Page 77 of The Newcomer
Letty shrugged. “With Evan, it was more intimidation. Like, ‘You can never win against me. I’m rich, and I’ll mow you down.’ So she had a plan B.”
“Which was?”
“A few months ago, after Christmas, when I was at her place, she took me into her closet. She had this bag, hidden in one of her boots. She called it her ‘go-bag.’ It was stuffed with cash, and this big diamond ring Evan gave her as a push present when she had Maya. And she told me, if anything ever happened to her, to grab the bag and Maya and get the hell away from Evan and New York.
“I thought it was just Tanya, overreacting. Being dramatic. Turns out this one time, she was right. I didn’t even have a plan. I threw some clothes for Maya and me in a suitcase. I took Tanya’s car, the Mercedes. I drove it to Newark, and just left it in a parking lot near the airport with the keys in it. Then I rented a car at Hertz, andeventually dropped it off in Raleigh. I bought the Kia there, and paid cash, then I started driving down here. Maya cried most of the way. We spent the night in a motel along the way, and then I ended up here. You know the rest.”
“Why do you think Evan didn’t grab Maya, after he killed Tanya?” Joe asked.
“He didn’t know she was there. Evan knew about our Sunday playdates. It’s probably why he went over there that morning, because he figured Maya wouldn’t be around.”
Letty started to weep. “But she was there the whole time. Oh my God. Maya was there when he killed Tanya.”
“Maybe Maya was asleep,” Joe said, hoping it was true. “Maybe she didn’t see it.”
“I wish I hadn’t seen it,” Letty said, rubbing her arms and shivering. “It was awful.”
Joe stopped her. “Go back to the money Tanya had hidden. How much?”
“A lot. Nearly twenty thousand.”
He let out a low whistle. “Did she say where she got the money?”
“Just that she’d saved it. I know what you’re thinking. That she stole it. I still have most of the cash. In the back of my mind I probably knew it was dirty money.”
“You still haven’t told me how you knew to come to the Surf,” he prompted.
“It was that old magazine article your mom mentioned. Tanya had a copy of it, in the go-bag. At the time, I didn’t know what it meant. I just figured it was as good a place as any. Turns out, it actually was a good idea.”
“You didn’t know Tanya had stayed here? That I’d arrested her?”
Letty shook her head vigorously. “I didn’t know about any of that. Tanya told me she’d been living in Atlanta during that time, doing some modeling. She told me Rooney, her boyfriend, had ripped her off, taken everything and left her stranded in Atlanta. She never mentioned this motel.”
“Which was another lie,” Joe pointed out. He studied her face. “I kept thinking you looked like someone I’d seen before.”
“You and Trudi Maples,” Letty said, chagrined. “I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, especially once you told me that story about Declan Rooney and his associate. I almost left right then.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I’m not sure. Where else would I go? Your mom was so good to me, gave me a job and a place to stay. My stomach has been in knots since the day I left New York. But here, I started to feel safe. I guess I was fooling myself.”
Joe took a deep breath. “You’re not safe. Not yet.”
Alarmed, she half rose from her chair. “You’re turning me in?”
“No. But there’s been a development. That’s why I had to talk to you tonight.”
“What is it?”
“Evan Wingfield has put out a contract on you.”
Letty felt her breath leave her body. Her brain buzzed with what felt like static electricity, and once again, she felt trapped and helpless.
“He knows I’m here? In Florida? Oh my God!”
Joe grabbed her hand again. “No. He doesn’t know where you are. But he hired a woman he thinks is a corrupt housing inspector to track you down and… take care of things. Fortunately, the woman is actually an undercover FBI agent. Her name is Vikki Hill. She flew down here from New York today and checked into the motel.”
“That’s crazy. Nobody else knows I’m here. Nobody.”
