Page 23 of She Didn’t See It Coming

Lizzie is a nurse, and taking care of people is what she does best. She is able to put her own needs and feelings aside as required.

She knows that no matter how bad things are, someone must keep functioning, keep things together.

Now, in her sister’s living room, she regards the rest of them and notes the grief, the lethargy, the tension.

She’s put Clara in front of the TV in the other room for now.

She’d watched, earlier that morning, when Sam had told her that her mother wasn’t coming back, that she was in heaven now. He’d handled it sensitively, Lizzie thought. But Clara hadn’t seemed to understand. “Mommy’s coming back,” she said.

“No, Clara, she’s not. She’s in heaven.”

Clara shook her head. Lizzie had caught Sam’s eye, seen the desperation there.

Lizzie thinks they should get some professional help for her; she’ll look into that.

Maybe this kind of denial is normal. But tomorrow she thinks Clara should go back to day care.

A crime scene with everyone moping around waiting for developments is no place for a little girl.

And she doesn’t want to ask too much of Angela. Sam is going to need her.

“When will we get the autopsy results, do you think?” Lizzie asks now.

They all look at her blankly. Then Sam says, “I don’t know, they didn’t say, did they?”

He looks like he can’t rub two thoughts together, Lizzie thinks.

She turns to Paige. She’s never really liked Paige.

She thinks that it’s probably because Paige has always seemed rather glamorous.

Though she doesn’t seem very glamorous now.

Or maybe it’s because Paige was Bryden’s best friend in the world, and until Bryden went to college and met Paige, Lizzie had always considered herself to be her sister’s closest friend.

But perhaps that was never really true. Or maybe it’s because Bryden once said carelessly that Paige was Clara’s favorite babysitter, and Lizzie had always thought that she was Clara’s favorite babysitter.

When she’d said as much to Bryden, her sister had answered, trying to be conciliatory, But you’re her favorite aunt.

Lizzie hadn’t replied. She knew perfectly well that she was Clara’s only aunt.

Lizzie says, “I’m going to call them right now, for an update.”

“Yes. Call them,” her father says.

She has already entered Detective Salter’s number into her contacts. She presses the number on her cell as they all watch. But it goes to voicemail. Lizzie disconnects without leaving a message and huffs unhappily. “I’ll call back later.”

Her father looks at the floor. Paige stares at her coffee mug, while Donna studies Sam when he’s not looking. She seems to regard him almost with distaste. Lizzie wonders what her mother is thinking. She will ask her when they are alone.

···

Jayne is pleased to have a lead in the case.

Paige’s reluctant disclosure this morning was their first break.

Now, she’s eager to question Derek Gardner, who sits across from her in the interview room, in a smart suit and tie, looking poised and comfortable.

Few people look poised and comfortable when being questioned in a murder investigation, so she takes note.

Beside him is his very sharply dressed, and no doubt very expensive, attorney.

Beside her is Detective Kilgour. The tape is running.

She expects they will get a lot of no comments.

Jayne has to admit that Derek Gardner is a good-looking man. And there is a magnetism about him, a charisma. She remembers what Paige said, that Bryden had found him “irresistible.” She can believe that Bryden felt that way. She wonders if it got her killed.

“Mr. Gardner,” she begins, “could you please state your name for the tape.”

“Derek Gardner,” he says in a cool, deep voice. His voice is seductive too; she’d noticed it before.

“You have been read your rights and are here with your attorney, Joe Pagett, to answer questions in our inquiry into the murder of Bryden Frost.” She takes him through how they met once again—the car accident, the date it happened, how he messaged her and met her at the coffee shop to get the money she owed him for repairs.

Then she asks, “Did you have any contact with Bryden Frost other than those occasions you have told us about?”

“No, I did not.”

“That’s interesting,” Jayne says, “because we have a witness who says that you were having an affair with her.”

He manages to look genuinely scornful. She has to hand it to him, he can act. Perhaps he trusted Bryden not to say anything. And now it’s backfired on him.

“I don’t know how that’s possible, when it isn’t true,” he says smoothly.

“Well, we only have your word for it, don’t we, since Bryden is dead and we can’t ask her,” Jayne says, unruffled. She takes another tack. “Have you ever cheated on your wife before?”

“I don’t see how my marriage is any of your business,” Derek says.

“Everything is my business in a murder investigation,” she tells him. “Please answer the question.”

“No comment.”

“Does your wife know that you’ve cheated on her in the past? Because I have to tell you, Derek, the way she was looking at you this morning in your house—well, she didn’t seem all that surprised at the suggestion.”

Derek gives her a cold look but doesn’t say anything.

Jayne asks, “Where were you on Tuesday, between noon and five o’clock?”

“I was at home, working, all afternoon.”

“Do you have anyone who can verify that for you?”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“I see. Have you ever been to the condominium building at 100 Constitution Drive in Buckingham Lake?” she continues.

“No. I’ve told you this. I’ve never been there.”

“Are you quite sure?” None of the footage shows Derek in the building. But he might have known that he could go in and out through the underground garage without being seen, if Bryden had told him.

“Yes, quite sure.”

“Has Bryden Frost ever been in your home? I understand you work from home quite frequently. It would be a convenient place for a tryst, wouldn’t it, while your wife is at work?”

He glares at her, the first indication that she’s getting to him. “She’s never been in my home. As I have told you, I barely knew her.”

“So if we get a search warrant and go over your house with a fine-tooth comb, that wouldn’t worry you at all?”

He turns to his attorney as if he’s had enough. “We’re done here. I’m leaving.”

His expensive attorney speaks up. “Where did you get this information you say you have about my client?”

“From a reliable source.”

The attorney smirks. “You’re fishing. You have nothing on my client.

You don’t have sufficient grounds to get a search warrant for his residence and you know it.

” He adds, “And even though he’s entirely innocent, I’m not going to let him give you consent to search his house, because he doesn’t need the media seeing that.

He’s a respectable businessman. This sort of thing could ruin him.

” The attorney stands up and says, “Unless you’re arresting my client, which I very much doubt, we’re leaving. ”

Jayne stands too. She ends the tape and watches them exit the room, Derek Gardner leaving a very faint scent of expensive cologne behind him. She turns to Kilgour and mutters, “Fucker.”