Good as Dead by Walter Susan

Author:Walter, Susan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2021-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

I woke up in a cold sweat.

It wasn’t the first time I’d had a nightmare about the accident, but this dream was particularly gruesome.

I was back at the scene of the crash, walking toward the wreckage, just as I had done in real life. As I peered down at Holly’s husband’s dead body, his mangled limbs suddenly came alive like Medusa’s head of snakes, snapping at me with foaming white fangs. The snakes’ eyes flashed with rage as they strained against their tether, desperate to bite me but unable to reach. The dead man’s bloody brain matter was oozing out of his skull like hamburger meat through a grinder. I tried to run, but as so often happens in dreams, I couldn’t move my legs. My feet were cemented to the pavement as Medusa’s snakes engulfed my feet, my legs, my torso. I cried out as I braced myself to drown in a rising sea of blood and guts.

It was a little after five a.m. when I gasped myself awake. I was too shaken to go back to sleep, so I got up, showered, and opened my laptop at my kitchen table. As the coffee brewed, I clicked on my email. I saw that Jack had found a script he liked and was considering making an offer on it. He had production legal handle those deals, so there was nothing for me to do, but he copied me so I would know what he was up to. I glanced at the subject line—“possible new business”—then archived it in the appropriate folder.

Holly’s credit card statement had also arrived. I had to keep track of what she was spending to make sure the $5 million we had allotted wasn’t in danger of running out. We’d paid cash for the house and the car, which meant she had a little under $3 million left to fund her new life. I had the money in index funds with projected annual interest of about 6 percent. If she didn’t spend more than $180,000 per year, that $3 million would last her forever. With no mortgage or car payment to make, I thought it more than enough.

I moved the credit card statement to the encrypted server where I kept all the documents related to the accident. Then I opened it. It was my job to know how she was spending my client’s money. And to be honest, I was curious.

We had given her two credit cards, one for her and one for Savannah, so I knew which one of them was buying what. I tried not to panic when I saw Savannah’s statement. She’d been to the Apple Store, Sephora, Victoria’s Secret, Lady Foot Locker, and Louis Vuitton, all in one billing cycle. It wasn’t a total surprise, I knew she would splurge. What I didn’t know was if her spending would slow down or accelerate. What if she was testing the arrangement? Setting the stage for more demands? Would I dare say no to her if she asked? That video evidence was damning, and she was too smart not to have made a copy.

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