Grace and Jerry were perched on two sofas, facing each other. “How pretty do we look?” Grace asked, taking a glimpse into the camera.
“Undeniably gorgeous,” Laurie said, checking out the living room setup on the monitor next to the cinematographer she had hired for the shoot. “I think we need another reflector on the right side of the room, but then we should be good.”
She heard the chime of a doorbell. That would be one of the twins. She took a deep breath, hoping that her last-minute decision to upend their schedule would pay off.
She had initially planned for Ryan to interview the twins separately, but the breakthrough with Howard the previous night had changed everything. After they left Howard’s house, Laurie had called Randy Macintosh at the DA’s Office. Within two hours, the district attorney herself had assured Laurie she’d be appointing an investigative team with the Massachusetts State Police to take a fresh look at the evidence.
Ethan and Simon were about to meet face-to-face, on camera, for the first time in years since the tragedy that had torn their family apart. Laurie wanted to capture the expression on their faces when Ryan told them the good news. After blaming each other for nearly ten years, they might finally be willing to reconcile.
It had not been easy to persuade them, but Laurie promised they had new evidence to share that would be important to both of them. She prayed it would be enough.
When she opened the front door, Frankie stepped inside, taking in the scene with wide eyes, one of her brothers trailing behind her. “Whoa, it’s so eerie being back here.” She gave Laurie a quick hug and waved hello to Grace and Jerry.
“Simon, right?” Laurie extended her hand for a shake.
“Well done,” he said. In truth, she wasn’t certain she could tell the twins apart, but had assumed Simon would be the one to arrive with Frankie since they were both staying with the Ward family. “Wow, the old place looks different, but somehow feels exactly the same. Is my brother here yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Always late,” Simon said under his breath. “Same old Ethan.”
“Thanks again for letting me watch,” Frankie said. Laurie had agreed to let Frankie join them on set, but with a promise that she would not interrupt. Ryan would sit down with her separately later in the afternoon.
“Of course,” Laurie said. “And thank you, Simon, for agreeing to appear together with your brother.”
She found Ryan in the Harringtons’ former dining room, studying a stack of index cards. “You know you can put notes on a computer, right?” she asked with a raised brow.
He looked up from his work and winked. “Touché. Guess you’re not the only one who’s a little old school. I always tried my cases off note cards.”
“Hey, I owe you a peace offering about last night. I had my reasons, but I shouldn’t have leapt in without you. You were the one who figured out Howard was up to something back then. And I shouldn’t have made that crack about not finding his address earlier.”
“Well, I did mess that up. I should have checked to see if he had a house on the Cape.”
“We all missed it,” she said. “Anyway, I’m sorry. Are you all set for this? Simon’s here and Ethan should be joining us shortly.”
“Yeah, but Laurie, there’s something I want to tell you. Remember when we talked in the car on the way to Southampton? And I told you I’ve been feeling like an empty suit?”
Was he about to start another round of complaints after she had already apologized? They both needed to be focused on the Harrington twins right now. “Of course I remember. And I’ve been trying to include you more as a partner. I messed up last night.”
“There’s more to it.” He looked away from her gaze. “Those words—empty suit—came directly from my father.”
“Oh Ryan, I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “Not your fault. He and my uncle have both been riding me, saying I’m wasting my education. Pressuring me to have a more impactful career, as they call it. They think I’m this trivial person, a pretty face on television and in the New York gossip columns. Going through these notes, realizing the pressure Richard Harrington put on those boys to be perfect in every way—it hits a little close to home. Maybe it’s impossible to be a good person if you’re raised that way. Maybe you can’t help yourself, like the scorpion with the frog.”
She placed a hand gently on his shoulder. “You are a good person, Ryan, when you let yourself be.”
He nodded in appreciation.
Laurie turned toward the sound of someone clearing their throat. It was Grace, with Jerry at her side. “Ethan’s here,” she said. “Spooky how much they look alike. Makeup’s working on them now—in separate rooms, of course.”
