The Perfect Wife Read online

  “You’re not going to believe this,” he whispered. “But Mel is at our front door and she looks pissed. Think I should let her in?”

  Jessie shook her head vigorously from side to side, sending flashes of pain shooting through her skull.

  “I get it,” he said sympathetically, as the doorbell rang again. “You don’t want anything bad to happen to your friend. But this might actually work out. It will make more sense if Teddy gets a call to come over from his wife. And then, when they do the investigation later, it will look less suspicious than if I called him using my phone. Of course that means Mel has to die too. But I can come up with a cover story for that. I’m getting pretty good at it. Be right back.”

  He headed off toward the front door, ignoring Jessie’s nearly inaudible grunts of protest. When he was gone, she looked around, desperate for anything to change the dynamic.

  She cursed herself for the arrogance that made her think she could get a confession and somehow just waltz out of the house. Nearly ten years with him had made her complacent and overconfident. But he wasn’t the same person she used to know.

  She’d had visions of calling out Kyle for his crimes then storming out and going straight to the police station. Had she really thought he’d be so stunned that he’d just let her go? Did she imagine that as he curled up in a ball of guilt, she could just call 911? She could barely stomach her own idiocy.

  Stop it! This won’t help you or Mel. Find a solution, fast!

  Jessie forced herself to look around the room again, this time focusing on anything that might help her get the duct tape off. The fireplace poker was too clumsy and too far away. She’d never get to it in time, much less be able to use it. There was a huge glass vase on the mantel. But reaching it, knocking it down, and finding an appropriate shard of glass with which to cut herself free seemed impossible, even if she had the time to try it.

  Then her eyes fell on Kyle’s money clip, the top of the “$” symbol glinting in the light of the fire. He’d taken it out of his pants because it was digging into him. The edges were too sharp.

  As she heard Kyle open the front door, she leaned forward and scooped it up into her closed hands.

  “Hi, Mel,” Kyle said from the foyer. “You seem upset. Is everything okay?”

  “Can I come in?” she asked, sounding borderline angry. “I need to discuss something with Jessie.”

  “Of course,” he answered, without a care in the world. “Come on in. She’s in the living room. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “No. This is a woman to woman thing.”

  Jessie could hear Mel walking in her direction, oblivious to Kyle quietly closing and locking the door behind her. As she waited for her friend to enter the room, Jessie glanced down to make sure the money clip wasn’t visible.

  Mel rounded the corner, saw Jessie sitting on the couch, tied up and bloody-faced, and opened her mouth to scream. But before she could, Kyle appeared behind her, grabbed the back of her head, and slammed it hard into the wall. She dropped to the ground with a thud.

  Kyle leaned over and pressed his ear against her chest as he checked her pulse. After a moment he looked up.

  “Still alive,” he said cheerily. “Thank goodness. That would have complicated things.”

  Jessie watched as he felt around in Mel’s pocket and pulled out her phone. He dialed a number and waited, smiling at Jessie pleasantly while it rang.

  “Hey, buddy,” he said when Teddy picked up. “Don’t freak out but your wife asked me to call. She came over here to talk to Jessie but she tripped on the stoop and really sprained her ankle. I’d drive her back but Jessie is really upset about the miscarriage. She’s super depressed. I’m actually afraid to leave her alone. Can you run over real quick and pick up your wife?”

  He waited while Teddy replied, kneeling casually over the unconscious body of his friend’s wife.

  “No, I don’t think you need to wake up Daughton. I know you don’t want to leave him alone but we’re talking ten minutes tops. He’ll never know you were gone.”

  He listened again, then nodded.

  “Okay, buddy. See you soon.”

  He hung up and exaggeratedly wiped pretend sweat from his brow.

  “That was close. For a minute I thought he was going to bring the kid. That would have been a messy obstacle. Kid crying in his car seat while his parents are dead inside? Not a good look. Anyway, he’ll be here soon so I better get that gun. Don’t worry, babe. This will all be over soon.”

