Page 64 of Little Shattered Dreams

“I get it,” I said to Kelly. “You wanted payback for how he treated your sister. But to burn down his entire house? Seems extreme.”

“You ever been cheated on in your own bed before?” Kelly asked.

“I haven’t.”

“When I found out what he’d done, all I could think about was that bed. My sister’s bed, her pillows,hersheets—sheets we’d picked out together right before her wedding. So, yeah, I lit that baby on fire. Didn’t even stop to think that I might burn down the rest of the house in the process.”

“Was it the first time you’ve had problems controlling your anger?”

“I see what you’re getting at. See right through you, matter of fact. You want to know if I am capable of murder.”

“Are you?” I asked.

“No, I’m not. Why would I murder a woman I don’t even know after all I’ve been through? Why would any of us who work here do it? My guess? It’s one of the guests. That’s who y’all should be looking at.”

“Any guest in particular?”

“No one comes to mind. I’m just saying … we’re not the right tree to be barking up.”

“Did Quinn spend much time at the spa?”

Rebecca laughed. “Every free second she had. Those first couple of days, she was in here more than anyone else.”

“Did she say anything out of the ordinary when she visited, or maybe do anything that seemed odd?”

Rebecca and Kelly exchanged glances, leading me to believe she had.

“Sometimes she’d fall asleep when she was in here being worked on,” Kelly said. “I’d never seen a woman so tired in all my life. One time she was passed clean out. She started talking, you know, in her sleep.”

“What did she say?”

“She was having a nightmare, saying something about how she didn’t mean to do it, kept saying she was sorry.”

“Did she say why she was sorry?”

“Nope. Rebecca came in to ask me a question, and it startled Quinn. Woman shot straight up, looking around like she didn’t know where she was for a second. It was weird.”

“Did you ask her about it?”

“I asked her if she was all right. She wanted to know why I asked, so I told her what I’d heard.”

“And what did she say?”

“The oddest thing. She said she believed nightmares came to people who needed to atone for their sins.”

CHAPTER34

Abby stood in the doorway of her studio apartment with a towel wrapped around her petite frame. She stared up at me, ran a hand through her short mohawk, and sighed.

“Been wondering when you’d show up,” she said.

“Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

“I have nothing to say except this—I didn’t kill Quinn.”

“Noted. Can I come in?”

She swung the door all the way open and turned, walking away without saying another word. I stepped inside, pausing to look at her collection of black cat figurines.

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