Nicki was in rough shape.
She was in a hospital bed, raised into a semi-sitting position and propped up with pillows. Her hair looked greasy, plastered to her head. She had a black eye, several cuts and bruises on her face. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, mouse-like. “Patchen tried to warn me, but by the time he called, I heard someone shouting outside my front door. A man’s voice, familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I hadn’t heard that voice in years. Someone kicked my door in. I ran to the back bedroom, grabbed my gun, and hid in the closet. He was shouting at me. I heard a woman’s voice too, and both of them were getting closer. When I saw shadows through the closet door and knew they were in the room with me, I fired. I panicked and just started shooting, kept shooting until the gun was empty. Then she yanked the door open and pulled me out.”
“Where was the man?” Detective Dobbs’s voice.
Nicole blinked at the camera.
“Nicole?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t see him. I figured he ran off somewhere in the house.” Nicole licked her cracked lips. “She pulled me from the closet. Started shouting at me, ‘Where is it! Where is it!’ And I recognized her then—the doctor’s daughter. She—”
“She’s lying!” I shouted.
Sammy glanced at Jessica and paused the video.
My face burned. “Mitchell broke the door in! I chased him through the house! I wasn’t even in the room when she fired the shots at him—I was—”
“You were what?”
My voice dropped lower. “I was on the phone.”
“You were on the phone? Who did you call?”
“I…I didn’t call anyone. It was Dr. Bart. He called—”
Jessica smirked. “The dead Dr. Bart called Nicole’s house?”
I tried to remember. Everything had happened so fast, it was hazy. “Not him. Obviously not him. I think it was a recording. Had to be.” I was mumbling. Pull it together, Meg. I looked Jessica square in the eye. “Somebody was fucking with me.” I drew in a deep breath and went on as calmly as I could. “I hung up and found a pair of scissors in Nicole’s drawer—I stabbed Mitchell. I got him off Nicki long enough to get her to the car. He barely slowed down. He got to us before we could drive away and knocked me out.”
All three of them stared at me like I was some kind of crazy person.
Jessica told Sammy to play the video again.
Nicole said, “She slammed me against the wall. She was so strong, incredibly strong. I managed to get hold of a pair of scissors and I stabbed her in the shoulder. Then I ran. I got outside and made it into her car, but I couldn’t get it started. It looked like it had been hot-wired or something. I tried, but she knocked me out. She had a rifle and she hit me with it.”
Sammy paused the video again. The three of them looked at me.
“This is bullshit,” I said, fuming. “That’s not what happened.”
Jessica leaned toward me. “Show us your shoulder, Megan. Your left shoulder.”
“What?”
Jessica pulled the corner of her own tank top off her shoulder. “Just a quick peek among friends.”
“No way.”
“We’ll get a warrant.”
I crossed my arms.
“If she didn’t stab you, what do you have to worry about?” Detective Dobbs said.
“I hurt my shoulder at Windham Hall when I was trying to get away from Mitchell.”
“Show us.”
I glared at all of them, then stood. “You know what? I’ve got nothing to hide.” I reached behind my back, tugged down the zipper of my dress, turned around, and pulled the top down. “When I crawled under the bed, trying to help Nicole, I got caught on a nail or something sticking out of the floor. Or maybe it was on the bed frame, I’m not really sure. But she didn’t stab me—nobody stabbed me.”
A camera flashed behind me. I covered myself and spun around. Jessica set her phone down on the table. “You can get dressed now.”
I turned around and pulled the top of my dress back up. “I told you.”
“A doctor should look at that. It may be infected,” Jessica said.
I fell back into my seat. “It’s just a bad scratch. She’s lying. I don’t know why, but she’s lying, and all of you are buying it.”
Sammy was fiddling with his computer again. “Do you know what a Ring doorbell is, Megan?”