The end of Lola's secret

At the top of the mountain, hot wind was blowing through Lola's hair. The desert Valley opened up in front of her and she was relieved to see the road stretching into one straight line, leading right to the canyon.

Lola reached for her purse and wondered if her cell phone would work. If she could only call the detective she went to see the other day. Maybe he could go and check the house, see if every thing's OK with Lizzy.

The cell phone played a tune as she opened it up. Lola dialed 911. She knew she had to make a scene in order to get someone check out the house. She also hoped that she could talk to detective Morsley to tell him that Tony was going out of his mind and that she feared for her live.

Lola heard the phone dial.

"911 Emergency, how can I help you."

"Thank God, you need to come over here, my husband's gone crazy. I'm afraid he'll hurt me and my daughter Lizzy."

The voice in the phone responded, slowly. "Calm down, Ma'm, we need to know your address."

"You already know my address, I spoke to detective Morsley this week, he stopped by our house ! He knows what's going on ! "

"Hold on, I'll put you through."

The car rolled down the slope and gained in speed. The dry desert air vaporized Lola's tears.

"Detective Morsley." His voice sounded weary, like an alcoholic who smoked 5 packs of cigarettes a day.

"Detective Morsley, this is Lola, we spoke earlier this week about my husband. Tony ?"

"Right, Miss Matthews. You caught me at the right time, I was about to call you with some news."

Lola flinched. News ? Did they find the boy ? Was Tony getting arrested ?

"Miss Matthews," the voice croaked, "Tony was not the one who killed that boy."

The phone produced static noises as Lola passed the power cables leading to the power plant.

"What ?" she said." Tony didn't - "

"No." Morsley sighed. "Frank did."

Lola dropped her cell phone. All of this time she had believed it was Tony who'd accidentally killed that boy.

"But - but Tony was driving that night. He told me." Or did she dream all of this ?

"Miss Matthews, Tony was promised a large sum of money from Frank to stage all of this. In fact, Frank was driving for Tony because he was too drunk to drive. We have witnesses at the bar confirming this. Frank probably had a little talk with Tony when he purposely had hit that boy up the hill, and promised Tony everything in the world if he could hide him in his basement 'till all of this would blow over. "

That's when Lola realized something. Frank had left his cap in the basement. The night she came home and Lizzy was listening at the basement door, it had been Tony who was moaning and crying out for help.

Tony had been bleeding to death, stabbed in the gut by Frank, who had escaped through the window. But he forgot to take his cap with him.

Lola had freed Tony, wondering what he would do to her next. But Tony was infuriated, and had stormed out of the house yelling he would kill Frank.

So Lola had gone to the police, telling everything she knew.

Lola's phone yelled at her. "Lola ?" it said, "Miss Matthews !"

Lola picked up the phone.

"I'm sorry, I just.." she started crying, "How did you find out ?"

"The cap that we found in the basement belonged to the boy. We did a DNA analysis on the hairs found in the cap. Turns out he's not a random kid either; he was Frank's bastard son."

Morsley paused to give Lola a chance to take this all in.

"A few years back, Frank raped the Sheriff's wife. She wanted to keep the baby, but the Sheriff wouldn't put his reputation on the line and was afraid people wouldn't respect him anymore. "

Lola stared in front of her, hypnotized, listening to Morsley.

"So they got a divorce. But his ex-wife couldn't handle raisin' a boy just by herself. So she killed herself. Frank had heard about her death, and when he understood that the boy would go out looking for his dad, Frank decided he had no intention of raising a kid either. So he went looking for his son and thought killing him would take care of this once and for all."

Lola put all of the pieces together; Frank set Tony up. He knew they needed the money. He purposely got Tony waisted so Frank could drive, so he could find the boy that would make his life even more miserable. Or so he believed.

In her heart, Lola knew that Tony had been too proud to admit that he wasn't in control of this situation. And so he had agreed to hide Frank, take the money and hopefully run away with his wife and daughter.

And now that Lola hadn't trust him, had betrayed him by going to the police, Lola understood that Tony was mad at her and had kicked her out of the house. But that didn't mean she forgave him for what he had done.

The car sped down hill topping 85 miles per hour. Lola saw the canyon closing in and touched her brake. It cracked. The brakes didn't work. She pushed it again. Still nothing. Morsley croaked through the phone.

"Miss Matthews ? Are you still there ?"

Lola held out her phone and looked at it for a second. The she put it back to her ear and said: "I think Tony cut my brakes.."

"He did what ?" Morsley yelled through the speaker phone.

"I think Tony cut my goddamn' brakes !" Lola screamed.

She dropped her phone and tried stumping the brake pedal once more. The canyon drew closer and closer as she was steering the Cadillac downhill, trying to keep it on the road. But the brakes didn't respond at all.

Fuck !

She reached for the hand break and saw the picture of Lizzy taped to it. She jerked the picture loose and looked at her daughter. Intuitively, she turned the photograph over and recognized Tony's handwriting.

The Cadillac jumped off the cliff and flew forward in the air for a few seconds before plunging into the canyon. The birds that were sitting in the trees next to the river hurried away from the canyon as the car crashed into the rocks and exploded. Lola had fallen on to the river bank. She was holding on to Lizzy's picture, bleeding from her head and completely unable to move.

With her last breath, Lola read Tony's message again. It said:

"I'm sorry."

-----------------------

The phone in the living room rang. Once. Twice.

"Hello?"

"Mr Matthews?" A voice croaked.

"This is Tony, who's this ?"

"This is detective Morsley."

Tony wasn't surprised to hear this voice.

"Listen, I told you I did not kill that boy."

The voice on the phone laughed.

"Oh, we know you didn't."

Tony froze.

"But we know you killed your wife."