Dearest Candy or should I say Trixie?

So sorry we missed you bitch. Ran into Mr. Benson instead, looking threw your house. He didn’t know where you are. He’d of told us if he’d know. Leo’s all freaked, and hungry, so we have to go. But we know where you live, right? We’ll be coming back. When we do you better have what you took from me or we’ll do you to bitch. I want all of it plus interest. Hows your little mini bitch? I bet shes a cutie. You’ll here from us soon.

It wasn’t signed, but given that its author had mentioned “Leo” in the letter, it might as well have been. And just because someone wasn’t a master criminal didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.

Reading from the letter, I said, “‘I want all of it plus interest.’” I looked at Trixie. “What’s that all about?”

She took a long breath. “I ripped him off,” she said quietly. “To the tune of about half a million bucks.”

“Are you kidding me?” I said. “You took five hundred thousand dollars off this guy?”

“Not all at once. A little bit at a time, so he wouldn’t notice. It was my going-away money.”

“Is that the only reason he’s after you?” I asked. “Just for the money? It doesn’t have anything to do with those three bikers getting shot?”

The Bennets exchanged glances.

“Oh, I think he’d like to talk to me about that too,” Trixie said.

CHAPTER 27

27

“SOMETIMES,” Claire said, “I blame myself.”

“Oh, stop,” said Trixie. “This has nothing to do with you.”

Claire shook her head, dismissing her sister. “You taking off with five hundred thousand dollars? Okay, I’m not saying I specifically blame myself for that. But your life. How it’s turned out for you. I blame myself for that.”

“Claire, we’ve been over this before,” Trixie said. Claire sniffed and looked away, and I thought maybe she was going to cry. “Aww, come on.”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Don told his wife. “You did what you had to do. You had to protect yourself. You had to get out of that situation.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. Looking across the table at Claire, I said, “What do you mean you blame yourself?”

Claire sniffed again, took a deep breath. “Miranda’s my baby sister,” she said, and smiled. “When you’re the big sister, you’re supposed to be there, you’re supposed to be looking out for the younger one. But I left. Our father was a—he was a monster. And our mother was a drunk. He beat her, he took the belt to us, and…that wasn’t all.”

“Claire,” Trixie said, reaching across the table to touch her sister’s hand.