48
SARAH MORGAN
headed to the bathroom to clean up my face before returning to theI observation room looking in on the interrogation room Anne is sitting in. She sits alone, scared, nervous—guilty, maybe. She taps her fingers on the table, then fiddles with the hem of her shirt, then twirls her hair. She doesn’t know what to do with herself. Matthew is leaning against the wall behind me, watching Anne and me. I told him he could go. This isn’t his mess, nor his problem. But he insisted on being here, on helping me with this case.
“That was pretty messed up what happened out there with Eleanor,” he
says.
“Yeah, it was.”
“I can’t believe you told her the best thing she could do as a mother was kill herself. That was cold.”
I turn back and look at him. “I needed to say something to push her over the edge, enough that she would hit me. This whole charade of us going back and forth needed to end. It’s exhausting and it’s not helping the case.”
“So, you took one for the team?” He crosses one leg in front of the other.
I turn back to the one-way glass. “You could say that.”
I’ve dealt with Eleanor’s cutting remarks, insults, condescending comments, and overall bullshit for more than a decade. It felt good to watch her lose her shit and finally come down to earth for once. The slap was worth it.
Sheriff Stevens enters the interrogation room and takes a seat across from Anne. He offers her water. She declines. He explains her rights. She nods. He tells her that the conversation will be recorded and may be used as evidence. She stares at him blankly and then he begins his interrogation.
“Where were you the night of October 15th?”
“I went out for drinks with my boss, Sarah Morgan.”
“Is this a common occurrence?”
“Yeah, Sarah and I are friends… or at least we were,” she says sheepishly.
She’s got that right. Friends tell you if your husband is cheating.
“How do you know Kelly Summers?” Sheriff Stevens leans back in his
chair.
“I don’t.”
“But you knew of her before her murder?” Sheriff Stevens taps his fingers on the table.
Anne swallows hard and nods. “Yes, not her name or anything. I just saw her with Adam.”
“And what were you doing in Prince William County?” He cocks his head.
“I had been there in the summer for vacation, and I loved the scenery for my photography, and I thought it would be even more beautiful in the fall. I wasn’t expecting to see what I saw. I was just taking some photos. It
was completely innocent.”
“Innocent?”
“Well, it was,” Anne says.
“But you decided to take that information and threaten Adam with it?”
“It wasn’t my best judgment.” She frowns. “I just didn’t want to be the one to tell Sarah. I didn’t want to hurt her.” Anne fidgets with her fingernails.
“End it, or I will sounds like a death threat. Would you agree?”
She hangs her head. “I can see that now. But that wasn’t my intention. I had planned on telling Sarah if Adam didn’t end it or didn’t tell her himself.”
“Did you ever see Kelly with anyone else?” Sheriff Stevens asks.
Anne glances around the room.
“What an odd question,” Matthew says from behind me.
“It is. Isn’t it?” I glance back at him and then return my attention to Anne and Sheriff Stevens. What is he getting at? What’s his angle?
“No.” Anne crinkles up her forehead.
“And where were you on the evening of Sunday, October 15th?”
“Like I said, I was having drinks with Sarah Morgan until around midnight.” Anne stares intently at Sheriff Stevens.
“She knew about Adam’s affair in the weeks leading up to the murder, and she didn’t say anything. Maybe if she would have told me, this wouldn’t have happened. Kelly would still be alive. I would have confronted Adam. We’d either be working toward reconciliation, or I’d be prepping divorce papers, but either way, he wouldn’t be on trial for murder.” I turn to look at Matthew for a moment.
He nods his head. “What’s done is done.”
I let out a sigh and redirect my attention back at Anne, glaring at her through the glass. I can’t believe she didn’t fucking tell me. A piece of my brain is telling me to erupt at Anne and before I can quiet it, I’m bursting through the door of the interrogation room.
