Gone Girl(135)
B: So he stabbed you? The angle is—
A: I’m not sure if he did it on purpose, or if I thrust myself onto the blade accidentally – I was so off balance. I remember the club falling to the floor, though, and I looked down and saw my blood from the stab wound pooling over the club. I think I passed out then.
B: Where were you when you woke up?
A: I woke up hog-tied in my living room.
B: Did you scream, try to get the neighbors’ attention?
A: Of course I screamed. I mean, did you hear me? I was beaten, stabbed, and hog-tied by a man who had been obsessed with me for decades, who once tried to kill himself in my dorm bedroom.
B: Okay, okay, Amy, I’m sorry, that question was not intended in the least to sound like we are blaming you, we just need to get a full picture here so we can close the investigation and you can get on with your life. Do you want another water, or coffee or something?
A: Something warm would be nice. I’m so cold.
B: No problem. Can you get her a coffee? So what happened then?
A: I think his original plan was to subdue me and kidnap me and let it look like a runaway-wife thing, because when I wake up, he’s just finished mopping the blood in the kitchen, and he’s straightened the table of little antique ornaments that fell over when I ran to the kitchen. He’s gotten rid of the club. But he’s running out of time, and I think what must have happened is: He sees this disheveled living room – and so he thinks, Leave it. Let it look like something bad happened here. So he throws the front door open, and then he knocks a few more things over in the living room. Overturns the ottoman. So that’s why the scene looked so weird: It was half true and half false.
B: Did Desi plant incriminating items at each of the treasure hunt sites: Nick’s office, Hannibal, his dad’s house, Go’s woodshed?
A: I don’t know what you mean?
B: There was a pair of women’s underwear, not your size, in Nick’s office.
A: I guess it must have been the girl he was … dating.
B: Not hers either.
A: Well, I can’t help on that one. Maybe he was seeing more than one girl.
B: Your diary was found in his father’s house. Partly burned in the furnace.
A: Did you read the diary? It’s awful. I’m sure Nick did want to get rid of it – I don’t blame him, considering you guys zeroed in on him so quickly.
B: I wonder why he would go to his father’s to burn it.
A: You should ask him. (Pause.) Nick went there a lot, to be alone. He likes his privacy. So I’m sure it didn’t feel that odd to him. I mean he couldn’t do it at our house, because it’s a crime scene – who knows if you guys will come back, find something in the ashes. At his dad’s, he has some discretion. I thought it was a smart move, considering you guys were basically railroading him.
B: The diary is very, very concerning. The diary alleges abuse and your fears that Nick didn’t want the baby, that he might want to kill you.
A: I really do wish that diary had burned. (Pause.) Let me be honest: The diary includes some of Nick’s and my struggles these past few years. It doesn’t paint the greatest picture of our marriage or of Nick, but I have to admit: I never wrote in the diary unless I was super-happy, or I was really, really unhappy and wanted to vent and then … I can get a little dramatic when it’s just me stewing on things. I mean, a lot of that is the ugly truth – he did shove me once, and he didn’t want a baby, and he did have money problems. But me being afraid of him? I have to admit, it pains me to admit, but that’s my dramatic streak. I think the problem is, I’ve been stalked several times – it’s been a lifelong issue – people getting obsessed with me – and so I get a little paranoid.
B: You tried to buy a gun.
A: I get a lot paranoid, okay? I’m sorry. If you had my history, you’d understand.
B: There’s an entry about a night of drinks when you suffered from what sounds like textbook antifreeze poisoning.
A: (Long silence.) That’s bizarre. Yes, I did get ill.
B: Okay, back to the treasure hunt. You did hide the Punch and Judy dolls in the woodshed?
A: I did.
B: A lot of our case has focused on Nick’s debt, some extensive credit-card purchases, and our discovery of all those items hidden in the woodshed. What did you think when you opened the woodshed and saw all this stuff?
A: I was on Go’s property, and Go and I aren’t especially close, so mostly, I felt like I was nosing around in something that wasn’t my business. I remember thinking at the time that it must have been her stuff from New York. And then I saw on the news – Desi made me watch everything – that it corresponded with Nick’s purchases, and … I knew Nick had some money troubles, he was a spender. I think he was probably embarrassed. Impulse purchases he couldn’t undo, so he hid them from me until he could sell them online.
B: The Punch and Judy puppets, they seem a little ominous for an anniversary present.
A: I know! Now I know. I didn’t remember the whole backstory of Punch and Judy. I was just seeing a husband and wife and a baby, and they were made of wood, and I was pregnant. I scanned the Internet and saw Punch’s line: That’s the way to do it! And I thought it was cute – I didn’t know what it meant.
B: So you were hog-tied. How did Desi get you to the car?
A: He pulled the car into the garage and lowered the garage door, dragged me in, threw me in the trunk, and drove away.