november
I huddled in my freezing car the next morning, a tepid cup of coffee grasped in my gloved hands, my eyes fixed across the street on the Montgomerys’ ornate black gate.
After a torrential dumping in the night, morning had dawned bright and clear, as had a fresh determination brewing inside of me. No matter what happened, I wanted to be able to tell Olivia’s daughter that I’d done everything I could to find out what had happened to her mother.
Kendall hadn’t told me everything. I was sure of it. I’d watched Gavin leave fifteen minutes ago, so whenever she left for school, I would be here waiting to talk to her.
My phone buzzed, and I glanced at it. It was my boss, Malcolm. He’d been bombarding me with calls and texts all morning. I knew I’d have to reply soon. I couldn’t keep putting it off. Only a few days of my leave of absence were left, and Malcolm needed to know he could count on me.
But I was so close to finding the truth. I could feel it.
Just then the gates clanged open, and a second later Kendall’s blue BMW Z4 soft-top nosed out of the drive. I shoved my door open and jumped out of my car.
“Kendall!” I waved to her, relief washing over me when she waved back and pulled her car up in front of mine.
She rolled down her window as I approached. “Hiya. What’s up?”
“There’ve been a few new developments about your dad in Olivia’s case. Do you have a minute to talk?”
She nodded. “Sure. Anything to help. You want to get in? It’s freezing.”
I climbed in her car, and she adjusted the heating to maximum. She wasn’t wearing a coat, just her Catholic schoolgirl uniform, which looked a little too naughty. The green tartan skirt was a little too short. Instead of tights she was wearing black knee-high socks paired with chunky ankle heels.
“Did he do it?” Kendall’s eyes gleamed with a weird light, and I knew my bait had worked. The girl would throw her dad under a bus if she could.
“I’m not sure,” I hedged. “That’s what I’m trying to find out. Did you ever hear your dad threaten Olivia? Or did she tell you he did?”
“Not really. No.”
“But he knew who she was, right? They met before?”
“Yeah, like once.”
I watched her, assessed her face, looking for any cracks in the stories she was spinning me. And I was sure now they were stories. She was playing me, spinning her version of the truth. The question was why, and what was the truth? I needed to know if Kendall really thought Gavin had hurt Olivia, or if she was covering for herself, projecting her responsibility onto him.
I knew from accounting that sometimes you had to take a step back, look at the big picture, the full set of numbers, see it from a different angle, so it could all begin to make sense. That’s what I needed to do now.
“What about when you followed them to the Black Cat Diner?” I said nonchalantly. “That’s at least twice they met. Did they meet besides that?”
Kendall’s jaw clenched defensively. “Who told you I followed them?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I replied. “What matters is whether you’re telling me the truth or not. Was it your dad who threatened Olivia? Or you?”
“I didn’t threaten her!” Her tone was defensive, snide as a spoiled child’s. She crossed her arms over her chest.
I sighed, exasperated with her attitude, my patience wearing thin.
“See, I’m not sure if I believe you anymore, Kendall. You tricked Olivia into coming to your house when the press was there, which risked exposing who Olivia was in the middle of your dad’s political campaign. You followed your dad and her when they met at the diner. Now you’ve told me they only met once, when I know for a fact they met at least twice. What else are you lying about?”
Kendall glared at me defiantly. “I don’t have to take this.”
“Did you have a score to settle with Olivia?”
“Of course not! I didn’t hurt Olivia. I was trying to help her! I told you this already!”
“You didn’t tell me you followed your dad and Olivia to that diner,” I countered.
“So?” Kendall snapped, her face a mottled pink. “I didn’t think it was important. Fine, you want to know what happened? Yes, I tricked Olivia into coming over so the media would find out about her. I wanted my dad to get caught.”
She reached up and ran her fingers through her shoulder-length blond hair and continued, “And yeah, I followed them to that scruffy diner. I heard my dad talking on the phone to Olivia that morning and I was mad, okay? I mean, my entire life he’s either ignored me or totally fucked everything up. All he cares about is money and his career, in that order. It doesn’t matter what I want, it has to fit in with his stupid career. That’s why he always has me volunteering with him for his community shit. The only reason I go to this ridiculous Catholic school is because he thinks it looks good for his campaign.” She plucked at her tartan skirt.
“I told him no fucking way was I going there. I wanted to go to an alternative school to study music, so you want to know what he did? He planted a bottle of oxy in my room and told my mom he’d caught me about to down the whole thing. So off I went to a mental hospital. D’ya see what I mean? He’s a fucking psycho.”
She flounced back against the seat, but she looked different now. Less the angry, defiant teenager and more like a victim. I knew what it felt like to be used as a pawn in Gavin’s game.
“I know what you’re saying, Kendall,” I said. “I do. And I know exactly what he’s capable of. But what does this have to do with why you followed Olivia? Nobody would blame you for being jealous.”