“Those two may hate each other,” Jerry said, “but they’re united on one thing: they want to know why you brought them here together, and they don’t seem happy about it.”
Laurie had already produced a separate segment in which Ryan laid out the evidence pointing to the twins. The use of the Range Rover. The keypad and gun safe codes. The missing nanny cam. Their motive. And most pointedly, Howard Carver’s insistence that he had seen one of the twins near the Range Rover in the overflow lot.
As the cameras rolled, Ryan began with general questions to set the stage from the twins’ point of view. The graduation party. The arrival of the police. The tragic deaths of their parents. The suspicions that followed. From separate sofas, Simon and Ethan were glaring at each other across the coffee table.
“You probably know the media dubbed you the Deadly Duo. How did that make you feel, Simon?”
“Angry. Obviously. I not only lost my parents, I lost my reputation.”
“That happened to both of us,” Ethan said. “You weren’t the only person with a future to worry about.”
“And is it fair to say that you each believe your brother was the person responsible for the death of your parents?” Ryan asked.
They both nodded.
Laurie’s plan was to cut in an interview with an expert on eyewitness testimony to explain the reasons Howard’s recollection might be unreliable.
She held up a hand and nodded toward Ryan, indicating it was time to deliver the bombshell.
“We’ve got some good news,” Ryan announced, his voice carrying a glimmer of optimism. “The witness who once insisted to the police that he saw one of you outside the party near your car has essentially recanted his statement. We have already shared that information with the District Attorney’s Office, and they will be working with the Massachusetts State Police to take a fresh look at the evidence and determine whether the Harbor Bay Police Department botched the original investigation.”
“That doesn’t answer the question of who murdered my parents,” Ethan said.
“Our parents,” Simon emphasized.
Ryan managed to keep his expression neutral, even though this wasn’t the celebratory response they had anticipated. “It means that it wasn’t necessarily either of you. That must be some kind of relief, isn’t it?”
Frankie was next to Laurie, gesturing as if she wanted to join her brothers on camera. Laurie shook her head adamantly.
“Well, I’ve known for ten years it wasn’t me,” Simon said. “And if it wasn’t Ethan, it was his girlfriend or his girlfriend’s family. They wanted my family’s money.”
“That’s my pregnant wife you’re talking about,” Ethan said, starting to rise from the sofa. “Leave her and her family out of this.”
“You and our parents’ money were her family’s ticket out of debt, and we both know it.” With lawyerly precision, Simon set forth the mounting pressure on Ethan to end the relationship. “After they were killed, you were chomping at the bit to get your inheritance, while I was the one who was willing to freeze our parents’ estate so you wouldn’t get a dime.”
“That’s not true, Simon. I didn’t rush anything. You were the one trying to freeze the estate to make me look guilty and take suspicion off of you.”
Ryan, determined to steer them toward alternative suspects, tried another tack. “Simon, you said a fellow college student was blackmailing you before the murders. We’ve spoken to that person, and he insists it never happened. We also have footage of someone spray-painting a derogatory message about your family in front of this very house. What if the same person who targeted you also committed the vandalism? Who held a grudge against your family?”
Within seconds, the twins were both on their feet, accusing each other of every possible wrongdoing. According to Ethan, Simon faked the extortion emails in a failed attempt to get money out of their father. According to Simon, Ethan might have been behind the threats in a failed attempt to get money from Simon.
The cinematographer gave Laurie a worried look. “Should we have hired security?” he whispered.
“Stop it!” The living room fell into a sudden silence, and Frankie yelled again. “Just stop! This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Her face was red and her lips were quivering. “Maybe it’s just like the police said. The two of you did this together, but no one will ever be able to prove it so long as the Deadly Duo keeps pointing fingers at each other.”
Sobbing, she turned and ran out the front door.
“Look what you did,” Ethan said, shoving Simon in the chest.
“I didn’t even want to do this.” Simon turned to face Laurie. “This is your fault, too. I hope you’re happy with your footage.”