“No! You’ve been fabulous,” I yelled. “You just made it abundantly clear how everyone…and I mean everyone…has basically been in on my not knowing this. Keeping it from me. Why? Because I’ve basically been sleeping with the enemy. And for God’s sake, where the hell is Mr. Fordham? You must know, because he must be the one sabotaging my newspaper.”
“He’s been cooperating with us for a while now. He’s been showing us what he found while trying to find his mom. Most of it is irrelevant, except for a dark political blog she frequented and left comments on. He’s pointed us toward another key witness. Ms. Fordham had another child. Here in central Pennsylvania.”
“So he knew? Mr. Fordham? And who the hell is this second child? Where does he or she come into the picture?”
“I don’t know all the specifics, ma’am. I know Aiken’s partly behind us locking his mother up. His own mother. He tipped us off. I shouldn’t tell you that, but you sound upset, so…and this new witness helped him unearth a lot of the clues.”
“Why have I not heard any of this until now?” I shrieked, wringing my hands together.
“We’ve been trying to keep most of it quiet. There were a lot of students at the concert a few years back. We don’t want to worry parents any more than we have to, especially the new ones who are sending their kids here to school. We didn’t want this school to look like a target.”
“Get out.” I turned on my heel. I’d had enough of the police and the school. All the red tape and incestuous collusion to preserve the university’s positive image hadn’t changed a bit since the day Abby died. I was sick of putting up with it. It was like the sexual-assault cases that were swept under the rug…No, no, our campus is safe, send us your kids and your money.
“I’m going to leave my card here. Right here on the table, if you need anything, Dr. Richards.”
“Just get out.”
I stood up, slammed the door behind Detective Land, locked it, and slumped into my chair, staring into space until the tears came so hard I had to shut my eyes.
The man I loved…his mother killed my daughter…and the last few months played on a continuous loop in my head. Aiken moving in, wearing me down, convincing me to let go of memories.
Then there was us running, us fucking, Abbie…and Allison…making a mess of everything.
Abbie? Was she the other witness? Or Allison?
I stood so quickly my head felt hazy. Waiting a second to regain my balance, I ran upstairs to the shower. I needed to go to the police station, find out where the hell Aiken was, and ask him who Abbie really was to him and all of this.
My cell phone rang. The screen said it was Mary. Ignoring the call, I went to my bathroom, dropped my robe to the floor, and turned on the shower. She could wait. After all, she’d been lying for weeks.
Fuck her.
And Aiken.
And the damn horse he rode in on.
It was time for me to take control of my life.
