Page 86 of I Know She Was There

A strangled cry issued from the man’s lips as he leaned his head forward, dropping it into his hands.

“Is that you down there?” came the voice I now knew so well: Jane Brockton. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You weren’t next door. And that crazy bitch who stalks the neighborhood tried to get in my house. Can you believe it? She said she’d been kidnapped and brought here. And then she ran off.” Jane had been talking so fast she had to pause to catch her breath. “I came right over and found the house empty, but I didn’t look down there. It was so dark.” She paused. “Can you come up here?”

“Just come down,” called Mary, her tone tinged with irritation. Jane clearly annoyed everyone.

“I don’t... Who are you?” Jane faltered.

“Come down and find out,” said Mary. “Or better still, wait up there and direct the police to us.”

“But I didn’t call the?—”

“I can’t talk, Jane,” interrupted Tyler. “Not now, not...”

I couldn’t stop looking at him, at the way he hung his head. I’d done this to him. I loathed myself with an intensity that made my stomach knot and churn.

“Could you untie my hands?” asked Mary from a few feet away. I looked at her—at the awkward position she was forced to sit in with her hands bound behind her. Guilt added to the toxic brew bubbling in my gut. Why hadn’t I untied her?

I got up and stumbled over to her.This is a dream. Only a dream. A nightmare I’d awaken from and chastise myself for my hideous imagination. After all, how could I kill a woman I’d never met—and not even remember I’d done it? But I had recalled parts of it. I knelt beside the old lady and began tugging at the knotted rope binding her wrists.

“When the police come, don’t say a word,” Mary whispered. “Let Annie and me do all the talking.”

“But I can’t, I?—”

“Just stay quiet,” she warned.

Noise above us cut off our discussion. Jane’s high pitch echoed down the basement steps, followed by deeper male voices. The police had arrived.

The footsteps on the basement staircase were measured, precise. Tyler scrambled off the lowest one and stood, spotlighted in an officer’s flashlight beam, even though sunshine had fully engulfed the dismal interior of our makeshift dungeon. Two officers stood looking around as Jane hovered on the staircase behind them like a moth trying to get closer to a lit lantern. I stared at the men in their blue uniforms: Skinny and Chubby from the fateful day I’d encountered Ava Hansen. I opened my mouth to confess the truth, but stiffness engulfed my neck and jaw, freezing the bones in place. Taking each of us in, Skinny introduced himself and his partner, but, as before, I couldn’t get my mind to focus on their names. He then crossed to Tim and placed a finger against the pulpy mass that was once my husband’s neck. His eyes met Chubby’s and he shook his head.

“What happened here?” asked Chubby, angling his light beam on Tim’s pathetic corpse, weighed down by massive amounts of blood. I looked away from the man I’d vowed to honor until “death us do part” as Annie launched into her altered tale of events, adding embellishments this time around.

The officers listened quietly as the lawyer produced testimony worthy of a court defense: the abduction, Tim’s confession, and the life-and-death struggle between my estranged husband and myself.

Chubby looked at me, a quizzical expression on his face.

“Is this true, Mrs. Case?”

I stared back, unable to say a word.

“She’s in shock,” piped up Mary from her corner. “She doesn’t even realize she’s been shot. You really need to call for an ambulance.”

I was afraid to look at my neighbor. Mary’s tall tale was bound to unravel Annie’s carefully plotted storyline. I looked down at my arms. Blood coated my hands, forearms, and chest.Tim’s blood.

The police would discover the truth. I wanted them to.

Skinny removed a cell phone from his pocket and pressed the surface. A dispatcher’s voice blared out of the phone speaker. He paused, listening, then started speaking into it. I caught very little of what he said other than, “We have two victims, one deceased and one shot in the left shoulder.”

As soon as he said it, intense pain radiated down my left arm. I looked at my shoulder where the dark hoodie was ripped and torn, blood and tatters of the pink T-shirt beneath spilling through the gouge.

The room began to spin. I let my head drop against the wall and closed my eyes. With any luck, I’d die of blood loss before the ambulance arrived.

“Why are you here?” asked Chubby. I didn’t know whom he was addressing until Tyler’s tenor answered the question, relaying his role in our drama.

“But why would you show up in the middle of the night?” pressed Chubby.

“Ava’s family is wealthy and powerful. They own the house we live in,” said Tyler. “They kicked me out after Ava went missing and threatened my life. Her brothers have people looking for me. They think I did something to her.”

“Did you?” asked Skinny, point-blank.

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