“Has Tyler mentioned anything about a girl Addison was spending time with? From Kent State?”
They had traced the calls.
“No. I don’t think so. Why?”
He shrugged. “Seems like Addison just picked up with her during the break. I guess he’s a bit of a ladies’ man.”
When I left the station, I sat in my car and waited until my hands stopped shaking enough to get the key to the ignition. I drove home, eyes on my rearview mirror the entire way.
Tyler was still in my apartment, on the couch where I’d left him.
“What are you doing here?”
“I needed to know what happened. Where did you go?”
“I don’t know how many times I have to repeat this. This only works if you do what I tell you. When I say go home, go home.”
“I tried to, I swear. I just couldn’t. I don’t mean to upset you. I got up and then sat down again. Like three or four times. My feet wouldn’t move.”
I closed my eyes. The story had gone over well. The affair was just what we needed all along—a secret to distract from the true secret. And the news about tracking down the girl at Kent was good. A trail of breadcrumbs leading nowhere. Akron was forty miles away, in the opposite direction as the park. They would scour the roads and stops between here and there, searching camera footage, chasing a scent that never was. Everything was still okay.
“I didn’t mean to snap at you.” I sat next to him. “I met with the detective. I said you lied about Charlotte because you didn’t want theschool to know about us. And that you had been with me since you got back. That you didn’t want to get me in trouble, and that’s why you lied.”
Tyler’s face opened in surprise.
“You didn’t have to do that. Get involved like that.”
“I am involved. I don’t have a choice anymore. You know that, right? I’ve helped cover up a murder.”
His eyes narrowed and he yanked back.
“I’m not a murderer.”
“Tyler—I didn’t—”
“I’m not a murderer.”
“I’m sorry, I know. Of course not. But I need you to understand how serious this is.”
“You think I don’t? I’m not a child. And I’m not a murderer. It was an accident. I was upset about the ski trip. I’d been looking forward to it all semester.” He was getting worked up, face flush, eyes glowing. “I was really angry. But I didn’t want this to happen.”
“Okay, Tyler. I’m sorry. Listen. I fucked up. I should have thought this all through. But it’s good, it’s better. They know about the girl at Kent. They’re going to be tracing those leads. And you have a perfect cover now. Us. We’re the perfect cover. We just need to make sure our stories line up. If they talk to you again, you’ve been having an affair with me since November. We stopped it in January. You left the ski trip to come here, to start again. You came back to surprise me, not Addison. You stayed with me until Sunday morning. You went back to the dorms and your room was empty. Got it?”
He nodded but said nothing.
“We can’t afford any more slips in the story. We get one chance to change it, and we’ve used it. They need to believe you.”
“Well, if anything, we know I’m a good liar.”
“What do you mean?”
“You bought it all, right? About my family. About the Adderall. I had you convinced.”
“You did.” He was mad at me, I could see it. He wanted to hurt me.
“So don’t worry. I know how to get people to trust me.”
“Okay, then. No more lies. Did you have something to do with Kennedy filing a complaint against Safie?”
