Page 81 of The Secrets We Hide
Emmy pivoted. “Skylar, I’m gonna talk to you like you’re an adult, even though you’re technically not one yet. Is that okay with you?”
Skylar looked at her mother. Pam gave a wary nod.
“I think you already know what happened yesterday. Somebody came into Allison’s house and murdered her. Then they shot Mandy in the head.”
The tears started to fall.
“Mandy is okay for now, but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. No matter what, she’s going to have to live with what happened for the rest of her life.” Emmy suddenly found her lungs incapable of holding a full breath. “And she won’t have her mom around to help her work through it.”
Skylar wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
“None of that is your fault.”
Skylar’s lower lip had started to tremble.
“That’s the same thing I told Talia when I spoke to her yesterday.” Emmy understood the particular pain of being a teenage girl who took on all the blame in the world. “I know you’ve been raised to be skeptical of the police, but I’m being straight with you. There was nothing you could have done that would’ve stopped what happened.”
Skylar gulped down a sob. She gripped her phone in her hands.
Pam shifted her weight. She was looking out at the creek. Tears wept from her eyes. She could be a nasty piece of work, but no mother wanted to see their child in pain.
“I was—” Skylar sniffed. “I was so mad at her.”
Emmy could see the relief that came with the confession.
“She was all bruised and—and I begged her to tell somebody, but she wouldn’t, and she said if I told anybody else, then she would tell my mom that I did something bad that I didn’t do.”
Pam’s eyes narrowed. Emmy held up her hand, silently begging her not to interfere. “Where was Mandy bruised?”
“Her arms and back. She tried to hide it, but I saw when we were changing out for gym and I asked her what happened and she locked herself in the bathroom stall and started crying.” Skylar looked back up at Emmy. “I wanted to tell, but she threatened me.”
Pam jumped in. “Threatened you with what?”
Emmy said, “Mandy’s in the hospital. Does it matter?”
Pam looked chastened. The question had snapped her out of defense attorney mode.
“No, it doesn’t matter.” She knelt down beside her daughter. “You’re not in trouble for anything. I want you to answer Sheriff Clifton’s questions.”
Skylar took a shaky breath. Then she nodded for Emmy to continue.
“When did you see the bruises?”
“When we went back to school. I don’t remember exactly when.”
School had started two months ago. Another recurring theme. “Did Mandy tell you who hurt her?”
“We didn’t talk anymore after it happened. Not about real things. It was hard to be around her. Like, if you brought it up, she’d ignore you like you didn’t even exist. But it was hard not to say anything, ’cause she’d show up at school wearing long sleeves and it’d be six hundred degrees outside. And one time, she changed the part in her hair to the other side and she said it was to try something new but I could tell she was covering a bruise.”
“Do you think she told Talia who bruised her?”
“Talia doesn’t confide in me. She and Mandy kind of pushed me out. Like, we were still friends, but they were best friends.”
Emmy knew about those types of relationships. It was hard not to hang around hoping to be let back in. “Do you have a guess about who could’ve hurt Mandy?”
Skylar’s shrug indicated the answer was obvious. “Bill.”
Emmy took a moment to think about her next question. “Did Mandy ever tell you that Bill hit her?”
