Page 68 of Little Buried Secrets

Isaac’s hands began to tremble.

Donna took a step toward him, a look of worry on her face.

Isaac raised a hand, saying, “No, it’s okay, Mom. I’m fine.”

He wiped his hands on his pants, and for a moment, we stood in silence.

Then Donna approached her son, taking his hands in hers.

“What’s going on, Isaac?” she asked. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now. You said you didn’t know Margot. Not well. And now you’re saying you gave her a sticker, and she put it on her bike. I’m so confused.”

If Donna believed she was helping his cause, she was not.

But she was doing a swell job of helping ours.

Isaac stared into his mother’s eyes and whispered, “I was there.”

“You were where?” I asked.

“The night Margot disappeared, my mother wasn’t home. She was playing bingo with a few friends at the community center. I was asleep when she left. When I woke up, I was sweating, and I had a fever. I went to the kitchen to see if there was any stronger medication I could take, and I couldn’t find anything.”

“So you left the house,” I said.

“I did. I went to the store to get some medicine. On the way back home, my headlights flashed on what looked like Margot’s bike on the side of the road. I recognized it because she used to ride it to work sometimes. I got out, looked around, found the piece of her wicker basket with the sticker I’d given her, and I just took it.”

I recalled a conversation I’d had with Foley at the start of the investigation.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I pressed. “You were the one who called the hospital the night Margot went missing. You called to see if she was there.”

“Yeah, it was me.”

“Why did you call the hospital and not the police?” I asked.

“I didn’t think to call the police. I didn’t know she’d been abducted. No one did. Her house wasn’t far from ours, so I did a drive-by on my way home. All the lights were out. Everything seemed normal, so I just came home. It wasn’t until later that I found out she was missing.”

Isaac’s new story seemed a lot more plausible than the other one he’d told, but given we’d caught him in multiple lies, I wasn’t sure what to believe.

Was this new version of his story the truth?

Or was it an even more elaborate lie?

Had he called the hospital on purpose to make it seem like he didn’t know where she was … when she was in fact, with him?

“I need to take you down to the station for questioning,” Whitlock said.

“Why?” Isaac asked. “I’ve told you everything I know, all of it. There’s nothing more to say. I’ve already said I had nothing to do with Margot’s disappearance.”

“People often think they’ve talked about everything,” Whitlock said. “Nine times out of ten, there’s always more. If you’re innocent as you claim to be, a few more questions couldn’t hurt. Right?”

“My son is innocent,” Donna said. “He’s telling the truth.”

The truth was … Donna wasn’t home that night.

The truth was … Isaac had no alibi.

Was he as innocent as he professed?

I had my doubts.

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