Page 44 of Witness To Murder
“What went wrong?” Owen asked.
Alyssa blinked, turned her attention to him. “He wanted to stay at the lake house for a couple of days after his fake murder, so I said okay. It wasn’t like I needed the place.”
“You told the woman pretending to be your mother that you and I went there, but we didn’t. Ever.”
She looked away. “At first I couldn’t face you. That’s why I didn’t come home on Sunday. I went to the lake house with the intention of telling Raymond that I had to tell you the truth. When I found the blood and the handcuffs, I panicked. I told the woman I hired to play the role of Isla’s mother what to say and warned her that she should likely disappear too.”
Leah wanted to shake her. “Thanks a lot.”
“I knew you’d be okay, Leah,” she said, her words urgent. “I never meant for you to get into trouble. I didn’t know this was really going down. It was supposed to be insurance fraud, not murder.”
If she expected forgiveness, she could forget it.
“Who killed him?” Owen demanded, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“That’s the thing, I have no idea. Raymond planned this whole thing himself. I’m pretty sure he didn’t tell anyone. He would have been damned stupid to do that. My best guess is that one of the other investors in his business figured out what he was up to and killed him. I really don’t know. I just know he said he was in trouble.”
“How would this investor know about his plan?” Owen asked. “Or where to find him?”
“I have no idea,” she said.
“If you told anyone and caused all this,” Leah warned, “you’re an accessory to murder.”
“No! I didn’t. I didn’t tell anyone. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m really good at keeping secrets. Like I said, all I wanted was the five thousand. But then after he disappeared, I was too terrified to talk to anyone.”
She shook her head. “But I knew I had to tell you,” she said to Leah. “I couldn’t have you believing I did this.”
Leah met her gaze and lied. “I knew you didn’t kill anyone.”
Tears welled in her former roommate’s eyes. “I’m really sorry this happened. I never meant for it to turn into this.”
“What about Douglas’s insurance policy?” Owen challenged. “Whose idea was it to put Leah as a beneficiary on his insurance policy?”
Alyssa made a face. “What insurance policy?”
“There is a ten-million-dollar life insurance policy on the man who hired you to help him fake his death,” Owen explained. “Half to his ex-wife and half to Leah.”
She looked at Leah. “What the hell, Leah?”
A blast of outrage that this supposed friend would dare accuse her roared through Leah. “That’s what I’ve been asking myself all week. What the hell?”
“Are you prepared to turn yourself in to Detective Lambert?” Owen asked. “I’m sure he would be willing to offer some sort of deal for the information you have.”
Alyssa drew back a little. “I’m not putting myself in the line of fire when it comes to a murder charge.”
“Then help us prove you didn’t do it,” Owen suggested.
Leah felt like telling him they weren’t going to bother, but that was her anger speaking. “He’s with the Colby Agency. If there is anyone who can figure this out, he can. Let him help you.”
Alyssa looked from Leah to Owen and back. “I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know who did.”
“The list of probable suspects is not that long,” Owen told her. “You, the ex-wife or the investor you said he screwed over.”
Leah wondered if Lambert had even looked at the ex-wife. The investor was a possible lead he might not have known about. But they knew now.
“What am I supposed to call you?” Leah asked before the other woman could comment on Owen’s statement.
“Al,” she said. “Alyssa Jones is my name, but my mom and the people who used to be my friends called me Al.”
