“I have some good news and some bad news,” Lisa Walters said.
It was five days since Aidan’s last court date, and five more until the grand jury would meet to determine his fate. Aidan and Lisa sat across a narrow table from one another in the small interview room that the prison set aside for attorney visits. The fluorescent lights buzzed. The carpet was dingy and stained. The room smelled of roach spray and damp. But Lisa, in a red suit and bold earrings, with her clear gaze and firm voice, brought a ray of hope.
“I could use some good news,” Aidan said.
“All right. Good news first. And this is big. The prosecution wants you to cooperate against Caroline Stark.”
“Cooperate? What do you mean?”
“Turn. Flip. Sing. Drop a dime. Call it what you’d like. They believe she killed her husband with your help, and they want your testimony against her in exchange for a reduced sentence.”
“But—”
Lisa held up her hand. “Wait a second. I know what you’re going to say. Waah, waah, Lisa, I can’t remember. Waah. I love her, I won’t talk against her. Well, stop right there, kid. You’re gonna do this. You’re going in there and agreeing to testify, but not with a guilty plea, and not in exchange for a reduced sentence. They’re going to declare you innocent and drop the charges. I have a bombshell up my sleeve that changes everything. Your tox screen came back. You know how many Ambiens you took on the night of the murder?”
“Ambien? The sleeping pill? Zero. I never took a sleeping pill in my life.”
“Wrong. You took a shitload. The tox screen shows an enormous concentration of zolpidem in your blood, which is the sedative in Ambien. Normally, zolpidem dissipates quickly. Your blood was drawn after your arrest, which by my calculation was about eight hours after you had that drink with Caroline—”
“The bourbon?”
“Yes. My expert says that to have that much zolpidem in your system that long after administration of the drug, you would’ve had to ingest up to four or five times the standard dose.”
“You’re saying Caroline drugged me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Don’t you think she did?”
Aidan cast his mind back to the first gulp of that bourbon at Caroline’s house. It had tasted bitter and strange, but he’d ignored that and drunk the whole glass down, simply for the pleasure of drinking with her. Almost immediately afterward, he’d started feeling lethargic, dizzy and shivery. But the music was intoxicating and being near her was overwhelming, and he attributed his light-headedness to that. Yet, when he awoke in his truck the next day, his mind was wiped clean like he’d been bingeing for days, after only one drink. Aidan tended bar for a living. He had a high tolerance for alcohol. He never blacked out. Yet he remembered nothing after the singular moment of stepping out into the wind and rain. And then, to wake up drenched in blood with a gun he’d never seen wedged under the seat, and Caroline’s husband dead, at his hand? He remembered telling Caroline he’d protect her from him. He even recalled wanting to jump the guy. But in his heart, he didn’t believe he could do something like that and have zero memory of it.
“Maybe you’re right,” Aidan said to Lisa.
“I am right. Tell me about that drink, and how you felt afterward.”
“The bourbon tasted funny. I passed out not long after drinking it. I woke up in my truck on the beach with my mind a blank and no memory of anything in between.”
“There you go. Put that together with the Ambien in your blood, and it’s obvious. But if you want to feel better about it, the prosecutor told me Caroline’s fingerprints are on the gun.”
“Seriously?”
Aidan’s spirits soared. If she killed him, then Aidan’s hands were clean. He hadn’t realized until that moment how much he wanted not to be guilty. How much he didn’t want to have another dead man on his conscience. He hated that Caroline would suffer. He wished he could carry that burden for her. But at least his own conscience would be clear.
“Though, you should know, your fingerprints were on the gun, too,” Lisa said.
Crap. Aidan hung his head and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t handle much more of this stress, of this crazy roller-coaster his life had become.
“Which is it, then? Did I shoot Stark or did she?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you what I think happened,” Lisa said. “Caroline drugged you. She shot her husband, and then she stuck the gun in your hand while you were blacked out. She made sure your prints were on it, then she planted it in your truck.”
“How did she get me to my truck? And dispose of Jason’s body?”
“Somebody helped her. But it wasn’t you.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to go in this direction.”
Caroline was still a beautiful dream, one he couldn’t give up. If she’d betrayed him that badly, it would be worse than anything Samantha ever did. He didn’t want to face it. And yet—
“After all the proof I laid out, you still don’t see that she set you up? I want to slap you, kid,” Lisa said.
