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Anna looked like she’d been slapped in the face. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, please. Everybody knows you were sleeping with Albert Herves while you were working for him.” Grace watched Anna’s steel demeanor melt. “You can’t tell me you thought it was still a secret?”
“I-I didn’t know you knew. You’re not a resident in town, and Molly didn’t run in the same circles I did. How did you find out?”
“That’s not important. What is, is that Molly doesn’t know what Jeremy did with the money.”
“That rat bastard took me for everything I had! He took advantage of me.” Tears welled up in Anna’s beautiful dark eyes. She suddenly didn’t look very predatory anymore…more like the prey in a documentary about hungry lions. “Albert had just dumped me, and by that I mean from both my job and his bed. I was floundering, and Jeremy was so sweet and kind…”
“I know. He could be very comforting when he wanted to be,” Molly said. She patted the sofa next to her.
Anna sat, and Grace could feel her shaking. “I started an affair with Jeremy. It was so good in the beginning. Plus, it drove Albert out of his ever-loving mind. That was icing on the cake, though. It was more important that Jeremy made me feel wanted and needed, and beautiful. He made me feelnecessary. Can you understand that?”
“Yes, but you don’t need a man to make you necessary or relevant. You are a strong, beautiful woman,” Grace said.
“He had me wrapped around his little finger. I’d do anything for him. So when he said he could invest my savings and get me a huge return in a short turnaround time, I fell for it. I gave him everything I had.”
“And he lost it, did he?” Grace asked.
“He said he did. I didn’t believe him. He lied about things…about who he was sleeping with, for one. He was having an affair with a woman named Bridget McBain. She works in abeauty shop here in town. She’s not even a stylist — she washes hair and sweeps up.” The other Anna, the tough one, started to peek through the tears, showing herself again. The shark was coming back, and it was pissed. “When I confronted him about her, he said he was leaving me for her. Leaving me! For a hair-washer. I could’ve killed him!”
Molly and Grace exchanged a knowing look. “And…did you?” Molly asked.
“Did I what?” Anna growled.
Grace cut in. “Did you kill him?”
Anna sputtered. “N-no! No, of course I didn’t. That’s absurd. I have an alibi. I was at home, working on my résumé.”
“Uh-huh. Okay. Well, you’ve found out what you needed to know. Molly has no idea what Jeremy did with your money.” Grace stood up, indicating Anna’s time in the house was done.
“Well, I don’t believe her. I want my money. Do you understand? You’d better figure out what he did with it quickly, or you’ll be sorry!” Anna spat, stood up, and grabbed her coat from the hook. “Thanks for the hospitality!” she hollered as she stormed out the door, slamming it behind her.
“Wow. I did not think it would go that way when we came down and met her,” Molly said. “She seemed so refined.”
“Refinement only stretches so far when it’s a mask you wear,” Grace said. “That woman is about as refined as a polecat, and her claws were out.”
“What am I going to do? I don’t know what Jeremy did with their money. I don’t know anything.” Molly cried. She leaned against Grace, sniffling.
“Honey, nobody expects you to know anything. At least nobody who is thinking clearly and not desperate. We all know you left him long before he started this Ponzi scheme of his.”
Grace looked up at the sound of feet on the stairs. Emily and Zoe were coming down, and Zoe was carrying Lily.
“Poor little girl. Did the door slamming wake her up?” Molly asked.
Grace noticed Molly’s eyes were glinting with tears and tightened her arm around Molly’s shoulder.
“Yeah. What happened down here? We could hear Anna yelling, but couldn’t follow what she was saying,” Emily said. She took Lily from Zoe, propped the tot against her shoulder, and began to rock her, patting her back.
“I’m sorry she woke Lily. She was really angry with me because I don’t know what Jeremy did with the money she invested in his Ponzi scheme.”
“Jeremy might not have had it,” Zoe said. “He would’ve made his money early on, with the first investors, then skimmed some off each investment going forward. But money from later investors would have gone to pay off the earlier investors, and so on. He probably just made off with the last tier’s investments. Unless he didn’t payanybody. That’s also a possibility.”
“Well, she thinks I know. She practically threatened me. Told me I needed to remember where he stashed the money ‘or else.’” Molly shivered.
“You don’t think she was the one who hit your car, do you?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think she wanted to know about the money, and if she killed us, her opportunity to find out would’ve been gone,” Grace reasoned.
