Page 43 of The Inmate
Yes, Dawn knew about me and Seth. It wasn’t like I confided in her. She happened to witness Seth’s wife leaving me a threatening note. But she was nice about it. She promised not to tell anyone. God knows who this “friend” is that she told about my exploits. I didn’t even realize she had any friends to blab to.
And it makes me wonder what else she wrote about me.
But what’s the difference? So what if Dawn wrote a few things about me in a couple of stupid emails? She certainly had a unique view of the world, and it doesn’t mean anything she said was true. None of this is realevidenceof anything.
“This is harassment, Detective.” I grit my teeth. “I’ve got to get to work. And we don’t even know anything bad really happened to Dawn. She probably just took off on a trip without telling anyone.”
A deep crease forms between his eyebrows. “No. She didn’t.”
“Well, how do you know?”
“Because,” he says, “we found Dawn’s body early this morning.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
My legsalmost give out from under me. I reach for the banister of my stairwell, but it’s not enough. I sink onto the first step. My head is spinning, and for a moment, I have to put it between my legs.
We found Dawn’s body early this morning.
No. It couldn’t be.
“She…” I gulp. “She’s dead?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t realize until this moment that I had believed Dawn was still alive. Even though I saw that blood on the floor in her house, I still truly thought she had to be okay.
But she’s not okay. She’ll never be okay again. Now she will spend the rest of eternity buried in the ground. There will be a funeral, where we will talk about how much we miss Dawn. About what a great person she was, about how she was taken from us far, far too early.
“What happened to her?” I manage.
He hesitates for a moment, as if he’s not sure he wants to tell me. “She was beaten to death with a blunt object. She died of head trauma.”
I let out an anguished cry. That sounds like an absolutely horrible way to die. Beaten to death. Poor Dawn. Even though she was strange, there was an innocence about her that made her seem almost like a child sometimes. Who would do something like that to her?
I lift my eyes again to look up at the detective. He thinksIam the one who did this to her. He thinks I somehow beat her to death with a blunt object. As if I could do such a thing.
I mean, physically I suppose I could. Dawn was such a small person. She could not have weighed more than 100 pounds dripping wet. And I am admittedly in pretty good physical condition. He just caught me going for a run. So I suppose it isn’t out of the question that Itheoreticallycould have done it to her.
Butwhy? Why would he think I did it?
“This is terrible.” My voice trembles as a tear rolls down my cheek. “I… I can’t believe it.”
“It’s a terrible thing,” he agrees. “So you see why we want the person responsible for doing this to her to be brought to justice.”
I swipe at my eyes with the back of my hand. “Yes. Yes, of course.”
“So would you mind if I took a look around your house?”
I stare at him. “Around my house? Why would you—”
“Like I said. We just want the person responsible for doing this to her to be brought to justice.”
“I…” My mouth feels almost too dry to get out any words. I have to clear my throat. “I have an alibi for that night. I told you that already.”
“Right.” He nods. “Right, the boyfriend. I forgot.”
“Right,” I say tightly.
