Detective Hardy: I see.
Tyler: I would never, ever do anything like that. I didn’t hurt her. I didn’t touch her or anything. You have to believe me.
Detective Hardy: You’d never lose your temper, maybe do something you really didn’t mean to do?
Tyler: Never.
Detective Hardy: How’s your aunt doing? Clara, isn’t it?
Tyler: What?
Detective Hardy: How’s her eye coming along?
Tyler: That was a totally different — who told you about her?
Detective Hardy: Before I came in here I got off the phone with some folks in Providence. Seems you had a little trouble there.
Tyler: It was an accident.
Detective Hardy: Just looking at the report here... Here we go. Smashed a glass and some shards went into her eye. That sound about right?
Tyler: I didn’t throw it at her. I wasn’t aiming at her. I didn’t know that would happen. I tried to get it out. I took her to the hospital.
Detective Hardy: What would make you so angry that you would do something like that, Tyler? Did she provoke you? Had she thrown something at you? Was she abusive?
Tyler: It wasn’t like that.
Detective Hardy: Help me understand. You’d gone to live with her after your father died, right? Was she mean to you? Demanding? Not understanding everything that you’d been through?
Tyler: She was always trying to be so... so nice.
Detective Hardy: I’m sorry?
Tyler: She was always worried about my feelings, like, how I was dealing with my dad, you know, dying and everything. It was like she wanted me to have a meltdown or something, like it would be a breakthrough, and I wanted her to just leave me alone.
Detective Hardy: So your aunt nearly loses an eye because she cared too much. That what you’re saying?
Tyler: It makes it sound bad when you put it like that.
Detective Hardy: I guess what I’m sitting here wondering, Tyler, is, if you could get that angry with someone who was trying to help you, how angry might you get with someone who was threatening the very stability of your home situation?
Tyler: I don’t... it wasn’t...
Detective Hardy: What do you think might have happened if this woman had been Brie Mason? And if Andrew decided to leave your sister and resume married life with Brie?
Tyler: I don’t know.
Detective Hardy: I imagine your sister would have been devastated. A lot for her to deal with. I wonder if she would have found looking after you more than she could deal with. Maybe she would have to find another place for you to live. Is that what you were thinking?
Tyler: I don’t know what I was thinking. But it wasn’t that. I panicked. That’s why I ran. Maybe I figured that cops like you would find a way to blame me for it so I had to get out of there.
Detective Hardy: It doesn’t look very good for you, Tyler. You were there. You had Ms. DiCarlo’s blood on you. A witness saw you fleeing the scene. Got it on video, even. And you had a reason for what you did. You know what might help, Tyler? If you just got it off your chest. Unburdened yourself. Admit what you did. That you were overwhelmed. That you struck out at this woman, she fell and hit her head on the way down, and she died. I don’t think you ever meant for that to happen. But that’s the way it went down.
Tyler: I swear, I—
There is a knock on the interrogation room door. Questioning suspended.
Hardy exited the room. A uniformed officer was standing there.
“She’s demanding to see you,” he said.
“The sister?”
“That’s right.”
Hardy nodded. “With lawyer in tow, no doubt. Check in on him in there every once in a while. Get him a drink of water or something.”
Hardy found her way to the police station entrance, where Jayne Keeling was sitting alone on a bench, looking at her phone. When she saw Hardy, she tucked the phone into her purse and stood.
“Ms. Keeling,” Hardy said, approaching her.
“How is Tyler?”
“He’s fine.”
“I want you to release him,” Jayne said.
“When I heard you were here I thought you might have brought a lawyer.”
“You can’t hold him. He’s a kid.”
“I’m afraid we can hold him, Ms. Keeling. He’s the prime suspect in a homicide.”
“He didn’t do it,” Jayne said.
“Ms. Keeling, if you love your brother, and it’s obvious to me that you do, the best thing you can do for him is get him legal representation. Like I told you before.”
“You don’t understand,” Jayne said. “That’s not why I’m here.”
“Why are you here, Ms. Keeling?”
“I’m here to confess,” Jayne said. “Tyler didn’t kill that woman. I did.”
Fifty-Two
Andrew
I sat there, in the woods, until it was clear Matt was dead, then worked my way back to my car. The keys were in it. As I got in, I tucked Matt’s gun into a pocket in the driver’s door, turned the vehicle around, then drove back out to the main road, where I found Norman leaning up against his silver Nissan. I powered down the window.
“Ambulance should be here any second,” he said.
I nodded, like there was still time. “They better hurry,” I said.
“You’re not leaving?” Norman asked.
“I am.”
“You can’t. You’re going to have to talk to the police about whatever happened back there.”
“They’ve always figured out how to find me,” I said.
“Andrew,” he said, coming close to the driver’s window, “what the hell was that?”
“That man killed Brie. And that was where he buried her. After Saturday’s events, he wanted to be sure she was still where he’d left her. Wanted me along to try and identify her.” Another pause. “It’s her.”
“But then who—”
“I don’t know who it was that you and Isabel and Albert, and my old neighbor, saw on Saturday. I still can’t figure it out.”
“But why... why did that man kill Brie?”
“He was hired to do it,” I told him.
“Jesus,” he said. “By who? Did he say?”
“No,” I lied.
Did I catch something in his eye at that moment? Relief? No, I didn’t think so. Unless Matt had lied to me in his final moments, Norman was in the clear.
Like I said, unless he lied. You reach a point where you don’t believe anything that anyone says.
“So why’d you follow me up here?” I asked. “Why’d you call the other night?”
Norman took a breath. “Because of Elizabeth, in part.”
I waited.
“I had some time alone with her and she wanted to know if I’d ever shown any gratitude for what you did. Or, more like what you didn’t do.”
“I wouldn’t have expected any,” I said. “Your wife’s had you and the whole family convinced I killed Brie.”
He shook his head. “I was never sold on that. I mean, yeah, I wondered, but I felt you were as devastated by her going missing as the rest of us. You were Isabel’s scapegoat. Someone to blame to make herself feel better. Anyway, Elizabeth said I owed you one, for never telling.”
Norman let those last three words hang out there for a moment.