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“They had it coming,” he said with a shrug. “Hounding us about that stupid accident for years. I thought I could kill two birds with one stone. Pay off my debt, get rid of the Careens, and make sure I was set up for life, with enough money to retire on.”

“My Bruce’s money!” Gran cried.

“Gran, there is no Bruce,” Odelia reminded her.

“Oh, right.”

“So is that why you killed your friends in such an ostentatious way?” asked Chase. “To make sure the police would think the Careens were behind the murders?”

“Oh, absolutely. The car on top of Jona, Joel’s living statue—or dead statue—Dunc’s papier-m?ch? display, Sergio’s death by lightning. All to point the finger at the Careens. And it worked, didn’t it? You thought Dominic was behind the whole thing from the start.”

“I did,” Chase confessed. “Though I never felt absolutely convinced.”

“And why is that?”

“Mainly because you didn’t die, I guess. I mean, here we had four vicious murders, all carried out meticulously, and the only one who’d walked away was you, with only a light concussion. That didn’t sit right with me from the start.”

Omar shrugged.“I could have hit myself harder but I hate pain.”

Chase nodded curtly.“Omar Wissinski, you’re under arrest for the murders of Jona Morro, Dunc Hanover, Joel Timperley and Sergio Sorbet.”

Omar winced, then said, softly,“And you can add Poppy Careen.”

We all stared at the man.

“You did that?” said Odelia, shocked.

Omar nodded.“Yup. One more reason for the others to turn their back on me.” He shrugged. “Guess they figured I’d caused them enough trouble over the years.” He grinned a sad grin. “It used to be one for all and all for one, but lately it was all against one, instead. I guess even friendship has itslimits. And I reached that limit a long time ago.”

Chapter 38

“Omar was in real trouble,” I said as I leisurely picked at a piece of sausage Odelia had placed within paw’s reach. “Not only was he in debt because of his gambling addiction, but his business partner was trying to get him kicked out of the company, his friends no longer took his calls, and his dad had changed his will to make sure his inheritance would go to Omar’s younger brother Argyle and not to him.”

“So that’s what the argument between Omar and his mom was about,” said Harriet.

She was lying next to me on the porch swing, and so were Dooley and Brutus. From our perch we had a perfect view of the backyard, where a family party was in full swing.

“Yeah, Omar didn’t think it was fair that Argyle would inherit and he would be cut out of his parents’ will, but Garth and Julia Wissinski knew about their oldest son’s gambling addiction, and didn’t want one cent to go to him in the event of their death. Also, Omar was afraid that the pact was breaking down, and that his friends were prepared to tell the truth about what happened thirteen years ago on that residential street.”

“Omar was driving Dunc’s Mustang that night, wasn’t he?” said Harriet.

“Yes, he was. And until now he’d been able to rely on the bachelor pact, but one by one his friends had started distancing themselves from him, and he felt that they could turn their back on him any moment and go to the cops to finally turn him in.”

“So that’s why he killed his best friends,” said Brutus, shaking his head. “What a guy.”

“I would never turn my back on my friends,” said Dooley earnestly. “Or kill them.”

“I know you wouldn’t, Dooley,” I said. “But Omar felt he didn’t have a choice. He was in a tight place financially, with a huge gambling debt hanging over him, and he thought that if he didn’t move against his friends, they’d move against him, and his life would be over.”

We watched on as Scarlett showed a shiny brochure of a yellow Volvo station wagon to Chase, who eyed it with marked distaste.“And look at all that space!” she said, extolling the virtues of the car. “And it’s got the best safety record.”

“What I don’t understand,” said Harriet, “is why Dominic refused to tell the truth about where he was at the time of the murders. He was only making things harder for himself.”

“Dominic and Kristina had started going through an experimental treatment for her cancer. A clinic in Hampton Keys that has seen some remarkable results. But since they hadn’t told Rick about the cancer, they couldn’t very well come out with the truth.”

“They didn’t want their son to know about his mom’s cancer?”

“They were going to wait. They hoped they’d be able to fight the cancer, and make it go into remission, and then Rick would never have to find out. They felt that their son had already been through enough with the death of his sister, and didn’t want him to think his mom was going to die, too. So they decided to keep her disease a secret for as long as they could.”

“But I thought Kristina was afraid to leave the house?” said Dooley.