Page 57 of Everyone Here Is Lying
Marion tries to focus on what the other woman is saying. What can she possibly want to askher? “What?”
“Are you the one who called in the tip about Avery getting into Ryan Blanchard’s car?”
Marion starts in surprise, feels her heart accelerate. She didn’t expect this. Erin is staring at her.
“Are you?” Erin asks again. Her voice is louder now, suspicious.
“No,” Marion says. “It wasn’t me.” She thinks she sounds convincing. She has always been a good liar, but she is off balance here, unprepared. She is too aware of Avery, hiding in the basement.
But Erin is staring at her now. “Itwasyou, wasn’t it? You called the police about Ryan.”
Oh Christ. She watches Erin rise, the chair scraping loudly against the tile floor.
“You’re lying,” Erin accuses. “I can tell. Why are you lying?”
Erin’s voice is louder now, and Marion gets up, too, and retreats, her lower back pressed against the counter as the other woman approaches her. Erin looks like a woman possessed. Marion remembers that she attacked Ryan in his own home, because of what she’d done.
“I’m not,” Marion protests. She must handle this and get this woman out of here.
But Erin clearly doesn’t believe her. “Why? Why are you denying it?”
Marion looks back at her, trying to think. She’s always meant to come out publicly as the witness—once Avery is gone. She’ll enjoy it. She’s even looking forward to it. She speaks very quietly, “Okay, yes, it was me.”
“Why deny it?” Erin asks. “Is it true? Did you see her get into his car?” Her voice is wild now, too loud.
Marion pulls herself together. She must stick to her story. She deliberately keeps her voice low. “I didn’t want my name made public because I’m hiding from an abusive ex-husband. He’ll kill me if he finds me,” Marion says. She’s very convincing—it’s as if she’s convinced herself that her ex-husband wants to kill her. “And yes,” she says quietly, “I did see Avery get into Ryan’s car that day.” She meets Erin’s eyes. “That’s the truth.”
She expects that to calm the other woman, to diffuse the situation. Once she knows, she’ll go. But that isn’t what happens.
“And you’re absolutely sure it was Avery?”
“I’m sure.”
“Then why the hell did you wait so long to call?” Erin cries. “You knew Avery was missing! Everybody knew! But you waitedmore than a day!”
Erin’s face is livid with rage. Specks of spit fly out of her mouth. Marion thinks Erin is going to strike her. The situation is out of control. Marion tries to placate her. “I told you—I was afraid of my husband...”
Erin shakes her head, not accepting it. “No! You could havecalled right away and not given your name. You didn’t need to wait. She might have come home to me if you’d called right away!” She’s weeping now. Weeping and shouting. “But you didn’t. And if my daughter is... gone, it’s onyourhands!”
“Get out of my house,” Marion says with cold fury. She needs this woman to leave, now.
Erin gives her one last, wrathful glare, and storms out of the house.
Marion locks the door behind her, heart thumping, and goes back to the kitchen, where she leans against the counter, her hands gripping its edges tightly. She stares at the door to the basement. Did Avery hear all that? She might have, even from the reaches of the basement bedroom.
Forty-two
Avery is standing behind the kitchen door, on the small landing at the top of the basement stairs. She knows Marion is in the kitchen, on the other side of the door, just steps away, because she’s listened to everything. She’d heard the knock at the door and recognized her mother’s voice. She’d heard the footsteps cross overhead and fade away as they approached the kitchen, and Avery concluded that Marion didn’t want her to hear their conversation. Avery had wondered why not.
Marion would expect her to stay in her bedroom in the dark, not moving, not wanting to be found. But Avery wanted to know what was going on, so she crept quietly out of the bedroom and up the carpeted stairs, and listened at the door.
What she heard stunned her.Marionwas the one who called in the tip about her getting into Ryan Blanchard’s car, drawing suspicion away from her father. It was a lie. It enraged her.Why did she do it?
But Avery still wasn’t about to make a surprise entrance and wreck all their plans.
Now her mother is gone, and Avery stands behind the door, seething with rage, thinking about what to do. She could open the door right now and tell Marion that she heard it all. See what she has to say for herself. That’s what she wants to do. It takes a tremendous effort of will, but she returns to her basement bedroom without a sound.
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