Free When I Kill You by Michelle Wan Page A

Sally Washington, I presume?”
    â€œSally will do,” I mumbled.
    â€œWell, Sally, do you think I’m stupid? Twice in one week?”
    Three with Sutherland’s , I told him in my head, only you don’t know it. Four if you count tonight.
    â€œWhy?” I cried out. “Why do you hate each other so much?”
    He shrugged. “A bad case of sibling rivalry? We’re twins, you see. I know twins are supposed to be close, but she was a bitch to share space with even in the womb.”
    Yeah. I could see Marcia planting her foot in Stanley’s face in her race to get out first.
    â€œAny more questions?” He was toying with me, and he sounded like he was enjoying himself.
    I obliged. I wanted to keep him talking. “She said it had to be done by Sunday. What was her hurry?”
    â€œMoney.” He breathed in through his mouth. “Our mother’s very rich. She’s having a brain tumor removed on Monday. At her age it’s high-risk surgery. If she dies, she’ll leave a couple of million behind. Marcia wanted to be sure there was only one heir. Me, as it turns out.”
    He looked at me curiously. “How did she recruit you? I don’t suppose you’re in the yellow pages.”
    I didn’t want to answer that. Instead, I said, “How did you know it would be tonight?”
    He shrugged. “Well, I was sure Marcia would have another go, and it had to be before Monday. Of course, I didn’t know what or how. You might say I was in the dark , haw-haw.” He took another step down.
    One more . I held my breath. One more and it really will be lights-out for you. Come on, you little shit.
    â€œUntil I found the wire.” He pointed to the third step. “So when she tried to leave the house, I knocked her out, tied her up and gagged her. And I waited. To see when it would happen and how you were involved. When the power went, I knew.”
    They were obviously twins. His mind worked just like Marcia’s.
    â€œAnd you threw her down the stairs?”
    â€œIt’s what the two of you had in store for me.”
    I couldn’t argue with that. “What are you going to do now?” I croaked.
    â€œWell, let’s see. If you don’t tell, I won’t.” He actually giggled. “In a minute I’m going to call nine-one-one.” He held up the gun. That was when I saw it was a mobile phone. “But first you’d better untie her and get rid of the gag. Got to make it look natural. Get rid of this wire too. Then you’re going to say we were all upstairs watching television. You’re my alibi, you see. A friend of Marcia’s. She invited you over. The lights went out, and she had a bad accident.”
    I didn’t wait to hear more. This was his murder, not mine. Let him make it look natural. I wasn’t hanging around to alibi him. I scrambled up the coal chute, out of the cellar and ran. I was pretty sure Stanley would stick to his accident story. He had to, but either way I didn’t care. I didn’t care that my prints were on everything, the wire cutter, the lightbulb, the steps. I’d been so sure of Marcia’s plan I hadn’t bothered with gloves. I didn’t care that Stanley might one day discover Marcia’s video or my real name. I just wanted to be out of there, out of the house, away from the horrible Beeklands.
    * * *
    On Sunday night, Wild Woman Wanda really ground my face into the mud. My heart just wasn’t in it.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    A lmost two years have passed and a lot has happened. Marcia’s death went down as an accident. I never had any follow-up from Stanley. I didn’t exactly hang around waiting for him to follow up. The day after my defeat to Wanda, I phoned Roz to say I was quitting my job at the post office. I loaded up my car again—I was mostly packed anyway. I left the rest of my stuff with Jimmy or gave it to Goodwill, had my mail