He set his coffee down and folded his arms across his chest. “What are you getting at, Daisy?”
I was alone in my home with a man I thought was a murderer. I was being stupid, confronting him. Maybe Crazy Daisy was more appropriate.
“No one else knew about either of those things,” I said. “Not Jake, not me, not anyone else. You were the only one.”
The pipes crackled above our heads along the ceiling. Car engines whispered into the basement from the opening as they drove past. Dust flicked in the light that cut through the crawl space.
“And Helen told everyone you were sexy,” I said.
Now, I was going out on a limb. I realized that. I was putting two and two together because I was pretty sure it added up to four. I wasn’t entirely positive, but I was fairly certain. If he’d looked at me like I was insane, I would’ve felt stupid and probably started tripping over myself to apologize to him.
But he didn’t. He took his index finger and ran it over his bushy mustache. His mouth twitched. He stared at me.
“Yes, she did,” he finally said.
FORTY SIX
Rex set his feet apart and put his hands on his hips. “Helen and I dated for a couple weeks. Then she dumped me.”
I was acutely aware that we were the only two people in the house, that I was barefoot and without my cellphone. And that he was standing between me and the stairs, something his posture seemed to indicate he was aware of, too.
“She just couldn’t get over, Olaf,” he said, his mouth twitching again. “Everything she did, she just expected him to come running back to her. Which he was never gonna do. Everyone saw that but Helen.”
“Including you?” I asked, looking to buy more time rather than to find out more of the story.
“Including me,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “I tried to tell her that, but she blew me off. I told her he wasn’t coming back and that she needed a real man to take care of her. But she wouldn’t listen. Olaf this, Olaf that.” He made a retching sound. “She couldn’t stop talking about him.” Now he looked like he was going to retch. “It got so old.”
I was looking around for something to defend myself with if I needed to. But I didn’t see anything within arm’s reach.
“So, me being me,” Rex said, annoyance all over his face, “I went to talk to him. To tell him that she was still in love with him and he should give her another chance.” He tapped his index finger against his own chest. “Because’s that’s how much I care about Helen.”
I nodded. “Sure. Of course.”
“So I go to talk to the idiot,” he said, shaking his head. “And he just won’t listen. He’s telling me I’m wasting my time, that I don’t know what I’m talking about, that he’s just trying to move on.” He grimaced. “He had no idea what kind of woman he had in Helen.”
I saw a screwdriver but it was on the other side of the room by the washer.
“He asks me to leave,” Rex continued. “I tell him I’m not leaving until he actually listens to me because he clearly wasn’t. He tells me he’s gonna call the cops if I don’t leave. I tell him that’s fine. We both stand there. And then he grabs me and tries to push me out of his house.” He rubbed at his chin. “Well, Olaf shoulda known I’m stronger than I look.”
I nodded, only half-listening. I knew there was a hammer but it was up in the crawl space. I’d never be able to reach it if he came after me.
“We wrestled a bit and I finally took him to the ground,” Rex explained. “But he whacked his head on the coffee table on the way down to the floor. I knew it was bad.” He stared at me for a long moment. “But it was truly an accident.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” I said, trying to make it sound like I was on his side. “An accident.”
He nodded. “It was. It was.”
“So I’m sure if you just told the police—”
“I knew people wouldn’t see it that way,” he said, ignoring me. “I knew they’d think I’d done it on purpose, on account of how I feel about Helen. No one knew we were dating but it was only just a matter of time. And I knew they’d make me out to be the bad guy.” He stroked his mustache again. “So I had to figure something out.”
I glanced toward the crawl space. Towels. A broom. The cords. Nothing that looked weapon-like.
“So what?” I asked, still stalling for time. “You picked my house?”
His mouth curved upward into an ugly smile. “Well, it wasn’t that easy. But Helen mentioned to me at some point that you and Olaf had dated—”
Jake’s words came back to me. Easy target.
“We didn’t date!” I said.
“—and I remembered inspecting your house and I just figured that if they ever found his body in the chute, they’d look at you as the suspect.” His smile grew. “Which they did.”
Which they did.
“So I brought Olaf over here in the middle of the night,” he said. “The night of the accident. Because it was an accident.”
“I believe you,” I said, unsure of whether I did or not.
“I had him in and down there in about twenty minutes time,” he said. “Pitch black and quiet as a mouse. I knew we were due for snow later that night. Six inches would easily cover my tracks. Easy as pie.”
The thought of Rex or anyone else sneaking into our house in the middle of the night gave me goosebumps. I was going to want an alarm system and iron bars and an armed guard from now on.
If I made it out alive.
“And then you found him,” he said, frowning. “Honestly, I didn’t think you would. That chute has been sealed up for years. Would have made a good crypt if you hadn’t gone nosing around. Olaf could have rested peacefully for years…for eternity, really. But, no. And here we are.”
“Look, Rex,” I said quickly. “I believe you that it was an accident. I believe you. And I’m sure the police will, too. If we just tell them—”
He held up a hand cutting me off.. “Daisy. Please. You and I both know that at this point, there’s no turning back. I hid his body whether it was an accident or not. I’m guilty.” He paused. “But I’m not going to jail.”
I swallowed. Hard. “No?”
He shook his head. “No. Because people will think what they’ve been saying since the day they found his body. When they find you, they’ll just assume you did it and were guilty all along.”
When they find you.
“I saw Helen here earlier,” he said. “I think it’ll be an easy connection for the authorities to make, that you and she had some sort of an argument. Especially when I tell them that I drove by on my way to the hardware store and saw her here. I’m sure I can be a very persuasive witness.”
I thought he was underestimating Detective Hanborn, but that did nothing to calm the panic that was seeping into every vein in my body.
“I’m very sorry, Daisy,” he said, shaking his head. “I like you. I like Jake. But I’m not going to jail. If it’s me or you…then it’s going to be you.”
“Rex, please,” I said, my heart pounding like a jackhammer, my eyes flitting around the space near me, looking desperately for anything that might serve as a weapon. “We can work this out. We can—”
“No!” he yelled, his eyes flaring with anger. “No we can’t! There’s nothing to work out! Helen was too stupid to realize what she had in me. Olaf’s dead and she’ll never forgive me for killing him if she finds out. I have a chance with her now, dammit! So I’m going to make everyone think you did it. That’s what’s going to happen. That’s the only thing that can happen.”
Finally, I spotted something. On the shelf next to the crawl space. A long barrel, barely visible in the filtered light. But could I get to it in time?
Rex saw my eyes dart toward the crawl space and he lunged at me. I screamed and jumped toward the shelf and grabbed my weapon. I turned and swung as hard as I could at his head.