Page 84 of The Teacher
“I never should have let her go to the station by herself.” My voice cracks. “I offered to give her a ride, but she told me it was fine. She never wanted to inconvenience me, you know?”
I look up at the detective’s face to see if she is buying any of this. Her expression is unreadable.
“I have to ask you, Mr. Bennett,” she says. “Where were you last night?”
“As I said, I went out to dinner at a bar, since my wife wasn’t home.” I’m sure the pretty female bartender will confirm that I was there for hours. I even flirted with her, although she wasn’t my type. “It was late before I came home, and Eve was already gone.”
“And what is your relationship like with your wife?” she presses me. “Have you been fighting or…”
I bark out a laugh. “Fighting? God no. Eve and I have the happiest marriage of any couple we know. You could ask any of our friends. In fact…” I swallow so that my Adam’s apple bobs visibly. “We’ve been trying to have a baby.”
Sprague’s face is still impassive. I may have had the acting classes, but she has the best poker face of anyone I have seen. It’s hard to tell if she believes I’m a worried husband or if she’s penciling me into her list of suspects. “And is there anyone out there who might have wanted to hurt her?”
I hesitate on purpose.
She raises her eyebrows. “Mr. Bennett?”
“I didn’t want to bring this up,” I say, “but you’re going to find out sooner or later. There is one student of Eve’s who seems to have a grudge against her. Her name is Adeline Severson.”
“I see.” She grabs what looks like a small iPad off her belt and scribbles a few notes. “And what exactly happened between your wife and the student?”
I let out a sigh. “I’m sure this girl couldn’t be behind it all, but the truth is it was a bit frightening. Eve caught her cheating on a test, and although she ended up giving her a minimal punishment, it seems that Adeline never forgave her. Two nights ago, we caught her lurkingoutside our home, although she denied it when we brought our suspicions to the principal.”
“Uh-huh…”
“And there’s one other thing.” I walk over to the desk we keep in the corner of the living room and open the top drawer. I pull out a piece of notebook paper with a handwritten scribble on it. I bring it over to the detective. “She left this for Eve in her mailbox at school.”
Sprague’s eyes skim over the writing on the page. As she reads, I can hear the sharp inhale of her breath. “This is serious stuff, Mr. Bennett. How come you didn’t bring this to the police in the first place?”
“Adeline has had a difficult year,” I explain. “About a year ago, her father died. She was stalking another teacher last year, and most of the other students at the school have ostracized her. We didn’t want to make her life more difficult, and we tried to deal with it within the school.”
Sprague is writing all this down. I even notice her underlining something. When a woman is killed, the husband or boyfriend—me—is always the prime suspect. Unless another possible perpetrator is offered.
I am offering Addie.
“All right,” she finally says, “looks like I’ll be paying Miss Severson a visit. Before I do, do you mind if I take a quick look around here?”
“Of course. Please go ahead.”
I don’t know what exactly she is looking for. Perhaps my wife’s body sprawled out in the middle of the living room? I suppose there are criminals that stupid.
Sprague makes a quick pass around the living room. She checks the bathroom next, which is utterlyunexciting. Then she points at the room where I strangled my wife to death less than twenty-four hours ago. “That the kitchen?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
She opens the door to the kitchen, and when she gets to the center of the room, her eyes zero in on something lying on the floor. When I realize what she’s looking at, my heart drops into my stomach.
Chapter Sixty-Six
NATE
It’sanother pair of Eve’s pumps. Right in the middle of our kitchen.
These shoes are a brilliant blue color. I recognize them as one of her favorite pairs. And the soles are caked with dirt.
I feel utterly nauseated. What are Eve’s shoes doing in the middle of the kitchen? The pumps in the shower were odd, but my wife does odd things all the time. But this is different. I was in the kitchen earlier, cooking a continental breakfast. If these shoes had been there, I surely would have seen them.
Wouldn’t I?
