“I did tell,” I said. “I told Detective Hardy. I told her about you and Brie.”
“I know,” he said. “And I don’t fault you for that. And that didn’t do any harm, because Hardy cleared me right away. Me and Isabel were out of town.”
It occurred to me then that being out of town didn’t absolve anyone, considering that Brie’s murder had been contracted out.
Norman was still talking. “The big thing is, you never told Isabel. It would have destroyed her. Given how much energy she put into ruining your life, it’s a wonder you didn’t want to ruin hers. And, by extension, mine.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” I said. “I did it for Brie.”
“Anyway, it seemed like it was better late than never. That I thank you.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“But there’s more, something else that’s been eating me up since she disappeared,” he said. “I saw her that day.”
“What?”
“That Saturday, of the weekend she disappeared, I went to the house.”
I blinked. This was news to me. “When?”
“In the afternoon. There was a van there. A pest control guy. When he left I went to the door and knocked. Wanted to talk to Brie, to tell her again how sorry I was about what we’d allowed to happen. It was such a stupid thing.”
“You spoke to her?”
“For half a minute. She said she didn’t need any more apologies, that there was nothing more to say, and she sent me away. And that was it.” At this point, he bit into his lower lip briefly. “But I can’t help but think, if I’d hung around, maybe I would have seen... maybe I could have done something. But Isabel and I were driving up to Boston later that day, and I... I’ve always wondered if I could have done more...”
I could understand why he might want to beat himself up, but what had happened to Brie occurred hours after he’d come to the house. I’d spoken to her that evening. Matt, before he died, had as much as said he had come in the middle of the night.
I said, “You saved my life, Norman, showing up when you did, so I think you’ve paid your debt, if there’s even a debt to pay.”
“Yeah, well.”
“There’s one thing you can do for me now,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“I need a phone. Matt, that guy, smashed mine pretty good. I got a few calls I need to make.”
Norman got his out of his pocket, but he seemed reluctant to hand it over. “Just a second,” he said, and did a few taps with his thumb. I had a feeling he was deleting something he didn’t want me to see.
Finally, he handed it over. “Get it back to me soon as you can?”
“I will. Is there a code?”
“Twenty nineteen,” he said. “My thumbprint will open it, too, but I’d kind of like to hang on to that.”
His joke made me think of that severed hand in the woods.
The phone was already active when he handed it to me, so I didn’t need to enter the security code. “Thanks for this,” I said, then powered up the window and hit the gas.
My contacts weren’t going to be in Norman’s phone, so I had to actually recall Jayne’s cell phone number and enter it digit by digit. I put the phone to my ear as I aimed the car in the direction of home.
The phone rang twice.
“Hello?’
I would imagine she was puzzled when she saw Norman’s name or number pop up on her screen.
“It’s me,” I said. “It’s Andrew.”
“Oh my God, I’ve been trying to get you for hours!”
I couldn’t recall ever hearing that level of panic in Jayne’s voice before. “I’m sorry, I—”
“Where have you been? Why are you using Norman’s phone? Are you okay?”
There’d be plenty of time later to bring Jayne up to speed on what had happened to me in the last several hours. What I needed to know now was why she’d been so anxious to reach me.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Where are you?”
“Heading into town.”
“Come straight to police headquarters. I’m talking to Detective Hardy right now.”
That was not where I wanted to be. I had something else on my mind. “What’s going on there?”
“They arrested Tyler for murder.”
“They what?”
“They think he killed the woman who came to your old address.”
“What?” I said again. This was turning into a day of nonstop shocking developments. Jayne’s comment contained more information than maybe she realized. So we now knew who was in the picture? And she was dead? And Tyler had killed her?
I supposed what I’d planned to deal with next could wait.
“I’m on my way,” I said.
Fifty-Three
“That was Andrew,” Jayne told Detective Hardy.
“Let’s find someplace to talk,” the detective said, and steered Jayne down a hallway to another interrogation room. She directed Jayne to a chair, but before she sat down herself she asked whether there was anything she could get Jayne. Water, a coffee?
“Nothing,” Jayne said.
The detective took a seat across from her, pulled the chair in, then sighed sympathetically.
“Do I have to sign something?” Jayne asked. “Do you want me to write it all down?”
“Ms. Keeling, you—”
“I did it. There’s no way Tyler did it.”
“Ms. Keeling, the evidence against your brother is substantial. We have motive. We have opportunity. We have a witness seeing him leave the scene.”
“But you don’t understand, he just wouldn’t do it.”
Hardy offered a sympathetic smile. “I think we both know that’s not true.”
“It is true, he wouldn’t—”
“Would his aunt say the same thing?”
That stopped Jayne for a second. Her eyes danced. “You know about Clara.”
“I know about Clara. Made some calls to Providence. Know some people there. They pulled the file.” Her expression hardened. “He nearly blinded that poor woman.”
Jayne shook her head. “It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, and it doesn’t matter anyway. Because I did it.” Jayne extended her wrists, inviting Hardy to handcuff them.
Hardy ignored the gesture. “So you want to confess.”
“That’s right.”
“Don’t you want a lawyer to advise you?”
“No, I don’t need one. I don’t care about that. I just want to see justice done. And I don’t want to see an injustice done. That’s why I’m telling you this. Tell me what I have to sign so that you can release Tyler.”
“And why did you kill this woman?”
“Because... because I didn’t want her to come back and take Andrew away from me.”
“I see. Except this woman wasn’t Brie Mason.”
“I thought she was at the time. That she was using a different name.”
“Her name was Candace DiCarlo. The neighbors had known her for years. It was something that Albert, Brie’s brother, and Ms. DiCarlo cooked up.”
“What do you mean? Cooked up what?”
“Those performances were designed to persuade Albert’s dying mother that Brie was still alive.”
Jayne was stunned. “Oh my God. That’s... oh my God, that’s insane.”
“No argument. But let’s get back to your confession. I can find you a pad of paper and a pen and you can write it all out for me. But a small matter to clear up first. Once we charge you, who will we release Tyler to?”
Jayne blinked. “To...”
“Not to you, of course. You’ll be in jail, at least until a lawyer can arrange bail, if it’s granted. And if your intention is to plead guilty, you could probably start your sentence right away. So, what about Tyler?”