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Chapter Thirty-Five

Laura

W aiting in the interrogation room, I try and find a comfortable position to sit in with my hands chained. I'm so sick of meeting with people. Dr. Victor, for example. The redhaired psychiatrist who looks like she should be a schoolteacher or a librarian with her hair tied up in a bun at the top of her head and smattering of freckles along her nose and cheeks. Shove a pencil into her bun, and I feel like she'd be more apt to check out books than prescribe anti-psychotic medication.

I'm so tired of talking with people. People who think I'm stupid. My entire life has just been a series of people thinking I'm significantly dumber than I am when, in fact, I'm rather intelligent.

Frustration and abandonment are the top emotions today. No matter how many times I call, Natalie doesn't answer. The only person who can get me a real lawyer, not the court-appointed idiot I have, is Natalie because my parents keep telling me they knew I needed help before this. She's completely disappeared on me, and she's letting everyone think I hurt Allie .

She told me I was her best friend, and she vowed to protect me. Now that she's gone, I'm being left with the noose the cops and everyone else wants to hang me with. Some friend. I'm a good friend, though. I haven't said her name once to the cops or Dr. Victor.

Exhausted, I lie with my arms and head on the table until the door opens. I expect just the doctor, and I groan saying, "I don't want to go another round with you, Doc."

"You're talking to us today, Laura," Parsons says, the light reflecting off his extra-shiny bald head.

Behind him are Shields, my incompetent lawyer, and Dr. Victor, and I know something's different. I don't know what, but something is. "Oh joy."

"You're in a lot of trouble, Laura. It's best if you tell us what happened instead of letting the evidence pile up against you to form our own conclusions. We can talk to the prosecutor and tell them how cooperative you were to maybe work out a deal for you."

"I'm not admitting to anything I didn't do."

"Like putting a camera in Jax and Allie's house?" Shields asks.

The woman looks to be Mexican, and I envy her attractiveness. So much I hate her a little bit. "We've already discussed this. Yes, I did it. I did it to keep an eye on my competition. But assault and kidnapping are a far cry from voyeurism. Very far. Other coast far," I say.

"You admit you put the camera in their house?" Parsons says.

"Yes. Are you deaf or just dumb?"

He smirks, and I honestly don't know why my lawyer is even here. He just sits looking at me with fear. Which makes no sense. I'm in cuffs for crying out loud. "Neither. I just needed to hear you confirm it before we go further."

"Further?" I ask .

"We found Allie's Jeep," Shields says.

This perks me up. "Is this why my idiot lawyer's here? You're letting me go because you know I had nothing to do with this? That you can finally see that she's the one trying to pin all of this on me?"

Just because I'm pissed at Natalie doesn't mean I'm going to give her up.

"I thought you believed it was Jax who painted you in this light," Dr. Victor says.

"Allie pulls the strings. Jax would kill for Allie. You think helping guide the Keystone Cops in my direction is beneath him? It's not."

"I wouldn't suggest insulting the police, Ms. Dawson," my lawyer says.

Glaring at him, I just shake my head. "Okay, so you found her Jeep. And?"

"We also found Heidi Moran's missing vehicle. And her bones," Shields says.

"Her head was bashed in," Parsons adds.

This catches my attention, and I lean forward. "Allie hurt Ms. Moran?"

"No, Laura, she didn't. But the same person who hurt Allie hurt Heidi Moran," Shields says. "The vehicles and body were found at the house Allie was locked in."

"Where was this?" I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.

"You know exactly where this is," Parsons says. "You know because you put Allie, Ms. Moran, and the vehicles there."

Looking at my lawyer, I narrow my eyes. "No, I did not."

"Yes, you did," Parsons says. "I didn't think you’d planned this when we first talked, but I do believe you did now that we've found Heidi Moran and her car. "

"You're cracked!" I shout. "I didn't touch either of them."

Dr. Victor leans forward with her hands folded on the table. "Maybe Allie's abduction was a crime of passion, enacted when the opportunity presented itself."

"No, I told you people a thousand times. I went home before Allie showed up at the bar and cried myself to sleep. I never saw Allie that day."

"I think you did," Shields says. "I think you saw her in the parking lot, and you were the one who said her name that night. The one who hit her and caused her to fall and hit her head on the parking curb."

"You thought you’d killed her until she opened her eyes. Realizing how small of a window you had, you did the same thing you did with Heidi Moran. You put her in the back of her own vehicle and drove it out to the location you knew would be remote and never found."

Shaking my head, I laugh. "You have very active imaginations."

"We have your DNA in both vehicles, Laura," Shields says. "Now, I don't know if you held your former teacher in the basement like you did Allie, but she died. You buried her in a shallow grave close to the tree line. When you hit Allie, you had basic first aid training, and you tended to her wound. You knew how to keep her alive. You learned from the last time."

