Page 116 of Double Take

“Once he had all of your information and you were approved, Adam simply changed the amount, inserted your signature, and hit send. Everything went to his email.”

Because he’d been “in charge” of the whole idea. They’d done all the paperwork on his laptop. Everything would have been stored there. She hadn’t thought a bit about it, because she still trusted him at that point. She was going to be sick. “I’m such an idiot.”

“No, not really. Just an easy mark. And Adam was a very, very good con man.”

She refused to take comfort in her kidnapper’s—and possibly killer’s—words.

She’d forgotten all about those stupid policies. Had never even thought to try and collect on it after Adam died. And now,thisis what everything came down to? It was so obvious now, she laughed.

Which startled Michael. “What’s so funny?”

“All this time, we were chasing after Adam, doing your work for you. Turning over every stone to prove he was dead and finding nothing but proof that he was alive. All because of an insurance policy that I’d completely forgotten about. Unbelievable.”

“My main goal was to make sure my father believed that Adam was still alive. I couldn’t take a chance he would close the bank account with his and Adam’s name on it. He had deposited enough for the payments to be drafted for three years. Adam thought it would look good in case someone decided they needed to investigate yourdeath. After all, why would someone set up three years’ worth of payments if he was going to kill off the person.”

“But Adamdidget to the hospital. They worked on him, but there’s no death certificate.”

“Friends in high places come in handy. I could only hope I was in time, but I called my friend at the hospital. I had them make sure the death certificate disappeared along with every record that had Adam’s name on it.”

“The paramedics who came to the house dropped him at the hospital.”

“Yeah, true, but I wasn’t worried about them. They could say that, but if there’s no record, there’s no record. That night, outside the hospital, I called Adam’s family and pretended to be him. I talked real raspy and low and said I wasn’t hurt as bad as everyone was saying and that I was alive but had to disappear while I healed. They were to go through with the funeral and not to have an open casket for obvious reasons.”

All Lainie could do was shake her head, but her ears perked up. “And they bought it,” she whispered.

“It wasn’t a hard sell. They didn’t want him to be dead. So, he was in hiding from the woman who tried to kill him. I also knew, when the time came for Adam to put in an appearance, if it came down to exhuming his body for final proof, he couldn’t be in that grave.” He laughed without humor. “It really should be a lot harder to steal a lab coat, walk down to the morgue, and switch bodies, but while it took some maneuvering, it wasn’t all that difficult.”

Especially since he looked like he belonged there. “Wait a minute. The morgue would have noticed a missing body.”

He shrugged. “I found a homeless guy, fed him a meal spiked with some rat poison, and had me a body to put in place of Adam’s.”

She shuddered and gaped at him. “What about the cameras? The alarm system? All of that?”

He smiled. “That’s where friends in high places come in handy.”

“Who?”

“Someone who lost a beloved family member thanks to you.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t really matter now, does it? She got her revenge and I’m going to get my money.”

“Adam’s money,” she muttered.

He scowled and she let it go, not wanting to anger him by pushing. “Where is he now? What did you do with his body?”

“It’s buried in my mother’s backyard.” He laughed. “Whew, you should have seen me trying to do that in the dead of night without any nosy neighbors poking around.”

His complete lack of remorse chilled her, and it was all she could do to keep the terror from choking her.Keep him talking. Keep him talking.“Where am I?”

“Just a little temporary place. A family place. Thankfully, I know where the key is hidden.”

“How did you know we’d be on this road? How did you know where to wait to ambush us?”

“I have my ways.”

Lainie couldn’t think how anyone would have known. She and James had made the plan seated in the morgue. Alone. She pondered that while she continued her questions. “You broke into my home after Adam’s death, didn’t you?”