  He stood up and went upstairs, where he had apparently stashed his illegal weapon. When she was sure he was on the second floor, Jessie maneuvered the money clip so that she could scrape its sharp top edge against the duct tape holding her wrists together. It seemed pointed enough but because she had trouble getting any kind of grip, it was slow going. She’d barely made a small tear at one end when she heard Kyle stomping back down the stairs. She stopped cutting, hid the clip between her palms again, and looked up.

  “She still out?” he asked, glancing briefly at Mel when he got down. “Good. We don’t need any complications. I figure that I’ll have to shoot Teddy first, seeing as he’s the only real threat at this point. I think I’ll have him come in here to get Mel. Then I’ll get real close and shoot him in the gut. It has to look like we were struggling in close quarters. I don’t know if it matters if I kill you or Mel next. I’m thinking I’ll tell the cops that she somehow found out about his affair with Natalia and threatened to tell the cops so he had to off her too. Maybe we do her first because that’s more of a crime of passion. He’ll shoot her in the chest in a moment of crazy panic. Then he kills you next as he threatened me that he would. That’s more methodical. He’ll shoot you in the head as punishment for me not keeping his secret. Then I’ll have to find some way to shoot myself without making it look obvious that I did it. I’ll need to hold it far enough away so that it looks like he did it as I was running toward him. Or maybe I can attach the trigger to something. You know what—I’ll figure that out afterward. I’ll have a few minutes after you’re all dead before I have to call nine-one-one. Sometimes you’ve got to improvise, right, babe?”

  He looked at her as if he was actually expecting her to reply. When he got none, he shrugged, grabbed Mel under the arms, and dragged her over next to Jessie on the couch.

  “Can’t have her anywhere near the blood splatter from my ‘confrontation’ with Teddy. Someone might piece it together.”

  A light from the driveway suddenly shined through the dining room curtains.

  “Oh, looks like he’s here,” Kyle said excitedly. “It’s showtime!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  The second he disappeared from view, Jessie began cutting at the small incision she’d already made in the tape. Every few cuts, she tugged her wrists apart, trying to open the tear farther.

  “He’s coming up the drive, baby,” Kyle called out in a loud whisper from the other room. “This is so intense, I feel like I might pee my pants. Maybe I do that after I get shot? That might look more realistic.”

  She was almost free but worried that the last yank on the duct tape might be loud enough for Kyle to notice. Then she heard Teddy’s footsteps on the porch and had an idea. She waited. The doorbell rang and at that moment she ripped her wrists apart with all the strength she could muster. The tape split loudly, freeing her hands. She immediately went to work on the tape at her ankles.

  “Hey, buddy,” she heard Kyle say as he opened the door. “So sorry about this. I know you didn’t want to leave Daughton home alone but you’ll be back in a jiff.”

  She cut hard and fast at the tape. This time it was much easier as she could grip the money clip and put her full force behind it.

  “I thought you might be waiting outside with her,” Teddy said, “so she could just get in and we could bail.”

  The tape came loose and Jessie stood up, using the arm of the couch for balance. She looked around for anything she could use to def
end herself.

  “Oh no, man. Like I said, I didn’t want to leave Jessie alone at all. Mel is on the couch in the living room with her. She’s keeping an eye on her for me. You’ll have to carry her out.”

  Jessie’s eyes fell on the fireplace poker. It wasn’t perfect but it was heavy and it was better than nothing at all. She scurried around the couch and gently removed it from its holster.

  “Okay,” Teddy said, his voice getting closer and echoing slightly as he stepped into the foyer. “Let’s make this quick then.”

  Jessie shuffled across the living room and into the kitchen as quietly as she could. She knew Kyle would direct Teddy into the living room the same way he had with Mel, so that he could walk behind him and maintain the advantage.

  “She’s right in there,” Kyle said. “Let me just close the door to keep the bugs out. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Jessie rounded the corner of the kitchen and peeked out in time to see Teddy walking down the hall to the living room. Kyle was a few steps behind him, his right hand holding the gun behind his back.

