Page 61 of Wyoming Mountain Murder

Haley slammed the door, locked it and slipped the chain on with a shaky hand. “How did you find me?”

“That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that I did.”

Trembling, Haley plopped down on the bed, clutching the revolver. She didn’t look well. Pale skin. Bags under her eyes. She was bare foot and wore a T-shirt and jeans.

Charlie looked around.

The dim motel room smelled of mildew and traces of a hundred seedy encounters. Empty bags of junk food and cans of diet cola were on the nightstand.

“Tell me what you did.” Charlie crossed her arms. “And why you did it.”

Haley bent over, propped her elbow on her thigh and dropped her head into her palm.

“You better start talking,” Charlie demanded. “What happened after you called Wednesday night?”

“I staged the scene at the house.”

“You baited me and set me up.”

Raising her head, a stranger with a steely glint in her eyes stared back. “Yeah, I baited you. But I was setting up Seth. Not you.”

“Why?”

“Because he deserves it!” Haley jumped to her feet. “He’s a soulless beast. He killed Teddy!”

It was true? “How do you know for sure?” Charlie didn’t want it to be real. She wanted to cling to hope that he was still alive.

“Seth bragged about it. Taunted me with the fact that he killed him. After that I realized it didn’t matter if my name changed, if I looked different, if I lived somewhere else. He would always find me.”

“But we had a plan. It would’ve kept you safe.”

“To hell with your plan.”

All the effort and time and money that had gone into the process—wasted. The months of manipulation that Haley had invested in getting Charlie to even help her in the first place. For what? “Why come to me to begin with?” Then a sneaking suspicion settled in her gut like a rock. “How did you even know to come to me, that I could help you disappear?”

“My friend Rafe. You helped his cousin. Eva Johnson.”

Eva’s maiden name had been Martinez. But it was a common surname. Charlie hadn’t made the connection. “Well then, you know how my system works. Why didn’t you believe in it?”

“I did. I thought it could work, too. Then Seth took Teddy away from me.” Haley seemed to collapse in on herself. “Seth can take anything away. Even my life.” Tears glistened in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “I needed him to pay. Finally. For something. I don’t know what he did with Teddy’s body. Whether there’s evidence of his murder somewhere.

“Speaking of evidence, do you have any on Seth that could put him away?”

Haley lowered her head. “Yeah, but...” She chewed her bottom lip. “Other people I know working for him will be hurt by it. They’ll go to jail, too.”

“People like Aubrey?”

Haley’s shocked gaze flashed up to her. She nodded. “That’s why I needed him to be convicted and jailed for something else. Like mymurder. He deserves to rot in prison for all his crimes.”

Charlie paced in the room, fuming at the lies and deception. “There was so much blood at the house. How did you pull that off?”

Grabbing a tissue, Haley sniffled. “I volunteer at the hospital. I got to know people. There was a phlebotomist with a gambling debt. I paid him to draw as much blood as possible from me. Two pints. But it wasn’t enough. I bought two more pints of someone else’s blood. That’s why I needed the house to explode. To make sure the police couldn’t analyze all of it. Only mine, which I mostly used on the porch and in the grass. A bit in the kitchen.”

Every word out of Haley’s conniving mouth infuriated Charlie. “Why rope me into this? Was the abuse even real?”

“Yes,” Haley said, shaking the gun. “Seth not only beat me, but he got into my head. Never let me forget how small and insignificant I am. That the only value I have is what he gives me.” More tears.

“Why me?” Charlie scrubbed the heel of her palm across her forehead. “You have family that you could’ve dragged into this. Called them to come running out to your house that night.”

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