The Amateurs

  Maddox rolled his shoulders and dived into the back. Marissa Ingram wasn’t the only one who needed to have balls of steel tonight.

  Ten minutes later, they were at the Morgenthau mansion, which was dramatically lit by a series of white spotlights. At the top of the hill, the first thing Maddox saw was a group of people twisting and posing on a red carpet. Flashbulbs popped. The photographer instructed people to turn left or right. Maddox craned his neck, wondering if it was actually someone famous – a lot of Rangers players lived up this way, as well as some actors, notable CEOs, and famous writers. But all he saw were kids and adults he recognized from around Dexby.

  There was a knock on his window. Madison yanked the door open, then spun around and headed into the house. ‘I’ve tried all the main rooms,’ she called over her shoulder. ‘But this place is like a maze. There’s a whole back wing, the upstairs …’

  ‘Do you think we should call the cops?’ Maddox asked. ‘What if something happens to Aerin?’

  Seneca shook her head. ‘Marissa might see the police cars and run off before we can prove it’s her. I say we wait until it’s absolutely necessary.’

  They walked into the main ballroom, which was swarming with people in fancy gowns and tuxes. Maddox felt kind of lame in his jeans and tee, but then again, everyone looked so stuffy and ridiculous in tuxes, too. Madison took a turn into a hallway that opened into another party room that was even more swollen with guests. Long tables were set up along the sides of the room with items for the silent auction on display. Among a few of the things to bid on were an all-expenses-paid trip around the world, a diamond necklace worth $24,000, unlimited use of a Rolls-Royce limo (with driver) for six months, and a year’s supply of breast milk from a woman who ate only locally grown organic produce.

  Madison was moving faster now, winding around bodies, finding holes between groups, sliding past priceless auction items. Maddox saw blonde girl after blonde girl, but never Aerin. His stomach started to knot. What if Marissa had taken her somewhere? What if she was hurt? What would all these guests think if they knew a murderer was in their midst?

  In another room, a crowd started to roar. The hum of the crowd in the main space grew louder. The lights dimmed, and techno music began to play. ‘Welcome, everyone, to our annual Easter Charity Auction!’ a voice boomed over a loudspeaker.

  They passed a room with men smoking cigars, some guys playing pool, a dark space where a couple were sipping wine. Madison held the hem of her dress and climbed a set of stairs that led to another level of party rooms. In one, guests lined up on a long divan, chatting. In another, a bunch of guys were gathered around a golf simulator, taking turns with a driver. This level looked down over the ballroom; Maddox gazed at the dozens of sleek heads below him. A shiny trumpet used by one of the band members in the corner caught the light for a moment, casting an eerie, blinding glare.

  They started down a dark back hallway. Halfway down the hall, Madison stopped and cocked her head. Maddox could barely hear over the din of the crowd, but he thought he caught Aerin’s high, lilting voice. Seneca edged forward and peered through an open door. Maddox stood on his tiptoes behind her and looked, too. Inside was a huge marble bathroom with three sinks and a separate door for the toilet. Marissa’s reflection appeared in a round mirror on the wall. She was standing over Aerin, her eyes wide. It was unclear what was happening.

  Maddox jumped back into the shadows before Marissa noticed him. The group exchanged glances. ‘Shit,’ Seneca murmured, her cheeks flared red.

  Madison looked at Maddox. ‘Now can we call the police?’

  Even Brett, Mr. No Cops, didn’t argue. Maddox took out his phone and dialed 9-1-1. ‘What’s your emergency?’ a voice crowed on the other end.

  Maddox drew back. The voice was so loud, and his would be even louder. There’s no way Marissa wouldn’t hear. ‘Um,’ he whispered. ‘I’m at the Easter Bunny party, and I need help.’

  ‘What?’ the dispatcher squawked. ‘Where?’

  Maddox could still hear the dispatcher asking questions, but he didn’t dare speak to her. He stared helplessly at the screen. Maybe he could text the 9-1-1 dispatcher? Send a Morse code?

  Now Marissa was talking. ‘It really is such a shock,’ she simpered, stepping closer to Aerin. ‘I can’t imagine what you and your mom are going through, honey. I’ve been crying, I’ve been praying …’

  And then she leaned forward and hugged Aerin tight. Aerin stood like a metal rod, her arms stiff at her sides, a vein in her neck bulging. Maddox glanced at Seneca and raised his eyebrows. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. It seemed like they’d just run into each other. Maybe Aerin hadn’t said anything yet.

