Chapter 17 The Plan

I placed my phone down on the countertop with a shaky hand.I could feel my nervous anxiety starting to build but knew I couldn't give in to it.I needed a clear head when they arrived.I took a big gulp of my Diet Pepsi, debating what to do for the next twenty minutes.I tried my deep breathing exercises, but they didn't help much.

I needed to be talked down off the ledge, and started to reach for my phone, only to draw back when I realized what I had almost done.

Stupid mistake, Lila.You almost made a really stupid fucking mistake.

A glance at the clock on the microwave showed I had less than fifteen minutes now.I quickly grabbed the burner phone from my purse and tapped the code on the screen to unlock it.I typed in the number from memory, and muttered, "Pick up, please pick up, please pick up" as I walked outside to the deck.

"Hello?" I sighed in relief at the sound of his voice.

"Detective Horton just called.He said there was new evidence and he's back on the case. Told me not to eat or drink anything here." My voice was noticeably shaky, and I knew I sounded on the verge of panic.

"Calm down, Princess. You're at your house?"

I took a deep breath and swallowed, trying to ease the tightness in my throat."Yes, and they'll be here in ten minutes or so. I'm freaking out.What if -"

"Stop," he interrupted sternly. "Just stop and listen to me. Remember the plan.Clear your mind, and go through it with me, OK?Answer their questions but keep it brief.Don't volunteer anything additional.You know nothing, so you will be surprised at whatever they tell you.If you aren't sure what to do or how to act, just close your eyes and take a deep breath.Tell them you need a minute and take that minute to go over the plan." His barrage of reminders came to a stop, and his voice gentled."You've got this, Princess."

"Stop calling me that," I said with a roll of my eyes.

"But you are a Mob Princess, are you not?" He teased, and I could tell he was trying to get me to relax.

"Whatever," I huffed."Look, are you sure that it's all in place?"

"Yes, I'm sure.I took care of the last bits while you all were at the funeral. I couldn't get his prints on the GHB, but I wiped the bottle clean, and the cops will just assume that he did that to cover his ass. The wine came from her condo, so it most likely has her prints on it already. I put an identical bottle in its place so even if her prints aren't on the bottle for some reason, the fact that she had the exact same one in her possession is incriminating. I stuck the bottle in the back of your refrigerator for the cops to find. I had hacked into her iCloud again earlier in the week and all the deleted texts are still there. I've been checking since then and the only texts have been about David, the funeral arrangements, and the fraud scheme. Nothing about killing you. The cops would have found all of that as soon as they checked her phone records, which is most likely why they're on their way.Trust me...I'm an expert in the way cops operate, remember?"

"OK, so I just need to sit back and let them do their thing, look surprised and say, 'I don't know' a lot."

"Pretty much, yes," he said. "Feeling a little better now?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Good, now hang up and go throw this phone in the lake.You don't want to take a chance that they stumble on it in the house."

I hurried to the lake's edge, about thirty feet from the dock, and threw the phone with all my might.I heard the faint splash as it hit the water and hustled back into the house.I had about five minutes left, if James's twenty-minute timeline was accurate. I splashed some cold water on my face and patted it dry with a paper towel, then practiced my deep breathing and centering techniques. By the time the doorbell rang a few minutes later, I was still nervous, but not nearly as agitated as I was.

"Do I even want to know what the hell is going on now?" I asked as I pasted on a wry smile and greeted them at the door. Mike and James both had grim expressions on their faces as they stepped inside, followed by followed two evidence technicians, different than the ones who were here before.

"Let me get them started and then I'll explain why we're here," James said, as he directed the technicians toward the kitchen.They immediately got out their cameras and started taking photos and video of the room, and James and Mike led me to the table in the breakfast nook.

We all took seats at the table, and I looked at James first.

"Why are you here, James? No offense, but you said you were off the case since David's death was ruled an accident. Has that changed?" I asked, the alarm in my voice very real.

He shook his head. "No, nothing has changed in that regard. However, we have discovered new evidence that an attempt on your life was planned." He took a deep breath and began his explanation.

"We got a warrant for Scott's and Vanessa's cell phone records this morning as well as search warrants for their residences. The searches were conducted around noon, and we found a little more evidence regarding the fraud and all of that. At Scott's, we also discovered small amounts of cocaine, pills for which he had no prescription, and a bottle of GHB that was almost empty."

I shuddered with revulsion, remembering the video where Scott had suggested having sex with me while I was drugged on his sleeping pills. God, he was such a vile piece of shit. He deserved every bit of what was coming to him.

"We received the phone records from their cell providers a couple of hours ago. We discovered texts between Scott and Vanessa that had been automatically uploaded to her iCloud backup. He was smart enough to have that feature disabled on his phone. She was not."

I snickered a little at that comment, and glanced over at the evidence techs, who were now photographing the contents of the refrigerator before placing the items into coolers marked "Evidence".

