Murder Deja Vu

saw it too. “The way I figure, if I’m going back to prison, I might as well go back for a reason. No sense wasting the rest of my life without getting some satisfaction. You took my life; why shouldn’t I take yours?”
    Reece thought back to his conversation with Dana about what he’d do if he came face to face with the man who framed him, and his thoughts were darker than he ever imagined. “Seems fair, don’t you think?”
    Carl’s gaze riveted on Reece’s hand. “How—where did you get a gun?”
    “Prison teaches a man things he wouldn’t ordinarily know. Like how to buy a gun in almost any city. Portland wasn’t hard.”
    Tears filled Carl’s eyes. “You…you mean you’re going to kill me?”
    “In a word, yes.”
    “You could never do that.” Carl wheezed a phony laugh. “You’re not a killer. I know that.”
    Reece snorted. “Ironic. A lot of people seem to think otherwise. You’ve seen to that.”
    “Name it,” Carl said. “Money? You want money? I don’t have it now, but I can get it. You want to go to Canada? I’ll arrange it. I’ll take you there myself. You and your girlfriend. You don’t have to go back to prison.”
    Reece had grown up with Carl. They’d been best friends, or so he thought, but he’d never seen this sniveling side. Had he been so wrapped up in his studies, in trying to be the perfect son, that he never really knew his own brother? “You’re sweating again, Carl. I’d suggest you see an endocrinologist, but what would be the point? You’re not leaving this room alive.”
    “How did you get out of the hospital? You’re wanted for murder. They had a cop posted on your door.”
    “A cop helped me get away.” Reece shook his head. “Man, he doesn’t like you. I think he wants me to kill you. Name’s Tobey. Dennis Tobey. You know him, don’t you? You built his dream house, but it turned into his nightmare.”
    Carl’s jowly face flushed at the name. Yeah, Reece thought, he knew Dennis Tobey.
    “I admit, we made a few mistakes.”
    “A few mistakes? You built him a money pit.”
    “I’m not as good a businessman as Dad. I tried, but I fell in over my head and had to cut corners.”
    “According to Tobey, you cut more than corners. Shoddy workmanship throughout, he said. The place started falling apart.”
    “I needed money,” Carl said.
    “You mean you needed my inheritance.”
    The two men stared at each other, Carl frozen in the moment. “I got mortgage loans on phantom houses by submitting bogus appraisals, hoping to cover them with future sales.”
    “So when the bottom fell out of the market, the bank had no collateral, and the loans were total losses. Don’t you know Ponzi schemes don’t work? Sooner or later the money runs out.”
    A look of resignation crossed Carl’s face. “I always thought I’d be able to come up with the money.”
    “So with me in prison or dead, you’d inherit all of Dad’s money. And he’s dead now, isn’t he?” Reece stood over his brother, the gun firm in his hand. “Too bad you won’t collect.”
    “I didn’t want to do this, Reece, but on top of needing the money, your fucking investigator started checking into everyone’s alibi for the night of Karen’s murder. Marcy hates me now. If Wright started putting things in her head she might remember how tired she was that night and how she threw up the next morning. Then she might remember that I told her the time when she didn’t know. All enough to create doubt. I had to steer him off track.”
    “So you killed another innocent woman to put the blame back on me. I either get shot or go to jail. Either way, you get the money.”
    “I had a noose around my neck, don’t you understand? I couldn’t go to prison. I’m not strong like you. I never was.”
    “Strong?” Reece’s heart pumped so hard he thought the seeping hole in his chest would explode. The anger percolating inside turned him physically weak, and he almost dropped the gun.
    Instead, he lifted his right arm, cocked the pistol, and fired.

Chapter Fifty-Six
A Bittersweet Time

    T he click from the empty chamber sounded like a firecracker. Carl, wilting in his chair, stared wide-eyed. Strands of his damp comb-over clung to his forehead. Reece walked calmly to the door and turned the latch. He handed the unloaded gun to Larkins, who stood outside next to Tobey.
    “We got it all,” Larkins said.
    Reece walked past them both, unwilling to watch the look on Carl’s face