HER VOICE SHAKES. “I made a mistake.”
Nobody dares to breathe.
“I trusted Keegan Leach. We became friends. But we were nothing more. He was lonely and needed a friend, and we had Mark in common, so we hung out sometimes.”
Hands clasped in her lap. Her hair is off her face in a ponytail, no wisps obscuring the view. “Then he started getting more suggestive, and making comments about us being together. I was going to tell Mark about it, but it was a hard conversation to have. Keegan was his best friend. I didn’t know whose side he would take. When we went into the woods that day, there was a sick feeling in my stomach, like something was going to happen.
“We didn’t talk very much as we hiked. He kept wanting to go higher, farther, and the farther we got, the more I decided to keep it inside. What I wanted to say. I’d save it for somewhere I felt safe. But then we got up there, to the Split, and he turned around and started accusing me of sleeping around.”
She clears her throat, wipes her eyes. Tears are pooling in them.
“I guess Keegan told Mark we’d been hanging out, but made it sound like I came on to him. I denied it, of course, because nothing happened. Mark got mean. He said things like, I should feel lucky to be with him because I would never find anyone else who would put up with me. At that point I fought back a bit. With my words. I asked him how he could be so quick not to trust me, when I believed him when he told me the girls on his Instagram, in all his photos, were just friends.”
You can’t tell what the jury is thinking, only that they’re thinking something. The judge nods periodically, as if maybe she agrees.
“I asked him if he was going to break up with me, and why he had to drag me all the way out here just to do it when he knew I hated hiking. He told me Keegan said it was best to do things in private. That Keegan suggested the hike. That was when I knew that Keegan had a whole other motive. The night he made a pass at me, he made some comment about wishing Mark weren’t in the picture. I thought he only said it because he was offended I turned him down, so I didn’t tell anyone.”
She makes a gesture like she’s pushing her hair behind her ears, but there’s no hair to push back. She’s a girl who isn’t used to wearing a ponytail, but maybe today she felt like it was necessary not to obscure her face. She wants them to know she has nothing to hide.
“Mark lunged at me. I didn’t realize we were that close to the edge until we were. And I screamed, even though nobody could hear me, and pulled back. He lost his balance and fell.” She squeezes her eyes shut. “The sound he made when he fell—I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life.”
Now she’s steely, determined. “I didn’t know anything about the backpack. I didn’t ask him what was in it, and I didn’t pack it for him. I had the picnic basket. I started running. I just needed to get out of the woods, to get help. Maybe I should have gone down to the creek, but I didn’t even know how to get down there. I ran. I fell down the steep part of the trail and cut up my legs and hands. I got lost a bunch of times. Then I had to run home from the woods because Mark’s car was there and I didn’t have his keys, and my phone was dead, which was so dumb, because usually I charge it before leaving the house. There was nobody around, because it was really late. Nobody who could help.”
A shuddering breath, shaking hands clasped in a seashell fist. “I didn’t know Keegan was waiting for us in the woods. Sometimes I wonder if he planned to get rid of both of us, and I just managed to get away. Mark Forrester didn’t deserve to die. And my involvement will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Her fingernails are painted black. They drum on the podium in front of her. “I know Keegan is telling a different story, but this is mine. I can’t make you believe me, but I hope you at least heard me.”
Then Paxton comes in, asks her so many questions, attempts to flay her open and dissect her, but she remains neatly stitched up. She answers everything. She has nothing to hide. She’s not the Blue-Eyed Boyfriend Killer but just a girl, a girl who wants the truth to reign.
The jury takes two hours to deliberate, and when they do, Tabitha Cousins is found not guilty of Mark Forrester’s murder.