Off the Deep End (53)

Yesterday was fun. This isn’t fun anymore.





FIFTEEN


AMBER GREER


“What’s wrong with you?” I snapped as Mark hurried us down the police station corridor. He was walking faster than he was on the way in.

“Be quiet,” he whispered earnestly, keeping his voice low and his head down. “Don’t say anything until we’re outside. Everyone’s listening to us.”

“What are you talking about?” I looked around the waiting room. The station was as empty as it was when we got here. “Why are you acting like this?”

He whipped around and shot me a hateful stare like I’d committed a horrible crime by not lowering my voice. His nostrils flared in and out with each fast breath. “Nothing until we’re outside. Do you understand me?” He turned back on his heels, and I stood there for a second, dumbfounded by his behavior, before following him into the sunshine. He was practically running down the sidewalk to our car. I hurried to catch up and grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

“Stop. Just stop for a second and talk to me, okay? I don’t even know why you’re so angry. What’s going on? You were the one that said you were going to go home and get the detergent.” I tried to get him to look at me, but he wouldn’t. He was too busy darting his eyes everywhere.

“I’m not saying anything until we’re in the car. They could be following us. Watching us.” He sounded like a paranoid speed freak. Looked like one too.

“Give me the keys. I’m driving,” I said, holding out my hand. I wasn’t letting him drive. Not when he was acting so erratically. He tossed them to me without argument, and we slid inside the car.

“I only said that about going home to get the detergent so that we could get out of there,” he blurted out as soon as he shut the door behind himself and we were tucked inside. “That’s all I was trying to do. I was never going to give them anything from our house. Definitely not without seeking legal advice.”

“Why are you being so paranoid?” I asked, putting the car in drive and heading down the street, putting the ominous station behind us. Hopefully, he’d return to normal again the farther away we got from it. I glanced over at him in the passenger seat. His eyes were still manic and wild.

“Do you really not get it?” he asked, twisting his body in the seat to face me.

“What are you talking about, Mark? No, I don’t get it. I don’t understand why you’re suddenly so upset and acting so weird.” I almost didn’t see the car slowing down in front of me and quickly slammed on the brakes, narrowly avoiding hitting them. Maybe I shouldn’t be driving either. “All they’re trying to do is rule out other possibilities.” It was what I had been wanting them to do all along, but I didn’t throw that in his face. Not now. It wasn’t a good time.

He smacked his hand on the dashboard. “They’re not trying to rule us out, Amber. Don’t you see that? They think we had something to do with it!”

“With Isaac’s disappearance?” I asked like there was any other crime we could possibly be involved in.

“Yes!” he snapped. He stomped his legs on the floor of the car like a toddler. “That’s what I’ve been trying to say. That’s why I was trying to get us out of there as fast as possible without giving them any more information.” He looked behind us, making sure nobody was following us. “And what were you thinking? You almost signed a legal document without consulting with an attorney?”

“I . . . I mean . . .” I couldn’t form cohesive thoughts. What was happening? How did the investigation make this sudden turn? Where were we going with this questioning? “I just didn’t think anything of it when he asked me to do it. I guess . . .”

“Don’t you ever do something like that again, do you hear me?” He shook his finger at me. He had never spoken to me like this before. I was so shocked by it that all I could do was nod my consent and keep quiet. “From now on, you need to think about every conversation you have with people, especially with the police, okay? Every word that comes out of your mouth. You have to think about it. Every word from here on out, Amber. I mean it. You need to watch yourself. Stay cognizant. Do you understand?”

“No.” I shook my head, feeling lost and disoriented. “I don’t understand. The only people who need to worry about what they’re saying and how they’re coming across to the police are the ones who have something to hide. We don’t have anything to hide, so we don’t have anything to worry about.” I slowed to a stop as we reached the light in front of McDonald’s and turned to look at him. He was gnawing at his fingernails. He hadn’t done that since college. He used to chew them down to nubs every semester during finals week. My stomach rolled. “Unless there’s something you know about Isaac’s disappearance that you’re not telling me? Do you know something, Mark?”

Nobody innocent hid from the police. They didn’t have to get their story straight or think about the words that were coming out of their mouth. That’s the freedom that came when you lived from a place of truth and honesty.

“Mark?” I asked again.

Still nothing.

The light turned green, and he motioned for me to go through the intersection. The question hung in the air unanswered while I waited for him to say something. The car honked behind me, forcing me to move forward.