Page 71 of Stay Away from Him

Kelli was the one to say it.

“Rose’s body has been found.”

***

“The online group helped find the body,” Kelli said. “One of our members showed Thomas’s photo around to some friends and family, and one of them recognized him. Her elderly father. He liveson an acreage up north, and he remembers seeing Thomas late one night. Parked on the side of the road, poking around some woods, a creek. Looked like he was looking for a place to dump something.”

Melissa turned her face away so Kelli couldn’t see her reaction. They’d moved inside, out of the cold, and now Kelli and Derek sat together on Melissa’s couch, explaining what had been found. They’d only just started, but already Melissa found herself wanting to argue with their evidence.

“He remembers this from three years ago?” she asked. “Come on, Kelli. Maybe he saw someone—but how can we be sure it was Thomas? What if he looked at the photo and wrote his face onto a memory of seeing someone else?”

“Fair point,” Kelli said. “And that’s possible. But Melissa, the place where he thinks he remembers seeing Thomas poking around—the local police dug there, and they found the body. It’s Rose. DNA evidence proves it. It’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it? For him to be sighted in the place where her body is found?”

“It still could’ve been someone other than Thomas,” Melissa said. “The stalker, for instance.”

Derek spoke next. “I’m sorry, I know you think he’s innocent. And I know he just asked you to marry him.”

Melissa let out a sound of disgust. Neither of these people should have known anything about her and her personal life—the only reason they knew Thomas proposed that night was that they watched Carter’s video. One of the worst days of her life was public knowledge. She felt exposed, dissected, her insides spread out for everyone to examine.

“There’s more you should know,” Derek said. “Rose’s body was wrapped in a tarp. The same kind of tarp Thomas purchased the day Rose went missing. There’s no way to prove it’s the exact same one, but it’s the right color, the right brand. And Rose’s body has fibers on it that match the upholstery in the back of Thomas’s car.”

“I’m sure she drove it too,” Melissa said. “Put things in the back. Groceries. There’s plenty of reasons why she might have those fibers on her body.”

She was saying these things—but more and more, with each passing second, she didn’t believe them. It was hard to keep her faith in Thomas’s innocence in the face of this onslaught of evidence.

By their faces, Kelli and Derek seemed to know that she barely believed what she was saying. Kelli shrugged indulgently, the way you might with a petulant child, and Derek gave a considered nod, the corners of his mouth turned down ponderously.

“Possibly,” Derek said. “I suppose that could introduce some reasonable doubt. I’m sure these are all things that will be considered, when the case goes in front of a jury.”

Melissa drew in a breath. “They’re bringing the charges back?”

Derek nodded. “I’ve been up there where the body was discovered most of the morning—not in any official capacity; I just had a day off and headed up there since I have an interest in the case. I was able to speak to some of the officers there, and I also called some old friends at the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, to see how the coordination was going. From what I hear, they think they’ve got what they need to bring the charges back, and actually bring the case to trial this time.”

Melissa’s first thought at hearing all this was of Thomas, sitting in a cell somewhere for beating Carter to within an inch of his life. Not knowing what was about to hit him. He’d be charged with assaulting Carter, of course—that seemed like a pretty open-and-shut case. And by the sound of it, the charges for murdering Rose would drop on him soon too. By the time he was arraigned on Monday, his bail was likely to be in the hundreds of thousands. If they granted him bail at all.

“What the hell am I going to do?” Melissa said out loud, even though she was half talking to herself.

“I don’t know,” Derek said. “That’s up to you. I know you’re involved with this man. But if I were you, I’d turn my attention to my son.”

Melissa gave him a sharp look—who was he to tell her what to do with her son? But then she realized he was right. Guilty or not, this was a mess Thomas and Melissa’s relationship wasn’t likely to survive. He was slipping away from her—if he, the real Thomas, was ever truly hers to begin with. She couldn’t lose Bradley too.

“Melissa,” Kelli said, “think about this. Carter has said he’s going to go after custody of your son. He has Thomas on video beating him half to death. And now Thomas is about to go on trial for the murder of his wife. Don’t you think it would be a good idea to split with him? And to make it public?”

Itwouldmake sense—there was no denying the wisdom in what Kelli was saying. She just wasn’t ready to admit it to these two people.

More than that, Melissa wasn’t ready to let go of what she had just a few hours before. The perfect moment on the pier, when Thomas sank to one knee and told her he wanted to love her forever. The moment when she saw her future stretch out perfect and golden all the way to the horizon.

Before everything fell apart.

Transcript of Recording

Thomas:I owe you an apology.

[pause]

Thomas:Are you going to say anything?

Amelia:I’m listening.

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