Page 61 of Everyone Here Is Lying
“I won’t, I swear,” Marion says earnestly. She must keep her sweet, until the time comes. She stands up.
“And, Marion,” Avery says, “don’t lock the door behind you anymore.”
Shit, Marion thinks,she tried to get out. She knows.She nods. “Okay, I won’t. Sorry, it’s just habit. Good night, then.”
Marion returns upstairs, gets into her pajamas, and climbs into bed. Of course she has locked the door to the basement. It’s so well oiled it’s completely silent. Avery knows now that she has been locking the door. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Avery can’t get upstairs. She can’t get out. Avery had trusted her. She’d come into her house expecting to find a friend, but she’d walked into a trap.
Avery has made a terrible mistake.
Because Marion can’t allow Avery to live. That Avery doesn’t seem to realize this yet is almost laughable. Not when she might tell the truth someday about where she’s been. Now that she knowsshe’s been locked in. Kidnapping. She could go to prison for years and years. She can’t be having that.
Once Avery is gone, Marion tells herself, everything will turn out the way she wants.
Everyone already thinks Avery is dead. The police have no idea where she is. They believe Marion saw her getting into Ryan Blanchard’s car—she can tell they believed her. She will never recant her statement. She will go to her grave swearing that she saw Avery get into Ryan’s car. All she has to do is get rid of Avery. And then she will come forward publicly with what she saw. She will seem brave, when people understand why she didn’t come forward earlier, when they hear her story about her abusive ex-husband.
The truth is, her ex-husband had never laid a finger on her. Nevertheless, she’d had him charged with assault, twice—both times inflicting significant injuries on herself—and the authorities believed her, both times. When he’d told her the marriage was over, she’d wanted to destroy him, and that’s what she’d done, without regret.
William won’t be able to even look at Nora anymore. Nora’s perfect life will be in ruins. And maybe William will fall in love with her now. Maybe this will bring them together. She plays a little fantasy in her head, of how William, finished with Nora, finished with his wife, sees her with new eyes...
But then her mind returns to practicalities. She will have to get rid of Avery, and any trace of her. She’ll wrap her in garbage bags and put her in the trunk of her car late at night. No one is watching her. She’s not a suspect. She’ll drive to some deserted place and dispose of the body. She’ll wear gloves, and clothes that she can get rid of after, someplace else.
The house is another problem. It will take days to clean the basement. She’ll have to wash the bedding, scrub all the surfaces, vacuum the carpet over and over, and get rid of the vacuum bag somewhere. And she’ll have to scrub the upstairs, too, because Avery used to come into her kitchen for cookies last summer when Marion was trying to pump her for information about her father. It’s a lot to do. How can she be sure she got everything? But then, no one is going to search her house anyway. If Avery’s body is eventually found, why would they ever search Marion’s house? She didn’t even know Avery. She’s just someone who saw the girl get into a car.
Marion is malevolent, but she is not a violent person—maybe that’s why she’s been putting this off. Avery is violent, given to rages, and she will fight back. And so Marion’s already decided that the best option is to drug her first. Put a dose of something into her food. Marion has enough sleeping pills in the medicine cabinet to knock her out. The girl eats like a pig; by the time she wolfs it down, it will be too late.
She will strangle her while she sleeps. And then she’ll strip her naked and use the hand attachment on the vacuum to go over her body carefully, to remove any hairs or fibers. She’ll do it tomorrow. And tomorrow night, after dark, she’ll get rid of the body. It’s time. She’s been waiting for the police presence to die down. And she doesn’t think she can stand having that little brat in her basement one more day.
•••
Avery lies awakein the darkness, wondering what Marion is thinking upstairs in bed above her. She’s certain that Marion isas wide awake as she is. They don’t trust each other. Marion betrayed her, Avery thinks; she deserves what’s coming to her.
Avery is busy making new plans. When the time comes, she won’t sneak out back into the woods and reappear with a story about a strange man like they agreed. She has a new story now. She will say that Marion kidnapped her and held her against her will, that she escaped, and they will believe her. And there’s nothing Marion can do, Avery thinks, because Avery holds all the cards.
Forty-five
The next morning, Marion opens the sleeping capsules one by one and empties their contents into the glass of milk sitting on the counter. She will have to get rid of the packaging later. She worries briefly that Avery might taste the pills, but then decides she can probably count on her drinking the milk down with her toast and peanut butter. She’s been bringing Avery that same breakfast every morning since she got here, and she always finishes it all. Marion looks forward to the day when she doesn’t have to bring the little brat meals anymore. She wants to be alone in her house again. She wants things to go back to normal.
She stirs the last capsule’s contents into the glass of milk. She unlocks the door to the basement and carries the plate of toast and the glass of milk carefully down the stairs. She gets to the room and pushes the door open wider with her foot.
She looks at Avery for a moment. She looks so normal, but Marion knows she isn’t. But then, Marion knows thatsheisn’t exactlynormal either. They’re both participating in some kind of hideous danse macabre together.
It’s time to do something about it. She hands Avery the glass.
•••
Avery watchesthe morning newscast alone, eating her breakfast. Marion had left quickly, saying she had things to do.
The morning news mentions nothing about the mystery witness changing her story. There is nothing about letting Ryan Blanchard go. According to the newscast, he’s still in custody, suspected of abducting her.Why?
Avery’s mind races. They would have let Ryan Blanchard go if Marion admitted to the police that she made it all up, like she said she did late last night. But maybe she didn’t. Maybe Marion never went to the police station last night at all.
It becomes painfully clear to Avery, first as a possibility, and then as a certainty.Marion didn’t tell them.She lied to her—again! She hadn’t wanted to change her story, and she didn’t. She’s lied to her again, because she wants Ryan Blanchard to be blamed for her disappearance. But Marion must realize that once Avery reappears, they will know she never—
Oh. Avery’s heart almost stops.
She puts down the half-drunk glass of milk. She’s filled with suspicion and sudden fear. With a pounding heart, she thinks about the kitchen door. Is it locked? She creeps up the stairs and quietly tries the door. The knob won’t turn. Marion has locked the door again. She’s locked in. No one knows she’s here. There’s no way out of this basement unless Marion lets her out. And Marion’s not going to do that. Not ever.
•••
