Page 29 of With a Vengeance

Still on the floor, she looks across the car to Dante, and their eyes meet in a silent exchange of worry. He was right. They have turned on each other. In a way she never expected.

Anna risks another glance at Judd, struck by how undignified he appears in death. His eyes are closed, yes, but that’s the only thing resembling a peaceful repose. The rest of him, from the blood-flecked foam on his lips to the tablecloth still in his grip to the odd, angular bend of his right leg, looks like a man still suffering. It makes Anna shudder. She’d wanted him to suffer, but not like this.

It’s a relief when Seamus gently straightens Judd’s legs and removes the tablecloth from his fingers. It’s even more of a reliefwhen he places a dry cloth from a neighboring table over the corpse, shielding it from view.

“Is he really dead?” Herb says.

Seamus nods. “Yes.”

“We need to contact the police,” Edith says.

“What we need,” Lapsford says, “is to stop this goddamn train!”

“No!” Anna says from her spot on the floor. “This train isn’t stopping.”

Sal stares at her, bug-eyed. “Not even forthis? You’re nuts.”

The others nod and mutter in agreement. Even Seamus, standing next to Judd’s body, seems torn about it. “What should we do, Anna? This wasn’t part of the plan.”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I need to—”

Think.

That’s what she needs to do, when all she wants is to cry. Not for Judd Dodge himself. He doesn’t deserve her tears. What hehaddeserved was to pay for his sins. And while that might currently be happening if there is a heaven, a hell, and judgment in the afterlife, Anna isn’t able to witness it.

And that’s whatshedeserves. It’s what her whole family deserves. What she owes them as their last surviving member.

Make all of them pay,Aunt Retta had told her, and Anna vowed that she would. But now it’s impossible to make that happen. That’s why Anna feels the tears burning at the corners of her eyes. Judd’s death denies her the chance to seeallof them brought to justice.

Her plan now feels like water pooled in her cupped hands, slipping between her fingers and draining away. All that work for nothing. All that wasted money, not to mention opportunity. She could have made it easier on herself, as Dante pointed out. Summoned the FBI, handed over the evidence, watched the arrests happen. But that hadn’t been enough for her. Not after what thesepeople had done to her family. Like a queen bee hunting those who destroyed the hive, she wanted them to feel her sting.

But someone else had struck first, and the pain she feels keeps the tears welling. She thinks of what Aunt Retta would say in this moment. Don’t cry. Don’t show emotion. And for God’s sake, don’t flinch.

Anna stops the tears from falling through sheer force of will and climbs to her feet. She needs to focus, to concentrate, to figure out what to do next.

The others are right. The best course of actionwouldbe to notify the authorities. But that means stopping the train, and she’d gone to great lengths to ensure that that couldn’t happen, not ever thinking there might come a moment in which the trainneededto stop. With that scenario unlikely at best, Anna can think of only one other option—identify the killer herself.

Rotating slowly in the center of the car, she says, “Which one of you did this? You’re all going to prison anyway, so you might as well confess now and save the police a lot of time and effort.”

“What makes you think it was one of us?” Lapsford asks.

“Well, it had to be someone on this train,” Anna says. “And since we’re the only people on it, that means it was one of you.”

“Or one ofyou,” Lapsford says, pointing to Anna and Seamus. “I think Judd was right. Youaretrying to kill us.”

Anna’s not surprised by being pegged a murderer. In fact, she expected it. And even though she knows none of them will believe her, she says, “I already told you my plans. If I intended to kill all of you, I would have done it by now.”

The statement—as blunt as it is unnerving—quiets the car. A few seconds of silence follows, broken only when Herb gestures at Seamus and says, “What about him?”

“What aboutyou?” Seamus says back. “Anna and I aren’t the only ones capable of murder. Considering what the rest of you havedone, you’re all more suspicious than the two of us. If Mr. Dodge was murdered—”

“If?” Sal says with a roll of her eyes. “What else could have killed him?”

Anna approaches Judd’s body, carefully tiptoeing past it to reach the cocktail table he’d stood next to before hitting the floor. While some of the tablecloth is on the floor beside him, a martini-soaked portion still clings to the table’s surface. Resting on its side atop it is the martini glass Judd had drunk from. Anna swipes an index finger along the inside of the glass, feeling a gritty residue.

She lifts the glass to her nose and sniffs, detecting a sharp, unpleasant chemical scent.

“He was poisoned,” she announces.

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