Page 17 of The Engagement Party

“I want to explain.” Mitch’s voice evened out. The pain that so often crept into it was absent. He talked like he was spelling out the dry facts of someone else’s life. Another person’s heartbreaking trauma. “I thought about killing Tyler every day for years. That continues until now... or did. Not daily though more often than you might think, I’d mentally walk through how I’d make him beg and cry. But I promise you my revenge fantasies never looked like this.”

“Okay.” Ruthie exhaled as if she’d mentally downshifted into a less scary emotional place. “That all explainswhothe victim is. My question is about why he’s here now, dead, and how that relates to the note... and us.”

Alex assumed from Ruthie’s sudden calm that Mitch’s screwed-up family news wasn’t a total surprise to her. Will must have told her some of it. Will sucked at communicating and tended to take his girlfriends for granted, like an obligation he could check off and ignore in favor of work, which likely explained why he had so many exes, but no way would he bringRuthie on this vacation without some warning about the string of deaths in their pasts. Even Will couldn’t be that clueless.

“You clearly aren’t friends now. Seeing Tyler is a huge surprise, right?” Ruthie continued after Mitch nodded. “Then where has he been and why would he show up here?”

“He testified against my mother back then after... everything. In exchange, he got a deal for conspiracy, not murder, and went to a juvenile center. He got out at twenty-one.”

Ruthie frowned. “What kind of sentence is that for murder?”

Cassie straightened. “Is today the first time you’ve seen him since the trial? You were, what? Sixteen or seventeen when the trial happened. You’re thirty-five now. It’s weird for him to show up after such a long delay.”

Alex could see his wife’s attorney brain kick into gear. She was searching for the holes she could tear open, for the information Mitch was trying hardnotto say.

“He would randomly call but stopped...” Mitch looked around, making eye contact with each of them. Almost weighing what he thought their responses might be to his news. “Until a few weeks ago.”

Alex stared up at the porch ceiling. Counted each plank to keep from yelling.

“Damn it, Mitch.” Sierra sat down hard on the end of the chair. “Are you kidding?”

“He left messages on my work cell about needing to talk to me because something bad was about to happen. That he saw something or someone. I don’t know.” When everyone started asking questions, Mitch talked over them. “It’s not as if I have another dad he could kill, so I ignored him.”

The comment landed with a thud. Alex knew Mitch was trying to cut through the tension with acerbic comments to cover up his emotional scar tissue. He failed.

“Yeah, the calls clearly didn’t bother you,” Cassie said, loading her words with sarcasm.

“You didn’t tell me.” Sierra, so practical and clear. The one who built a wall around Mitch and bit and clawed at anyone who tried to fight their way in.

Something in her tone or in the way she sat there, almost shriveling before their eyes, got to Mitch. His voice softened and the pain he so carefully banked flashed in his eyes. “I should have. I’m sorry.”

No one said anything for a few seconds. Finding the right words proved impossible, so Alex didn’t try. He earned his living negotiating and convincing but every sentence that popped into his head rang hollow.

Mitch turned to Ruthie. She hadn’t lived through the horrible first time he told them this story in college, unguarded as they lounged on the grass at Will’s parents’ house during fall break.

“My mother is in prison and always will be.” Mitch shrugged. “She writes. I give the letters to Sierra, unopened. That’s it. No contact on my part for about a decade.”

Cassie shook her head. “We’re missing something. Let’s go inside.”

No one said a word as they opened the door and stepped into the kitchen. Cassie hit the switches and bathed the downstairs in white light.

A second note was right there on the kitchen counter.

you have 24 hours to confess

Alex read it and reread it. He wanted to touch it, turn it over, rip it up. His legal training taught him not to do any of those things, and he blocked the rest of them from trying. Any of them could have dropped it when going in and out of the house, but he didn’t see a hint of betrayal in their expressions.

Cassie moved in closer, studying every word. “Where are these notes coming from?”

“Who’s doing this?” Will asked.

“That’s it. I’m calling that policeman.” Sierra pulled the card out of her pocket and headed for the living room. She stopped a few seconds later. Her hands shook. “What... I don’t...”

Mitch frowned as he watched her. “What’s wrong?”

“The cell phone doesn’t work. I can’t even dial 911.”

Trapped without any means of communication. The threatening notes. Someone wanted them to pay, but for what exactly?

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