“Sarah please…” but Anne’s words are cut short as I dive headlong across the table and tackle her to the ground. I start pummeling her face, pretending she is the manifestation of everyone who has fucked me over in my life. My knuckles and rings gouge into her skin. Sheriff Stevens tries to pull me off, but I elbow him in the nose and send him reeling. As Anne slowly climbs back to her feet, she tries to cry for help, but her mouth is so full of blood all that comes out is a weak gurgle and pink mist. I run over, grab her by the hair, begin to spin her around in circles, and then I release her straight through the one-way mirror. Pieces of glass rain everywhere, and I pick up a particularly jagged piece as I continue my rampage toward Anne… I blink repeatedly bringing my mind back to reality. I see Anne and Sheriff Stevens sitting in the interrogation room. I need a break from this shit. My head is in the clouds right about now. Everyone I thought I could trust, I’ve learned I can’t. I don’t even know which emotion to pick, and I decide that getting some fresh air is my best course of action. I quickly get up.
Matthew asks if I’m all right. I nod and walk down the hall to find Marge still with her nose in her paperwork.
“Excuse me. Marge, is it? I’m heading outside for some air if that’s okay?”
“This isn’t kindergarten, ma’am. You don’t need my permission to walk in and out of a building,” Marge replies, still without looking up from her work.
“I just thought you would… Never mind.” I walk out the door. “Bitch,”
I say under my breath.
Outside, the air feels like I’ve jumped into a cold pool as I cross the threshold of the sheriff’s department out into a temporary escape. I take in a deep breath and blow it out with force as I close my eyes for a second and try to clear my head. I’m trying to think of pure whiteness, a blank word document with not a single line of legalese on it. The monuments in D.C. just after being cleaned. My brain tries to mimic the color and clear itself, but rather than a purge I come face to face with a dark pool of ifs and whys.
A wave of bullshit that comes crashing out of the depths and grabs me with a half dozen tentacles, trying to pull me down into the viscous blankness. I dig my heels in, but it is no use, I am helplessly dragged forward, no escape, no light within, but just as I am about to cross the event horizon, I open my eyes.
My heart rate has accelerated. This respite from the circus is anything but. I look up and see the myriad of dots painted across the nothing night sky stretched behind. I am envious of their isolation. “At least no one bothers you,” I say as a tear begins to well up in the corner of my eye. But no, the dam I have built up to stave off my emotions, for this case, for my career, for my marriage, it needs to hold… at least for a little while longer.
I dry my eye and turn to walk back inside.
Standing in the doorway is Matthew. “I wondered where you had gone
to.”
“I just needed a minute—”
He walks to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder.
“You think you fucking know people.” I shake my head.
“Look, for what it’s worth, I think Anne’s intentions were in the right place.” He rubs my shoulder.
“Don’t!” I warn. I really don’t want to hear about Anne’s intentions.
I’ve been betrayed by nearly everyone in my life.
Matthew lets out a small sigh and never one to quit, he continues, “Like I was saying. Anne isn’t… how would you say? The strongest of people.
She is a follower, not a leader. You have no idea how much that girl idolizes you, Sarah. So, the idea of her being the one to turn your world upside down. She just… couldn’t do it. She was too scared of being the dead messenger that you would just leave in your wake and never remember again. People do lots of stupid things under extreme duress, but I’m telling you right now, I know when someone is lying or not, and that woman in there, she truly loves you and would never mean to hurt you.”
I let out a large breath I didn’t realize I was holding in. I know Matthew’s right. Anne is like the little sister I never had, and our relationship is more than a subordinate and a superior. More than a meal ticket and a mouth to be fed. More than a rung on a ladder to be climbed and an ambitious young woman. But that doesn’t change one thing, I am still enraged, and maybe just a little bit hurt.
“I know she does,” I say grudgingly.
“There you two are.” Sheriff Stevens says as he pushes open the door. “I wrapped things up with Anne. We’ll still do the handwriting analysis as you requested, but based on that initial interview, I think she’s clean.”
Matthew drops his arm from my shoulder, and we take a few steps toward Sheriff Stevens.
“Regardless of how upset I am with her, I have to agree with you,” I admit. I want to be mad at her, and I still am, but Matthew and Sheriff Stevens are both right. There’s no way she had anything to do with this, and her threat to Adam and dishonesty with me came from good intention.
“Should we move on to Bob?”
Matthew and I nod, following Sheriff Stevens back into the police station.
