Page 48 of She Didn’t See It Coming

Lizzie spends most of the night on the computer in her bedroom.

She’s gone down the rabbit hole, and she doesn’t want to come out.

The real world has her parents in it, outside her bedroom door, drowning in their grief.

She doesn’t like them being here, watching her, worrying about her.

They have always been overprotective, a little judgmental.

They have always wanted more from her than she could deliver.

They have always been disappointed in her.

Supper earlier that night had exploded. She’d finally come out of her room to join them for a meal her mother had prepared. They’d barely sat down when her mother started quizzing her. “Lizzie, you haven’t told us what happened at Sam’s this morning. How was Clara?”

Lizzie felt slightly guilty at that. She should have told them. “Clara’s doing okay.” She paused. “But Sam knows you suspect him. And he doesn’t want you to see her.”

“He can’t stop us seeing our granddaughter!”

“I think he can, Mom.” As her mother regarded her in distress, Lizzie said, “But he’s okay with me seeing her. He trusts me. He knows I believe he’s innocent. So that will have to do, for the time being.”

“Maybe we can get a court order—” her mother began.

“Do you really want to do that now?” Lizzie said in exasperation. And that’s what started it off.

Her mother asked, “What’s wrong with you, Lizzie? Hiding in your room all day, in the dark, with a chair up against the door! What are you doing in there? Why won’t you tell us?”

Lizzie snapped. “It’s none of your business what I do with my life!”

“Are you doing drugs? Tell us the truth.”

Lizzie found that almost laughable. For a moment she even thought, why not let them believe that, if it got them off her back?

But then she realized they wouldn’t get off her back—they’d get her into rehab.

“No, Mom, I am not doing drugs.” Then she’d left the dinner table and gone back to her room and shoved the chair up under the knob.

She could hear her mother crying until she donned her headphones again.

But soon she was back online with her people.

And now, Deep Diver has a new post.

I’ve spoken to a journalist with the Albany Times Union . They’re going to run a story about the hit-and-run tomorrow morning, in the Sunday paper! Now the media will be all over it, and the police won’t be able to keep it quiet. We’ve got to stay on them, and get this thing solved!

Lizzie is pleased, because she thinks that Derek Gardner should pay for what he did to his mother-in-law. Almost everyone on here does. There’s been a storm of hate toward Derek Gardner for his cold-blooded greed. There is no doubt whatsoever in this group about him killing his mother-in-law.

But Lizzie’s starting to dislike Deep Diver, getting ahead of her, getting all the attention. She’s Bryden’s sister , after all; she just can’t say so. She’s more important in all this than Deep Diver is. It’s personal for her. She knows things nobody else does.

Lizzie’s not getting much sleep, and sometimes she worries that she’s losing her grip.

But she feels safe enough on here, with her cover story of having a friend in the police.

What can Alice Gardner do to her? And she thinks she has cleverly thrown everyone off track with her story about seeing Alice talking to Bryden’s sister, Lizzie.

The blank create post box stares back at her; the cursor blinks.

Lizzie pauses, leans back in her chair. What can she tell them? She has nothing new to reveal. But—she could invent something, and no one would know any different. People make stuff up on the internet all the time. She dives deeper into the rabbit hole.

The police are closing in on Derek Gardner. They’ve got CCTV of him and Bryden together at a hotel, which I cannot name. But it was in this city.

Take that, Alice , whoever you are , she thinks. It’s not true, but she doesn’t care. Then her mind takes off on her, and she’s typing recklessly, propelled by a strange compulsion.

But what if he didn’t kill her? What if he was sleeping with her, but someone else killed her?

I know a lot of you think he did it, because he murdered his mother-in-law, but hear me out.

I still think it could have been someone other than Sam or Derek.

It could have been anyone who lives in that condo, or visits it regularly, has a friend or family there.

Because all they had to do was knock on her door, force their way in, and hold a plastic bag over her face until she was dead.

Easy enough to do, if you’re strong enough.

If you take her by surprise. If she’s not expecting it at all and turns her back on you.

And you have to ask, why move the body at all?

Why not just leave her there, dead? Why bother putting her in a suitcase and taking her downstairs and risk being seen?

I’ll tell you why. Because the killer didn’t want the little girl to come home and see her mother dead!

It’s so obvious. And how would the killer know she’d fit in a suitcase?

Maybe they saw that thing on YouTube— Can Adrienne Fit in a Suitcase?

It’s had millions of views. And everybody has a suitcase in their closet these days.

My point is, it could have been anyone! We should think outside the box!

Feverishly, she hits post.

The comments come in quickly.

Jen McKague

Googling youtube.com for Can Adrienne Fit in a Suitcase? right now

Brittany Clement

Jen McKague OMG that’s hilarious!

Karen Hennin

Maybe it was the sister. She might be worth looking into.

Farah Spence

Karen Hennin Sisters can have a real love/hate relationship. I know. I want to kill my sister all the time!

Brittany Clement

Karen Hennin What do we know about her?

Lizzie watches the responses come in. She doesn’t like the comments about Bryden’s sister. She suddenly feels quite sick.