Page 50 of The Perfect Deception
She was tempted to shout out to Devery or call him.But she might just be seeing shifting shadows in the guest house.And if the young officer was trying to be stealthy as he approached the main bedroom and Winstonwasup there, she’d be putting him at risk.So she decided to check it out on her own.
She stepped outside and scurried along the edge of the yard, doing her best to make sure she couldn’t be seen if anyone was in the guest house and looked out.In the distance, she thought she heard the sound of multiple sirens approaching.
She briefly considered holding off, but feared that by the time the cavalry arrived, it might be too late, so she kept going.When she sidled up next to the door, she noted that it was closed.As carefully as she could, she turned the handle.It gave and she inched the door open.
As she did, she heard a voice
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Jessie stepped inside, straining to hear what was being said.
To her surprise the person speaking from the room one over was Elise Prager.And she didn’t sound scared.She sounded angry.
“I don’t even know who you really are!”she bellowed.
“That’s the most pathetic part,” said someone whose voice Jessie didn’t recognize, though she could hazard a guess.“You’re oblivious to all the pain you’ve caused.”
“To you?”Prager shot back.“We only met a few months ago and I’ve never been anything but nice to you.Youwantedto be a part of these swaps, Nancy.I can’t fathom why you would do all these horrific things.”
Jessie peered around the corner.It took her a second to process what she saw.Sure enough, Elise Prager was there.But rather than having been stabbed or drugged, she was pointing a handgun at someone.That someone was Vanessa Winston, who was dressed in her Nancy Manion disguise, complete with short black wig and black glasses.
She was in a floral-patterned sundress, which Jessie suspected she’d worn to seem less threatening when she asked to come in the house.And she was holding a carving knife that looked like it could have caused the killing wounds to all four victims so far.
The two women were in a standoff, about ten feet apart, each standing at either end of a long couch.Jessie could sense that things were on the verge of exploding.In the distance, she thought she could hear the faint sound of sirens approaching.When the other two heard it, that would only ramp up the tension.So, without pausing to overthink it, she stepped into the room, her own gun drawn.
“She’s not Nancy Manion,” she said, making both Prager and Winston jump slightly.“That’s Vanessa Winston.She faked her suicide.And she’s doing all this because she holds you responsible for what happened to her marriage.Isn’t that right, Vanessa?”
The woman in the wig and glasses didn’t respond at first.She seemed to be wrapping her head around the fact that someone had finally uncovered her plot.But she recovered quickly.
“I had no choice,” she finally said, her voice pleading as she stared at Jessie.Despite the disguise, she wasn’t wearing colored contacts now and her gray eyes, so sad in all those photos, gleamed with intensity.“She ruined my life.I had to return the favor.”
“You’re Vanessa?”Prager said, her jaw wide.
Vanessa didn’t even look her way.Her attention was focused on Jessie.“She didn’t care about how any of this impacted our lives.She just got off on the whole thing.Plus she took money for it all.She got paid off our pain!”
“It was a nominal amount,” Prager objected, not doing herself any favors with her dismissive attitude, even under these circumstances.“Just enough to facilitate the swaps and make sure that everything ran smoothly.I’m already rich.It’s not like those token amounts were doing much more for me.It was almost like a public service.”
“You see the kind of person I’m dealing with?”Vanessa looked offended.“That’s why she has to pay.At first, I just wanted to ruin her little ‘project,’ make it so no one would ever do one of her odious swaps again.Dead people tend to be a real mood killer.And four of them, all tied to her business?Her reputation would never recover.”
Jessie could see her getting agitated and tried to short-circuit it.“Vanessa, we can work this out.Just put down the knife.I’ll have Elise do the same with the gun.And then we’ll find a satisfying resolution.”
“But then I realized that wasn’t enough,” Vanessa continued, almost as if she hadn’t heard a word Jessie said.“Like she said, she’s too rich to care.Ruining the reputation of someone who has no shame, no principles?It’s a losing proposition.So she has to lose it all.She has to die.”
She gripped the knife tight and took a step closer to Prager.
“Keep coming and I’ll shoot!My ex-husband taught me how to use this thing.You’re lucky that I haven’t already pulled the trigger, you whack-job!”
“Not helping, Elise,” Jessie growled.
But Vanessa seemed oblivious to the comment, more focused on making Jessie understand her.
“You’re Jessie Hunt, right?The profiler?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should understand better than anyone how I feel.Can you imagine what it’s like to switch lives with another woman and then find out that your husband prefers her?That she could slip so easily into your life and he would actually wish for it?Do you realize how painful it is to learn that you’re replaceable?How that turns your whole world into quicksand?Shedid that!She wanted to destroy me and that’s exactly what happened.”
Vanessa pointed the knife at Prager accusatorily.
