Page 167 of Over Her Dead Body

“Yesterday was what? A warning?”

That is the part she does not understand.

She thinks the warning was a test she passed.

It was time I needed.

Daniel moves away from the door.

Celeste sees the cord in his hand.

Her eyes close for half a second.

When they open, she is looking at me.

“You could at least have the decency to do it yourself.”

Daniel steps behind her.

The cord passes across her throat before she can turn. Celeste gets both hands beneath it and tries to pull it away. Daniel braces one knee against the back of the chair and draws tighter.

Celeste jerks sideways. The chair catches on the rug and tips.

She goes down with it.

Her shoulder hits the floor first. One heel catches against the rug. She kicks once, hard enough to move the chair several inches, then again with less effect.

Daniel adjusts his grip.

Celeste’s fingers lose the cord one at a time.

It takes longer than she would have liked.

Less time than I expected.

When Daniel finally lets go, she is on her side with one arm beneath her and her hair across her face.

He checks her pulse.

I do not ask whether she is dead.

Daniel is good at his job.

Celeste was too, for a long time.

That is not nothing.

For ten years, Celeste’s job was to keep Reid dead, Emma ignorant, the house useful, and me informed.

Then, in the span of a week, Reid was alive again, Emma knew enough, the house had fired the wrong person, and I was learning about Celeste’s decisions after the fact.

There will be questions about how Reid Calloway managed to stay dead for ten years. Questions require answers. Left unanswered long enough, they become investigations, and investigations have an irritating tendency to expand.

Celeste helped him disappear. That part is true.

Now it is also sufficient.

Reid will give them Lake Austin.