Page 140

Thomas watched her closely. “What about it?”
“I wasn’t there,” Brittlynn said. “You know that, right?”
“We do. Tell us what you do know,” Johnson suggested, pushing the microphone a little closer to the redhead.
“I was at home, like I said, but Chad had gone there.” She looked pained to admit the truth and she fidgeted anxiously. Chewed ferociously. “They had it all figured out, he and Marlie. They were going to leave together, I guess.” She shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her, but Thomas thought from her sour expression that it mattered, it mattered a lot. “The idea was to run off and, you know, be together, I guess or whatever. I’m not sure. Anyway, Marlie’s mom and stepdad didn’t like Chad. Of course he wasn’t ‘good enough.’” She made air quotes with her fingers. “They wouldn’t let him come to family functions and that sort of thing and so . . . anyway, they came up with this plan that he would come and get her, and they would take off together. And . . . and I’m not sure if Marlie knew it or not, but Chad intended on ripping the old man off. Marlie had told him where Samuel—the older one, the father, not Sam Junior—kept a stash of cash.”
She paused, as if she was thinking how to phrase the next part, rolling the gum from one side of her mouth to the other. “He, um, he got there and waited, but no one was going to sleep. It was cold and he snuck in, went into the back hallway . . . I guess there was this broom closet or something and it had a false wall or secret compartment or something. It was supposed to be where the old man, Sam Senior, kept extra cash when they were at the mountain. Marlie knew about it somehow. Anyway, Chad had some trouble finding the secret spot, and when he did, or what he thought was it, the cubby was empty. No cash. Zero. Either Marlie had lied to him, Sam Senior got wise, or someone beat him to the punch.”
She looked from one detective to the next and said, “Chad was pissed and about to leave when he heard shouting. Screaming. Angry threats. He peeked around the corner into the living room and saw Jonas with a sword. Swinging it wildly, like a crazy person. Jonas knocked over the Christmas tree and, like, hit the mantel over the fireplace. Chad said Jonas was out of his mind. Completely out of it, but he wasn’t alone in the room. Donner was there, too, and Jonas kept slashing at him, cornering him somehow.
“Chad was freaked. He said it looked like Jonas was possessed by the devil. All Chad wanted to do was get the hell out of there.” She paused, even stopped chewing for a second, then said, “I guess, I guess, Jonas said something like, ‘I told you to stay away from her, you fucker! I told you what was gonna happen, that I was gonna fuckin’ kill you!’”
So they’d gotten it right, Thomas thought. The police had arrested the killer and the jury had convicted him. Thomas felt a sense of relief that all the doubts about Jonas McIntyre being railroaded and unjustly convicted were about to be proved false. Finally. And, thankfully, at least the prick had spent twenty years behind bars. That was something.
“What happened next?” Thomas asked, trying not to sound too eager.
“He swung the fuckin’ sword and sliced Donner.” Brittlynn closed her eyes. Shuddered.
“Just like that?” Johnson said, her brow knitting.
“Yeah, but, um, Chad couldn’t hold his shit together. He made a noise, like caught his breath or something and Jonas heard him, stared at the spot where Chad was hiding and saw him. Even though Chad had worn gloves, he wasn’t wearing a mask.”
“And, at this point, Donner was still alive?” Johnson asked, to clarify.
“I don’t know. I don’t think that Chad knew for sure, because Donner was down on the floor and bleeding.” She was chewing the gum hard again. “So yeah, he killed him. I just told you.”
With what seemed forced patience, Johnson asked, “Was Donner Robinson bleeding from the neck? Did Jonas slit his throat?”
“I-I don’t know.Iwasn’t there. Remember.Ididn’t see what happened. Chad never said. Only that then all hell broke loose.
“Jonas started moving toward Chad just as Sam Junior ran down the stairs, probably heard the commotion, the screaming and falling and whatever. That’s when Chad took off. He was sure Jonas would come after him. Kill him for being a witness or something. Chad didn’t wait for Marlie and said he even thought he saw her on the landing above, coming down the stairs, too, but he just ran. As fast as he could.” She paused. Took a breath. Then added, “I, um, I, um, think Marlie might have followed him.”
“Marlie?” Thomas said, feeling a jolt of adrenaline, a sensation that this, at least in part, was the truth.
“And Chad just left her?” Johnson frowned, not completely buying it. “When Jonas was ‘out of his mind’ or ‘possessed by the devil,’ and they’d had this elaborate plan to elope and—”
“Not elope. I didn’t say elope,” Brittlynn insisted.
So that was a sticking point with her.
“It wasn’t like he was leaving her,” Brittlynn said, but didn’t sound convinced. “He told me that he’d parked about a mile away from the house, you know, on the other side of a couple of cabins to kind of hide the car. It was Christmas Eve and people in some of the places were still up, so he had to slow down and be careful. He didn’t want to be seen.”
Johnson said, “But he wasn’t waiting for his girlfriend.”
“I don’t know! The point is that he was avoiding people and dogs and whoever was up, so he had to slow down, had to wait so that he wouldn’t be seen, and because of it, he lost time, a lot of time, he said.”
“How much time?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask,” she said. “But the thing is, he saw Marlie, he saw her being chased.”
“Wait,” Johnson cut in. “You mean Kara, the eight-year-old.”
“No, that’s just it, he saw Marlie.”
Thomas said, “And he didn’t try to interfere?”
“He was scared out of his mind.”