  Marissa pulled back and looked at Aerin from arm’s length. ‘I heard your mom’s here tonight, is that true?’ Aerin could only nod catatonically. Marissa pressed a hand to her chest. ‘I’d love to speak with her, honey. I need to tell her … things. But she won’t pick up my calls.’

  A strange, steadied look came over Aerin’s face. She raised her head to look Marissa straight in the eye. ‘Maybe my mother doesn’t want to talk to you because she knows you’re a fucking liar.’

  Maddox drew in a gasp of air. Madison winced.

  Marissa pulled her hand away. ‘Pardon me?’ The words came out in a strangled choke.

  Aerin narrowed her eyes. Her whole body was trembling. ‘I know what you did to Helena. I know who you are.’

  ‘Aerin,’ Seneca said, shooting into the room and grabbing her arm. ‘Um, we have to go.’

  Aerin shook Seneca off. Marissa swiveled around, eyeing all of them as they crowded into the room. A knowing wrinkle formed on her brow, and before Maddox could move, Marissa shot forward, sending him careening against the side of a sink. She slammed the door and stood in front of it, turning off the light. Brett shouted, and Seneca screamed, and there was the sound of breaking glass. Maddox fought his way to the door, scrambling to turn the light back on. A mirror lay shattered on the floor, pieces scattered everywhere.

  A shard in Marissa’s hand caught the light. Her thin arms were wrapped around Aerin in an almost hug, a piece of broken mirror pressed at Aerin’s jugular. She looked at the frozen group, a furious look on her face.

  ‘Do everything I say,’ she whispered hoarsely but firmly. ‘Or your friend’s dead.’

  CHAPTER 35

  Pinned against the vanity, his body still aching from the attack two days before, Brett couldn’t help but notice that the room now smelled sharply of sweat and Marissa’s cloying rosy perfume. He watched helplessly as the woman pressed the piece of glass into Aerin’s neck. He so desperately wanted to strangle Marissa – he bet he could, he knew he could – but Aerin sent a quick desperate glance at them all as though warning them not to make any sudden moves.

  Downstairs, music still thudded. People laughed. Brett heard the crackle of the microphone at the bachelor auction, followed by applause. How would anyone know they were up here over all that chaos?

  Marissa’s breathing was choppy. She kept re-adjusting the position of the glass against Aerin’s throat. ‘Okay, everyone,’ she growled. ‘Drop your phones and kick them to me.’

  Brett did as he was told, and so did the others. Marissa scooped up the phones and placed them in her handbag. ‘No one can leave. You make a break for it, and you’ll regret it. Understood?’

  Shaky nods. Seneca cleared her throat. ‘You don’t want to do this, Mrs. Ingram. You don’t want to hurt us. You’re not that kind of person. I can tell.’

  Marissa snorted. The lines around her mouth were as prominent as etchings in copper. ‘I’m doing what I have to do. I tried to get you people to quit it. I warned you so many times. You should’ve gotten the hint and realized you were in over your heads.’

  Brett felt a clench in his chest. So Marissa had been their stalker.

  ‘But you didn’t kill any of us when you were warning us,’ Seneca said in a soothing tone that Brett was astonished she could muster. ‘You’r
e not a monster. You just didn’t want us to create any waves, right?’

  Marissa pursed her lips. She seemed sort of in shock, maybe like she couldn’t believe she was doing such a thing, or maybe that the trail had finally led to her. ‘That’s right,’ she said in a resigned voice. ‘But clearly, that tactic didn’t work.’

  ‘All we want is the truth,’ Seneca cooed. ‘We’re not out to hurt you or come after you. We know you didn’t do it. We just want to hear what happened.’

  Brett stared at Seneca. ‘We know you didn’t do it ’? What was she playing at?

  Marissa’s face softened a little, like Seneca’s method was working. ‘You can tell us,’ Seneca coaxed. ‘You can tell Aerin. You’ve known her your whole life. She just wants to know what happened to her sister.’

  Marissa turned an inch, then lowered the piece of glass slightly. She gave Aerin a small, contrite smile. ‘I just wish this had never happened, honey,’ she burst out, like it was something she’d been holding in for years. ‘I’m just so, so sorry.’

