Page 12 of Everyone Here Is Lying
He’s already thought about this. He’s been thinking about it all night. He knew they would ask. He could tell them about the affair and not give them Nora’s name. He could. But he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want Erin to know, not right now, not like this. But then he wonders if they’ve already found his other phone. He keeps it hidden in his car, an Infiniti G37 sedan. His car is in their garage. They must have searched it last night when they searched the house. But one of the reasons he recently bought that car is that it has a secret compartment in the rear-seat armrest. Do they know about that? Is it possible that they missed it? The room is too warm, and he feels himself beginning to sweat. They are looking at him, waiting for him to answer. He says, “I just needed to get out. I didn’t have any appointments and I didn’t feel like facing my paperwork.”
“Where did you go?”
“I went for a drive. I drove north along the river, stopped at a viewing point for a while. I just wanted to think.”
“What did you want to think about?”
Shit.“Nothing in particular.” He adds, “You know, life.”
“How’s your marriage?” Bledsoe asks.
“It’s fine.”
“And if we ask your wife, she’ll say the same thing?”
William doesn’t know what his wife will say. “Look, what’s this got to do with my daughter?”
Bledsoe ignores him. “Your daughter is difficult.” He looks down at a file he has open on the table. “Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Behavioral problems.” He lifts his eyes. “That can’t be fun.”
William is getting angry now. “Yes, she can be challenging. We’ve been very up front about that. But it doesn’t mean we don’t love her. Of course we do.” He adds urgently, “We just want her back.”
“On this long drive,” Bledsoe continues, “did you stop in anywhere? Get a coffee? Buy something? Get gas? Can you give us something that can verify where you were?”
Now William realizes something. The motel could verify where he was. He didn’t use his own name, and he always paid cash. But the person on the front desk would certainly recognize him. She’ll recognize him as soon as his picture makes the front page, probably today. He feels a spike of adrenaline shoot through his veins. He realizes, too, that the motel staff won’t necessarily know what time he left, because he forgot, in the shock of Nora dumping him, to return the key on his way out. He’d thrown it away, after, into the river. He could say he left the motel when his wife called him. He and Nora always parked around back, so their cars weren’t visible from the motel office. The motel staff probably won’t know whattime he left. Nora’s not going to say anything. He swallows, balances on the edge of a decision. “No, I don’t think so.”
“So, no one can verify where you were between three forty-five when your daughter left school and when you arrived home at five forty. Good to know.” Now he leans in. “Did you go home yesterday, Dr. Wooler? When your daughter was in the house?”
“No.” He summons all his internal strength and meets the detective’s eyes steadily. “I didn’t go home till Erin called me, around five twenty. I got there at five forty. The police were already there when I arrived.”
Bledsoe nods. “Okay. That’s all we need for now. Thank you.” He gets up. “If you don’t mind, you can remain here while we talk to your wife.”
Nine
Erin sits nervously in the interview room, waiting for Bledsoe and Gully. She doesn’t know how long she’ll be here. She’s frantic about her missing daughter, thinks all this is a waste of time. She’s worried about what the detectives think. She frets about Michael alone in the waiting room. He’s only twelve years old. This will damage him. It will damage all of them.
Finally, the door opens, and Bledsoe makes his way in, followed by Gully. Erin’s not so sure of Gully anymore.
“Let’s get started,” Bledsoe says, as he and Gully sit down across from her. He smiles at her. “This is purely voluntary. You can leave at any time.”
This is a surprise to Erin. It doesn’t feel that way. She wonders what they would do if she got up and left. Bledsoe has a file in his hand, which he places on the table. Erin wonders what’s in it. She wishes she knew what her husband said in his interview.
Bledsoe begins. “You said that you were at work when your son called your cell yesterday at four fifty-five p.m.”
So they are definitely suspects. She feels a mounting hysteria. Will they put their energies into finding Avery, or into trying to pin this on her and William? “Yes.”
“Was there anyone else in the office?”
She nods. “Yes. There were several people there who can vouch for me being there all afternoon, until I left at about five.” Maybe this is just a formality, she thinks, something they have to do, and then they will get back to looking for Avery.
“Okay,” Bledsoe says. He pauses briefly, then says, “Your husband can’t account for his whereabouts at the time Avery went missing.”
Erin freezes. She assumed he’d been at work. Where else would he have been? “What?” she says faintly.
Bledsoe fixes his eyes on her. “He says he was out for a drive, from about two o’clock until you called him at about five twenty. No one can verify his whereabouts.”
She hadn’t anticipated this; she can’t even mask her shock. She feels a strange numbness setting in.
“Any idea where he might have been?” the detective asks.
