Page 87 of I Know She Was There

“No, of course not! I’ve stayed away because this is the first place they’d look for me. I thought this Tim, who I met earlier tonight, was one of those hunting me. I ran when he approached me in the dark kitchen upstairs.”

“Why?” asked Skinny.

“Wouldn’t you run if a man came out of the shadows and started yelling at you?”

I raised my forehead and opened my eyes, which were level with Tyler’s droopy shorts. The baggy drawers began to quiver. The officers said nothing more.

“I’m staying over on Woodmint at a client’s house.” Tyler’s voice notched up and he began talking faster. “He got transferred across the country for a year and he asked me to keep an eye on the place. But he doesn’t know I’ve been living there, camped out in the back bedroom, where I disabled his monitoring camera. Only that room and the garage are free from surveillance.”

“What does that have to do with your visit tothishouse tonight?” Chubby interjected.

“Ava’s brothers found me at the other house. Blasted me with a flashlight when I was sleeping. I’m lucky they didn’t shoot me, but I wasn’t going to wait around until they changed their minds. This is the only other empty house in the neighborhood that I know of. I figured I’d wait until well after midnight when all was quiet before letting myself in. My plan was to crash for a few hours and leave before dawn.”

My arm throbbed, and my gut twisted in remorse. Not only had I killed Ava, but I’d devastated her family and terrorized her husband.

“But this other man—Tim Case—harmed Ava?” asked Chubby.

Tyler nodded. “And dumped her body in the pond across the street.”

“How do you know that?” asked Skinny.

“Tim told us.” Annie’s voice.

“You don’t know that’s true,” cut in Jane. “You can’t rely on what these women tell you.”

“And you are... who?” Chubby asked.

“Jane Brockton,” she announced, straightening her spine, and stepping onto the concrete floor. “I live in the neighborhood, and I can tell you that woman is crazy.” She pointed at me. “She could have attacked Tyler’s wife. She walks the streets pushing an empty baby carriage and spies on the residents.”

My eyes connected with Jane’s. I was speechless in the face of her narrowed eyes, pursed lips, and bunched eyebrows. Jane Brockton hated me. She was also more astute than I’d realized.

“That’s not exactly true,” Annie chimed in. “Caroline went undercover, so to speak, monitoring her estranged husband’s activities. She knew Tim was creeping around the neighborhood and inserting himself into the lives of the residents.”

“What better way to investigate than by pretending to soothe a colicky child with a nightly stroll?” Mary added.

“We’re familiar with Mrs. Case,” said Skinny. “Ava Hansen’s disappearance correlates with the night and time she reported seeing Mrs. Hansen, clearly hurt, fall into an upstairs window of her home.”

“Why didn’t you take me seriously?” I asked, my voice husky from disuse. “You might have caught...”me.

Skinny sighed. “We had no evidence other than?—”

“An eyewitness account,” finished Annie.

“You mean she—this woman has been working with you?” Jane flushed. “All this time, she’s been working with the police?”

“She’s been trying to,” said Mary. “But nobody would believe her.”

CHAPTER44

TWO MONTHS LATER

The cemetery was frigid this time of year, just days before Thanksgiving, the grass around Emmy’s grave stiff with frost. I reached down and placed the tender pink carnations against the tombstone, assuring my baby that once I was settled in the South Carolina town Mary had chosen for us, I’d have her moved near me. It was surprisingly inexpensive to exhume a casket and relocate it.

Not that money was a problem anymore. Annie had settled the details of my mother’s estate for me, once she returned what she’d stolen. Saving her life, and disposing of Tim’s, which had freed her to be with Jeffrey, had prompted the change of heart and established our circle of trust. She knew I’d keep her secret, and she’d keep mine—for a price. Murder, after all, carries a much harsher penalty than embezzlement. And Annie was a businesswoman through and through. Like it or not, the lawyer and her exorbitant fees would be with mein perpetuity.

The other professionals in my life would have to go. Dr. Ellison and Tasha Turner knew me too well to remain my head doctors. Mary explained it was just a matter of time until they figured out what had actually happened to the woman I’d seen in the window, and my role in it. Even keeping connected through Zoom was out of the question. But my mental health advocates both wished me well and recommended colleagues in the area where we were relocating. All Mary and I had to do was call the movers and head out of town. We’d already packed our belongings. I’d reluctantly agreed to my neighbor’s plan, still amazed she’d want anything to do with me. I murdered a complete stranger, I’d reminded her. What was to stop me from killing a friend? But Mary wasn’t worried. She’d explained she believed it was the rage against Tim deep inside me that had taken over. She wasn’t going to do anything to incite such deep-seated fury.

I looked around the barren cemetery. Not a living soul in sight. The trees breaking up the endless rows of marble markers appeared as nothing more than massive sticks, adding to, instead of relieving, the starkness. The wind whipped my hair wildly around my head and sent a chill into me that my wool coat couldn’t protect me from.

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