Knife Edge (A Dead Cold Mystery Book 27) by Blake Banner (most inspirational books of all time .TXT) 📗

I have always understood it that way. Anyhow, that was six years ago, and for the past six years we have paid Sonia faithfully every month. But, about six weeks ago, roughly, Sonia spoke to Brad and told him that she wanted her cut, as she put it, from the proceeds of the new clinic. Her cut was to be twenty-five percent of the profits, annually. He told her no, categorically. So she said she would send all the photographs she had to the university, and to the press. She also said she would tell the cops Lee had tried to blackmail them and that she suspected one of them had killed him. She said she would destroy the three of us.”

I nodded. “So Emma killed her.”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“It had to be either her or you. You would have used the .45 that Brad gave you, and you wouldn’t have missed.”

She gave a soft grunt. “That’s for sure.”

“So what happened in White Plains?”

“She had been in a state of anxiety ever since Sonia had threatened to send the photographs to the university, and to go to the cops. When you showed up and started asking questions, and especially when you decided you wanted to talk to Marcus, she started spiraling out of control. She and Brad had argued. He had told her several times he would take care of it, but she didn’t believe him. Brad talks a good fight, but the fact is he’s full of shit.”

She sighed, seemed to gather her thoughts and continued.

“She called me at the clinic. She seemed to be on the edge of hysteria. She said she needed to see me urgently. I told her to come to the clinic but she said no. She didn’t want to be seen. She wanted to meet at the entrance to Macy’s.” She gave a small laugh. “I told her it was market day and the place would be full of people. She didn’t care. That was where we had to meet.

“When I got there she was jumpy and real nervous. She told me she had done something crazy. I asked her what and she kind of bundled me into the corner of the door, got real close up to me and said she’d killed Sonia.”

She shook her head and looked away out of the window. She bit her lip and shook her head again. I could see that she was crying.

“I couldn’t believe it. I had known her for years. I loved her. I would never have imagined her capable of doing something like that. She said she’d had to do it, to protect Marcus.”

I said, absently, “To protect Marcus?”

“He needs constant care. If the clinic fails it will be a financial catastrophe for all of us, but especially Marcus. He will have no one to care for him.”

“So what did you do?”

“I told her she had to go to the cops, get a lawyer, plead temporary insanity. I would certify it. I remember when I said that she laughed. It was a weird laugh. It made my skin crawl. She said, ‘I know you would, darling,’” she hunched her shoulders and ran her hands over her upper arms. It still makes me shudder. Then she said she was desperate to use the restroom, and would I go with her, then we’d have lunch and talk about what to do. I agreed. My idea was, while she was in the restroom, I would call Brad and the cops. But it didn’t work out that way.

“When we got there, she started acting real crazy. There were a couple of women in there and she chased them out, saying she needed the place to herself. And that was when she pulled the gun on me. It was a small revolver, .22 caliber. She was waving it around like a crazy woman, pointing it in my face, at my chest, repeating over and over that she’d killed Sonia and she’d have no problem killing me.”

Dehan interrupted. “But what was her motive?”

“She said she knew that Brad and I were conspiring to get rid of her, and once she was gone he and I would get married.”

“How did she think you were going to get rid of her?”

“She didn’t make a lot of sense, to tell you the truth. She was terrified that we would allow Marcus to start talking. I told her surely that would exonerate her and Brad and work against Sonia. But she was hysterical and convinced that we were going to manipulate Marcus and fill his head with false memories.”

She stopped again, staring down at her hands in her lap.

“Anyhow, it became clear nobody was coming to my rescue. She pushed me violently toward one of the cubicles and I knew she was going to kill me. I acted without thinking. I twisted the gun out of her hand, spun her round and pulled the trigger, the way my daddy taught me. Before I knew it she was dead, and I bolted. I came home, told Mom and Daddy what had happened and tried to think what the hell to do.” She heaved another big sigh. “I’m glad you showed up. I might have done something really stupid.”

My mind was still lingering over something she had said. I dragged my mind back to it and frowned at her. “You still have the gun?”

“It’s back at the ranch. All the prints are still on it, though Daddy tried to persuade me to wipe them off.”

Dehan shook her head. “That’s something we don’t really need to know. It’s enough that you tell us that for the last couple of days they have been trying to persuade you to hand yourself in.”

She smiled. “Oh, yes, I guess so.”

I said, “We’ll have to take you back with us, Dr. Wagner, you realize that? We’ll need the gun, too, but I am going to recommend to the DA that they do not prosecute. But we will need your full