“There is this one thing.”
He paused, afraid of what he was about to say, of where it would lead him.
“I’ll bite. What’s the one thing?” Lisa asked.
“Someone came to visit me the other day, and she told me a strange story. This girl Brittany? She works for Harbor Gourmet. She’s the person who hired me to work at Caroline’s party, the one where Stark’s mistress showed up and made a scene.”
“Okay, and?”
“Brittany says Caroline asked for me special, by name.”
“Asked for you—?”
“Brittany says Caroline knew my first and last name, and where I worked, and that she insisted that I be the bartender assigned to her party. Brittany says she’s willing to testify, to show that Caroline came after me. That I didn’t stalk her. But I don’t get how it’s possible. I only met Caroline once before that party, in passing on the beach. We barely spoke. I don’t see how she could’ve known my full name, or where I worked, and I don’t understand why she would ask for me.”
“You believe this woman’s story?”
“Brittany has no reason to lie. She’s not that good of a friend of mine. She says she’s one hundred percent sure that it happened the way that she says it did. I believe her. And yet it makes no sense.”
Lisa tapped her fingernails thoughtfully on the table. “Before Caroline requested you to work at the party, you say the two of you met once, on the beach?”
“Yeah. But just for a minute. I remember it was starting to rain. She was out for a run. She looked really beautiful. I remember she was wearing—”
“I don’t need to know what she was wearing, Aidan. Tell me the things I do need to know. Where exactly did this happen? Did you speak? What did you say?”
“It happened in front of her house. I was standing there looking up at it.”
“Looking at her house? Why?”
“I always look at it. That land used to belong to my family.”
“You always look at Caroline’s house? That isn’t good. Elaborate, please.”
“I go by there—I used to—to see how the house is coming along. To admire it.”
“How often did you do this?”
“Few times a week, maybe.”
“Was that the first time she saw you?”
“As far as I know. It was definitely the first time I saw her.”
“But she could’ve seen you on other occasions?”
“Sure.”
“Maybe she wondered who you were and why you were staring at her house.”
“It’s possible.”
“Maybe she thought you wanted to rob it.”
“I don’t know why she would think that. I never did anything. Well, maybe, occasionally if nobody was around, I’d—”
He paused.
“You what?”
“I’d go in. I’m talking about when it was under construction, and it wasn’t locked. I don’t think she could know that. And one time after the party, when I set off the alarm by mistake. I’m sorry. Is that a problem for the case?”
“Of course it is. But maybe the truth is more complicated. How well-known is your prior conviction?”
“What do you mean?”
“Around town, do people know you were arrested for killing your best friend in a love triangle when you were younger?”
“Yes. Everybody knows.”
“And how are you thought of? Violent? Unstable?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. People are shitty. They don’t give me the benefit of the doubt.”
“So, if Caroline noticed you watching her house, and decided to ask around about you, she’d hear that you were an unstable young man, with a history of violence, with this, this situation in your past?”
Aidan sighed. “Yes. It’s the first thing people mention if you ask about me.”
“If you want my honest reaction, I think your friend Brittany is right. I think Caroline was playing a very long game.”
“How so?”
“She knew who you were. She knew enough about you to think you’d make a good patsy. She asked Brittany to hire you to work her party in order to meet you. She wanted to meet you, so she could seduce you, kill her husband, and frame you for his murder. Do you see it now?”
No. Never.
Believing Lisa’s theory would mean accepting that his love affair with Caroline had been a fraud from start to finish. A setup. And he knew that wasn’t true. He’d lived it. He’d loved her. It was real.
“That’s not possible,” he said.
“You need to stop being so naïve, Aidan. People are liars. Caroline is a liar. You have to accept that.”
“I thought this was the good news,” Aidan said.
“Huh?”
“When you came in, you said you had some good news and some bad news. I asked for the good news first.”
“This is good news. Not good. It’s great. We have the Ambien in your blood. Caroline’s prints on the murder weapon. And now your friend Brittany to explain how Caroline set you up. You’re innocent, Aidan, and the prosecution is going to see that. I bet they dismiss the charges.”
“Okay, what’s the bad news then?”
“Nothing. Forget about that. Your only concern should be putting Caroline Stark behind bars where she belongs. That woman is evil.”