The Kind Worth Killing: A Novel

After the conversation at the police station, Miranda wishes she could call Brad to warn him about the police. Miranda thinks back to when she met Brad, when she decided he would be the perfect man to seduce. She had sex with Brad and a few weeks later, she told him she thought about killing her husband. Brad offered to kill Ted for her, and she knew that he was serious.

Miranda decides to drive to Maine to speak with Brad. She parks outside of his house at night and waits for him to come home. Before long, Brad gets home, and Miranda sees that there is a red-haired woman with him. She sees them talking together through the window, but she cannot hear them. When the woman gets up to go to the kitchen, Miranda sees that it is Lily Kintner. Miranda wonders why Lily is with Brad and then wonders if Lily was having an affair with Ted. She starts to think that Ted may have known about Brad and Miranda’s affair and that he might have told Lily. After Lily leaves, Miranda knocks on the door. Brad lets her in, and she demands to know what Lily was doing with him. Brad tells her that Lily wants to kill her, and she wants Brad to help her set it up.

Lily arrives in Kennewick the next day. She feels nervous because her entire plan depends on Brad. She wears gloves, dresses in all black, and wears plastic bags tied over her shoes. She arrives at the Severson house and enters through the back sliding door. Lily waits in the dark until she hears Brad’s truck. Miranda enters, and Lily calls out to her from the dark. Miranda tells Lily that Brad said she wanted money to keep quiet about Ted’s murder. Miranda asks if she needs money because her father killed someone in England, but Lily says that she wants the money for herself. Miranda asks her if she was sleeping with Ted, but Lily explains that she met him on an airplane and that he knew everything about Miranda and her affair. Miranda asks if this is about Eric more than Ted, but Lily tells her that it is only about Miranda. Suddenly, Miranda and Lily turn towards the patio door where Brad stands, holding a large wrench in his hand. Brad looks at Lily and lifts the heavy wrench over his head.

In a flashback of the night before, Brad confesses everything to Miranda about how Lily told him that she knew about the murder. Brad tells Miranda that Lily wants money and that she wants to meet to talk about it. However, he tells Miranda that this is a set-up, and that once Miranda is in the house, Lily plans to use her stun-gun on her and strangle her to death. Miranda asks Brad why Lily is doing this, and Brad tells her that she has hated her since college and that she thinks Miranda is an evil person. Miranda feels thrilled that she got under Lily’s skin. Miranda tells him about the police sketch, and Brad gets upset. Brad tells Miranda that Lily plans on hiding her body and the car to make it look like Miranda ran away. Brad suggests that they go through with the plan, but that Brad will kill Lily when they get to the house instead. Miranda wonders why Lily would trust Brad. To this, Brad tells her that Lily scared him because she said that Miranda would turn on him because there is nothing linking her to the murder. Miranda knows that this is her plan, but she lies to Brad and tells him that they must kill Lily to protect themselves. Miranda suggests that he should sleep in his truck because the police may come early in the morning to question him.

As Miranda drives back to Boston, she believes that her hunch about Lily killing Eric is true. She realizes that Lily must have known that Eric was cheating on her with Miranda and killed him for it. That night, Miranda drives back to Maine and meets up with Brad. They go over Brad’s plan to walk back in through the patio door when she is talking to Lily and beat Lily to death with one of his wrenches. Brad drives Miranda up to the house, and she goes in and speaks with Lily. As they talk, Brad comes in through the side door and suddenly turns towards Miranda, hitting her over the head with the wrench. Miranda suddenly realizes that she is going to die as Brad hits her again.

Lily watches as Brad beats Miranda to death. Brad drops the wrench and says that Miranda believed everything he said. Lily says they should go sit in the truck and talk to get away from the gruesome scene. As they sit in the car, Lily takes a flask out of her bag and pretends to take a drink of it, then passes it to Brad. Brad drinks it but does not seem to notice the unusual taste. Brad tells Lily that Miranda believed everything they planned about him saying that he did not want to kill her. Lily had told Brad that he was not a murderer, but that Miranda had turned him into a murderer. He offered to kill Miranda, which Lily had not expected, though it made her job easier. Lily felt a moment of doubt in the house when Brad looked at her and she knew that either she or Miranda was going to die. Brad talks with Lily, but she notices that the chloral hydrate in the drink has taken effect because he starts to slur his words. Before long, Brad is unconscious, and Lily gets to work. Lily goes in the back of the truck and opens the toolbox, where she finds a long coat hanger. Lily unwinds the coat hanger, then gets back in the passenger seat. She pushes Brad against the driver’s window, wraps the coat hanger around his neck, and twists the wire together tightly until she knows that Brad is dead.