Page 85 of I Know She Was There

“Tyler?” asked Annie, incredulous. “We thought you were dead.”

“Tim told us you drowned,” I added, my voice shaky. I took in his stringy, uncombed hair and soggy, torn sweatshirt.

“Is that the man who attacked me when I got here earlier—the same guy who chased me around the pond and shoved me into a tree? His name is Tim?” He squinted against the sunbeam just edging through the basement window. “I was so dazed, I fell into the pond and nearly drowned. I’m gonna kill him!”

“Too late,” said Mary, looking at the center of the basement floor.

He swiveled his head toward her voice and followed her gaze to where Tim lay motionless, blood pooling around his torso like gravy. “What happened?”

“I was meeting with my client, Caroline, and her neighbor, Mary, when this man, Caroline’s estranged husband, arrived,” said Annie, sitting forward so Tyler could get a clear view of her. “Tim held a gun on us, forced us into Caroline’s car, and drove here, to my old house,” she lied.

“My God,” said Tyler. “Why would he come here?”

“He was angry with me,” I began.

“Yes, he’d discovered he hadn’t been included in Caroline’s dead mother’s will. He thought it unfair,” explained the lawyer.

“Unfair is putting it mildly,” mumbled Mary as though talking to herself.

“Anyway, he lost his mind,” continued Annie, as vocal now as she was silent before. “He threatened to kill us if we didn’t work with him to change the will.” Her face was a mask of professionalism and her voice held none of the whimpering of mere moments ago. I stared at her.

“But here? In the basement?” asked Tyler, shaking his head as if trying to clear his mind to make room for the new information.

“The house is empty, quiet. An easy place to commit a crime,” said Annie smoothly, shooting me a conspiratorial look. “Tim would know. He’d already done something horrendous here, just weeks ago.” She looked back at Tyler. “Maybe I should share this information in front of the police.”

“The police?” Tyler’s face went blank. “But why?—”

“It’s a criminal act that won’t be easy to listen to.”

“Is it about Ava?” Tyler’s voice was barely a whisper.

“Yes,” Annie stood and walked stiffly over to him, trying to stretch her cramped legs as she moved. Reaching out her hands to clasp his, she said, “You need to call 911.”

“Why?” He pulled back. When Annie remained silent, he said, “Just tell me.”

Annie looked at me again, deciding something. My fate. She took a deep breath. “Tim murdered your wife in this house.”

“No!” He collapsed onto the basement steps.

“I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you.” She wedged herself beside him on the lowest step and placed a hand awkwardly on his shoulder. “Based on what Tim said tonight, we think he may have dumped Ava’s... ummm... body in the pond.”

“Oh my God! Not there! I was in that pond, I could have been in there with her, with her corpse,” he rambled, running his hands through his hair. Suddenly he stopped. “You don’t know this is true. You haven’t seen her...?”

I stepped back, let myself slide down the wall as I stared at nothing. My mouth was as dry as dust. I swallowed. I had to speak up, had to admit what I’d done. I was the one who’d killed an innocent woman. I was the very thing Tim had always accused me of being: a monster. And now I’d silenced him too. Why couldn’t I get my mouth to work, or my voice to confess?

“Wedohave to call the police,” prodded Mary from her dark corner. “Do you have a cell phone, young man?”

Tyler looked at her, his expression dazed in the tentative glow of a new day. He didn’t seem to understand what Mary was asking him.

Is this happening or am I imagining the whole scene?

“Tyler,” prompted Annie, rubbing his arm. “Could I borrow your cell phone?”

He reached into the pocket of his slouchy shorts and produced the phone, his actions mechanical and jerky as an automaton.

Annie spoke into the phone, but her words were too soft to hear. I tried again to speak but my jaw tightened around my silence.

“Tyler?” A woman’s voice at the top of the basement staircase, accompanied by light footsteps. “Did you get my text to meet me here?”

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