ONE YEAR LATER
DAWN
TURTLES HAVE a reputation for being slow, although it’s not entirely fair. Most walk at a speed of about two miles per hour, approximately half of the normal human walking speed of three to four miles per hour. But they can swim at a speed of ten miles per hour. And the fastest turtle in the world can reach speeds of over twenty miles per hour. That means the fastest turtle in the world could finish a 5K in about ten minutes.
It took me half an hour.
I spent the last two months training. Caleb and I did it together. We ran around the neighborhood together, side-by-side, working on my endurance and speed. The first day, I could barely run a mile. By the last quarter of a mile, I was huffing and puffing, my lungs on fire. But today, I burst through the finish line of the 5K, sweaty and achy, but filled with adrenaline.
Caleb is right by my side. Even though his legs are so much longer than mine and he could have been done with this 5K ten minutes ago, we ran the whole thing together. He cheered me on.
Mia would have been so proud of us.
“Great job, Dawn!” Caleb holds up his hand so I can high-five him. “You okay?”
I nod, still trying to catch my breath. “That was awesome.”
“Wasn’t it?” He grins at me. “I told you.”
My heart swells as I look up at Caleb, even though he is just as sweaty and disheveled as I feel. When Caleb held me in his arms that night at the pier, when I nearly killed myself, I realized at that moment how stupid I was to be jealous of Natalie.
He loves me. He will always love me.
I still had my reservations about saddling him with me for the rest of his life, even though he has assured me that’s what he wants. We’ve been taking some baby steps to move our relationship forward. We moved in together a couple of months ago. I had to spend several days rearranging all his furniture to my liking as well as the contents of all the cabinets in his kitchen (he had three different colors of plates, all stacked haphazardly—it was awful). But after some growing pains, it seems to be going well. Still, I’ve been hesitant to talk about the next step after that. Marriage. That’s a big one.
Although more and more, I’m beginning to actually believe it might work out.
Natalie waves to me from the registration desk. She looks beautiful as always today, in her 5K T-shirt and skin-tight running pants. I still remember the way the color drained out of her face when she found out the dead body in the woods belonged to Tara Wilkes. When she realized what I had done.
I wasn’t certain if she would keep her mouth shut. I was ready to do whatever it took to silence her, but as it turned out, she is good at keeping secrets. Which is fortunate for her, because I know a lot of secrets about her too.
For starters, Natalie went along with the story that I told to Detective Santoro, that the ceramic turtle accidentally fell on my head and I spent several days disoriented and wandered away from home. That I hadn’t the slightest idea that half the South Shore was searching for me.
And she never told the police about our link to Tara. Nobody looked into it, and I was very good at covering my tracks. Her murder is still unsolved. I was fortunate that she had grown up to be a miserable human being, who had isolated herself from most of her family and had few close friends, so nobody was pushing too hard for answers.
Then a few months ago, Natalie asked if I would be interested in helping her organize the 5K this year. Both Caleb and I quit Vixed a long
time ago—it would have been far too awkward to keep working there—but the idea of helping to raise money for a charity that Mia would have really cared about was appealing to me.
With Natalie’s blessing, we made the race even more about Mia this year. I even went on podcasts and talked about her. It was cathartic. I talked about some of the struggles she went through with her mobility, and how important this money would be. Natalie said donations broke all records this year.
Right next to the registration desk, there’s a huge poster of Mia made from an old photo Caleb dug up. I miss her so much, and just looking at that poster makes me feel happier.
“Mia would be proud of you too,” Caleb says as if reading my mind. I don’t know how he does that. “For sure.”
Mia would be proud of me. She’d be proud that I avenged her death by killing Tara Wilkes. I let her down with Natalie though. But I didn’t have a choice—Caleb and I barely talked about Tara, but he would never have let me kill Natalie. He was so maddeningly against violence. It got to the point where I was sorry I told him anything in the first place.
Caleb believes I’m a better person than I am. He can never know the truth.
I lay my head against his shoulder. “What do you think she would think about the two of us being together?”
“Her brother and her best friend? Are you kidding me? She’d be over the moon.”
He’s probably right. It’s exactly something that Mia would’ve gotten a huge kick out of. I wonder what kind of man she would have ended up with. She was so great. It would’ve had to be someone really special.
“Wherever she is right now,” Caleb says. “She’s rooting for us to end up together.”
“Do you think we will?”
Caleb gives me a funny look. I’ve gotten better at reading his facial expressions, but I can’t read this one. I don’t know what he’s thinking. Does he think we won’t end up together? Because I’ve been thinking more and more that I can’t imagine any sort of life without him. And even though he would be better off without me, I selfishly still want him.
“What?” I say.
Caleb doesn’t answer me. Instead, he drops down onto one knee. I stare at him and clasp a hand over my mouth.
“Dawn.” He fishes around in the pocket of his running shorts and comes up with a blue velvet box. He must have been holding onto that for a whole year. Waiting for the right moment. “Dawn, I love you so much.”
