The Kind Worth Killing: A Novel

Miranda meets with Brad two days after Ted’s murder. Brad tells her that killing Ted was harder than he expected. Miranda promises him that the feeling will wear off and that they will be married soon. Brad tells her that he thinks that Ted knew about their affair. This surprises Miranda, so she reminds Brad about what he should tell the police when they talk with him. He tells her that he seduced a woman named Polly at the bar and brought her back to his house, and she did not wake up until he was back from Boston. He assures Miranda that Polly will tell everyone that he was with her all night. Miranda drives away. She thinks that her decision to seduce Brad was a mistake. She drives towards her mother’s house in Orono, Maine.

As she drives, Miranda thinks about how when she married Ted, she had not wanted to kill him. However, the thought of being married to him for the rest of her life disgusted her. When she met Brad after they started construction on the new house, Miranda figured out how she could get out of the marriage, while keeping the money. Detective Kimball calls her and tells her that they found a parking ticket for Winslow, Massachusetts, in Ted’s possessions and asks her what Ted would have been doing in Winslow. Miranda does not know why Ted would be in Winslow, and Detective Kimball thanks her.

As Lily drives to Kennewick, she thinks about what Miranda did to Ted. In her mind, Miranda broke a code of morality, because Ted was “an innocent.” In Maine, Lily stays at the Kennewick Inn, where she knows Miranda stays while Brad builds the house. She goes to the bar in the hotel and discusses the murder with the locals. She learns that no one in the bar suspects Miranda of cheating on Ted.

Miranda hardly sleeps because she worries that Brad will not hold up under police investigation. In the morning, Miranda thinks about how when she was a kid, Miranda’s father, a tenured history professor at the University of Maine, lost his position because he made sexual advances to a freshman student. Miranda’s parents divorced after that, and Miranda engaged in kleptomania until she graduated from high school. Detective Kimball calls Miranda and asks her to come back to Boston. He tells her that a neighbor believes they saw the man who attacked Ted and they have composed a sketch based on her description. Kimball needs Miranda to see if she recognizes the man, just in case the perpetrator is someone that she knows. After she hangs up the phone, Miranda remembers that Lily Kintner lives in Winslow and wonders if Lily knew Ted.

Lily goes to Cooley’s to speak with Brad. Lily waits for a few hours and she sees a man getting out of his truck in the parking lot. From Ted’s description, she assumes it is Brad. She asks if she can speak to him in his truck. Brad looks suspicious, but Lily tells him that she knows Ted and Miranda, so he agrees to speak with her. Once they are in the truck, Lily tells him that if he agrees to help her, then she will not tell anyone that he murdered Ted. Lily clutches her taser in her purse, but to her surprise, Brad looks like he is going to cry. Brad asks her what she wants, and she tells him that she wants to help him.

As Miranda drives back to Boston, she thinks about how to react to the sketch that Detective Kimball will show her. She knows that someone saw Brad, which infuriates her. As she drives, she remembers that Eric told her once that he always thought he was the kind of person who could be in a relationship with two women at the same time. When it came time for graduation, she reminded him of this, and she offered to see him while he was still with Lily. She remembered hearing about Eric’s death and how Lily was with him when he died. She always thought that Lily was lucky that she never found out about Eric’s infidelity. Now, Miranda wonders if what happened to Eric was not an accident.

At the police station, Detective Kimball tells her that on the night of the murder, a woman saw a man leave the residence that was burgled and walk down the street to Ted’s house to knock on the door. The witness saw Ted open the door, talk to the man, and let him inside. Since Ted talked with the man, they think that Ted knew his attacker. Miranda sees that the sketch is a good likeness of Brad. Miranda pretends to think and then tells him that it looks like her contractor Brad. Miranda knows that Detective Kimball will call Brad right away, and she worries that Brad will not handle the call well. She knows that she can always deny everything that Brad says if he turns on her, but she worries about the process. Afterwards, Detective James, Detective Kimball’s partner, calls her a taxi. Before she leaves, Miranda tells Detective Kimball that she remembers that Lily Kintner, a girl she went to college with, lives in Winslow. Miranda does not think Lily has anything to do with Ted, but she decides it will not hurt her chances to send the police down another lead.