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‘Did you ever see her at the Sharpes’ cabin?’
He nods. Exhales deeply. ‘Just once. The weekend that she disappeared.’ He stops as if he can’t go on. His hands are shaking.
‘What happened, Mr Newell?’ Moen asks quietly.
‘I knew the cabin would be empty that weekend – I knew the family wouldn’t be going up. I knew where they kept the spare key. Amanda and I wanted to see each other and I didn’t want to go anywhere we might be recognized. Then I thought of the cabin.’ He clears his throat, takes a sip of water, his hand trembling badly.
‘She told me that she could get away for the weekend, that she would tell her husband that she was going away with her friend Caroline, shopping. So she packed an overnight bag and I gave her directions to the cabin. She knew I couldn’t stay all weekend. I told her that. I told her I could come out late Friday afternoon for a while but that I’d have to go home, and that I’d come back for most of the day on Saturday, but I couldn’t just leave my family for an entire weekend – it would look too suspicious. She was fine with that. She was happy to spend time with me, but she also liked her alone time. She liked to have time to be away from her husband.
‘So I went up there on Friday afternoon, around five. She arrived about a half-hour later. I stayed for a while, but I couldn’t stay too late. I left around eight. Everything was fine when I left her. I went home. The next day, I told my wife I was going golfing, and I went back to the cabin. The first thing I noticed was that Amanda’s car wasn’t there. I thought that was odd, because I’d brought up everything we’d need. I thought maybe she’d just gone for a drive. I was a bit annoyed because it’s a long drive up there and back and I couldn’t stay late. The door to the cabin wasn’t locked. I went inside and everything was all tidy. None of her things were there. She’d gone. I found the key on the counter. You couldn’t tell she’d ever been there.
‘There was no note or anything. I checked my phone – there was no message, no text – but she’d already warned me that her husband had found her burner phone. I wondered if she’d changed her mind about the weekend, or maybe about me. Or maybe something had come up at home. Anyway, I waited around for a long time, until it was time to go – hoping she’d come back, I guess. But she didn’t. And then I locked up the cabin and put the key back under the oilcan and just went home. I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t tell anyone.
‘On the way home, I drove past her house to see if her car was there, but it wasn’t. The next day I drove by her place again and her car still wasn’t there, but the garage door was closed and I thought it might be inside.
‘I had no way to reach her. My texts and emails would go to her burner phone, but her husband had it. I didn’t know what to do. I was a mess, but I had to pretend that everything was fine. Then I heard a couple of days later that she’d been reported missing by her husband.’
He looks up at Webb, his face haggard. ‘He’s the one who killed her, I’m sure of it. Back then, the rumour going around was that she’d left him, because she’d told her husband she was going away with a friend and he found out it wasn’t true. But I know she lied to him to be with me. I think now that he knew, and he killed her. But at the time, I thought – I hoped – that she really had just left him. After she was found—’ He hides his head in his hands.
‘After she was found, you didn’t come forward with any of this,’ Webb says, not bothering to hide his contempt.
Newell shakes his head, looking remorseful. ‘I know. I’m not proud of it.’ He takes a shuddering breath. ‘Her husband must have killed her. She told me sometimes that she thought he was a psychopath. He wasn’t the man she thought she’d married. He was manipulative, he played games. She wanted to leave him.’ He runs a hand through his hair nervously. ‘She’d send me texts, telling me what their marriage was like. It was – abnormal.’
‘What are we going to find on your computer?’ Webb asks after a bit.
‘Emails to Amanda.’
‘You hid them.’
‘Of course I did. I used a burner phone mostly for Amanda, but sometimes I sent emails to her burner from my laptop. I didn’t want my wife to see them. If it weren’t for Raleigh, nobody ever would have known any of this.’
‘Raleigh Sharpe?’ Webb asks.
Keith snorts. ‘He broke into our house and found those emails and told his parents, who obviously told you. The little shit.’
‘I see,’ Webb says. ‘And what happened to your burner phone?’
‘I smashed it to pieces and threw them in a passing garbage truck.’
After a moment’s pause, Webb asks, ‘Did you know about the other men she was seeing?’
‘Amanda? She wasn’t seeing any other men. Just me.’
Webb can’t believe the man’s gullibility, or perhaps it’s his ego. ‘Seriously? You didn’t know? She was meeting someone else at the Paradise Hotel, quite regularly. We have video evidence of it.’
Newell’s face drops and he looks away. ‘No.’ He asks, ‘Who?’
‘Larry Harris.’ Webb feels a certain satisfaction at the look on Newell’s face. ‘How do we know that you weren’t the jealous one?’ Webb asks. ‘You were at the cabin with her that Friday. You went back again on Saturday. She hasn’t been seen since that Friday. As far as we know, you were the last one to see her alive. You knew she’d told her husband she was with Caroline, that it would look like she’d simply left. Did you know she was pregnant? Did that not fit with your plans? Did you argue about it?’
Newell looks back at him in growing fear. ‘No. I mean, yes, I knew she was pregnant. But we didn’t argue about it. She was going to terminate it.’
‘I’m not sure I believe you,’ Webb says.
‘I want a lawyer,’ Newell says, his voice frightened.
Webb gets up to leave the interview room and signals to Moen to join him. He sends an officer in to facilitate Keith Newell’s call to his lawyer. They’ll let him sweat and shake while he waits for his lawyer to arrive.
Glenda paces restlessly around her house. The two techs left long ago, taking all of their computers and electronics with them. She’s terrified. Keith told her he’d deleted the emails, but she’s afraid that isn’t good enough; she’s pretty sure that the police know how to recover deleted files. That’s what they do.
Keith has been gone for hours. She doesn’t know what’s happening and it’s driving her mad. They obviously suspect him of murdering Amanda. He was seeing her; he admitted it to her and will probably admit it to them. They’ll find the emails. They’ll charge him and try him for murder. What will she tell their son?
She thinks regretfully of Olivia. She has never needed a friend more than she does at this moment, but Olivia’s the last person she wants to talk to right now.
When Adam gets home from school, Glenda is waiting for him. He drops his heavy backpack to the floor just inside the front door with a familiar thud, and sweeps past her on his way directly to the kitchen for something to eat. He doesn’t even seem to register that she’s standing there.
