Page 96 of The Lake Escape
Erika turns to Rick, sorrow etched on her face. “I’m done,” she announces. “Enough is enough. Whatever the punishment, whatever the consequences, we’re going to face this together.”
Rick holds up a hand in protest. “What? No. We didn’t agree to this.”
“It’s over,” Erika declares with authority. “I can’t risk anybody else getting hurt. It’s the right thing to do. We should have done it ages ago. I’m going to end this once and for all.”
Rick says nothing, though anger ripples off him.
Erika tunes out her husband’s objections to focus on David. “You did this to yourself,” she tells him like a mother scolding her child. “You started the whole chain of events when you came to me for seed money to invest in your electronics company.”
“NewPulse?” David is surprised.
I remember being in the kitchen when David, shirtless and sweaty, tossed me a blue tee with his company’s name emblazoned on the front. I can’t figure out how an electronic components company could connect to Fiona, Jimmy T, Aunt Susie, Anna Olsen, Erika, and the Mob, but color me curious.
“When Rick and I wouldn’t give you the money, what did you say, David?”
He smiles wickedly, eyeing Erika down the long black barrel. “I said I’ve kept your secret all these years, but there could be an expiration date on my goodwill.”
“That’s not goodwill, that’s a threat,” says Erika.
David chides her with his eyes. “I needed some help for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you laughed me off, told me thebusiness would go nowhere. But with NewPulse, I saw what you didn’t—a golden goose. I knew better.” He chuckles softly to himself. “I couldn’t go to the bank—they don’t like guys who make most of their money under the table. And I’ll be honest, I couldn’t go to Jimmy for the cash because he was still pissed about Bella. So, I went to the next best source—you. Jimmy told me how much Cormac left you in his will, and you’re a well-paid attorney on top of it. So yeah, I asked you for the money. Hardly a crime.”
“You blackmailed us,” Rick shouts.
“All you had to do was give me the cash and it would have been over. But my lifelong friends with their hefty bank account couldn’t be bothered. What was I supposed to do? I needed the money. And lucky for me, I had the leverage to get it. The bones changed everything. I gave you a choice—pay me or pay the piper. I think you picked wisely,” David jeers.
“And then you took our money and went and built that monstrous glass house blocking our view of the lake, just to lord it over us.” Erika’s fire sparked again, if only momentarily. “Of course we were nervous when the remains were found, but there wasn’t anything to trace it back to us except the gun, and that was easy enough to get rid of.
“You, however, were a different story. We couldn’t let it go on. You were too big a threat. First, it was the money, then the house—who knew what was next? You could have come after us for the rest of our lives.”
David’s callous shrug suggests that Erika was right.
“I wasn’t going to let you push us around forever,” she continues. “I’m not very religious, and I certainly don’t deserve forgiveness, but it was Jesus who said, ‘The truth will set you free.’ It’s time for the truth.”
David appears smug, like he knew he’d win the standoff.
I’m waiting for Erika to address him with her big reveal, but to my astonishment, she advances toward me. I have no idea why or what she’s about to say.
David follows her with his weapon. She’s standing so close that the gun is essentially pointed at both of us.
“Izzy, I’m so sorry,” she says, her voice cracking from emotion. “Many years ago, when I was very young and foolish, I shot and killed your aunt Susie.”
Chapter 45
Julia
Julia couldn’t believe it. She hoped she misheard, but no, Erika repeated it for Izzy’s benefit.
“I’m the one who killed your aunt… and I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” Tears streamed down Erika’s face, long salty lines that carved a winding path down her cheeks, which were flushed as red as her hair.
David didn’t react, which was revealing. He must have known; otherwise, what leverage would he have had to get Erika to pony up the money for his business investment? At last Erika’s ho-hum reaction to the glass house made perfect sense. It wasn’t her newfound mindfulness that keep her cool, calm, and collected. She was acting the whole time. But there was still so much Julia didn’t understand. And how did Fiona factor into all this?
“Not a day goes by that I don’t regret it, that I don’t think of her and what I did. But I swear to you, Izzy—it was an accident. We only meant to scare her.”
“We? Who iswe?”
Erika shifted her attention to Julia, who had asked the obvious. But before she could answer, the front door burst open yet again, and a man Julia had seen twice today, only in pictures, strutted into the house, taking command of the room.
James Tracey bore a vague resemblance to the person Julia knew in passing from his infrequent sojourns at the lake, but he looked very much like he did in the snapshot on Bella’s Instagramfeed, only a little older and thicker around the middle. What remained of his hair had gone mostly silver, his prominent mustache matching in color. He wore the same tortoiseshell glasses Julia had observed in his photo, and a crisply pressed collared shirt, but no sport coat, this occasion being less celebratory than the one shared on social.
