Want to Know a Secret?

by Freida McFadden

She tosses her applications in the back and nods for me to do the same. “April,” I say. “What are you doing?” She winks again. “Improving our odds.”

Mark is always flirting with April and staring at her breasts. To be fair, my husband always stares at April’s breasts too. Yet somehow it doesn’t bother me as much.

“And this is the best part. It’s because she was having an affair with one of her professors!”

“You need to tell April to let me out of here.”

“Tell her to let me go home. I won’t tell anyone. I swear. I’ll say she was with me the whole night.” “I… I don’t understand…” “The night that girl died.” There’s a spark of clarity in the older woman’s eyes. “I won’t tell the police she wasn’t with me. I promise. I won’t tell a soul.”

“Peggy, is she having episodes like this a lot?” “Not a lot. But she’s been talking a lot about somebody named Courtney. She goes on and on about it.”

Janet knows something. She knows something April doesn’t want anyone else to know. I remember all those rumors about Courtney Burns. Elliot Masterson’s secretary, who killed herself years ago. It was ruled a suicide, anyway. But was it? I used to be a prosecutor. My job was to put guilty people in prison. If April did something terrible, it doesn’t matter if she’s my best friend. She needs to pay the price.

“Officially, it was ruled a suicide, but they were investigating it as a homicide. The woman was hot and heavy with her boss, some big shot lawyer. And from what I gathered, she was pressuring him big-time to leave his wife and kid. He didn’t want to. But she wasn’t rolling over easy.”

And the lawyer’s wife—they looked into her too—she was home the whole night with her baby and also her mother was visiting. So again, there was a witness.” I think back to the other day at the nursing home. Janet’s words: I won’t tell anyone. I swear. I’ll say she was with me the whole night.

“She hacked off all her hair before she killed herself.” He makes a snipping motion with his fingers. “With a knife. It was all over her bathtub. Disturbing stuff.”

but Riley stuck his neck out for me. The least I can do is be honest. “The wife of the lawyer is my neighbor.” He laughs. “Figures—that’s the suburbs for you. Anyway, if I were working the case, I’d bet odds the wife killed Courtney Burns. So, you know, be careful.”

He probably has someone like Courtney on the side, and the crazy part is, I don’t care.

And I just found out my neighbor and best friend might be a murderer.

“Janet Portland was her daughter’s alibi for murder,” Peggy says. “Then a year later, Janet decided to stop being her alibi anymore. And now she’s here. On enough medications to kill a horse. You can connect the dots from there.”

“If that’s true, why don’t you go to the police?” “For what?” She snorts. “Do you think that woman in there is any kind of reliable witness? And I’m not in charge of her medications. If I questioned it, I’d be gone. Just like that.” She snaps her fingers.

I thank her again and head out. I’m going to come back here and I’m going to take Peggy up on her offer. I’m going to get to the truth. I’m going to get justice for Courtney Burns and Janet Portland.

And it occurs to me maybe that is the eventual plan. More and more medications until one day, she stops breathing. The thought of it makes me ill.

She isn’t just horrible. She isn’t just a murderer. She’s evil. And she’s making her message to me very clear. If I try to hurt her in any way, she will destroy me and everything I care about.

It’s Mark Tanner. And oh my God, they’re kissing.

No, not just kissing. They’re making out. She’s got her arms wrapped around him, and he’s got his hand sliding up the back of her tank top. This is a prelude to sex. April is going to have sex with Mark Tanner.

I reach into my purse and pull out my cell phone. I point the camera at the window to the kitchen and snap a couple of photos. It seems like it might come in handy.

“No. I’m sorry, ma’am. She didn’t make it. Looks like she’s been lying there at least a day.”

But just as she’s wiping the tears from her eyes, I see it. So quick, if I had looked away, I might have missed it. She winks at me.

Why should I tell her? If anyone deserves a few minutes of panic, it’s April. She deserves a hell of a lot worse than that. And then I get an even better idea. I’ve still got that burner phone Keith was using to communicate with his girlfriend.

