Lovely Girls(71)

Scott dropped us off at our house and, thankfully, drove off without coming in. I saw Lita on her patio, watching us beadily while she pretended to be watering her container plants. I opened the front door for Alex and quickly followed her inside.

As soon as we were inside, Alex started to head toward the stairs before I’d even had a chance to put down my handbag and drop the keys in a round ceramic midcentury dish by the front door.

“Not a chance,” I said.

Alex turned around. “What?”

“We need to talk. Now.” I pointed toward the living room. Alex reluctantly obeyed. We sat across from one another, Alex on the couch, me on a chair. Alex looked tired. She was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. “I don’t know if you noticed, but that didn’t go well today.”

“Scott said he thought it did,” Alex said.

“I’m pretty sure that Scott’s an idiot. He should never have allowed you to talk to the police. Not without knowing what they knew.”

“I can’t believe they think I was involved,” Alex said, nudging the tip of her running shoe against the carpet.

“That’s just it. Those detectives don’t know you. They don’t care about you. They can place you at the scene of the crime. You wiped out all of the data on your electronic devices. The only reason they haven’t arrested you yet is because they’re still waiting on the medical examiner’s report.”

I realized my voice was raising with each word. Alex was staring at me, her eyes wide and startled. I forced myself to lower my voice. “Alex, if that report concludes that Callie’s death was a homicide and not an accidental death, they’re probably going to arrest you. Do you understand that?”

“I didn’t kill Callie!” Alex protested.

“I know you didn’t!”

“Then why are you so mad at me?”

“I’m not angry. I’m scared,” I said quietly.

This admission got Alex’s attention more than my raising my voice had. She nodded and said, “I’m scared too.”

“I know.” I inhaled deeply. “Why did you wipe everything off of your electronics? That looks bad. Really bad. It looks like you’re hiding something.”

Alex stared at the patterned carpet, as if it held the answer to my questions.

“Why haven’t the detectives interviewed Daphne and Shae?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know if they spoke to the girls or not, but Detective Reddick said they both have alibis. Their parents said that both girls were home that night.”

“They’re lying,” Alex said.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“I just do. Isn’t that enough?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not enough. If you know something, you need to tell me. Now.”

Alex stared at me with a level gaze. “What if I can prove Daphne and Shae were there at the beach that night?”

“They were at the beach? How can you prove that?”

“I just can. But it might get me in trouble.”

“What trouble is worse than being arrested and tried for murder?” I exclaimed. “Tell me what you know, and we’ll go from there.”

Alex shook her head. “I can’t tell you. I have to show you.”

She stood and headed upstairs. A moment later, she rushed back down.

“Here,” she said. She was holding out something in her hand.

“What’s that?”

“It’s proof that I didn’t kill Callie.”





CHAPTER FORTY-TWO




* * *





KATE

The object Alex handed me was a USB flash drive. It was small and silver, and it had a ringed hoop so you could keep it on a key chain. I wasn’t the most tech-savvy person, but I knew that it basically functioned as something you store data on. Files, pictures, videos.

“What’s on this?” I asked.

“My video diary. All of it. It’s the only copy I have. I deleted it everywhere else.”

“I didn’t know you kept a diary. When did you start doing that?”

“Just before we moved here. It’s supposed to be private. That’s actually the whole point. Beatrice thought that it might help me work through stuff.”

I nodded. I’d liked Beatrice, Alex’s therapist back in Buffalo. She was young, probably no older than thirty, and had been both intuitive and kind. I was glad Alex had had her to talk to during the tough months after Ed’s death.

“I don’t know what a video diary is exactly. Is it just you talking to a camera?” I asked.

“Mostly, but I also started videoing things,” Alex said. “I don’t know why. It just became kind of a weird habit. I’d take a video of a cute dog I’d see while I was out running or someone doing something funny at school. I just got in the habit of keeping my phone out, ready to go.”

And then I knew. I could even picture it. Daphne and the coach having sex, Alex seeing them from the doorway and pulling out her phone. Her capturing the intimate and yet very illegal encounter on video.

I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, and then looked at my daughter and said, “The video of Coach and Daphne? You took that, didn’t you?”