Page 52 of She Didn’t See It Coming

Alice takes her laptop from the bedroom and returns to the living room to sit in the comfy couch by the window.

Derek had stormed out after their last, heated conversation, so she has the house to herself.

He knows now that she’s hiding something, something she’s afraid that Detective Salter might discover.

He badgered her to tell him what it is. But she wouldn’t.

She wants him to still be in love with her, and she’s not entirely sure he would be if he knew.

She logs on to Facebook. She clicks into the Facebook group True Crimes in Albany NY and reviews the most recent activity on the Bryden Frost case.

She reads with interest the latest posts from Emma Porter, who seems to know an awful lot about it.

She’s been wondering who Emma Porter is, wondering who is probably hiding behind the name and claiming to have a friend in the police.

She thinks it’s quite possible that it’s Bryden’s sister, Lizzie Houser.

Who but a family member would know everything she seems to know?

And she posted that photo that no one else had seen.

She remembers Lizzie’s reaction when she’d whispered, I’m Team Sam , to her.

So she knows Lizzie is on here somewhere, and she’s not using her own name.

But she might not be Emma Porter. Emma Porter might really be someone with a friend in the police.

There’s no information on her profile. There are probably several people on here hiding their real identity behind a fake name and a blank profile.

She’s on here herself, using the name Karen Hennin.

But she at least went to the effort of making up a fake profile—using a photo of Superwoman as an avatar and adding the description Loves dogs, cupcakes, and political biographies.

Alice hasn’t told Derek about this Facebook group.

She doesn’t want him to see the hysteria piling on about him on this page.

The legitimate media is bad enough. Team Derek has pulled well ahead in the last couple of days, which pisses her off.

Just for fun she clicks on the YouTube video Can Adrienne Fit in a Suitcase?

Then she decides to challenge Emma Porter about her claim that the police have CCTV of her husband with Bryden Frost at a local hotel. She posts a comment under Emma’s post.

Karen Hennin

Why do you say they have CCTV of Derek Gardner with Bryden Frost at a hotel? I’m pretty sure they don’t. I have a friend who’s a pretty plugged-in journalist, and he says they don’t.

But Emma Porter doesn’t answer. Alice agrees with Emma Porter in that they should be widening the suspect pool. Alice just doesn’t want to be in the suspect pool. She keeps reading.

People in the group have gone on a spree, naming anyone and everyone who might have done it.

Alice herself, as Karen Hennin, had suggested that Bryden’s sister, Lizzie, might have done it.

But Derek’s wife is also suggested as a possibility.

Her photo is on here now too. Obviously grabbed from the website of the university where she works.

Alice reads about herself, growing more and more incensed.

Brittany Clement

Maybe Alice Gardner was jealous. Maybe she knew. Women often do know when their husbands are cheating.

Farah Spence

Brittany Clement Yeah, but not many of them murder the other woman.

Brittany Clement

Farah Spence Maybe it happens more than we realize LOL

Maya Vukovic

Maybe she was in on the murder of her mother too. Maybe they killed her together.

“For fuck’s sake!” Alice blurts out loud to the empty house.

But no one seems to have heard about the eyewitness who saw a woman in the elevator, not even Emma Porter, who allegedly has the friend in the police department.

So maybe it isn’t true. Maybe Detective fucking Salter made it up to mess with her.

She decides to throw these morons a bone.

Maybe Emma Porter will confirm whether it’s true or not.

Apparently there is an eyewitness. Someone who saw a person in the elevator with a suitcase at the exact time the murderer is supposed to have been there. And they have a description. But they’re not sharing that just yet.

Brittany Clement

Exciting! How do you know? From your journalist friend?

Alice doesn’t answer. That’s all she’s going to say. Let them chew on that for a while.

She is angry at Deep Diver about that newspaper article.

She’d like to get back at him somehow, but she doesn’t know how.

His avatar is a cartoon of a scuba diver, with nothing behind that profile either.

Alice knows who wrote the newspaper article though.

The name is right there, on the byline. She files it away in her mind.

But right now, the person she most wants to stop, to harm , is Detective Salter.

Alice ponders whether, if the detective were to meet with an accident, that would stop them digging into Alice.

Probably not. But there can be no actual evidence that she killed Bryden.

And there’s no evidence that she killed her mother either.

Still, Salter’s interest in her feels personal. And dangerous.

···

Because it’s Sunday, and Jayne is in the thick of a homicide case, Michael drops by the station at lunchtime to take her out for a quick bite. Jayne is grateful because she feels like she needs a breather. It’s been almost nonstop since Bryden went missing last Tuesday.

They settle themselves in a booth by the window in a diner not far from the station. They order grilled cheese sandwiches and coffee.

“You look tired,” Michael observes.

“Thanks,” Jayne says, smiling wryly. “If I look more tired than I did when you saw me at breakfast, it’s because I feel like I just went ten rounds with a psychopath.” She takes an appreciative sip of her coffee and asks, “You can’t tell someone’s a psychopath by just talking to them, right?”

“That’s the conventional wisdom, yes.”

Jayne shakes her head and lowers her voice. “I tell you, this woman, Alice, Derek Gardner’s wife, she gives me the creeps. Today, just for a second, I felt like she dropped the facade, and I could see what was behind her eyes, and it was—” She pauses, thinking about how best to describe it.

“What?” Michael asks.

“Like there was nothing there. Just a darkness, an emptiness.” He’s looking at her curiously. “You think I’m imagining things, don’t you?”

“No. But—there’s such a thing as instinct.”

“What do you mean?” Jayne asks.

“Some birds have the instinct to fly south in winter when it gets cold. The purpose is survival. Humans also have instincts for survival.”

“So what are you saying? That on some instinctual level I may be able to tell that she’s a psychopath?”

“Let’s leave the psychopath label aside for a minute.

It’s not that helpful. But the ability to sense danger, so that we get physical symptoms—the racing heart, the feeling of the hair rising on your arms or the back of your neck—all that’s coming from your prehistoric brain, which is still there at the base of your skull. We all want to survive.”

Jayne registers what he’s saying. “So you think that my instincts are telling me that she’s dangerous?”

He nods. “I think it’s more likely to be your instincts than your imagination. And I think your instincts are good, Jayne. You should trust them.”