  Jessie glanced at the front door. For a second, she was tempted to make a run for it. Kimberly’s house was right across the street. Or if Teddy had left the keys in his car, she could just jump in and peel out.

  But that meant both Teddy and Mel would almost certainly die. And if they did, this time she would actually be partly responsible. Besides, she was tired of running away.

  “Hey, Mel, how are you doing?” Teddy asked as he rounded the corner into the living room. “What the…”

  Jessie knew he must have seen his wife slumped unconscious on the couch. Kyle rounded the corner right after him. Jessie quickly tiptoed after him, knowing that the second he saw she was gone, she’d lose the advantage.

  “Sorry about this, buddy,” she heard Kyle say and realized he hadn’t yet looked at the couch. His attention was focused on his friend, the one he was about to shoot. “I’d like to explain, but it’s complicated.”

  She knew he might fire at any second and broke into a run, raising the poker over her head. He must have known something was off because she heard something like a “wha?” right before his head appeared from behind the wall.

  She was only a couple of feet away and brought the poker down hard as she ran at him. His eyes opened wide and he yanked the gun, which had been pointed at Teddy, in her direction. She made solid contact with the top of his skull just as she heard the gun go off.

  As she slammed into her husband, she heard glass shattering behind her and knew he’d missed. They fell at the same time and she landed on top of him, breaking her fall. She rolled over onto her back and saw that he was woozy but not out.

  Blood was running down his face from the wound on his head. Despite that, he got to his knees beside her and fumbled with the poker that had fallen from her hands. Grabbing it by the shaft, he lifted it high above his head and brought it down hard toward her face.

  Jessie managed to throw her hands up and deflect the poker away from her head. A moment later she felt a searing burn on her left side. She gasped at the sudden pain. Before she could fully process it, she saw Kyle lift the poker a second time. She knew she didn’t have the strength left to fight off another blow.

  As she raised his arms again, she caught a blur of motion out of the corner of her eye before everything exploded into a mist of shiny glass. She felt Kyle’s body land heavily on top of her chest. Glancing down, she saw that he was unconscious.

  She looked up to find Teddy staring at her, his mouth agape. In his bloody hands were shards of the vase from the mantel, the one she’d briefly considered using to cut herself free earlier.

  She tried to talk but realized the duct tape was still covering her mouth. She ripped it off, ignoring the raw skin below.

  “He wanted to kill all of us,” she rasped. “He killed that Natalia girl. And he was going kill us next.”

  Teddy seemed at a loss for words. Finally he managed to mutter just one.

  “Why?”

  “Not really the most important question right now, Teddy,” she said, feeling suddenly lightheaded. “Just call the cops. And make sure he doesn’t wake up before they get here. He was half a second from shooting you and he’ll try again if he gets the chance.”

  “Okay,” Teddy agreed, “but Jessie…”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re bleeding pretty bad.”

  “What?” she said, now more aware of the burning sensation on her left side. She glanced down to see blood seeping from her gut. She was just reaching her hands down to put pressure on it when she felt herself falling forward and everything went dark.

  *

  She was in the same hospital as before and wondered if it was the same room too. The paint and room setup were identical.

  Jessie had been awake for about a half hour now and she still hadn’t gotten any answers. The doctors and nurses wouldn’t tell her anything other than that the poker had punctured her in the left abdomen, that it had missed all major organs, and that she would eventually make a full recovery.

  “Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” she demanded in a hoarse voice for what had to be the fourth or fifth time. “Is my husband in custody? Is Melanie Carlisle all right?”

  “I told you,” said the obviously annoyed nurse, “we’re not allowed to share any additional information until the authorities have spoken to you. There are several detectives talking outside right now. I’m sure one of them will be in soon to discuss the situation with you.”

  She walked out, leaving Jessie alone with a muted television, a case of cottonmouth, a dull throb in her left side, and an IV in her right arm. She was pretty sure it was the reason she felt slightly drunk.

