Josh stared wide-eyed at Lexie.
‘Sasha Hemming is your friend from school who slept with Zack?’
Lexie nodded.
‘Ex-friend, and yes, it all makes perfect sense now. Well, not perfect sense but some sense.’
It was all coming together. A myriad of thoughts ran through her mind simultaneously.
‘Really, how’s that?’ Josh replied, looking bewildered. ‘Sleeping with a friend’s husband is bad. Really bad. But is Sasha seriously capable of killing someone?’
‘They say anyone is capable of murder.’
Josh rolled his eyes at her. A habit he’d picked up from Brad. Lexie continued.
‘She clearly has, or has had, an obsession with Rod Bream. True to form, she’s made a play for him. Rachel being her friend clearly didn’t deter her. In the same way, I was her friend but that didn’t stop her coming on to Zack.’
Lexie felt a flash of red-hot anger shoot through her.
‘Quite the opposite, in fact! Sasha had always wanted what she couldn’t have. She was popular with the boys when we were younger, but she always wanted the guy who belonged to someone else. And she became obsessive. She was totally infatuated with my brother at one stage. It drove me crazy.’
Lexie thought back in time.
‘I lost touch with Sasha when Zack and I got married. She came to our wedding but . . . things were a bit weird between us and I didn’t know why. Apparently she was in love with my husband, so she removed herself from our lives.’
‘How do you know that?’ Josh asked.
‘Zack told me. That’s how the seduction routine started. “You know I’ve always been in love with you, Zack . . .”’
Josh arched one eyebrow.
‘Well, he fell for it.’
‘You don’t have to remind me. I know that,’ Lexie groaned. ‘But my point is, she came after Zack when she had returned from Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. She never got in touch with me, just him. Sasha purposely set out to break up my marriage.’
Lexie shook her head as she thought about it.
‘So apparently, when Zack wanted nothing to do with her after we were over, she was furious. She clearly thought she had won. In Sasha’s eyes that was good enough reason to pay Gitt to set Zack up. He had rejected her, so this was payback.’
Josh nodded and waited for her to continue.
‘I’m thinking that maybe Sasha followed Bream back to Sydney with the idea she was in with a chance. He’d had time to get over the grief of Rachel – or so she had thought. So then, when Bream gave her the brush-off excuse that he needed more time, Sasha tried her luck with Zack. Maybe in her sick, deluded mind she hoped that if she hooked up with Zack it would make Bream jealous, who knows? Perhaps when that went pear-shaped she re-focused her attention on Bream. However, other girls kept getting in her way.’
‘If Sasha is still obsessed with Bream, why forge his signature on prescriptions? Surely she knew that could get him into trouble. Why couldn’t she just steal medication from the hospital?’
‘Maybe she did that as well, in small amounts. Clearly Sasha is not playing with a full deck, but she would know that if a large quantity of medication went missing, it would be noticed.’
Josh stared at Lexie.
‘Do you seriously think she would be capable of killing off every girl who had anything to do with Bream?’
Lexie shrugged.
‘It seems like the only explanation.’
‘Why come after you though, Lex? You haven’t been with Bream – have you?’
Lexie shot him a look and shook her head in disbelief.
‘I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.’
She paused to think.
‘I don’t really know why Sasha would be after me. I don’t have all the answers. Maybe she just hates me . . . Was trying to throw me off the scent . . . ? Was trying to scare me?’
‘She can’t be right in the head,’ Josh said.
‘That’s a major understatement.’
Lexie glanced at her watch again.
‘I seriously had better get ready for work. I can’t be late.’
Josh leant forward and placed a kiss on the top of her head.
‘And just so you know, I’m going to be there at the undercover operation today. I know I’m not part of the office anymore, but . . .’
‘That’s fine, Josh. I understand this is personal for you. Just don’t get in the way. I don’t need to be worried about you when I have other things to concentrate on.’
Josh gave her a wink.
‘Don’t worry, baby. You won’t even know I’m there.’