Page 107 of Buried in the Woods Below

“Okay,” I say. I force the tears back. “How did you get in here? I thought family wasn’t allowed.”

She waves her hand. “Oh, it was nothing. Tom told them I was a necessary agent of the defense, and voilà.”

At the mention of his name, Tom rises and offers his hand and a hesitant smile. I shake his meaty palm, expecting the warm grip of an old friend, but something about it is distant, rushed, overly formal, like he’s working a reception line. I search his eyes, but he looks away.

“Sit, sit,” my mother says to me. “Let’s get to the bottom of this.”

Mom and I sit down, the plastic cold against my back, but Tom remains standing. He has a manila folder in front of him and taps his fingers on it repeatedly. “If you don’t mind, Julie, I’d like to speak to Charlotte alone for a minute. You know, attorney-client privilege and all that. There’s a waiting room just outside.”

My mom bites her lip, and for a moment I think she might protest, but she relents. “Of course. Apologies. I’ll be right outside when you need me.”

Tom sits across from me once my mom exits. He pulls out a thermos and a couple of paper cups from his bag and pours us cups of coffee. He sighs and again taps the file in front of him.

“Okay, why don’t you tell me what happened?” His voice is calm and nasally.

I tell him everything that’s happened over the past few days. About my suspension, the Adwanis, Olivia, Laelynn, and the twins. As I’m talking, Tom takes a deep breath and leans back in his chair and begins staring at the wall behind me. He seems lost in thought, as if he’s barely listening.

“I’m sorry, Tom. Am I boring you?” I snap.

His eyes return to me. They’re the same sad eyes that I saw on Eric Parker last night.

“No, I’m sorry. It’s just, well, frankly, your story’s not adding up, Charlotte.”

“What do you mean?”

He slides his hand over the folder and opens it. A police report stares back at him. He places his frameless reading glasses on his owl nose. “First, the report says your pajamas were covered in blood. Is that true?”

“Yes, but—”

“I assume this was the twins’ blood?”

“Yes, but that’s from when I discovered them. I checked their pulses to see if they were dead.”

He sighs and frowns and returns his gaze back to the report. “Second, the girls had skin under their fingernails.” He peers over his reading glasses at my forearms. “Based on the cuts on your arms, I’m guessing the DNA lab is going to come back with your skin under their nails.”

“No, that can’t be. The cuts on my arms are from something else. The trees. Eric was chasing me. I was running through the forest. I’m not sure. Olivia might have made those marks on my arms while I was asleep to frame me.”

“C’mon, Charlotte. Don’t you think if someone had scratched your arms while you were sleeping, you would have woken up? Now, I’m not the judge or jury here. I’m on your side. But I need a story that makes sense.”

“You don’t understand. I was exhausted. I hadn’t slept all week, and Eric made tea for me before I went to bed. He might have drugged it. I think he and Olivia are framing me.”

“Who is this Olivia you keep referencing?”

“The Parkers’ daughter. Olivia Parker. We need to find her.”

Tom takes his glasses off and massages his temples. “Olivia’s been dead for eighteen years, Charlotte.”

I stand up out of my chair, propelled by the frustration. “Goddamn it. She’s not dead. That’s what Eric said. That’s what they want you to think. That’s part of the setup. I spoke to her myself.”

The edges of the interview room fuzz. I feel the familiar detached feeling I felt last night. I count the concrete blocks of the cell to steady myself. One block, two blocks, three blocks, four.

“Charlotte. Olivia died at the State Fair. Don’t you remember?”

“No, you’re wrong. She fell, but she didn’t die. I saw the ambulance take her away.”

“I talked to you myself after the incident because your mom was afraid the Parkers might press charges.”

A memory breaks into my mind. Me, Tom, and my mother talking in hushed tones. “Yeah, she was in a coma then. She recovered. My mom told me she recovered.”