Page 33 of What Have You Done?

‘What about me?’ Cameron asks.

‘You stay here, we’ll talk to him first,’ Edward says.

Edward and Shelby leave the room and seek out the lawyer in the waiting area. He’s a man in his late forties named Steven Hanlan, and he has a confident, all-business air about him. He’s one of the top criminal attorneys in Burlington, and as soon as he lays eyes on him, Edward feels a little better. They no longer have to manage this on their own.

‘Let’s find someplace private to talk,’ the attorney says, hefting his briefcase and leading them to a quieter area with some empty chairs, where they won’t be overheard. He speaks in a low voice. ‘What’s the situation?’

Edward brings him up to speed. ‘I know it looks bad,’ Edward concedes, when he’s finished. ‘But there’s no way he did this. He’s a good kid. And he loved her.’ But he knows that women are often killed by men who love them. He glances at Shelby, who doesn’t seem to have recovered from the shock of the police interview and is very quiet.

‘I’m not going to ask if he did it or not,’ the attorney says. ‘My job is to defend him, and I will do that to the best of my ability.’ He stands up and says, ‘Let me talk to him alone.’ Edward tells him where to find Cameron, and he sets off down the hall.

Once he’s gone, Shelby begins to cry. He takes her in his arms. She whispers, ‘Edward, I’m scared. What was he doing over there?’

Edward pulls back and looks at her. They have to get through this, somehow. ‘I don’t know.’

They sit in miserable silence until they are asked by Detective Stone to join them again in the interview room.

They all settle in to continue the interview, this time with the attorney present, and Stone makes the introductions for the tape. Then he takes up where they left off. ‘Cameron, what did you do when you got out of the truck?’

Edward watches in fear, his heart in his throat. He’s never been so frightened in his life. Not even when Cameron was born, the umbilical cord wound twice around his neck, an Apgar score of zero.

‘I lied, before.’

Edward’s heart jumps.

Cameron seems to prepare himself. He begins to speak in a monotone. ‘When I was sitting in the truck, I texted Diana several times that I wanted to talk, but she didn’t answer.’ He glances at the attorney, who nods at him. Cameron pulls his phone out of his pocket. ‘Here, I can show you.’

Edward wishes he could see those texts. Perhaps he should have asked his son to let him see his phone earlier, but it hadn’t occurred to him.

Stone and Godfrey silently study the texts on the phone and then Stone puts the phone back down on the table, close to him. ‘Okay, then what?’ he presses.

‘I didn’t know what to do. I thought she was still mad and ignoring me, or that maybe she’d turned off her notifications. The light was still on in the living room.’ Then he stares down at the table and speaks in a rush. ‘I didn’t want to leave things the way they were, so I – I got out of the truck and knocked on her front door. I knocked a few times, but she didn’t answer.’

‘And then?’ Stone asks.

Edward is desperate to hear Cameron say, I got back in the truck and went home. The attorney looks concerned and puts a hand on Cameron’s forearm, shaking his head at him.

But Cameron ignores him and continues, ‘I went around to the back of the house.’ He swallows nervously. ‘Her bedroom’s in the back. The light was on in her room. I called her name a few times. I even threw some dirt at her window, thinking that would get her attention. But she didn’t answer. I figured she was still mad and ignoring me. Then I went back to the truck and drove around for a while and went home.’

‘Is that right?’ Detective Stone says flatly.

Edward can tell the detective doesn’t believe him. He can’t bring himself to look at his wife.

‘I know it looks bad,’ Cameron says in a rush, ‘but I didn’t kill her! I should have told you everything right from the beginning, I know that. But now I’m wondering – what if she was already dead? What if somebody killed her after I dropped her off at eleven? Before I came back? And that’s why she didn’t answer? Because I think she would have answered me if she could. Even if she’d turned her phone off, she would have heard me knocking at the door, or calling at her window.’

Stone looks unconvinced. He says, ‘We think the killer accessed the house from the backyard. We found impressions in the grass there.’

Edward sees Cameron shaking his head, agitated. Cameron finally glances at his attorney, who doesn’t look happy at all. Edward feels queasy.

Cameron says, ‘I didn’t go in the house, I swear!’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

IT’S EARLY SATURDAY evening and Brenda is sitting with the detectives again in her living room. They tell her Cameron has retained an attorney. She finds that disturbing. It makes her feel nauseated, that she let that boy into her house. That she allowed him to take her daughter out in his truck all over the countryside at night when she was away in another town at work.

Detective Stone asks now, ‘Did Diana ever talk to you about her gym teacher?’

Brenda furrows her brow in confusion. ‘Her running coach? Mr Turner?’ Stone nods. ‘No, not really.’

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