I’m sure that’s not the worst part about being locked up.”
“You want to hear the crazy part.” I lower my voice. “Riley told me she’s still insisting she didn’t kill Brianna. I mean, it’s not like she’s cooperating. But she confessed to killing Courtney Burns. Why wouldn’t she admit to killing Brianna? What’s the point of lying about it?”
“Well…” Maria sits back down next to me. “Maybe she didn’t kill Brianna.”
“Of course she did! I told you, Brianna said she was following her. Then an hour later, she was dead.”
“Right.” Maria nods. “But you told me it was a white SUV that was following her. I mean, think about how many white SUVs there are out there. Everyone has one. Even me.”
My eyes meet Maria. It’s true—on a dark night, nobody could tell the difference between Maria’s old, beat-up white car and April’s shiny new SUV. If Maria had been the one following Brianna, she never would have known the difference. In the dark, it would’ve looked exactly the same.
But why would Maria kill Brianna? She had no motive. The only possible reason she could’ve done it is because of the way April threw herself at Sean. Revenge. And a way to get rid of April. But God, nobody is that diabolical.
Are they?
Maria winks at me. “Let’s try the cookies.”
She stands up and grabs a couple of plates from the counter over the sink. She’s humming a little tune to herself. She drops a couple of cookies on a white ceramic plate and slides it across the kitchen table to me.
“Go ahead,” she says. “I promise. They won’t be disgusting.”
I feel her eyes on me as I pick up one of the cookies and take a bite. It’s delicious.
Just as good as April’s.
Epilogue
JANET
The police came to talk to me about April.
The policeman was nice. He said his name was Hanrahan and he was young. So young. And also handsome. I liked his light blue eyes. It made me want to tell him everything. I’ve been wanting to tell everybody what I know for so long. I’ve tried, but nobody wants to listen. When you are in a place like this, when people think you’ve lost your mind, nobody listens.