Page 101 of Last Seen Alive
He seemed hesitant to answer.
“Did Rita Cartwright tell you?” Some pieces were clicking together. Brianna said Claire believed in second chances. She’d gone to see Rita to let her know she planned to turn her in for the heists and Martin’s murder. Had to be.
Nick shrugged.
She’d take that as a yes. “Were you and Rita partners before bringing Claire into the fold? Were you more than—”
“Leave Rita out of this,” Nick snarled.
Mention of her name had obviously angered him. She’d push just a little more. “Did you kill Rita too? Do your best to make it look like an accident?”
“No!” Spittle flew with his outburst. “I loved Rita. I’ve always loved Rita. And I wasn’t going to kill Claire… I didn’t want to but…”
“What? She made you?” Trent pushed out.
“She backed me into a corner.”
“What happened to Rita?” Amanda sensed Nick knew the answer, and that it might align with a theory Amanda had before.
Nick sniffled. “Claire should have just left well enough alone!”
“It seems you’re the one who wouldn’t do that,” Amanda hurled back. “She wanted out, but you wouldn’t let her go.”
A single tear fell down Nick’s cheek, which he was quick to swipe away with his good arm. “Rita killed herself. She called me before and said she couldn’t bear the thought of her past coming out, putting her husband and children through a trial, her going to prison.” His voice turned gravely. “She said they were better off with her dead.”
Amanda and Trent let a few moments pass while Nick sobbed. She was the one to speak first.
“You’re the one who shot Martin Lawson, aren’t you? You can tell us. One murder, two, not much difference in sentencing.” A lie, but she hoped that Nick would be naive enough to buy it.
“No one was supposed to pay for it.”
Amanda leaned forward. “Is that a confession? She was Rita’s stepfather, the woman you loved…”
“Martin was a pig and deserved worse than what he got.”
“Then you did shoot him using that Glock you left with Claire?” she pushed.
“Yes! Okay? For Rita. She got him there, and I killed him. I don’t feel sorry about it. Not knowing what he put Rita through for years. Her entire childhood he abused her, going into her room at night, touching her places he had no right to touch.” His facial features darkened with each word.
“You must have wiped your prints from the gun, made sure that Claire’s were the only ones on it. Was that the same time you added her prints to Logan’s gun?”
“Why ask what you know.”
A pregnant pause.
“I couldn’t let Claire turn us all in,” he said, filling the silence.
“And byall,that includes Mona Lawson?” Amanda asked, but knew that answer as well. They’d already questioned her in depth—lawyer present, of course. She would be charged with abetting the murder of her husband, for shooting Nick, and for her part in the heists. As it turned out, Mona Lawson had been the mastermind. Not that Claire had known that. Mona confessed Claire had come to see her to apologize and say she knew who killed her husband and had proof.
“Yes,” he hissed.
“Who else was part of the team?”
“I’m not dying, Detective, and about to make a full deathbed confession.”
“You knew Claire was sick,” she countered.
“She told Rita, who told me.”
