“How would you like to make more money than you could ever dream of? Enough so that you can quit this job and do whatever you want, and still be able to leave money to all your kids and grandkids?” Elizabeth said.

I nodded again, starstruck by her confidence and wild talks of whimsy.

“Where can we hide this body? I’m sure you know a place, don’t you?”

I nodded again, my lips stuck together and my tongue firmly stuck against the roof of my mouth.

“Listen to me, Delfina. We hide the body for just a short while. Just until we can dry it off and make a plan for what happened here tonight. Let’s make this look like it’s something she caused herself. Perhaps a hanging death or another kind of suicide?” Elizabeth calmly suggested.

“Y-yes.” I forced out the words.

“And I’ll pay you lots of money to help me. Deal?”

Even if I wanted to refuse, I got the feeling I couldn’t. If I’d said no, she probably would have drowned me in that hellish hot tub, or something worse.

That night, we lifted the body from the pool and carried it over to an abandoned shed at the back of the property. We might be old, but we’re stronger than we look. A lifetime of raising children and working our fingers to the bone has taught us how to grunt and take it when it comes to pain.

After she was laid out in the shed, I cleaned Mara’s wound and dried her hair. I dressed her in one of my old dressing gowns. Then I tracked down a piece of rope from the washing room. “You know, this is where he stacked all the bodies,” I told Elizabeth, pointing at the shed.

“Excuse me? What are you talking about?” Elizabeth said, giving me a look of disgust.

“Never mind.”

We worked quickly, once we knew the others were asleep in their beds. Even Bri, the killer herself, didn’t know what we were up to.

Together, we hauled the body in and propped it up, slipping a noose over its head. It took both of us to pull the rope, using the leverage to lift her into the rafters.

She looked sort of pretty, hanging there like a ghost from a forgotten era.

The police have asked me again and again which one of my staff helped me move the body, but I refused to talk. Elizabeth has offered me the best counsel that money can buy and a million dollars when I come out on the other side of this legal shitstorm. I just hope I get out soon enough so I can enjoy it. I want to move somewhere far from here, somewhere nice where people can serve my meals and clean up after me for a change.