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My eyes struggle to focus on Eden, who’s still talking about Andy, and a girl named Laura who is the reason for his revenge, and... I tune it out, because an idea is taking root.
Not just an idea. A hope. A need. Catching fire.
I grab Eden’s arm, interrupting her explanations and justifications, because now, only one thing matters.
“I need Andy to be the murderer.”
Eden frowns. I can tell she has no idea what I’m talking about, even though the idea is weaving itself together so quickly in my head, so clear and so bright, I’m surprised she can’t see it shimmering between us.
“We have to frame him,” I say. Except it’s not really framing. It’s the truth beneath what I’ve done. The truest truth.
And my only hope at justice.
“Julia,” says Eden with a nervous edge, “the smart plan is for Bob to get rid of the body. No one has to know Josh is dead. The story can just be that he left you. Or that he disappeared. We’ll open a missing person case, and after a few years they’ll close it.”
Reasonable. Clean. Smart. Except that Andy would get off scot-free, and I’d have to look him in the eye for the rest of my life knowing what he did...and what I did.
“Not good enough,” I growl. Not even close.
“How would we frame him?” Eden’s tone is cautious. “Hypothetically?”
I take a deep breath. I need Eden and Bob to be on board; I can’t do it without them.
“Andy will be here in twenty minutes. I need something to plant on him before he goes. Something incriminating.”
“How about a thumb?” says Bob, who’s been working quietly the whole time, wrapping Josh and my bloody sweatshirt in a tarp I recognize from our garage. I hadn’t even noticed him walk out. It must have happened while I was listening to Eden in a daze.
“Why are you helping me, Bob?” I say.
“Annaleigh is my granddaughter. She deserved a better father than she got.”
I’ve been slapped across the face with so many surprises tonight, I don’t even register an emotional response to this. I just say, “How?”
“My daughter was your egg donor.” He doesn’t break eye contact. “Gianna.” Then he waits, maybe to see if I have further questions.
I should. But I don’t.
A thumb. An object. That’s what I have to think about.
“His ring finger,” I say. “It’s...recognizable. It has a tattoo.”
Bob nods and gets back to his work.
“And after Andy leaves?” says Eden.
“Josh was going hiking,” I say. “So after Andy leaves, I’ll drive to Belmont Ridge. Set up the tent. Eden, you can follow me. I’ll leave Josh’s car there. Or...crash it. You can bring me back. And I should text myself from Josh’s phone.” Something angry, to draw attention to the bad blood between Andy and Josh.
“You want to take his body with us?” Eden scrunches her face. “And leave it in the car? Minus a finger?”
I try to imagine all five foot five of Eden struggling with me to move the body. Even with Bob helping, we could be seen. Anyway, there’s forensics to reckon with. After they find the body, which they eventually would, what would they infer from the gash on his head? What if it led back to me?
“I think we need to destroy...most of it,” I say slowly. “We only need enough left to point to murder.”
“How about you take an arm?” suggests Bob, standing up. “They’ll know it was cut from a corpse.” I shiver at the word corpse, but Bob seems unfazed. “The finger will be for Andy. The severed arm can be for the cops to find in the woods. It’ll prove he’s dead. I’ll deal with the rest of the body.”
“How will you deal with...?” says Eden, before adding, “Never mind, don’t want to know. But a finger might not be enough to implicate Andy.”
“Wait! We have Josh’s cell phone,” I say. “We’ll text Andy as if it’s Josh. Ask him to meet up tomorrow, close to the hiking trails. That puts Andy in the area. Then, when Josh doesn’t come back, I’ll open the missing person case, because I’ll honestly think he just didn’t come back.”