"You're crazy, you know that? I wouldn't do that."

"The house belongs to a family member of Danny Tomlin," Parsons says.

My eyes widen. "The guy who had an affair with Ms. Moran?"

"He never had an affair with Ms. Moran. You made up that rumor," Dr. Victor says.

"No, I didn't. I heard about it. "

"You started it. Danny confirmed that," Shields says. "He also confirmed he took you out to his uncle's abandoned house when you were thirteen and he was fourteen."

I stare, dumbfounded. "I don't think I ever talked to Danny. I definitely never went with him to his uncle's house."

"You had a two-year sexual relationship with him that started that day. He said you were into a role-playing sexual game, but after two years, he knew something strange was going on. He called it off, and you two never spoke again," Shields says.

"Excuse me? You're saying I had sex with Danny Tomlin when I was thirteen?" I ask. "For real?"

Parsons nods. "Yes."

"No!" I say and laugh. "I didn't have sex for the first time until I was twenty-one. It was with a drunken asshole at the bar. So romantic."

"He has a picture of the two of you in bed. It's obvious you're not wearing any clothes, but you're covered up. You're kissing his neck while you take the picture, and he held onto it as a memento because you were his first," Shields says. "He also said it was your idea to spread the rumor that Ms. Moran was having an affair with a student, but he didn't realize you were telling people it was him until it was too late."

Shaking my head, I lean back. "No."

"That was why you told Allie and Sage that the situations with Heidi Moran and Allie were so similar. You knew they were almost exactly the same, except Allie was kept alive."

"I noticed the patterns!"

"If you didn't do it, who did, Laura?" Dr. Victor asks.

The way her lips thin makes me uncomfortable. She looks like someone about to break bad news to a child, and I can't help but wonder if she knows. She looks like she knows. "Fine! I know who did it, okay? I've known since the night Allie's memory came back."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Parsons asks.

"Because I was trying to protect my friend. My only friend. She did it for me because she wants me to be happy. It's totally misguided and wrong, but I swear, I had no idea she hurt Ms. Moran. If I did, we probably wouldn't be friends."

"Who's the friend?"

"Natalie Gill."

My stomach churns as I feel like I've just committed the ultimate betrayal. She may not be answering my calls, but I don't want to rat on her. She's still my friend, as far as I know.

"You haven’t mentioned Natalie before now. You say she's your only friend?"

And now I'm in a therapy session. "Ever since Jax and his friends threw me away, yeah."

"How did you meet Natalie?" Shields asks.

"We met at the mall when I was thirteen."

"The same time Ms. Moran went missing?" Dr. Victor asks.

My eyes widen. "Yeah, I guess, but Natalie has never said a word about Ms. Moran. I don't think I met Nat until after the teacher disappeared."

"You had a problem with Ms. Moran, didn't you?" Parsons asks.

"She didn't think I was smart enough for my class. She wanted to keep me back a grade."

"And you couldn't fall behind a year because you'd be in a different class than Jax. You wouldn't have any classes with him, and you'd probably fall off his radar," Shields says.

Snorting, I shrug. "Yeah, pretty much. But I'm smarter than Ms. Moran ever gave me credit for."

"And when she went missing, the subject was dropped.”

"Yeah, I guess so. She's the only teacher who ever thought I was dumb. I'm not dumb. I'm very intelligent. She just had an issue challenging me."

"Did you see Natalie the night Allie disappeared?"

I stare at the wall behind them and think back. "I don't think so. I don't remember, but she wouldn't have been invited."

"If you were friends with Jax and Allie, and she was your best friend, wouldn't she have been part of the group?" Parsons asks.

"They didn't get along," I say. "She didn't like how most of them treated me."

"Laura," Dr. Victor says and leans forward a little. "We've talked to your parents and Jax and his friends. No one knows Natalie."

"That's crazy. My mom's met her a hundred times. Natalie practically lived at my house when I wasn't hanging out with Jax and his friends."

All three of them exchange a look, and I glance at my lawyer. Shouldn't he be doing something?

"She was your best friend, and she was listed on the wedding programs as your maid of honor, but Jax has never seen Natalie. Not even a picture," she says.

"She hates pictures. And Jax has met her. I know he has. And so have the others. She was at the engagement party!" I exclaim. "He's trying to make me look crazy. He's doing this for Allie!"

Not a single hair falls out of place as the doctor shakes her head and gives me a sympathetic look. A look I'd slap off her face if I didn't have cuffs on with two cops across from me. "No, Laura, he hasn't. When I spoke with your mother, she said you would talk to an imaginary friend, which was why she was happy when you started spending time with Jax and his friends. She was concerned about you."

