Page 65 of The Therapist
‘Second one?’
‘For two million dollars,’ I say.
‘You have proof of this, of course,’ says the detective.
I shake my head. ‘I don’t have proof of the policy but William must have it. I can give you his number. I also asked him if he had access to blank bullets and he did. He dropped some off for me.’
‘Just like that?’
‘No,’ I say with a shake of my head, ‘not just like that. William was pretty upset about my plan but I convinced him that it was all under control.’ I don’t know if I did manage to convince William or not but while I was still at work, he did leave three blank bullets in my mailbox in exchange for the six real bullets I found in the gun. I felt like a spy collecting them and then loading the gun, making sure that there was one in the chamber so that it would fire if I needed it to.
I still thought I wasn’t going to have to use it, that it was for show, that when Ben and I went to the house, Mike and I would somehow get a confession out of Ben after we confronted him with all our evidence. That was the plan.
Ben thought he could frame me and Mike. But we were going to tell Ben that we knew everything and get him to call Sandy. We were going to record everything for the police. It seemed simple enough.
But we never got to that part because Sandy screamed and everything was derailed.
‘We’re going to have to verify this story with Mike,’ says Detective Grafton.
‘You can also speak to William. Hopefully, he’s connected with the private detective in the UK by now. The woman that Ben—I mean Simon stole from hired her own detective to find him.’ I remember the message sent by Carla to Ben, sent by a woman who had been conned and abandoned:You don’t getto abandon me and survive it. You just don’t. I’ve found your number now and soon, I’ll know where you work and then I’ll know where you live.Ben led me to believe she was a crazed stalker who had ruined his life and relationship but instead, she was a woman struggling to find the man who had destroyed her life. I feel deeply sorry for her. I understand why she feels like an idiot for trusting Ben; I feel like a complete idiot as well.
‘Wait here,’ says Detective Grafton and he stands.
‘Is Mike okay?’ I ask him because I need to know. ‘There was something in the garden, maybe a kid’s toy, and he hit his head against it, but that’s all that happened.’
‘I’ll check,’ he says. Both detectives leave me with my empty coffee cup and a phone that’s on two per cent battery. I need to save the battery in case Oliver needs me.
I watch the clock on the wall as I wait and it ticks towards 3 a.m. I am wired and exhausted and I can’t see a time when this will be over.
Twenty minutes later, Detective Grafton returns alone.
‘We have spoken to Mr Owens and we will be interviewing Mr Burkhart tomorrow. He’s in a stable condition and being kept in for observation overnight.’
‘Thank God.’ I sigh, unable to conceal a yawn.
‘It’s fine for you to go but please be available to speak to us and do not, under any circumstance, leave town.’
I stand up, everything aching. ‘Can I get a lift home?’ I ask.
‘A constable will help you with that. They have your bag at the front.’
I am grateful to leave, grateful to be able to go home to my own bed. I think about Mike’s children, who have an awful mother and a father in the hospital. I hope they are being taken care of.
Detective Grafton walks with me to the counter where a policewoman is waiting with my bag.
I am about to leave when a thought occurs to me.
‘Detective,’ I say because he has walked away from me. He stops and turns around.
‘I think that Sandy is not going to take it lightly that Mike isn’t dead. That was the plan. I think she was going to make sure it happened and then appear again to mourn her husband and collect the money.’
‘We’ll check in on him,’ he says.
‘Tonight, or now,’ I say, because it’s the next day. ‘Don’t leave it, check in on him now.’
Detective Grafton must be able to feel my sense of urgency because he bites down on his lip and his phone goes to his ear.
‘Yeah, mate,’ I hear him say to someone. ‘We need to get to the hospital.’
