Open House(61)
“And did it work?” she asked, knowing him well enough to know it wouldn’t have.
“No, it didn’t. I’m a coward for not telling you.”
“You are,” Haley agreed. Would she ever be able to get past this? Should she? “And don’t you think it’s a problem that you waited to talk to the cops until they dragged you into the station? Until after Josie was attacked? Why didn’t you go to the cops right away, the second after I told you the bracelet had been found?”
Dean started to cry. Haley tried to feel empathy for him, but she couldn’t. Was this seriously the same person she’d said yes to? The person she wanted to spend her life with, the person who always seemed to make the right choice? “Never mind,” she finally said. “I can’t hear you make an excuse, not about this, not about my sister.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dean said.
Haley sniffed, tapped, tried to get her bearings, tried to understand. “Tell me what this is all about with Josie,” she said.
“The emails?” Dean asked, and Haley nodded. “The cops called her in to identify that bracelet a few days before they called in you and your mom,” he said, “and I guess she went a little nuts about it. That’s why I never told you about meeting with her, because she was starting to sound insane with her theories, and I didn’t want to involve you in it. She wanted us to meet in private because she knew I’d taken that walk with Emma. She never told the cops that years ago, but she saw us go off together into the woods, and she wanted me to come forward, too, and say I saw Emma wearing the bracelet that night, just like she’d already told the police. She thought it would help the police pursue Brad if I backed her up. She said Brad gave it to Emma, and she had all these theories about the crime.”
“That’s what you were meeting with Josie about?”
“Yeah,” Dean said. “It just seemed like she wanted to talk about it with someone who was there that night, someone who wasn’t Noah. She said they were fighting and that Noah was a jealous type, so she didn’t want him to know we were talking. After the night she said that, I didn’t see her again alone, because I had such a bad feeling about the whole thing.” He shook his head. “Josie kept talking about that bracelet, and obviously it was ten years ago, and I wasn’t sure what the thing looked like, and I definitely didn’t think I’d remember anything useful about it, which is what I told her. But then when I got here last night to the precinct and told the cops everything—that I was there on the night Emma disappeared, and that I took a walk alone with her—they showed me the bracelet. And the thing is I’m almost positive it wasn’t Emma who was wearing it that night. And when I told the cops that, they didn’t seem surprised at all.”
“Who was wearing the bracelet?” Haley asked, her voice barely audible over the hum of a radiator. But then in came Rappaport, and the look on his face told Haley he’d been watching them, listening.
“I’d like to speak with Haley alone,” he said.
FIFTY
Emma
Ten years ago
The moon is shrouded by clouds that make it hard to see where the cliff ends and the gorge begins. But it’s so incredibly beautiful up here, and I’m not ready to go back to the party. My cell service is spotty, but suddenly it picks up a signal, and a barrage of texts and missed calls come through. The first text is from Haley.
I’m trying my best to come tonight but of course mom is onto me, she knows something’s up. Will keep you posted.
I put my phone away and close my eyes, thinking back on the times my dad took Haley and me to these woods when we were little. I try to get the buzz I usually feel when I think back on how happy my family used to make me, but then I hear branches crunch and shatter beneath someone’s feet. At first I tell myself it’s probably just kids from the party looking for a place to make out. But then whoever it is falls to the ground—or at least that’s what it sounds like: a crash followed by deathly silence. And then the footsteps start up again.
I push myself upright so I’m ready to go, but it’s too dark without the moonlight, and I’m nervous I won’t be able to find the mouth of the trail. I fumble for my phone so I can use the flashlight, but then the clouds clear, and I can see again. I move closer to the sound of the footsteps so I’ll be ready to pass the person and get onto the trail, but then there’s a final snap and Josie appears.
Moonlight falls on her face. The tiny spots of blood on her cheek must be from the fall she just took, maybe from a wayward branch that caught her skin. I reach my hand forward to touch her face, but then think better of it and let my hand fall to my side. “Hey,” I say gently, “what are you doing?”
Josie laughs. “Me?” she asks. “What am I doing? Emma, seriously? You’ve got some nerve, I’ll give you that.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, and I feel like I can’t inhale properly, like the oxygen is too thin up here.
“What were you doing out here with Dean?” she asks when I don’t figure it out fast enough. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice you sneaking away with him?” Her pupils are too wide. She’s definitely on something.
“I didn’t sneak away with him,” I say. “He asked me to go for a walk.” I know I should add to talk about you, but I’m suddenly so angry—she can’t possibly think I want anything to do with Dean. I don’t even know him.