Cereal Killer

like that all day. So she did as she had been asked.
    The door closed.
    But then she heard the chain jangling on the other side. And it opened.
    Nurse Charlotte Murray was standing there, tears streaming down her face. “Come on in,” she said. “I don’t think I really deserve anybody’s help at this point. But if you’re willing to give it, I’ll take any I can get.”
    “Smart lady,” Savannah said, hurrying inside. “Let’s make a pot of coffee, if Jim’s got some, and we’ll have us a good, long, heart-to-heart. Believe me, I just became your new best friend.”
     

Chapter
    23
     
    “I never thought I’d wind up in a situation like this,” Charlotte said as she cupped her hands around the coffee mug as though drawing strength from its warmth. “I just fell in love with a married man and then... got stupid.”
    Savannah thought of Marietta. At that very minute she was hurrying back to Georgia to be with a man who was considering leaving his wife and kids to be with her... again.
    “Yeah, there seems to be a lot of that ‘stupid’ stuff going around these days. Maybe it’s an airborne virus.”
    They were sitting in Jim Oates’s living room, a bachelor’s pad with an enormous television, an oversize stereo system, and assorted gym equipment. The diminutive Charlotte was half buried in a giant beanbag chair, while Savannah sat on a denim futon. And while their surroundings could hardly have been classified as cozy, Charlotte seemed surprisingly open and at ease once she began to confide in Savannah.
    ‘You were at the Connor house with Kevin the other morning when I came by,” Savannah said, not asking... just letting her know that she had placed her there.
    When Charlotte didn’t deny it, Savannah continued, “Kevin didn’t tell me your name that day. He said that you were married and he was protecting your interests.”
    “Kevin was protecting himself, not me. I’m not married,” Charlotte replied. “I was for a while. But Mr. Murray and I went our separate ways several years ago. It seems like I’ve been choosing the wrong guys all my life.”
    “You aren’t the only woman to make some bad investments when it comes to romance. We’ve all been there.”
    Charlotte’s face fell, and she began to cry, one hand over her mouth. “Not every woman has done what I’ve done for a man,” she said between sobs. “I used to think he was such a wonderful person. Now I know better, but it’s too late.”
    Reaching into her purse, Savannah found some tissues. She left the futon, walked over to the beanbag chair, and handed the tissues to Charlotte.
    Sitting on the floor at the woman’s feet, Savannah placed a comforting hand on her knee. She knew from the DMV that Charlotte Murray was only in her early thirties. But she looked so much older. She had the sunken-eyed appearance of a person who wasn’t sleeping, but suffering enormous grief and guilt.
    “You need somebody to talk to about it, Charlotte,” she said. ‘You can’t hold something like that inside. It will eat you alive.”
    Charlotte sniffed and nodded. “It is eating me alive. It’s like having this huge, black ugliness right in the center of my chest. I feel like I’m going to explode.” “Talk to me, Charlotte. Tell me what happened, and I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
    Savannah felt time slow as she waited for Charlotte’s response. The only sounds were those of the nurse’s soft weeping and the occasional car passing on the street outside.
    She didn’t push for an immediate response, realizing that this was probably the most important decision that Charlotte had ever made. Except maybe the decision to help her lover commit murder.
    “I didn’t kill them,” she said finally. “Kevin did. But I knew about it, and I didn’t do anything. I didn’t even tell him how wrong he was. At first it was because I loved him so much. But then I went along with him because I was afraid he’d hurt me if he had any idea that I wasn’t completely on his side.”
    “I understand,” Savannah said. “Did you know he was going to kill them before he did it?”
    “Not with Caitlin. He told me about that afterward. He said he did it so that we could be together. But he didn’t have to murder her. He could have just divorced her.”
    “So, why did he kill her? Do you know?”
    “A few months ago he took out a big life insurance policy on her. And he would get even more if she died from an