AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes,” Lily says, though I can’t help but think that Lily is upset about something. Her words are too cryptic, too clipped.
“That’s great news,” I say, as if trying to convince her. “Who found it?”
“Nina.”
“Where was it?” I ask. There is a hesitation on the other end of the line and I think that I cut out, that Lily didn’t hear me. I ask again, “Where was it, Lily? Where did she find it?”
Lily says, “In Jake’s car.”
The blood drains from my face.
I’m typing the email as we talk, only partially listening. I have the phone balanced on my shoulder so that my hands are free to type.
My hands freeze over the keys. I stop typing. I reach for the phone, holding it in a hand so that I can get up from the desk to go and shut the office door for privacy.
“Whoa,” I say, whispering now because even with the door shut, I don’t know what people on the other side of it can hear. “Back up, Lily. What do you mean in Jake’s car? Since when did Nina find Jake’s car?”
It feels like the walls are closing in on me, like the room is getting smaller.
“Yesterday. The police called her. It was impounded for being illegally parked.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t know. Not until today when she told me.”
“What exactly did she say?”
“That the police called about the car. She went to claim it, and then last night, when she got home, she searched the car and found the earring.”
This is happening fast. I’m having trouble wrapping my head around it. I’m trying not to panic but to process things. Sooner or later the car was going to be found. I knew that. Lily had to know that. It couldn’t sit in that hotel lot forever. Our goal wasn’t to make it disappear forever, but to take it away from the place where Lily was seen and where Jake was killed.
I sit back down. I ask the obvious question. “How did your earring get into Jake’s car, Lily?”
Lily says, “I don’t know. I don’t know, Christian,” and I can practically see her wheels spinning. “I was thinking, could it have somehow been on you when you moved his car that night? Or do you think maybe Jake made it back to his car after I hit him, and the earring was on him, but then...”
Her voice drifts. “But then what?” I ask, thinking it’s not possible that he got to his car, and then went back into the woods to die. It doesn’t make sense. Why would he do that? And besides, if Jake somehow made it back to his car, for the amount of blood that was on Lily’s clothes when I found them, there would have been blood in the car too.
“I don’t know. You’re right. That doesn’t make sense.”
“How does Nina even know the earring is yours?” I ask. “Did you try telling her it’s not?”
“No, Christian. She sees me almost every day, and every day I wear those earrings. She knows. We talked about them when the one went missing. She was the one who first noticed it gone. It would have looked even worse if I had lied about it.”
I think about this. “No, you’re right, Lily,” I say, meaning it. “It was good not to lie. She would have been more suspicious if she knew you were lying about it. What did you say to her? What was your reason for the earring being in Jake’s car?”
“Nothing,” she says, and I imagine Lily’s shocked expression when Nina revealed the earring to her, which is probably not unlike the look on my face right now. “I didn’t have one. I just said it was so strange that it would be in Jake’s car. I couldn’t explain it. I changed the subject, saying how happy she must be to have Jake’s car back, and that, with any luck, the police will soon find Jake too.”
This is bad. This is really bad. I can’t think of one logical reason why Lily’s missing earring would have wound up in Jake’s car, unless Lily is right and the earring was somehow attached to me, like on my coat. I tried to be so careful too. I wore gloves. I did research in advance to avoid cameras. I thought of everything, except this, leaving something unintentionally behind.
“Do you think she’ll go to the police?” Lily asks.
“And say what? That she found your earring in Jake’s car? What does that prove?”
I’m not exactly lying. It proves nothing. It’s just an earring. But the earring opens the door to suspicion. It’s a piece of the puzzle, like Nina maybe recognizing my car. That’s a piece of the puzzle too. If Nina finds too many puzzle pieces, a picture will start to form.
“Where is the earring now?”
“I have it.”
