Free Last Day by Luanne Rice Page A

every mistake my mom made. She married a guy just like my dad, who cheated with a grad student, broke her heart.”
    “How long had Pete been having the affair?”
    “He kept ending it. It was over; then it wasn’t; then it was. Beth tried to believe him for as long as she could. But she was over it—done.”
    “How did Nicola react to Pete’s stopping and starting back up?” he asked.
    “Why?” Kate said, stopping dead, turning to face him. “You’re not saying she could have done it?”
    “No. I’m just trying to get the full picture,” Reid said, envisioning the murder scene, staged to look like a rape. Kate had seen it too. She seemed mostly focused on the lies Pete had been telling Beth, but could she imagine Nicola doing it? “But tell me how she reacted to Pete saying he planned to stay with Beth.”
    “I’m sure she wasn’t happy,” Kate said. “But we weren’t exactly confidants.”
    Reid nodded. “You say Beth was done. She was going to leave him?”
    She did not answer the question. She just stared into the swirling black water. “Look, even though he broke Beth’s heart, he didn’t kill her.”
    “What makes you so sure?”
    “He was out in the Atlantic Ocean with five other guys. Besides, you heard what Sam said about Moonlight . Whoever took it last year probably came back to steal it right this time.” She looked at him. “Only this time, he took everything Beth had. You saw what he did to her, the lace around her neck, right? Was she raped?”
    “We don’t know yet.”
    “Well, even my dad didn’t arrange for the Andersons to sexually assault my mother. To do that to her, to us. But considering what my father did, I do realize that supposed loved ones can do terrible things. But I can’t imagine Pete, regardless of what a creep he is, hiring someone to do that to Beth.”
    They were silent for a moment, Reid wondering exactly how to put it—whether to tell her he thought Pete had killed her himself before he left. He had caught some attitude from Tom earlier that day after the helicopter had landed. When Pete had refused to be interviewed, saying he needed to see his daughter before he did anything else, Reid and Tom had stood by the helipad, watching him walk away.
    Reid had looked at Tom and opened his mouth to speak. He’d been about to say, Guilty as hell , but Tom had shaken his head.
    “Don’t go there yet,” Tom said. “Let it play out.”
    “Tom, I know this guy.”
    “No, you don’t. And you don’t even know the sisters—you just think you do.”
    “He’s a liar and a cheater, and if you saw Beth . . .”
    “You want to be taken off the case before you even get started? Keep your head down and do your job,” Tom said sharply, being an asshole older brother.
    Now Sam had confirmed she and Pete hadn’t seen each other yet. So much for the concerned father. Walking along the waterfront, Reid glanced at Kate.
    “I don’t believe he had it done,” Reid said slowly.
    “Oh, because you think I did it?”
    “No,” Reid said. “Not at all.”
    A ferry slid by, lights rippling on the black water.
    “Remember, outside Beth’s house, I mentioned I let something bad happen to her before?” she asked.
    “Yes,” Reid said.
    “It was about Nicola.”
    “What happened?” Reid asked.
    “Beth was determined to confront her and Pete—she called to tell me, when I was about to fly a family to Paris. I told her to wait till I got home, and I’d go with her. Beth couldn’t find any of Nicola’s contact info at the gallery—Pete had gotten rid of any trace of her. But Bethcalled the gallery’s accountant and told him to look at Nicola’s tax form. It had her address on it—my grandmother’s house.”
    “You didn’t know where Nicola was staying?” Reid asked carefully, because he did know. Once he had realized Pete had a girlfriend, he had started watching him more often and had followed him to Cloudlands.
    “I had no idea at the time—neither