As I walk to the academy, Neil’s words run through my mind.
Lisa had some secrets she didn’t tell anyone. Not even you.
After dropping the bombshell about the restraining order, Neil told me how Lisa’s friends had described her. Self-absorbed. Ditzy. Unambitious. Not things you’d say about a friend. But my mind keeps going back to the restraining order. Why did she lie to Alice—someone who was there to help her? What narrative was she trying to build for me, or for herself?
I scroll through Facebook as I walk, finding her profile: Remembering Lisa Hawthorne. The page is filled with posts from so-called friends. The cliches practically leap off the page.
Gone too soon.
One of the most vibrant people I knew.
An angel on earth and in heaven.
Even in death, people can’t be real. I curse aloud. I hate the fact that Lisa didn’t tell me, and I hate what it’s made me question about my own life. About InCheck. How much do I really know about my clients? Are Fred or Susana who I think they are? If I had to see them in a coffee shop, would I recognise them by their voices? Would I see Susana with her baby, or Fred with his eclectic clothes and camera, as I’ve always pictured him?
In reality, I don’t know a thing about them. And I’m lying to them about who I am.
I need to try and remember what Lisa said on our last two phone calls. Each time Neil puts an InCheck transcript in front of me, I’m lost.
But one thought keeps nagging away at me.
“Lisa had a breakdown after the wedding,” Neil had told me. “Did she tell you that?”
“No,” I sighed, increasingly less surprised at how little I actually knew. “What happened?”
“Nothing official. But off the record, she took a handful of sleeping pills and washed them down with the best part of a bottle of whisky. Was admitted to hospital to have her stomach pumped.”
I said nothing. What could I say? She didn’t tell me.
“We think she tried to kill herself,” Neil said. “They kept her in hospital for a week, monitoring her. And then she went home and it was like nothing had happened.”
“But … hold on.”
I frowned, piecing everything together. “If that’s true, then she clearly wasn’t okay. If she tried to kill herself before—then it could have happened again, couldn’t it?”
I tried keeping my voice calm, but my annoyance was building. Neil had brought me here to find a way out for Lisa’s family. But it wasn’t my fault. She just didn’t have the support or treatment that she so clearly needed. Neil had scared me into thinking I was stuck here. That he could keep me in this godforsaken town. And for what?
“So what if I talked to Lisa?” I asked, my confidence building. “It’s not like it’s a—”
“A crime?” Neil said, taking the word from my mouth.
“I’m not responsible for her death.”
Neil shook his head. “You don’t get it. The family won’t take suicide as an answer.”
“Not even if it’s true?”
He took a breath. “I told you, these people want to protect their reputation. And they’re not going to admit to the world that their daughter offed herself. Not then, not now.”
And at that moment, the problem became obvious.
Lisa’s parents needed a scapegoat. Someone to blame for their daughter’s death. They tried—and failed—to pin it on the fiancé. But with the help of money, Neil offered them a second chance. A second investigation. Whether or not it was suicide, someone else needed to hang for Lisa’s death.
And that person is looking more and more like me.
I need to remember what happened that night with Lisa. And fast.