Free The Bone Box by Gregg Olsen Page B

call it.”
    â€œJust wait a second. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    â€œI found out that Anna Jo was seeing someone. Someone she didn’t want her parents to know about. It was you, wasn’t it?”
    Derby took a step backward, but said nothing.
    Birdy pressed on. “It wasn’t that Anna Jo was embarrassed about who she was seeing. It was the other person—you—who was embarrassed about seeing her, a Makah girl. She meant nothing to you. She was trash to you, wasn’t she?”
    â€œI want you to leave,” he said. “I will call my deputies and have them pick you up for threatening an officer.”
    Birdy gripped her keys. She’d planned on jabbing them in his eyes if he got violent with her. Instead, he was cowering behind the shields of the men and women who worked for him. Probably like he’d always done. Like he did to Patricia Stanton. “Fine,” she said. “People like you ruin the law for everyone who actually gives a damn. You killed her and you set up Tommy.”
    â€œGet out!” he said, his voice rising to flat-out anger.
    Again, Birdy felt her keys.
    â€œWait,” came the woman’s voice from the other room.
    Birdy spun around and faced Lydia H. Derby, the woman who graced every campaign poster; the woman her husband wore like an accessory. She was a slender woman with dark-dyed hair and a flawless, powdery white complexion. She wore brown velvet sweatpants that she somehow managed to make stylish. She was the ultimate dream wife for a man with higher aspirations.
    â€œLydia, this is handled. Dr. Waterman is leaving now.”
    Lydia’s face stayed calm . Botox? A controlled wariness that had been practiced over the years? Resignation that what she was going to do was something that had to be done? Birdy didn’t know.
    â€œThis is going to come out,” Lydia said. “I suppose it should. Owning up to something will set you free. Isn’t that the truth, Jim?”
    His eyes pleaded with her. “Lydia, don’t.”
    Birdy held up her hand without the keys to stop him from saying anything more. “Mrs. Derby, you overheard what we were saying, didn’t you?”
    â€œEvery word,” she said.
    â€œI’m right, aren’t I?”
    She shook her head. “No, you’re half right.”
    It didn’t track. “Half?” Birdy asked.
    â€œJim did frame Tommy Freeland, but he didn’t kill Anna Jo.”
    â€œThen who did?”
    Lydia looked at her husband. By then Jim Derby had dissolved into a chair by the credenza.
    â€œI did,” she said.
    Birdy thought she didn’t hear quite right. “What? You?”
    Lydia Derby glanced at her husband, his face buried in his hands. “A couple of days earlier I followed Anna Jo to that love nest Jim kept with her.” Lydia said, stopping a beat as her husband jabbed a finger at her.
    â€œShut up, Lydia!” he said, snapping back into the moment.
    â€œYou’d like to shut me up,” Lydia said before returning her attention to Birdy. “I don’t know how special Anna Jo Bonners was. All I know is that she was ruining my marriage. I had a little boy to think about. You were about to ruin my life, Kenny’s life. I only wanted to threaten her with the knife. But something just took over. She was sitting there, waiting for Tommy or something. I just grabbed a knife from the kitchen and started ...”
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    Anna Jo Bonners was dressing. She was young, beautiful. She was unencumbered by children, with a slender body that had never carried a baby.
    â€œI know who you are,” Anna Jo said, barely glancing at Lydia.
    â€œLeave him alone,” she said.
    â€œYou mean like you do? I’m giving him what he wants and needs. I know about your type. Needy. Always thinking of yourself. No wonder he laughs about you when we’re in bed.” Anna Jo started for the