Page 56 of Such a Quiet Place
“Where’ve you been?” Mac called.
“With Madalyn. Sorry I’m late.” The second statement was directed Charlotte’s way.
Chase gestured for Preston to join us in his own living room. “As I was saying, there are agents from the state police who’ve been going door-to-door, asking questions. Preston, what’s going on with Madalyn?”
“Well, she’s totally freaked. I told her to go home for a little while. There’s nothing for her to say anyway. She didn’t see anything.”
“She’s a student?” Tate asked, cutting her eyes at him.
His jaw tensed. “Grad student. But yeah, she’s going back home to Ohio for a little while, I think.”
“She okay with it?” Chase asked. I couldn’t keep up with the conversation. I felt like I had just walked in instead of the other way around.
Preston nodded, then addressed the rest of us. “Madalyn wasn’t feeling well, so we left early,” he said, and it took me a minute to understand what he was saying. That she didn’t see anything. That none of us did. That she wouldn’t discuss any fight with the police or the things Ruby had said—the way she had turned on us all.
Chase nodded.Keep it simple.Keep it contained. For once, I was on the inside.
“The agent came to our house yesterday,” Tate piped in. “We didn’t answer the door.”
Tina nodded in agreement. “My mom answered the door, so we had to talk to him. Just gave him the general rundown.” She flicked her hand like we’d all been through it. Knew what she had seen, what she had said.
Margo raised her hand and started speaking. “I’m sorry, is no one going to mention thefoul-playsuspicion? We were all there. We were all witnesses.”
“What are we supposed to say?” Mac responded. “I sure didn’t notice anything.”
“Well, it looks pretty fucking suspicious that we were all there, and no one saw a damn thing,” Tate said. Her eyes flicked from person to person, challenging us.
This was how it began. When we started to winnow down the group, deciding whom it would be. Whose image would first raise suspicion when it appeared on one of our security cameras. Whom we were willing to feed to the masses. Did they even see what they were doing?
“Listen,” Mac said, the first time I’d heard him take control of anything, “it was a public event. It’s not like we live in some gated community. We’ve all noticed things happening on watch.”
“Javier, you said you heard people down at the lake on your shift, right?” Margo asked.
Javier nodded. “There were definitely people out during my shift at night. And Tate heard something the night you were on watch, too, Harper. Right, Tate?”
“Yep,” Tate said. “At like two-forty-five, a loud noise somewhere out front. I’m getting to the point where I can’t sleep, anyway.”
Was this how it really was? Were these truly the people I lived beside? I could feel it, this idea gaining momentum, that the danger wasout thereand not in this very room. Just like Ruby hadclaimed in her own denial.Someone else was out there. Someone else did it.It didn’t have to be one of us. We didn’t have to look at one another and wonder.
“We were ignoring her, mostly,” Charlotte said, and everyone nodded, though that wasn’t true. Maybe we’d tried to, but we hadn’t ignored her—we couldn’t, when she’d turned so clearly on all of us.
But there was something so alluring to it, a momentum I couldn’t stop. Something I wanted to be part of. An idea we could develop together, a puzzle we could solve, each of us with our own small piece. An image we could bring to light only collectively. Something that seemed suddenly possible.
Because we were friends and colleagues. Had known each other for years. Mowed each other’s yards when we were injured; thrown baby showers and graduation parties; pulled in the garbage cans when people were working late. We knew each other—we knew more about each other than any of us cared to admit.
“There were footprints at the pool,” I said, “the night I was on watch.” The gate swinging open. Footprints disappearing at the black pavement. “And a car driving off behind our homes.” I thought about that white car again—the one at the office. Who might’ve had cause to go there. “What about Brandon’s brother?” I was grasping, but it was another possibility. Someone who might’ve been keeping an eye on Ruby. Who might’ve been angry about her release.
Tate nodded. Finally, I was on the inside as we cast our suspicions outward.
“Listen,” Javier said, “I say we make a pact. No one tells them anything. No rumors or gossip. You know how it goes, right? We were all together. We can all vouch for each other. Let’s not complicate things.”
And I now understood what Chase had meant when he saidnot to dilute the evidence with rumors we couldn’t prove. The answers were simple. There was no great conspiracy. The simplest answers were most often the right ones.
Everyone seemed to be in agreement as I looked around the room. Even though the simplest answer, we all knew, was that someone here had done it.
Maybe it was because we each understood. There was a collective motive, and the focus could turn to any one of us. We had each testified. We were each afraid. We were protecting each other as much as ourselves.
We were just ignoring her, going on with our lives. We don’t know what happened. We didn’t see.