  ‘Did you kill Helena?’ Aerin blurted.

  Marissa looked shocked. ‘I would never!’ She sounded remarkably convincing. Her face crumpled again. ‘Look, I sensed something was going on with her and Skip that summer. I never caught them, never found any texts or emails or letters, but I just … knew.’

  ‘Why didn’t you say anything to my mom?’ Aerin cried.

  Marissa cut her gaze to the right. ‘Because I didn’t have any proof. That’s a horrible thing to accuse someone’s daughter of. It would have ruined our friendship.’

  Brett felt sick. That’s what she’d been most worried about? Their friendship?

  ‘When Helena went missing, Skip was missing, too. For a whole weekend. I was frantic, but I told everyone he was on business – the police, your mom, other friends, everyone at the search parties.’ She looked at Aerin again, with purpose. ‘You have to understand, honey. I was still hoping that it was all in my head.’

  Brett balled up his fists. It was unnerving how Marissa kept calling Aerin honey, like she actually cared about her. He wanted to rip her apart just for that.

  ‘Days passed,’ Marissa said. ‘Weeks passed. Helena was still gone. Someone could have kidnapped her, absolutely. Or she could have run away with someone else, or on her own. But as each day passed and she wasn’t found, wasn’t anywhere, I just had a feeling Skip had something to do with it.’ She looked tormented. ‘On Christmas Day, he said he needed to go to the office. My husband works a lot, but never on Christmas Day. That time, I tracked him with the GPS app I’d loaded on his phone. He was really in New York City, in the apartment. That’s when I started to wonder if he was there with her. If she was alive, okay, and they were in some sort of … love nest.’ She made a face.

  ‘So why didn’t you do anything then?’ Aerin asked.

  Marissa looked lost. ‘I was trying to find the right time. I was trying to understand why he’d done it.’ She sighed. ‘In the end, I dropped little hints that I knew. He denied it completely, but I could tell he was lying. So finally, I went to the apartment. I unlocked the door. And that’s when I …’ She broke off and shut her eyes, making a troubled face.

  Aerin’s face paled. ‘You what?’

  It took Marissa a few moments to speak. ‘I saw her, on the floor. She was dead.’

  A cold, ribbon-like shiver ran through Brett’s body. He watched as the others exchanged confused glances. He knew what they were thinking: that didn’t correspond with the Under Wraps messages at all.

  ‘Was Skip … there?’ Aerin asked. ‘Had she been dead for a while?’

  Marissa shook her head, her black hair flapping against her cheeks. ‘He was on a work trip for real this time. As for how long she’d been dead, I couldn’t really look at her.’

  ‘Why didn’t you call the police?’ Brett asked.

  Marissa stared at Brett as though this was the craziest question anyone had ever asked her. ‘I couldn’t do that.’

  Brett thought he understood why Marissa hadn’t called. She’d probably flash-forwarded the scene and saw the shame that would come upon her family once the story broke open. Skip’s business would tank, his clients would go elsewhere, and a good deal of their fortune would be lost. It would ruin Heath’s future, too – and he was already a screw-up. And, most of all, it would change Marissa’s life for the worse. She had a good thing going. She’d lose everything.

  ‘So you cleaned it up,’ Brett said. ‘You were the one who took the body to that park upstate, weren’t you?’

  ‘Skip never even thanked me.’ Marissa tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a whimper. ‘It was the safest option, though, neither of us telling what we’d done. If we were ever questioned, we could legitimately say that he’d never confessed what he did to me, and I had never confessed what I did to him.’

  Aerin shifted uncomfortably. ‘It’s just that Skip seemed to think Helena ran away. He wrote messages to her, saying he was so worried.’

  Marissa’s head shot up. ‘Messages where?’

  ‘On this app she used. They wrote to each other all the time. He said that he just wanted to know where she was. It seemed like he really … loved her.’

  Fury flooded into Marissa’s face. In one quick movement, she pulled Aerin close to her and pressed the shard to her neck once more. ‘Are you saying you don’t believe me?’

  ‘I don’t know!’ Aerin cried. ‘I just …’

  ‘Think before you speak,’ Marissa roared, her face close to Aerin’s. ‘Because I can kill you, Aerin. I’ll kill you right here, right in front of your friends.’