"The texts that caught our immediate attention were over the span of the last four weeks, since shortly after you returned to town after your mother died. Vanessa started off complaining that David was spending too much time with you, and she wanted him to speed up his plans for divorce. Scott responded that David would lose too much money if he divorced you, and it would be better if you died so he could inherit everything. They went back and forth for a few weeks, mentioning it in an almost joking manner to start, then taking it more seriously. They started discussing what they referred to as hypothetical situations where you would die without arousing suspicion - basically how to make it look like an accident or a suicide. Scott told her that with your recent history of therapy and using anti-depressants for a while, plus the effects of the pills David had been giving you, that nobody would be too surprised if you killed yourself."

One of the evidence technicians called out to James and motioned him over. I watched as they peered into the wine cooler built in under the cabinet. James asked if I had any wine stored elsewhere, and I told him that it was all in the cooler.

He spoke to the evidence technicians for a few minutes, so I asked Mike what was going on. "I'll let James explain. Honestly, I'm just here because he called me an hour ago to fill me in, and I wanted to be here. I'm invested in all aspects of this case, even though this part of it doesn't fall under my department. It looks like it will be a joint investigation until it gets turned over to the Feds. If it gets turned over to the Feds now, that is."

At my questioning look, he explained "The powers that be may decide that an attempted murder charge, or conspiracy to commit murder, takes priority over the fraud. Because the crimes are interconnected, they could have the state try the cases all together, and the Feds would bow out of it."

James walked back over and sat back down. "Sorry about that. So, a few days before David died, Scott mentioned in a text to her that he might be able to get his hands on some GHB, and that if they could drug you with enough of that combined with alcohol, they could stage an accidental death or a suicide."

I shivered at the knowledge that my death had been discussed so callously, and James noticed my reaction. "I'm sorry, Lila. I really am." I nodded and gave him a small smile, and he continued with his explanation.

"Vanessa suggested adding it to a bottle of red wine, because she knew you loved red and David didn't care for it. Scott responded that he would need to think it through to figure out how to get the wine here and then make sure it was enough to kill you."I winced, and he patted my hand.

"Then last Saturday a little after 5:00 pm, Vanessa sent a text to Scott, telling him she had 'listened to your shit all day, was tired of putting up with you and couldn't wait until you were gone'.He texted back that she needed to be patient a little longer. He called her that night shortly after David's body was discovered. They spoke for eleven minutes but we have no way of knowing what was said. They didn't mention anything about the wine, the GHB or killing you in any texts since that night, so we aren't sure if he had actually followed through with the attempt before last Saturday. We don't know when or how the missing GHB was used.Given what he said about you on that video, I wouldn't put it past him to have used it as a date rape drug on someone else.Or, he could have set their murder plan in motion and slipped it into a bottle of wine or something that you would consume. That's why we're here."

I sat quietly as I absorbed his explanation, and Mike put his hand over mine on the table, giving me a gentle squeeze. "Do you want us to call your friends? The lawyer and his wife?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, there's nothing they could do except worry, and they're out on a dinner date. They deserve a night out. I'm fine - angry as hell - but fine."

James told me that they were collecting the six bottles of red wine I had and would test those first, before testing the other bottles from the cooler. He asked me to look at the bottles to see if any of them seemed out of place. I looked them over, and carefully pointed one out and told him that I didn't remember having that in the house. He checked the evidence tag on it and told me that it had been found in the refrigerator, not in the wine cooler with the rest of them.

"I wouldn't have kept an unopened bottle of wine in the refrigerator. The temperature is too cold for proper storage, so unopened bottles go in the wine cooler," I informed him, driving home the idea that this bottle was highly suspect.

He told me that they would need to take all of the food that could have possibly been tainted with the liquid GHB in for testing and suggested that I throw out everything else just to be safe. "I wouldn't eat or drink anything from this house, even if it appears to be unopened and undisturbed" he said.

He and Mike helped get everything tagged and loaded in the van. As they prepared to leave, they told me that Scott and Vanessa's arraignment would be the next morning at 11:00, and that they hoped the analysts working the overnight shift could have the wine bottles tested by then. They wanted to present that evidence to the prosecutor's office so that additional charges could be filed at the same time.Mike told me I was allowed to be at the arraignment if I wished. I assured him that I wouldn't miss it.

The evidence techs finished securing their cargo, then got into their van and drove off. James and Mike lingered for a moment, and I took the opportunity to thank them for making the arrest at the funeral yesterday. "Honestly, it was the highlight of my week," I said with a small snicker.

Mike laughed and James cracked a smile. "That's actually why I was there," he said. "I wanted to see the looks on their faces, even though it wasn't technically my case anymore at the time. Mike asked if I wanted to assist with bringing them in, and I jumped at the chance."I smiled, a little surprised that he was so petty.He didn't seem the type.

After they drove off, I finished packing up the dishes and serving pieces I wanted to keep, then decided to call it a night.I arrived back at Sherry's house, to find that she and Chris weren't home yet.I left a note taped to their bedroom door frame so they would be sure to see it, letting them know that the arraignment was set for 11:00 am, since they had mentioned going with me.

I took a nice long shower, letting the warm spray of the water literally wash off the worry of the day.I replayed everything in my mind, satisfied that neither James nor Mike suspected that I was anything more than an innocent victim.

I smiled to myself as I dried off and slipped into bed. Scott and Vanessa were about to find out firsthand that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.