Want to know a secret? Your son isn’t where you think he is.

And she may have killed two women.

I’m addicted to torturing April. I keep sending her messages on that burner phone, and I also start posting comments on her YouTube videos. I even toss a rock through her window one night,

Her name is Brianna Anderson. She is, as she said, Elliot’s assistant. She is also pregnant. And it is his. Oh, and she’s keeping it.

“Did you find her?” “Yeah.” He heaves a sigh. “She’s dead, Jules.”

All because of Courtney. So I kept it from happening. Dr. Williams was so wonderful about that. Joe was my primary care doctor back then, and I always felt like he had a thing for me, even though he was happily married. He was able to look up the name of Courtney’s doctor and call in an Ativan prescription under his name. I picked up the prescription and I went to Courtney’s house. I got in through the back door, which was hanging right open. It wasn’t even locked! And I waited for her.

Ultimately, what the police determined was true. Courtney did take all those pills herself. So technically, it was suicide. But she probably wouldn’t have taken them if I wasn’t holding that knife. I explained to her the way I would slice up her beautiful face first, then the rest of her

if she didn’t do what I said. She was resistant at first, but when I cut off her pretty blond hair, s...

My mother was my alibi for the night of Courtney’s death. I explained to her the way it would look. I swore to her I didn’t kill Courtney, but I needed an alibi. I needed her to help me. And she did it. A year later, she changed her mind. She decided I probably did kill Courtney after all. Can you believe that? What kind of loyalty is that to her daughter? Yes, she was right. But still. Luckily, Joe helped me again. He was her doctor too by then—I made sure of that—and it was almost too easy to label her with a diagnosis of early-onset dementia.

Joe pulled some strings to get her into Shady Oaks, where he was able to give her enough medications to make sure nobody doubted the diagnosis. He’s been great. But to be fair, I’ve made it worth his while.

If anyone tries to push me around, I make sure they’re sorry. For example, Mrs. Kirkland. She came to my house, ranting and raving about how she saw me and Mark together. How she was going to tell everybody in town. How I was a disgrace. She even called me a…

Well, I don’t like to use bad language. But she called me something that rhymed with “poor” and started with the letter W.

She was so old. I barely even pushed her down the stairs. It was more like a nudge. I do what I have to do. Yes, I took money from the PTA account. But it wasn’t much. Is it my fault my husband has torpedoed his career because he can’t keep his junk in his pants? I can’t even buy the basic stuff I need for my show. I hardly took any money. Julie didn’t even notice last year.

But I’m done being pushed around by Maria. Now she’s going to get what she deserves. The same way Courtney did. The same way my mother did. The same way Mrs. Kirkland did. That’s why I brought the knife with me.

I’ll make it look like a robbery. Somebody was burglarizing Maria’s home, and she came home unexpectedly in the middle of the day and surprised them.

Any logical burglar would go next-door to the Bresslers. That house has the motherlode. I’ve almost been tempted to burglarize them a few times.

And then I hear my phone buzz inside my pocket. I keep one eye on Maria as I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. I drop my eyes and read the words on the screen: I’m right behind you, April.

I’m right behind you, April. It wasn’t Maria.

It’s Julie. My best friend.

I know you are inside the house, April.

“Well…” Maria sits back down next to me. “Maybe she didn’t kill Brianna.” “Of course she did! I told you, Brianna said she was following her. Then an hour later, she was dead.” “Right.” Maria nods. “But you told me it was a white SUV that was following her. I mean, think about how many white SUVs there are out there. Everyone has one. Even me.”

But why would Maria kill Brianna? She had no motive. The only possible reason she could’ve done it is because of the way April threw herself at Sean. Revenge. And a way to get rid of April. But God, nobody is that diabolical. Are they?

Maria winks at me.

It was a white SUV, just like the kind April used to drive.

I squeezed the handle of the shovel in my right hand

A flash of blinding rage came over me. All the indignities I suffered over the last several years came rushing back to me. How could she? How could you do that to your own mother? And then I lifted the shovel and brought it down on her skull. Again. And again.