Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Audrey drives the route from Fred and Sheila’s house to Irena’s house, then to Jenna’s house, over and over again over the next weeks. She thinks Jenna must have dumped the bloody clothes or disposable suit along here somewhere that night.

She wants to prove that Jenna murdered Fred and Sheila. Catherine clearly doesn’t—she wants to keep everything quiet, and to protect the family name. But Audrey suspects Dan feels the same way she does. Audrey can understand why. In the public imagination, in the press, obsessed with the Merton killings, Dan is the one everybody seems to think is guilty. He wants to be exonerated.

Audrey figures it was Jenna who tried to poison her.

She takes to following Jenna, but at a safe distance. One day she sees her stop in briefly at a home along the country road that Jenna lives on. She doesn’t stay long, but long enough for Audrey to notice, as she waits well back on the side of the road, that a new building is going up on the property, some distance from the house. Jenna comes out carrying something. Audrey is too far away to see what it is.

As Jenna drives off, Audrey stays where she is for a moment. Then she drives closer. She sees the sign: fresh eggs. Audrey gets out of her car and walks up the short drive. It’s an old house, nicely redone to retain its original charm. Red brick, cream gingerbread trim on the porch. Audrey could see herself living in a place like this, out in the country, but not too far from town. Of course, she resents that she’ll never be able to afford Brecken Hill, but it’s true she loves it out here—so pretty and peaceful.

“Hi,” Audrey says, when a woman comes out the screen door. “What a lovely place you have here.”

“Thank you,” she says. “Did you want some eggs?”

“Yes, please,” Audrey answers. “A dozen.”

As the woman packages her eggs, Audrey says, “I notice you’re putting up a new outbuilding.”

She nods. “Poured the foundation just after Easter, and now it’s almost finished.”

Audrey smiles at the woman and pays for her eggs.

Audrey has watched enough crime shows to know that it’s smart to bury bodies under poured concrete, especially when it’s the foundation for a building. Why not evidence? She visits Reyes and Barr and tells them what she thinks. But they explain that they can’t dig up a building on someone’s private property based on her suspicions, no matter how much it makes sense to her.

Somehow a full year goes by. Audrey’s heard that Catherine has given birth to a baby girl, and that she and Ted and the baby now live in Fred and Sheila’s old house in Brecken Hill. Audrey saw Ted recently at the grocery store, wearily pushing a cart, buying food and diapers. He looked haggard, unhappy. She turned away, avoiding him before he saw her.

One sunny day in early June, Audrey happens to drive by the lovely rural property again. This time she notices a for sale sign out front. Audrey has just received her inheritance—a million dollars. She stops the car and stares at the sign for a long moment. Should be more than enough.

She picks up her cell phone and calls the realtor.