I can’t even speak. I don’t cry easily, but I feel tears gathering in my eyes.
A crowd is forming around us, now that people realize what’s happening. He opens up the blue velvet box. I let out a gasp at the ring inside. Instead of a diamond, he got me an emerald. It’s green. Like a turtle.
“Dawn, will you marry me?” “Yes! Yes!”
Both of our hands are trembling as he slides the green rock onto my left fourth digit. Maybe it’s the endorphins from running, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy. I was dead wrong a year ago when I thought I had experienced everything there was. I have so much left. I’m so grateful to Natalie for stopping me before I made the worst mistake of my life.
I’m glad I decided not to kill her after all.
NATALIE
CALEB AND DAWN are so cute you could almost puke.
The crowd is going wild about Caleb’s surprise proposal. The two of them are going to be really happy together. They’re both wicked strange—it will be a good fit. God help any children they make together.
Of course, Caleb doesn’t know quite how dangerous Dawn really is. But if he finds out, it’s not going to be from me.
Seth comes to join me at the registration table, which is empty now that the race has finished. He throws one of his arms around my shoulders and grins at me. He’s been a lot more open about public displays of affection since his divorce went through last month. Melinda put him through the wringer, but she’s out of his life for good. And now it’s just us.
“You did an amazing job, Nat,” he says. “Thanks. This is our best year yet.”
Dawn catches my eye from her spot in the crowd, where everyone is offering her congratulations. She looks a little overwhelmed like she always gets in large crowds, but she’s dealing with it. I give her a little happy wave, and she waves back. Dawn was a huge part of organizing the 5K this year. I wasn’t sure she would agree to it, but she loved the idea of honoring her best friend, who took her own life all those years ago.
Now it’s fourteen years later, and Amelia is still making a difference in our lives. We have raised a ton of money over the years from the 5K, breaking records this year. Even Detective Santoro made a sizable donation
—a peace offering, I suppose.
And of course, I have skimmed my usual share off the top.
I’m careful though. I never take more than a small amount. Enough to help me pay for my lifestyle, but not so much that anyone will notice. Amelia owes me after all the trouble she got me into after her suicide. So many people blamed me for that and I had to resign as class president—one teacher even threatened to fail me! It wasn’t my fault she took her own life
—she was weak. My God, it was just a stupid joke.
Last year I had to siphon off a little more than usual from the donations. I had to transfer the money back to the Vixed account before Seth figured out I had stolen from the company. If he had done a more thorough audit, I would not have been able to hide my tracks. But of course, I knew he wouldn’t. If he were more careful, I never would have gotten away with it in the first place.
I don’t feel guilty about it. Vixed is a huge company that’s earning record-breaking profits—our products are selling like hotcakes. Well, except for Collahealth, which had to be recalled a few months ago due to unexpected side effects.
Seth squeezes my shoulders, looking out at Dawn and Caleb, who are now holding hands. “Is this giving you any ideas?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “Is it giving you any ideas?”
“Maybe.” He winks at me. “I’m a free man now, you know.”
Things have gotten fairly serious between Seth and me over the last year. He had been devastated after I broke things off with him and was desperate to get me back. It’s flattering. Of course, the first time we were together, he was reluctant to break it off with his wife. He was meticulously careful to make sure we didn’t get caught.
So I helped move things along. I sent Melinda a little note about her husband’s extracurricular activities. She was devastated, but she didn’t leave him like I hoped she would. So I faked a few threatening phone calls from her, some scarily worded notes. I got Seth to believe his wife was going after me.
And then to my surprise, she really did go after me. Started threatening me for real. I had to back off, at least temporarily.
But she’s out of our lives now. I even managed to get a restraining order against her, not that little Melinda Hoffman is any real danger to me. She can’t hurt me.
I’d like to see her try.
And thanks to the generous donations to the 5K this year, I will have a little nest egg set aside to pay for my wedding dress. When we get married, I can give Seth the child he always wanted. It’s a happy ending for everyone. Well, aside from Melinda.
I stand with Seth, watching Caleb kiss Dawn yet again. They really do make a nice couple. And I’m glad Dawn came to her senses that night and didn’t jump in the water. It’s amazing how close that little mouse came to taking me down. She’s craftier than I gave her credit for.
She and I have an unspoken agreement now. I keep my mouth shut about Tara. And she keeps her mouth shut about all the money she knows I embezzled from Vixed. After all, Seth might be careless, but she isn’t. I knew the second I got that email from her asking to speak with me after work that she knew what I had done. A matter of great importance. That was why I was so desperate to speak with her. So desperate that I went to her house looking for her the next afternoon, which is where I discovered Dawn had vanished and there was all that blood on the carpet.
She wanted me to get caught for embezzlement. She wanted that to be my motive for killing her. But now I know one of her secrets too.
We will keep each other’s secrets to the grave. Dawn may be dangerous.
But so am I.
THE END
