Final Assignment: A Promise Falls Novella by Linwood Barclay Read Free Book Online Page A

know? Because Franny, she has kind of a rep.’
    ‘What kind of rep?’ I asked.
    ‘Like, kind of unhinged?’ Chandler said. ‘Like, she’s one of those people you never really know what they’re thinking. One time, she got reamed out by Mr Landers, in history, and four days later all his tires had been slashed, and everyone figured it was her, but she never said anything and there was no way to prove it, but sometimes she gets this look, like she knows something that you don’t? You get what I’m saying?’
    Lucy said, ‘I remember the incident with Mr Landers.’
    ‘Yeah, so I don’t really want to get on her bad side, and if her brother wants to help me out, then who am I to say no? She says he likes to write stories anyway, and he can knock off one for me in like minutes, so do I want it or not, and I say sure. So she takes out her laptop, and I’ve got my own right there in front of me, and she emails me something, then she goes on my computer and copies and pastes and stuff and makes it look like I did it myself.’
    It was starting to gel for me.
    ‘And she made me swear that I’d never tell anybody, and if I did, she’d deny it, and so would her brother, because everybody knew what me and Mike had done, and if I ever said anything against Franny or her brother, people would know we were just trying to get back at them.’
    ‘Jesus,’ Malcolm said. ‘You walked right into it.’
    ‘Walked into what?’ Chandler asked.
    ‘Looks like she set you up,’ I said.
    Lucy put a hand on my arm. ‘What are you saying? How could Franny set him up for something she didn’t know was going to happen?’
    I met her look and waited for her to figure it out.
    ‘Oh God,’ she said. ‘What are you thinking? That Franny killed Michael Vaughn?’
    I offered half a shrug. ‘She gets Chandler – who, forgive me, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer – to hand in a story that essentially predicts his best friend’s murder. She, or someone helping her out, kills Michael, and Chandler takes the fall.’
    ‘Oh, this is … this is … unthinkable,’ Malcolm said.
    ‘It’s her way of getting even for what Chandler and Mike did to her brother,’ I said. ‘At the very least, it’s a working theory, and it makes more sense than anything else so far.’
    Chandler’s mouth hung open. I didn’t know whether he was dumbstruck, or impressed.
    I asked him, ‘Would Franny have known about your fight with Mike over that girl?’
    He appeared to be thinking, which I suspected was not easy for him. ‘She was there. I’m pretty sure she was there.’
    Lucy said, ‘It’s all set up in the story.’
    ‘But all Chandler has to say is what he just said now,’ Greta said. ‘That she wrote the story.’
    ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘but there’s no proof. It’s her word against his. She could just say Chandler’s making this all up, as a way of getting back at Joel. Your son doesn’t have a whole lot of credibility. And it wasn’t until he started looking like a possible murder suspect that he came up with a new version of events, that he never wrote the story.’
    ‘I need a drink,’ Malcolm said.
    He excused himself and went into his study. I decided to follow him. On one of the bookshelves behind his desk was a bottle of Scotch, as well as a couple of small tumblers.
    ‘You okay?’ I asked.
    ‘What a goddamn mess,’ he said. He poured Scotch into one of the glasses, then looked at me and raised the bottle. ‘I’ve got another glass here.’
    ‘No thanks,’ I said.
    He downed his drink, poured himself another. ‘What a goddamn mess,’ he said again.
    ‘Yeah,’ I agreed. ‘But if your son’s story holds up, then he should be in the clear.’
    ‘I thought … I was starting to think maybe he’d actually done it. I didn’t want to let my thoughts go there, but you have to consider everything.’
    ‘Sure,’ I said.
    ‘But even if he had done it, there wasn’t enough evidence, right? Would they have