They had forgone what Nick knew to be the most important thing, and now it was too late, unless he could somehow find a clue to her death and stop it before it happened.
Nick took a last look at the bedroom, really the only area of the upstairs they used. It had not been ransacked; nothing was disturbed. If whoever killed Julia came for something, it wasn’t up here.
Heading back downstairs, Nick opened and stepped through his front door. He walked past the open garage bay doors, glanced in at his eight-cylinder Audi, and continued into the driveway proper. Julia’s Lexus SUV was right where she left it. Nick quickly checked it, finding the doors open and the keys in the ignition, a sight that was a confirmation that this was no random act, no snatch-and-grab robbery. Her fifty-thousand-dollar car wouldn’t be left behind by even the dimmest thief.
He walked to the end of his cobblestone driveway, stood between the two stone entrance pillars, and looked down at the skid marks where Julia’s assailant had torn out of the driveway. Nick was smart, and thought he could piece her murder together in time to save her, but he wasn’t an educated detective. The width of the rubber skid meant nothing to him, it didn’t tell him anything about the type of car or about its driver, or give him some great aha moment as in some TV show.
He looked around their cul-de-sac and down the road, one of the wealthiest sections of Byram Hills, with streets filled with million dollar minimansions, perfect lawns and gardens, all tended by massive crews of gardeners, all except Nick and Julia’s home. Nick cut his own grass, planted his own flowers, tilled his own gardens. He enjoyed riding the tractor, cutting the lawn, digging holes. Their house had been Julia’s favorite since she was a child, riding by it on her bike. It had been her fantasy home, and Nick had helped her realize that fantasy.
As he walked back up the drive, looking at their house, he thought of all of the upgrades that had been done by his own hand; the addition built with the help of his friends; the painting done on weekends by him and Julia. Some of his best memories were of the time spent together building their home, laughing at the mistakes and imperfections, the paint fights and hammered fingers. It was the simple things, as clichéd as it sounded, the peaceful times of being alone with no distractions, eating pizza on the floor, that he cherished most.
Nick walked through the garage and glanced at his dirty car. He was not one for car washes; he preferred his Audi to be a bit on the dirty side in the hope that as it sat on the streets of the city, it would not be noticed amongst the shiny BMWs and Mercedes, blending in and being avoided by the car thieves of the world. It was a practice he had adhered to, much to Julia’s annoyance, but it had proven successful to date, so he wasn’t about to change. With the accumulation of dust and pollen atop the dark blue metal surface, the handprint was clearly visible on the car’s trunk lid, and there was no question it was not his, not Julia’s. It was larger, meatier, and out of place.
Nick pulled his key fob from his pocket and hit the button, remotely releasing the hatch. As the trunk lid rose he could see the usual mess: his black duster purchased in Wyoming, the best raincoat he had ever had; jumper cables, a med kit, two coils of rope, all in the event of emergency. There were his hockey skates and pads from the adult league that he and Marcus played in, two boxes of golf balls, an umbrella, and the one object he had not placed there. He’d seen it back in the interrogation room at the Byram Hills police station. Dance had pulled it out, questioned him about it.
Nick was looking at the murder weapon, the exotically styled 134-year-old Peacemaker, the collector’s weapon that had taken Julia’s life.
There was no question now. He had known it before, but had had no confirmation: He was being set up.
As he looked at the gun he knew there was nothing he could do about it. He could hide it, but it would surely be found. He didn’t want to pick it up. The cops had said his fingerprints were on the gun, though he thought it to be a detective’s ruse to get him to confess, as there had not been time or personnel to examine the prints, but he would not give them the satisfaction of putting the prints there himself now.
He took a cloth and, wrapping his hand, closed the trunk. Whether the gun was found was irrelevant. If he found a way to save Julia, there would be no accusation, no murder investigation, it would be a moot point. And if he didn’t save her, he didn’t care what happened to himself.
Nick braced himself for the next five minutes. He knew that what he was about to do would haunt his dreams for all eternity. He was going to look at Julia’s body willingly and dreaded what he would see.
MARCUS SAT ON his front steps, his heart breaking, as he stared over at Nick’s home. He watched his friend walk up and down his driveway after spending over a half hour in the house. Seeming to wander aimlessly, looking about the neighborhood as if he would happen upon Julia’s killer, Nick looked to be chasing ghosts.
There had been an odd look to Nick’s eyes when he had rejoined him on the front steps after calling the police. While they looked sad and troubled, they were not filled with the agony he had first seen when he found him sitting with her. There was such heart-rending grief in his face, such an inhuman cry of pain in his voice when he found Nick huddled with Julia’s body. It was a sight that Marcus would never shake, a sight that would invade his thoughts till he passed from this earth.
But as Nick walked away from Marcus, heading toward his house, insisting on investigating a murder he could not possibly solve, Marcus’s concern for his friend shifted.
There was something in Nick’s eyes, something he couldn’t identify, it almost appeared to be hope, an emotion completely contrary to a moment in which one’s future had been lost, in which the woman one loved had been so violently snatched from among the living.
To Marcus there was only one explanation, only one thing that would cause all the agony to vanish from his eyes.
As he watched Nick step through his garage, on a course to see Julia’s shattered body, he knew Nick was no longer in possession of his judgment.
Nick’s mind had retreated to a false reality,
Nick’s sanity had slipped away.
NICK WALKED THROUGH the door from the garage and entered the mudroom. Whitewashed wainscoting covered the walls, and the floor was of earth-toned Spanish terra-cotta tile. The room was designed with nooks for shoes, racks for coats, and storage closets, all in wait for their family yet to come. They had debated family size since the day they fell in love: Nick wanted two boys and girl, Julia preferred a Brady Bunch mix of three boys, three girls.
As part of their life-planning playbook, they had both gone to the doctor a year earlier to confirm there would be no unseen hurdles to Julia’s getting pregnant when the time came. The doctor had actually laughed at the preciseness of their approach to life, telling them not to worry, that their reproductive systems wouldn’t fail them. He assured them that when they were ready, if they knew what they were doing, and practiced enough, they would be pregnant in no time.
As Nick stepped around the corner, he saw Julia’s Tory Burch shoe protruding at the bottom of the rear stairs. Slowly approaching, he ran his eyes up along her long, lithe leg, up past the black skirt she had worn to work that morning. As he moved closer, his eyes continued their slow travel up her body along the white shirt that was no longer white. The front was flecked with red, as if she had been caught in a rainstorm of blood, the shoulders were crimson, the silk blouse having wicked blood from the puddle of blood she was lying in. Nick stared at the red halo that circled Julia. He had never imagined there was that much blood in a body.