Page 96 of The Teacher
But I’m not alone. I’m with Kenzie.
I didn’t tell my mother what I was doing. She would have insisted on hiring a lawyer and making it into a wholething, and then I would’ve lost my nerve. So I told my mother I was going to take a walk with Kenzie, but instead we came here.
But now I think I might have made a mistake. I should have waited for a lawyer. Or maybe just said nothing at all. Kenzie sounded so sure of herself, but it’s not like she’s my best friend. She’s been tormenting me all year! And now somehow I trust her?
Kenzie is obsessively playing with a lock of her blond hair. She’s tugging at it hard enough that I can’t help but wince, and she frowns at the silky blond strands as if angry at them. “My hair is like straw,” she complains.
I look at her in disbelief. Kenzie has the most perfectly silky hair I’ve ever seen. And why is she worrying about her freaking hair when we’re at apolice station? “You have beautiful hair.”
She rolls her eyes at me and goes back to making faces at her hair.
I am losing it, waiting for Detective Sprague to talk to us. Maybe she was nice to me on the street, but that could’ve all been a fake out. And what I am going to tell her is bad stuff. Kenzie had an affair with Nathaniel, but what I did is much worse. I helped him bury a dead body. And I’m not even entirely sure which of us was the one who killed her.
It feels like an eternity, but it’s really more like twenty minutes before Detective Sprague comes into the room. She’s still got her hair in that bun, but it has loosened over the course of the day, and that makes her face look softer. I hope she really is on my side. I hope I don’t spend the rest of my life in prison.
I look over at Kenzie, who is still playing with her hair. Very reluctantly, she tucks the strands behind her ear and raises her eyes to look at the detective.
“Hello, Addie,” Sprague says. Then she turns to Kenzie and gives her a curious look. “Kenzie Montgomery?”
Kenzie nods. “I… Addie and I need to talk to you about Nathaniel Bennett.”
Sprague doesn’t look particularly surprised. She sitsin one of the plastic chairs across from us and folds her fingers together. “I’m listening,” she says.
Kenzie and I exchange looks. We hadn’t agreed beforehand who would go first. I don’t want to go first, and I guess I assumed Kenzie would since it washeridea to come here.
“Kenzie?” Sprague prompts her.
Kenzie glances at me, panic in her eyes, then looks back at the detective. “Oh. Well, we…we just…”
“Is this about Mr. Bennett?”
Kenzie nods wordlessly.
Sprague’s voice softens. “About your relationship with Mr. Bennett?”
Kenzie bows her head, nodding slowly. The detective is quiet, waiting for Kenzie to say something more, but she seems too choked up to say another word. Even though it was her idea to come here, she doesn’t look like she can go on. She squeezes her knees with her chewed-up fingernails as her eyes fill with tears.
I always thought Kenzie seemed so mature, but right now, she looks soyoung. Like a little girl. She was only fourteen when Nathaniel slept with her.Fourteen. And Nathaniel…he’s almost forty! He’s anadult. Ourteacher. I was hurt when I realized that Nathaniel lied to me, but this is the first time that it all hits home.
What he did to us was truly horrible.Unthinkable.
He needs to pay. And Kenzie and I are the only ones who can make sure he gets what he deserves.
“Detective Sprague,” I blurt out, “the truth is Mr. Bennett and I have been sleeping together the entire year. He…he told me not to tell anyone.”
Detective Sprague shakes her head, her eyes on fire.She looks like she wants to take that gun off her holster and empty a few rounds into Nathaniel Bennett. She hasn’t been lying about wanting to help me. You can’t fake the look in her eyes. “That bastard.”
I reach out for Kenzie’s hand, and she gives it to me. We are going to do this together. We are going to tell the truth. I don’t care what kind of trouble I get into. I am tired of lying for that man. He deserves everything that is about to happen to him.
“Now, Addie,” the detective says, “tell me what happened to Eve Bennett.”
And I do. I tell her everything.
Chapter Seventy-Six
NATE
I’ve spentthe last two hours driving around in the rain.