Kendall laughed, a harsh sound. “Don’t you get it? Yes, I was jealous, but not of her. I was jealous of him. For the first time in my life I had a sister, and she was on my side, not his. I didn’t want him getting in the way of that and I didn’t want them getting all chummy. I knew he’d turn Olivia against me the first chance he got. I wanted her to stay away from him so she would be mine, not his. He takes everything from me. I didn’t want him taking Olivia too!”
“Did you hurt Olivia?” I asked softly.
“No! Olivia was nice to me. I was sad when she got hurt. That’s why I’ve been calling you.”
“You’re the one who’s been calling?”
She looked away, ashamed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hung up. I just . . . I wanted to talk about her, but I didn’t know what to say.”
“It’s okay,” I said. I wrapped my hands around my stomach, feeling the ache deep within. “Sometimes I want to talk about her too.”
We sat in silence for a long moment, staring out the car windows at a cluster of leaves that skittered across the pavement.
“Where was your dad the night Olivia fell?” I asked.
Kendall glanced at me, but her eyes slid quickly away. “I don’t know.”
Just then a loud revving sound came from behind us, and the gates clanked and opened. I twisted to look out the rear window and saw a silver Jag pull up behind us.
It was Gavin.
Kendall sat up straight. “It’s him,” she said.
And just like that, her eyes went flat and dead.
× × ×
Kendall and I scrambled out of her car. She came to stand next to me, and we huddled together like two guilty children.
Gavin stormed toward us, his shoes crunching on the gravel, his face like thunder.
“Abi, what are—Kendall, what’s going on?”
“Why are you home?” Kendall snapped. She hunched her shoulders, rubbing her hands over her bare arms.
“I forgot my briefcase,” he growled.
Fear braided my stomach, a shimmer of nausea rolling in me. The paranoid side of my brain screamed at me to run away. But then he met my eyes, and there it was stamped unmistakably across his face: fear.
He was scared of me.
I laughed out loud as relief pulsed through me, strengthening my limbs.
“I was just asking Kendall where you both were the night Olivia fell,” I said.
“What the—?” He threw his hands up, looking incredulous. “Are you stalking my daughter? You’re pathetic!”
My face flushed and I clenched my hands into tight fists.
“Where were you that night?” I repeated.
Gavin shook his head, as if he were dealing with a toddler. “We’re doing this, are we?” He turned to Kendall. “What were we doing that night, darling?”
Kendall glared at him, hatred radiating from her eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t even know what night it was.”
“The first Saturday of October,” I said.
“It’s not like I keep a diary of everything I do,” Kendall snapped. “I’m not eight anymore.”
“A diary.” Gavin slapped a free hand on one knee with a faux jolly air. “Excellent idea, darling.”
He pulled his phone out of his coat pocket and started scrolling. A breeze lifted his hair, and I noticed how thin it had gotten.
“Ahh. I remember.” He pointed at his phone and looked at Kendall. “We were at a rather spectacular campaign dinner at the Fairmont Hotel. Do you remember, darling?” Kendall looked at him as if he’d grown four heads. “Noah Harris. That executive from ComCore Tech. His company organized a dinner with the Republican Future Institute to raise funds for my campaign. His son took quite a shine to you, didn’t he?” He slipped his phone back into his coat pocket.
Harris. Was the name familiar? I racked my brain but came up blank. It was a common name.
“What time was that?” I asked.
“Seven o’clock. But we were there late into the night, weren’t we, sweetheart?” Gavin’s father-of-the-year display made me sick. It looked like it was making Kendall sick too. She’d turned a disturbing shade of white.
“Yeah,” she mumbled.
I could feel Kendall slipping away, and Gavin was about to call the cops. But somehow I knew Kendall wasn’t telling me everything. Gavin had disturbed her, made her flustered and uneasy.
Anger, hard as a pebble, swelled in my throat.
“Seven o’clock?” I exploded, whirling to face Kendall. “Please! You had plenty of time to go to dinner, then drive to Olivia. Was it you, Kendall? Did you push her off that bridge?”
Her head jerked up. “No! I told you—!”
Gavin took a step toward me. The air around us pulsed with tension, unspoken truths rattling through the decaying leaves.
“That’s it.” Gavin fumbled for his cell phone. “I’m calling my lawyer.”
“No!” Kendall bit the word off as if it were a foul-tasting piece of candy. “I’ll answer her.”
“Don’t say another word, Kendall.”
Kendall whirled on him, eyes blazing. “You’re such an asshole,” she hissed. “Pretending like you care about me. You don’t give a shit. Not about me. Not about Olivia. She was just a problem you needed to get rid of. I know you pushed her. You didn’t want anyone finding out you have a bastard daughter.”
She pinned me with her eyes, speaking fast so Gavin couldn’t stop her. “He left dinner early that night. Disappeared about nine o’clock.”
“That’s enough!” Gavin roared. Kendall’s eyes widened, and for the first time I saw her as a child, cowering in the face of his narcissistic bullying. “Get in your car and go to school! That’s an order, Kendall!”
Kendall’s eyes narrowed to glittering slits, but she didn’t argue. She threw herself in the direction of her car. A moment later, her tires squealed against the pavement as she raced away, leaving me alone with Gavin.