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Yuki slapped her desk. “Stop lying to me.”

He recoiled, then said, “Okay, okay, Paul told me about what he did in college. I don’t see what that has to do with anything. It was harmless. Look. Yuki. I want you to drop the charges against Briana. This has gotten out of hand. Can we just draw this whole thing to a close?”

“Drop the charges? You mean I should tell the judge what, Marc? The prosecution changed its mind?”

“Can you do that?”

“Tell me what happened with you, Paul, and Briana,” she said.

“What more is there to tell?” he asked her.

“Plenty. Feel free to fill in the blanks.”

Yuki took a sheet of paper out of a folder on her desk and flashed it at Marc.

“This is Paul’s suicide note.”

“No. Please. Please don’t read it to me.”

“I’ll skip around,” Yuki said. “Paul said that he’s sorry. He didn’t mean to lie about Briana. He wishes he’d never met you, Marc. He wishes he’d aimed higher when he shot you, at your request.”

Marc was saying, “Oh, God. Oh, God,” and crying now, hands over his eyes. Compared with the tears he had shed on the witness stand, this was a very ugly cry.

Yuki went on. “Here’s a quote: ‘Please tell Briana I know what I did was wrong and I am more sorry than she can ever know or believe for hurting her. I hope one day she can forgive me.’ That’s about it, Marc. And he wrote an apology to his girlfriend and his parents for taking his life.”

She gave the criminal liar sitting across from her direct eye contact. “Marc. Was this accusation that Briana Hill raped you a lie?”

He nodded.

“Speak up, Marc. Is that a yes?” Yuki asked.

“Yes. It was what she said it was. A game.”

“You and Paul cooked this up together? To frame her for rape and blackmail her?”

“It was my idea,” Marc said, his voice just barely audible. “Paul helped me.”

“Helped you plan?” Yuki asked.

“Yes.”

“And he shot you?”

“I asked him to do it.”

“But you were going to cut him in?”

“Yes to all of that,” Marc told Yuki. He looked broken, and Yuki felt that he was finally telling the truth.

“Why, Marc? Why did you do this?”

He grabbed the arms of the chair and lunged toward her, shouting, “Can’t you see what a ballbuster she is?”

There it was—his anger and his venom. His dark side that he’d used to bring down Briana Hill. It would now fuel his own reversal of fortune.

Yuki drew back and said, “Oh, my God.”

Marc sagged in the chair. His voice was breaking when he asked, “What’s going to happen to me?”


Tags: James Patterson Women's Murder Club Mystery