The Fall Guy by Barbara Fradkin Page A

of this!” Daniel had come back into the room, shouting. “Can’t you see what’s right in front of your eyes? This isn’t his fault! He’s a moron, he’s a tightwad, he’s an asshole, but he didn’t kill Mom. Face it!”
    â€œBut if he’d hung that bird feeder like he promised. If he hadn’t been so lazy that she finally got fed up. This would never have happened!”
    More thumps. “So he was lazy! Jesus Christ, it wasn’t him that fucked up. Face that, at least.”
    Bethany started to wail. “Don’t turn on me, Danny. I haven’t slept a wink since it happened. I didn’t know! She said he was going to hang it as soon as the deck was finished. There wasn’t much time.”
    â€œThen you should have warned her!”
    â€œWarn her how, Danny? Say, ‘Oh, by the way, Mom, I’m planning to unscrew the railing so your bastard husband falls off the cliff, so don’t lean on it?’ You know she wanted him dead, Danny. How many times did she talk about how great it would be?”
    My heart was racing, my hands were slick with sweat. I could hardly breathe through my horror. Bethany! I watched the tape recorder, making sure the red light was on and the spools turning.
    â€œYeah, but that was just dreaming,” Daniel said. “That’s all Mom ever did. She’d live her whole life dreaming.”
    â€œAnd I was sick of it!” Bethany shouted, so loud I jumped a foot. “When I heard about the bird feeder, I thought, This is our chance!”
    â€œSome chance! Mom’s dead, and for what? Less than nothing! Jesus. At least before, the bastard was paying our college fees to keep us out of his hair.”
    â€œHe still might. He said he would.”
    Daniel snorted. “Get real, Bethany. He’ll forget us tomorrow. The guy’s got at least twenty years. He’s going to snag some other stupid woman with stars in her eyes, and then we’ll lose it all.” A chair scraped and Daniel’s voice began to fade. “But that’s not our biggest problem right now.”
    â€œWhat?”
    Silence. The clink of glasses. “What do you think?”
    â€œThe handyman?”
    â€œYeah.” Daniel said something else, but I couldn’t hear.
    â€œWhat do we do?” Bethany asked.
    I turned up the receiver as loud as I could, but Daniel’s voice was still a mumble. Everything echoed. I started walking up the road, balancing the receiver on top of the recorder.
    â€œYou should never have tried to run him off the road,” Daniel was saying. “Nobody would have listened to him.”
    â€œI tried to fix it, but he has that damn dog. I couldn’t get close enough,” Bethany said.
    I nearly dropped the recorder. So that car at my farmhouse had been her!
    â€œWait!” Daniel’s voice was sharp.
    â€œI’ll think of something else, Danny. He’s got propane tanks in his yard, and lots of junk that could blow up—”
    â€œShut up! I hear something!”
    I froze. I heard footsteps, the front door opening.
    â€œFuck, there’s somebody out there,” Daniel said. His real voice, not the receiver. I was that close. I turned and pelted down the lane. The receiver fell to the ground, but I hung on to the recorder like my life depended on it. Maybe it did.
    I heard footsteps behind me. I had to get to my bike. I had to get it started and get the hell out of there, all with only a fifteen-second head start. There was no way. I veered off into the bushes. Raspberry canes ripped my skin as I ploughed through them. A few yards in, I stopped and crouched down. My heart hammered so loud I was sure they could hear it in the next county. I tried not to breathe.
    Daniel and Bethany came running down the lane, cursing and slipping. Suddenly the footsteps stopped.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Bethany’s voice.
    I strained my ears but heard nothing