Page 93 of Everything She Feared

The video was time-and date-stamped.

Pierce then played footage from the camera at Sparrow Song Park. It showed the Sunny Days school bus arriving. Then a Chevrolet pickup came partially into the frame, stopping as if watching the passengers disembark, the last being Anna Shaw and Katie Harmon walking far behind the others as they disappeared down the trail.

At the edge of the frame, the pickup wheeled around to leave before the footage froze on its Washington State license plate, confirming it was the vehicle Tanner drove from True Ocean Auto. The footage was also time-and date-stamped, falling within the distance and driving time from Lake City in Seattle to the park near North Bend.

Pierce let Tanner consider the evidence.

“Let me lay it all down for you, Tanner,” she said. “We investigated with the people at True Ocean. They hired you as a favor to your dad, who knows the service manager, didn’t they?”

Tanner didn’t answer. His dad cleared his throat. Pierce continued.

“The people at True Ocean were very cooperative. We know you know all the keypad codes to the locks on all lot gates, and you have access to all the keys to all vehicles in for servicing. You can even see the invoices that show when someone will pick up their serviced vehicle.”

Pierce glanced at her notebook.

“You would’ve known the Silverado was serviced ahead of schedule and that the owner wasn’t picking it up until the end of the day. You also knew about the security cameras on True Ocean’s lots. In fact, you switched one off that morning. But you missed the safety feature it had to protect against outages, so it was actually never off.”

Pierce paused.

“You’re facing charges for theft of a motor vehicle, a felony with a maximum sentence of ten years and a twenty-thousand-dollar fine.”

Pierce let that sink in.

“Here’s where it gets worse, Tanner,” she said. “You weren’t even supposed to work that day. Yet you went to the dealer early that morning and took the Silverado and drove it to the park. We know the Sunny Days trip to the park was posted in advance online. It wasn’t a secret. Your actions suggest planning, premeditation.”

Pierce looked at Tanner, then her notes. “You told us that Anna had broken up with you because she thought you’d cheated on her with Shelby. You said she was ‘pissed at me. Angry with me. Heartbroken.’ Correct?”

Tanner licked his lips and swallowed, said nothing.

“As far as Anna was concerned, you two were done. It was over,” Pierce said. “But you were desperate to reconcile, to get her back. Is that why you stole a vehicle and followed her to the park that morning, to get her alone?”

Tanner’s face whitened.

“Did something go wrong in your attempt to talk to her at the park? Maybe things got heated, she shoved you, then you grabbed something to strike her and shoved her back. You didn’t mean it—it was an accident.”

Tanner shut his eyes for a moment and Pierce kept going.

“How can you explain that you, you of all people, Tanner, you with this emotional tornado in your heart, committed a felony, pursued Anna and got to the park at the same time Anna was killed?”

Tears rolled down Tanner’s cheeks; he wiped them with his sleeves.

Pierce twisted her pen in her hand while Benton eyed the teenager, his poker face betraying nothing.

“If Anna’s death was an accident—” Benton said, halting when Tanner started shaking his head. “Tanner, if you didn’t mean for it to happen, now’s the time to tell us the truth.”

Tanner’s chair creaked, and he turned to his father, meeting the face of a man battling anger and fear. Through gritted teeth, Tanner’s dad said: “Tell them.”

Tanner looked to the lawyer, Whitney Bowen, who nodded.

“Go ahead,” she said. “Tell them what happened.”

Tanner searched his empty hands for the words.

“I kinda lost my mind,” he began. “I couldn’t handle losing Anna.”

Benton leaned closer, and Pierce studied Tanner, noticing him squeezing his eyes shut and wincing as he spoke.

“I’d put a dent in my dad’s SUV, so he banned me from using it. I knew Anna was going out to the park with Sunny Days, and I knew the time. I woke up hurting so bad, aching to talk to her, to make her understand. So it was like an impulsive thing, something I just had to do that morning.

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