  The door opened to reveal someone she was genuinely shocked to see. Looking down at her with a mix of sympathy and wonder was Detective Ryan Hernandez of LAPD, downtown bureau.

  “What are you doing here?” Jessie croaked.

  “Nice,” he replied, shaking his head. “I come all the way from downtown Los Angeles to see you and this is the greeting I get?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just confused.”

  “Well, you were shivved with a fire poker,” he acknowledged. “So I’ll give you a pass this time. Your voice message to me sounded fairly urgent. I called you back and didn’t hear anything. So I called again—still nothing. I called a third time and when I didn’t hear back I got a little worried. So even though I felt a little weird about it, I took the extra step of having your phone GPS tracked and discovered that you were in this hospital. So I figured I’d stop by. Looks like I made the right call.”

  “Oh,” Jessie said, getting most of that despite feeling a little loopy throughout. “Does this mean you can tell me what’s going on?”

  “I think so. But you should know that I’m not the only one here to talk to you. There are some local detectives out there who have quite a few questions. I managed to hold them off for a bit on the pretense that you’d want to see a semi-friendly face when you woke up.”

  “I appreciate that,” Jessie said, trying to sit up to take a sip of water from a straw. “It’s always nice to see a semi-friendly face. But can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure,” Detective Hernandez said as he moved to her side and helped prop her up so she could drink more easily.

  “Why did you need a ‘pretense’ to talk to me?”

  “Ah, that word jumped out at you, huh? Here’s the thing. The detectives out there found the audio recording on your phone. It’s pretty definitive. Your husband’s confession is about as clear-cut as I’ve ever come across.”

  “Did you see the video too?” Jessie asked.

  “Video?”

  “I found camera footage from the boat where he killed the girl Natalia. It includes him laying her dead body next to me while I was unconscious in a bed, among other things.”

  “I did not see that,” Hernandez said. “But I’ll make the guys aware of it. That will h
elp too.”

  “And yet, you still needed a pretense,” Jessie reminded him.

  “Right. It would be inappropriate for me to say too much. But I just wanted to make you aware that your husband is claiming that you were an accessory after the fact; that you were in on the plan to dump the girl’s body. In fact, he suggests that it was your idea and that you told him where to do it.”

  Jessie looked at Hernandez closely. She wanted to believe that he was on her side, that he was trying to help her, maybe even warn her. But these days, she wasn’t inclined to trust that anyone other than herself had her best interests at heart.

  “And does any halfway-decent law enforcement professional buy that story?” she asked, making sure to sound as contemptuous as possible.

  “I don’t think so,” Hernandez said. “He’s spun so many different stories, including about four different ones on that audio you recorded, that it’d be hard to take much of anything he says seriously.”

  “So then why am I getting an unsettled vibe off you, Detective Hernandez?”

  “It’s just that I watched his interview a few times now,” he said, not quite looking her in the eye. “And it’s clear that he’s a pathological liar, probably a sociopath.”

  “But…?”

  “But when he talked about you knowing about the plan to dump the body and not opposing it, there was a slightly different inflection in his voice, something almost plaintive and borderline credible.”

  “So what are you saying?” Jessie asked, feeling a thread of fear crawl into her chest despite the happy drugs.

  Detective Hernandez suddenly stopped avoiding eye contact and stared at her square in the eyes, unblinking. And in that moment, she knew he sensed that part of what Kyle said was true.

  “It’s probably nothing,” he said after a moment of silence. “The guy tells lies like most people breathe. Just thought you should know. Anyway, your friend Melanie is in recovery. She has a concussion but is otherwise okay. Her husband is fine, though he can’t seem to wrap his head around what happened. Not the brightest bulb, that one. I used your phone to check your last few calls and reached your friend Lacey. She’s in the waiting area and will be in when the detectives finish with you. My understanding is that you’ll have to stay here overnight at least, maybe a couple of nights. But then you should be able to go home, or wherever you feel comfortable staying. In the meantime, I’ll let you rest.”