  ‘No!’ Seneca cried out.

  ‘I’ll do it!’ Marissa wailed.

  ‘Stop!’ Brett screamed.

  There was a sharp cracking sound. Brett jumped away just as the bathroom door broke down. ‘Freeze!’ a voice shouted. Several silhouettes appeared in the hallway. ‘Dexby PD! Let her go, Mrs. Ingram!’

  Police officers flooded the room, guns all aimed at Marissa. The commotion caught Marissa off guard, and the glass slipped from her hands. Brett shot from his post at the vanity, scooped up the shard from the floor, and deposited it in the sink. As he turned back, a cop was tackling Marissa to the ground, and another straddled her legs. Shiny handcuffs glinted in the overhead light. Everyone was screaming, crying, sobbing with relief.

  He glanced over at his friends. Seneca had fallen to her knees on the tiles. Maddox was comatose by the sink. Madison had her hands pressed to the sides of her face and was yelling something at the cops about Marissa being guilty. Brett swiveled around the room and searched for Aerin, but at first he couldn’t locate her in the scuffle.

  And then he spied her. She was by the tub. Another cop stood protectively in front of her. It was a young dude, barely older than Aerin herself. Brett thought he’d seen the guy before – maybe at the country club? Hadn’t Aerin been talking to him?

  He started to move toward Aerin, desperate to throw his arms around her, hold her tight, whisper to her that he was so happy that she was okay – and that he was so sorry. Screw finding the perfect moment to kiss her – this was the perfect moment, and he couldn’t wait any longer. He was going to press her to him and make her feel safe and secure. He’d keep her safe forever.

  But something stopped him in his tracks. The young cop was speaking to Aerin now, and their eyes were locked. The smile Aerin gave him was unlike anything Brett had seen from her before – it was relieved, it was admiring, but it was also filled with something else. Appreciation. And love – real love, far deeper than the flirty, lustful looks she gave him.

  ‘Holy shit,’ Brett blurted, though his words couldn’t be heard over all the commotion. All at once, he understood. Something went very cold and still inside of him.

  He’d never been anything more than fun for her. He’d never been more than a joke.

  CHAPTER 36

  Aerin melted into the corner of the bathroom and watched as the cops, Thomas in
cluded, hefted Marissa to her feet and read her the Miranda rights. ‘You have the right to remain silent,’ Thomas recited. His booming, authoritative voice was really sexy.

  ‘Don’t touch me.’ Marissa’s gown was hitched to her knees, and her arms were forced behind her back into handcuffs. She twisted her neck and gave Aerin a piercing glare. ‘Tell him, Aerin. Tell him what I told you. I’m not the guilty one! I didn’t do anything!’

  Aerin felt a lump in her throat. She stared into her mother’s oldest friend’s eyes, trying to find some humanity, but all she saw were dark pupils, lined lids, false eyelashes. The story Marissa told her swirled and congealed in her mind, shocking and sickening and probably only half-true. Marissa didn’t just find her sister’s dead body in the apartment that day. She’d killed her. It was the only thing that really made sense with the rest of the evidence.

  Maybe Marissa had managed to rewrite history in her head, a coping mechanism to help her live with what she’d done. But still, even if she’d convinced herself Helena’s death wasn’t her fault, she’d still buried Helena without telling a soul. Doing that and then facing Aerin’s mother afterward, pretending she knew nothing, was positively monstrous. Suddenly, Aerin remembered Marissa coming by with a care package for Aerin’s mom for Valentine’s Day. She’ll come home to you, I can just feel it, Aerin had heard Marissa say. She’s going to be just fine.

  Meanwhile, she’d known! She’d dug a hole and put Helena’s lifeless body in it!

  Aerin looked at the cops. ‘She’s guilty.’

  Thomas and two other officers led Marissa out of the bathroom and into the hall. And then the bathroom was silent again. Only one officer remained, and he was surveying the scene and looking at the group worriedly. ‘Are you guys okay?’

  Aerin looked at her friends. Everyone was too shocked to answer. She walked over and hugged them tightly. She could hear them murmuring things to her, but the words washed over her without sinking in. Aerin almost wished someone would start laughing to cut the tension – otherwise she might burst into sobs that never quit.