Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Lucy sighed. “That sort of woman would be a prize in my world. Men like the kind that Chase work with, relish in control of their women. A lot of wives stay drugged up just to keep going each day.”
“Did Chase think he could control Wendy?” Viv asked.
“No.” Lucy leaned back into the wall behind her. “But Dawn thought she could control Wendy. She bragged about it to me sometimes and said that half the time she just poured Wendy a drink and she forgot about whatever problem arose.”
I thought back to all the videos I’d watched. Dawn did pour a lot of drinks at Wendy’s little bar in her apartment. Lucky for Wendy, it was all brown-colored water or poor Wendy would’ve had a serious alcohol problem.
So Dawn thought she could manipulate an alcoholic with liquor. That’s some twisted stuff. If she was capable of that, maybe she was able to do other underhanded things, like putting people in positions where she knew they would act in violent ways.
“Dawn and Wendy were lovers,” Lucy continued. “They used to let me watch them some nights. There was a deeper intimacy between them, then with Chase and Dawn or even Chase and Wendy.”
“Makes sense. They probably soothed each other a lot when Chase was giving them trouble,” Viv suggested.
“Oh, definitely,” Lucy said. “It was always Dawn who ran crying to Wendy. With all her drinking, Wendy barely went into crying fits, although she did fight with Chase a lot, but that was no big deal most of the time.”
I’d seen a few times when Dawn crawled into Wendy’s bed in the middle of the night. I could barely catch the whispering, but most of the time they made love and the video stopped. Chase’s people had the women’s entire sexual lives cut out of the footage. It aggravated me. Some of the best confessions and discussions happened on the pillows of couples that had just made love.
Dawn or Wendy probably planned a lot in those moments, but who was tugging whose strings? Which one of you was the master and who was the puppet?
“I always felt like a third wheel around Dawn and Wendy. Even though we would all go on girls’ trips together, they would sit in the corner and whisper while I usually kept the other girl company.”
“The other girl?” I asked.
“Chase had’ four girlfriends.” She bit her lip. “I try not to remember their names anymore.”
“So just the ladies would take trips, and on them Dawn and Wendy talked a lot and kept to themselves?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Were there cameras there?” Viv asked.
“No way. We would usually go to hotels or private islands that already had their own security.”
“And lots of privacy from Chase’s cameras.”
“Yes.” Something crossed Lucy’s face as if she’d just considered something that she’d never thought of before. “We took a trip the week before every girl died.” She covered her mouth. “I think. I’m almost sure of it. I know because Chase always scheduled waxes on the last day of our trips so that we would come back with bare legs. . .and everything else.”
Viv looked at me. “You see why I hate him?”
I chuckled. “They let him do that stuff. Jazz might have done it for the job, but now she won’t do that stuff unless she really wants to.” I signaled for Lucy to go on. “How do you know for sure about these trips?”
“Well, I’m the scheduler. It made me so busy. I had to get all my work done in time for the trip, then I had to make sure everyone had all of their spa appointments. The next week we would return, and I’d be making funeral arrangements and catching up on piles of work, which is pretty—”
“You had to do funeral arrangements after each girl’s trip?” Viv widened her eyes.
“Not everyone. I think we had two where nothing happened, but we took five in all. Three of those five trips happened before they died. I told Chase this. He thought it was unrelated. In all fairness, I’d been burning sage in the whole mansion and pissing everyone off.”
Considering what she said, I rubbed my face. “So Dawn and Wendy had plenty of time to talk and plot away from cameras. There’re too many coincidences. Wendy acts drunk but she’s 100% sober the whole time. Do you remember taking something to the first girl’s room the night before she died?”
“My green smoothie? Yes. I figured that she should try to lift her spirits naturally.”
“Anything besides fruits and vegetables in the drink?” I asked.
“No way.”
“Was Wendy or Dawn around when you made it?” Viv asked.
“Wendy was, but she always hangs around when Dawn leaves on a business trip. She sat on the counter next to the blender while I cleaned the fruit, cut it up , and put everything in there to mix.”