Page 17 of Collapse

“So…about Freddy,” she said softly, knowing I was awake now. “You want to know what happened to him?”

“Yes,” I said tentatively.

“Fine,” she said, surprising me. I sat perfectly still, trying not to say or do anything to change her mind. “He hadn’t done anything wrong. You all thought so, and I get it. He was caught in the house with the woman. He didn’t know a neighbor had called you guys because of the noise. He came to help her boyfriend, but he was too late. And then the police showed up. Conclusions were drawn.”

I knew that was why her Community didn’t like the police, but had we drawn conclusions? He hadn’t said a word to explain himself. Not even his name. Some of the officers knew him, though. In retrospect, that was not a surprise. I hadn’t asked around, but I would bet that was the case with Evans as well. She would show up in odd places, wouldn’t she?

“Then what?” I asked.

“We decided to get him out. I’m not going to tell you any names,” she added.

“Fair enough.”

“We waited for the car transporting him to Ashdale. Forced them to stop and broke him out. We didn’t hurt the driver or the guard. We got Freddy and took him away. New name, new place. Good luck trying to find him.”

I smiled at that. Not that she could see it. There had been five masked people stopping that vehicle, and the guards thought one or two had been women.

“The doors of that car were opened with force. Part of the metal was bent. And the guys in the truck reported that they couldn’t get out of it. The doors were stuck.”

“Sounds about right.”

“So…my guess is, that was Annalise’s doing. Not that you are naming names.” I could feel her tense a moment at that, but she let it go. Sank back against me.

“Good luck trying to get her, too.”

“I’m not trying to get anyone,” I said. “I didn’t know any of this at the time. And anyway, why didn’t he say why he was in the house? Why didn’t he name the boyfriend?”

“Would you have believed him? And even if you had…her boyfriend was not in a good place. He needed help, and not the kind of help any outsider in a correctional facility could provide.”

“So, Miller took the blame?”

“Just so.”

That was messed up. Kind, but messed up. The man’s life had become completely uprooted because of something he himself had not done. And yes, I believed her. How could I not by this point?

“Is that all you have to expect as well?” I asked her. “That sooner or later something bad will happen and you will take the blame?” She didn’t say anything. “Or has that already taken place? Is that why you came here five years ago?”

“No, that was not the same,” she said, surprising me again. “Someone in the FBI had discovered what I could do. They hounded me. It put others at risk of being found out as well. I couldn’t do my job…so I had to leave.”

“And this was in Seattle?” It was the only information I had obtained about her past before this. It had, of course, come from our friend, Larkin.

She nodded in response.

“So, it is expected of you to give up your lives like that?”

“Not really, but it happens.”

“That is messed up.”

“The names are the worst,” she said, closing her eyes a moment.

“What do you mean? Names?”

“Getting used to new names every time.”

I drew breath a moment. This was what I had suspected all along. That there were identity switches involved.

“The names are reminders of what you’ve left behind, you know?” she said and opened her eyes again.

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