The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden(42)

“But he’s crazy!” Jessica bursts out. She glances at me, then quickly looks away. “I’m sorry, but that’s the elephant in the room. Liam is crazy. He kidnapped that girl, and he’s probably going to kill her. Tyler was just upset about it.”

I stare at my former friend, shocked she would say such a thing. Even when Tyler and Liam stopped being friends, she never said a negative word about Liam.

“I’m sorry, Erika,” she says. “But you know it’s true. Liam has serious mental health issues. The reason he and Tyler stopped being friends was because Tyler was afraid to have him in the house. I was afraid to have him in the house.” She shakes her head. “He needs to be in therapy. Or better yet, locked up.”

“Mrs. Martinson!” Mrs. McMillan exclaims. “I know you’re upset, but please. This is uncalled for.”

I stare down at my hands. I don’t know what to say. I want to defend my son, but the truth is, I agree with her. But before she can say another word, we hear shouting outside the office. Mrs. McMillan rises to her feet and we follow her. What is it now?

Liam and Tyler are still sitting right outside the office, but another girl has joined them. She has dirty blond hair that’s loose around her chubby face, and she has tears streaming down her cheeks. She’s pointing at them, her hand trembling.

“Where is she, you asshole?” she shouts at Liam. “Tell me what you did with Olivia!”

“Madison!” Mrs. McMillan snaps. “Please settle down right this instant!”

The girl’s hands curl into fists and I’m scared she’s going to come at Liam. But instead, she stomps her foot against the ground. “He did this! The bastard did something to my best friend. And look at him! He doesn’t even care!”

I look at Liam, who is watching Madison’s temper tantrum without any expression on his face. He hasn’t said a word in protest. He just stares at her like she’s an insect crawling on the wall. Like he really doesn’t care.

They end up having to call the school security guard to take Madison away, because she won’t stop shouting at Liam. Mrs. McMillan takes me aside, a concerned look in her eyes. “It may be best for Liam to stay home until this blows over.”

“Yes,” I murmur. “I was thinking the same thing.”

She frowns. “Liam is a good boy. It’s terrible that he got caught up in this tragedy.”

As it turns out, Mrs. McMillan has been successfully charmed by my son. During his two years and change in high school, he has been very well behaved. There have been no incidents during this time. The last incident he had, in fact, was involving that English teacher in eighth grade. I don’t like to think about that. But Mrs. McMillan clearly doesn’t know about Mr. Young. She only sees what Liam allows her to see.

“Good luck,” she tells me.





Chapter 36


Transcript of police interview with Tyler Martinson:

“Tyler, how long have you known Liam Cass?”

“Forever. Like, first grade.”

“And you used to be friends?”

“Best friends, actually. I was always going to his house, or he’d go my house. We used to be really tight.”

“And what was your opinion of him at that time?”

“Well, he was my best friend. So obviously, I liked him. He was cool. But he had a dark side, if you know what I mean.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, he was really good at manipulating people to get what he wanted. Especially teachers. He could blow off his homework and he would never get in trouble. I couldn’t get away with anything.”

“And what did the other students think of him?”

“They liked him too. Especially the girls. They were all, like, in love with him. It was really annoying. But Liam just thought it was funny.”

“Were you jealous of him?”

“Me? No. I mean, I wasn’t interested in girls back then. Now it’s more annoying. They all still love him. He’s like Ted Bundy. Wasn’t he that serial killer women liked so much?”

“You mentioned he would manipulate other people. How did he do that?”

“So here’s an example. In fourth grade, we had this roly-poly farm in our classroom. Liam got this idea to dump the farm on the floor and smash all the worms. That was his idea of fun stuff to do. And I went along with it because… I don’t know. I thought it was fun too, I guess. Anyway, there was this other kid in the class named Michael. Nobody liked Michael because he was gross and fat and picked his nose. But Liam invited him to come with us, and Michael was so happy. But it was all a trick, you know? Because the only reason Liam wanted him to come was so Michael would get blamed for what we did. And it worked. Liam told the teacher Michael did it alone, and she believed him. And Michael didn’t even rat us out, probably because he was hoping we’d still be friends with him after. But we weren’t.”

“Did you feel bad about it?”

“No. I mean, not at the time. But looking back, yeah, it was a shitty thing to do to Michael. But it was Liam’s idea.”

“At what point did you stop being friends with Liam?”

“Um, that would probably be sixth grade.”

“Was there a particular reason?”