AllFreeNovel
Share Us
MAGGIE KENNEDY-O’KEEFE
Thursday, June 18, 2020
I make the drive to the station in under twenty minutes. After I hung up on Nola I told Shaun that I had to get in to work, that I needed to follow up on some of the tips that had been coming in about Eve’s case. Not entirely true, but I was going to review the files.
As exhausted as I was last night, I couldn’t stop thinking that Nola was going to report me to the police. Though I believe that the chief and Dex would initially support me one hundred percent, they would be obligated to listen to Nola. And she’s persuasive. She would tell them about me and Cam Harper. My relationship with him would come to light, maybe my pregnancy. A few days after I killed Eve, I developed a high fever and chills. My dad took me to the doctor in Willow Creek and I broke down and told the doctor that I was pregnant and thought I lost the baby. He told me that I had.
The doctor was kind and promised me that he wasn’t going to tell my father I was pregnant, that he couldn’t tell him. But the information was in my medical records and if an investigation into me was launched, there was a slim chance those records could be accessed and used against me. Would Shaun ever be able to look at me the same way again? I would lose everything.
By the time I walk into the records room, I’m shaking with anger and fear. All of this goes back to Cam Harper and how he had gotten away with abusing me all those years ago. How he groomed me, impregnated me and somehow managed to keep me silent for so long. I still don’t want people to know about it and for that I’m ashamed. I want to be brave; I want to stand up and tell the world that Cam Harper was—is—a predator.
I don’t think I can do that, but maybe I can do the next best thing. I pull a box off the shelf and fan the files out in front of me. Before, I had no reason to look closely at the notes and interviews that I was half-heartedly organizing except to see if there was anything within the folders that could implicate me. Now I have something else to look for. Something that I had seen earlier. Notes referencing an interview that Joyce Harper had done with the police back in 1995.
I’m flicking through the pages when Francis pokes his head into the room. “Did you hear about this morning?” he asks.
“No, what happened?” I ask distractedly. I know the interview transcript is somewhere in here.
“It was a bloodbath,” Francis says with a laugh. “Nola Knox drilled Nick Brady right in the nose with her head. Blood everywhere. I couldn’t believe it.” I look up from the papers, my attention piqued.
“She thought Brady was breaking into his own shop. Called us and when we went over there he nearly lost his mind.”
I spin my hand in a circular motion to hurry him along.
“Nola started accusing Brady of killing her sister and he got right in her face saying she was wrong. Nola tripped and cracked him right in the face. Man, I thought the guy was going to kill her.”
“Then what happened?” I asked, my mind racing.
“Then nothing.” Francis shrugs. “Nola apologized and Brady went inside his shop bleeding like a son of a bitch. And then we left.”
“No one pressed charges?” I ask, closing my eyes.
“Nope, but Brady looked like he was going to have a coronary.” Francis gives a shake of his head. “Nola Knox better not go within fifty feet of him anytime soon. I swear to God he wanted to kill her. What’s her deal anyway?” he asks.
“I have no idea.” I play dumb. “Listen, Francis, I got a ton of work to do before this baby is born.”
“Yeah, sorry,” Francis says, but hesitates, and I know he wants to bring something up but doesn’t quite know how to do it.
“I’m still getting calls,” I admit before he asks. “We’re going to have to change our home number. I disabled my Facebook account.”
“Want me to keep looking to see if I can find out where the posts originated?” Francis asks and I hate the sympathy I see in his eyes.
“No thanks,” I say. “I think I know who started this all and I’m going to ignore it.” Francis looks like he wants to ask me who but he doesn’t dare.
“Just let me know if you change your mind,” he says then leaves.
I’m pretty sure it’s Nola who accused me of having an affair with a married man on Wrecked Nest. It’s the only thing that makes sense. It’s another way to keep me off balance, keep me in line. I’m not going to give her the satisfaction of letting her know it’s gotten to me. The fire is another story. Did I really think that Nola was capable of arson? Yeah, I did. Did she start the fire at my house? That I’m not sure about.
I settle back into reviewing the files, but this time my fingers fly faster through the pages. Nola really plans on going through with this and I will do just about anything to keep my secret.
A name catches my eye and I know I’ve found what I’m looking for. I read the interview and then flip through the pages until I find my dad’s interview with Cam. “Bingo,” I murmur.
In Joyce’s interview she explained to Dex that she had been out Christmas shopping all afternoon and didn’t return home until around eight o’clock that evening, when she paid me and I went home. She went on to say that her husband had meetings that afternoon and was in his office in Willow Creek until about six and then had a work-related dinner with colleagues. He arrived home, according to Joyce, at 9:00 p.m.
Cam Harper gave my dad just about the same story but added that he took a break to go for a run around 3:00 p.m. and returned to the office for a shower and more meetings. Except I know different. I don’t know where he was between 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. that day, but I know Cam wasn’t running between three and three forty-five because he was with me. That day Cam parked at the bottom of Ransom Road before coming up to the house. He was always very careful about not being seen at the house when I was there but was ready with the excuse that he was picking up his running gear.
The medical examiner thought that Eve died between four and nine. And Cam Harper did not have an airtight alibi. Even if he went directly back to work after he was with me, it would take about thirty minutes to get to his office. Cam was supposed to have been in Willow Creek all day. In that small window, he had the opportunity to kill Eve. With one pull of the thread, his entire alibi would unravel.
I shake the thought away.