"No, she's met her!" I cry. "Mom tried to force me to see every doctor she could growing up. Do you have any idea how many times she said I needed psychiatric treatment? There's a reason we're estranged."

"I believe your mother was right, Laura."

"If Natalie is real, where is she?" Parsons asks.

Grinding my teeth, I crack my neck and glare at him. If she’s real? "She's not answering my calls."

"We pulled your phone records, and we found the number. The number belongs to you," Shields says. I shake my head, ready to answer, and she starts again. "You have both numbers on your phone plan. There are no connected calls between you and Natalie. You have voicemails left for her, but she never calls you back. She never texts you back, either."

"Sure, she does," I say as I try to remember. "She has to."

"Here's what I think happened," Parsons says. "I think you killed Ms. Moran when you were thirteen. You planned to do it, and that's why you hooked up with Danny Tomlin. You knew there was a place you could hide the body and the car. You may not have planned to truly kill her once you saw what you could after getting inside the house and looking around, but it ultimately happened. You did it to keep yourself close to Jax."

My eyebrows lift. "Really?"

"When you found out Jax wanted to marry Allie, you planned to take her to the same place. Now, this is just my opinion, but I think you wanted to torture Allie, which is why you kept her alive instead of killing her. If you could get Jax to yourself, you could make her suffer. You didn't plan on her losing her memory though. You opted to conceal your identity just in case anything should happen, such as her getting out."

"That's quite the imagination you have, Detective."

"Now, you said you confess to putting that camera in Jax's house. You didn't do it to keep an eye on your competition. You did it to see if Allie remembered."

I roll my eyes, deciding not to engage anymore. This is ridiculous and stupid.

"You see, your IP address is what ties you to the house, Laura," Shields says. "The online application for renting that house came from your IP address. Everything was handled online, and the owner never met the renter."

"I think you saw it listed online, and you knew that if someone were to rent it, Heidi Moran's car and body would be found. You applied and rented it, and then you found out Jax was going to propose. It was the perfect scenario."

"Or," I say, inwardly kicking myself for speaking, "Natalie used my internet to apply to rent the house."

Dr. Victor leans back and sighs. "Laura, I think we need to talk about who Natalie really is."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"We talked to the bridal shop where you scheduled an appointment to try on bridesmaid dresses," Shields says. "The workers remember you, and they kept the tape from outside of the dressing rooms because they were concerned. They almost called a welfare check on you."

"What? Why?"

She opens up a laptop and turns it to me as she hits play. On the screen, I see me wearing a bridesmaid dress. I'm talking to someone who doesn't appear to be there, but I wasn't the one trying on dresses. Natalie was. The employees keep giving me strange looks, which I remember because I knew they knew about Jax and me breaking up.

"No, this isn't what happened. Jax... He works with computers. He had to alter this. He's trying to make me look insane," I say. "Natalie tried on dresses, not me."

"Laura, you are Natalie Gill," Dr. Victor says. "Natalie isn't what I would call an imaginary friend. She is an alternate personality that seems to have bridged the gap at times to make you believe she’s real and with you. I believe she was created by your psyche to do all of the bad things Laura wants done. Like killing Ms. Moran and hurting Allie. All to get you closer to Jax."

"No—"

"Danny Tomlin said that the entire time you were involved with each other, you never spoke at school. You'd meet up after, and you always demanded he call you Natalie. It wasn't until he talked to his brother that he realized it was strange, and when he tried to talk to you outside of your rendezvous, you seemed like a completely different person. When you met up that last day of your relationship, he called you Laura, and you slapped him. That was when he ended it," Shields says.

"There are no school records for Natalie Gill. No government records, no social media accounts, and no pictures. The only two things we can find in Natalie's name are the renter's agreement, which did not require a social security number, and the cell phone. All of which ties to you because you pay the phone bill, and the payment for the rent every month comes from your bank account," Dr. Victor says.

I'm paying for Natalie's phone? And the house she kept Allie in? "No, this can't be true. I'd notice if I was paying for Natalie's stuff. I don't make that much. "

"Your DNA is in both vehicles, Laura. And the house. When we searched your house, we found the false back to your closet. Inside were three sets of clothes similar to the ones we took from Allie the night she escaped as well as gloves and a mask matching her description of what her captor wore when they came to bring food," Shields says.

"No... this can't be. Natalie... Natalie has to be framing me for this. I didn't do it. I would never do this! The last thing I ever want to do is hurt Jax." My eyes lock directly with Dr. Victor, and something changes. "She didn't do this."

The woman with red hair nods her head. "Hello, Natalie. I've been expecting you to join us."