Page 16 of Worse Than Wicked
“Better than low,” he mutters.
I turn back to Mabel, who sits silent, digesting the information.
“So she used a fake name,” she says at last. “Maybe she wanted a fresh start when she got out, like me.”
“She’s not your friend,” I say, not caring if it’s harsh. “You don’t even know who she is.”
“I know who she is,” Mabel insists. “A name is just a name. She knew me as Dahlia. She still knew me.”
“Then you know she could be a serial killer,” I say. “She could have followed you to Tennessee every fall when you left.”
“That’s highly improbable.”
“Is it?” I ask. “You don’t even know what she did time for. I can tell you a few things about her you probably didn’t know. Like she has no prison record. I found a marriage record, though. Some kids. No death certificate, which is probably why she stole her identity.”
“It’s not illegal to change your name.”
“It’s illegal to steal someone’s social security number,” I point out. “Even if they’re dead.”
“So she probably killed someone and went to prison,” Duke says. “Then she got out, and now she’s the Black Widow Killer.”
“And she’s stalkingourgirlfriend.”
“She’s not—”
I cut Mabel off. “Did you know she never picked up her last check at the ice cream place? Didn’t leave a forwarding address for it either. They were pretty pissed, though. Apparently she just never showed up to work one day. Funny how that happened not too long after we left. You know what else is funny? There’s no record of her getting a new job anywhere, either. No bank accounts, credit cards…”
“She didn’t believe in credit cards,” Mabel mutters. “She was anti-establishment.”
“She didn’t rent an apartment anywhere,” I go on, ignoring her excuses. “Or enroll in school. She just disappeared into thin air, like she couldn’t live without you, Mabel.”
“Are you saying I made her up?” she demands, covering her ears and rocking forward and back. “That you pretended you saw her too, and made this whole line of questioning, and now you’re going to tell me you faked the whole thing, and I created a whole person in my head just so I could have a friend? I’m not crazy. You can’t make me think I am. I’m not. I’m not!”
“Whoa, calm down,” Duke says, drawing her hand down. “No one’s saying you’re crazy.” He gives me a significant look. “Are we, Baron?”
“Of course not,” I say, scowling. “You didn’t make up anyone. What I want to know is, why are you protecting her?”
“She’s my friend,” Mabel says, like she’s trying to convince herself more than us.
“Your friend, who you worked with for a few months, had coffee with a few times, and who didn’t even tell you what she was in prison for. But she probably followed you halfway across the country and killed every man you so much as went on a date with,” I say. “You don’t see a problem with that?”
“She didn’t hurtme,” Mabel points out.
“Yeah, well, I have a huge fucking problem with it,” I say.
“Why?” Mabel asks. “She didn’t hurt you, either. We’ve been together for months. If she was going to get rid of you, she would have. She must know I want to be with you, so she’s leaving you alone.”
“She has a point,” Duke says. “She knows we’re not some weirdos trying to get with little girls. We love Mabel. We’re good for her. If she wants what’s best for Mabel, that’s us. Kinda cool, when you think about it. We got the Black Widow Killer’s stamp of approval.”
“It’s not cool,” I growl.
“Why?” Mabel asks, narrowing her eyes at me. “Are you planning to do something terrible to me again, and you’re afraid she’ll come after you then? If you’re right about her, which I still don’t think you are, but if you are… If you’re not planning to hurt me, why do you object to someone protecting me?”
“Because that’sourjob,” I snap, turning to pace the room.
I can’t decide which one irritates me more—the thought that someone else is watching over Mabel, and might see us as the enemy, or that I can’t tell if she’s lying. If someone is really watching over her, they’d have struck already. We may love Mabel, but we don’t show it in a way that most people would recognize. Mabel recognizes it and understands it, but an outsider wouldn’t. They’d have seen what we do to her, and they’d have killed us already.
It makes more sense that Mabel is the killer. She stopped because we’ve been there, preventing her from goingthrough with the schemes she was doing before. It’s too fucking convenient to believe that she was innocently dating these men, and they just happened to all die within weeks of their date with her, no matter that she chose a different alias each time, a different VPN from which to contact them. If she’s not doing the killing, she’s definitely coordinating with the person who is.
