Miracle Creek(98)

Abe uncrossed his arms and leaned forward.

“I remembered something. Mary had access to my car. She knew where I kept a spare key.” He looked at Abe. “English with no accent.”

“Wait,” Shannon said. “Are you saying—”

“Also,” Matt said, afraid he wouldn’t be able to continue if he stopped, “Mary smoked cigarettes last summer. Camels.”

Abe said, “And you know this because…”

“We did it together. Smoking, I mean.” Matt felt heat burst in his cheeks, and he willed his capillaries to constrict and stop the blood from rushing to his skin’s surface. “I’m not a smoker, but one day, on a whim, I got cigarettes and I was smoking before a dive and Mary happened to show up and I gave her one.”

“So just once, then,” Abe said, more a statement than a question.

Matt looked at Janine, her face infused with dread and hope, and he thought about last night, his telling her it was just that once. “No. I got in the habit of smoking by the creek, and she was out there sometimes, so I’d see her. Maybe a dozen times the whole summer.”

Janine’s mouth opened in an O at her realization that he’d lied last night. Again.

“And you both smoked, every time?” Shannon said.

Matt nodded.

“Camels?” Shannon said.

Matt nodded. “And yes, I bought them at a 7-Eleven.”

“Jesus,” Abe said, shaking his head and looking down like he wanted to punch the table.

Shannon said, “So the Camels and matches Elizabeth found—”

“Allegedly found,” Abe said.

Shannon swatted the air like Abe was a gnat, keeping her focus on Matt. “What do you know about those, Dr. Thompson?”

Matt felt a surge of gratitude toward Shannon for not asking the questions he was dreading, about what else happened during these “meetings” (sure to be said with tonal quotes) and exactly how old Mary was. He looked Shannon straight in the eye and said, “The cigarettes and matches were mine, what I bought.”

“And the H-Mart note about meeting at 8:15?” Shannon said.

“Mine. I left that for Mary. I wanted to stop. Quit, I mean. The smoking. And I figured I should let her know, and apologize, you know, for getting her into a bad habit, so I sent her that note, and she wrote ‘Yes’ and left it for me the morning of the explosion.”

“Jesus frigging Christ,” Abe said, looking at a blank spot on the wall and shaking his head. “All those times I brought up the H-Mart note, and you…” Abe shut his lips.

“So how did they get out into the woods where Elizabeth found them?” Shannon said.

This was where he had to tread lightly. It was one thing to purge yourself of your own story, damn the consequences, but this next part was Janine’s story, not his. He glanced at Janine. She was staring blankly at the table, her face drained of color like a refrigerated cadaver. “I’m not sure why that’s relevant,” Matt said. “She found them where she found them. Why does it matter how they got there?”

“It matters because the prosecution here”—Shannon glared at Abe—“has said repeatedly that the cigarettes and matches Elizabeth had were used to set the fire. So we need to know who else had them and could’ve used them before discarding the rest for her to find.”

Matt said, “Well, I was sealed up in HBOT, so I couldn’t—”

“I took them. I gave them to Mary,” Janine said. Matt didn’t look at her, didn’t want to see her eyes welling with fury at him for putting her in this situation.

“What? When?” Shannon said.

“Around eight, before the explosion.” Janine’s voice had a slight shake to it, like she was cold and shivering, and Matt wanted to take her in his arms and transfer his warmth. “I suspected there was something … someone Matt … Anyway, that day, I went through Matt’s car—glove box, trash on the floor, trunk, everything—and I found them.”

Matt reached for her hand and squeezed it. She could’ve just said she found the note, but she didn’t. It felt like forgiveness, her admitting to snooping through his stuff, giving details. Like she was saying it wasn’t all his fault; they both did stupid things.

“Are you saying you went to Miracle Creek that night?” Shannon said.

Janine nodded. “I didn’t tell Matt. I just wanted to see what this meeting was. Anyway, the dive was running late—Matt called to let me know—and I saw Mary, so I stopped her and gave her everything and told her she was a bad influence and to leave him alone, and I left.”

“Let me get this straight,” Shannon said. “Less than thirty minutes before the explosion, Mary Yoo was by herself, close to the barn, in possession of Camel cigarettes and 7-Eleven matches. That’s what you’re telling me?”

Janine looked down and nodded.

Shannon turned to Abe. “Are you dropping the charges? Because if not, I’m moving for a mistrial.”

“What?” Abe stood, the color that had drained from his face returning. “Don’t be melodramatic. Just because there was some hanky-panky going on here doesn’t mean your client’s innocent. Far from it.”

“There was deliberate obstruction of justice, not to mention perjury. On the stands. By your star witness.”