THE DISTRAUGHT MURDERER WALKED INSIDE the office and closed the door. On edge about today’s earlier events, he removed the photo from the wall hiding his secret vault and laid the big painting on the floor. Mashing the numerical code into the keypad, his mind thought of Kayla and how she seemed so innocent. So likeable. Sure enough, she was beautiful.
The hidden vault built into the wall bleeped, then clicked open. Beside the killer’s diary lay the letter that Salina had given him to give to Richmond in the occurrence he ever found out he was the one that’d murdered his wife. Along with the letter addressed to Richmond was a video of Salina.
Salina wanted me to kill her.
Guilt churned the killer’s stomach as he reached inside the safe to grab his diary. A diary he regretted having. A diary he prayed no one would ever find out about. It’d kill Richmond if he ever knew he’d murdered his wife, Salina. If anyone ever found out his secret, all hell would break loose on Hilton Head Island and he’d spend the rest of his life behind bars. Rotting in prison.
I can’t let that happen.
Holding his diary in his hand, he shut the door to the vault, hefted a pen from the desk holder, then flopped down in his favorite recliner.
Opening his diary, vivid images of the night he’d murdered Salina entered his mind. Pain stabbed his aching heart. Dread filled his soul. Guilt weighted his shoulders like heavy stones.
With the tip of the ink pen touching the sheet of paper inside his diary, his soul felt dark and insolent. May you rest in peace, Salina. And may you mind your own business, Kayla.
Dear Diary,
Richmond has hired a nanny by the name of Kayla. Something about Kayla disturbs me, makes me nervous. When she looks into my face, I feel like she can see straight through me, like she knows what I did to Salina. I’m hoping it’s my insecurities getting the best of me and I’m wrong about her. The last thing I need is for Kayla to get curious and start sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong—in my business. I’d hate for her to end up like Salina—dead.