Page 61 of She Didn’t See It Coming

Jayne greets Paige, across from her in the interview room. She reminds her that she’s here voluntarily. She begins the tape, and nods at Kilgour, seated beside her, to begin.

“So, Paige,” he begins, his tone friendly. “We thought we’d follow up with you, as we haven’t spoken to you in a while.”

“Sure,” the other woman says, her eyes darting back and forth between the two detectives.

“We’d like to talk to you about Sam. How long have you known him?”

“Pretty much since he and Bryden met, about six years ago. They became serious very quickly.”

“How would you describe your relationship with Sam?” Kilgour continues.

“Well, we’re friends, obviously. I spent a lot of time with him and Bryden. You know I’m Clara’s godmother, right?”

“Yes. And are you in a relationship with someone now?”

“No.”

Jayne now leans in. “Did you ever want to be more than just friends with Sam?” She sees Paige flush slightly, and she knows she’s hit the nail on the head. “Were you and Sam having an affair?”

“No, of course not.”

“Perhaps you have feelings for him,” Jayne suggests.

“What? No, that’s ridiculous. He was married to my best friend!”

“What about now, now that he’s free?”

“That’s insulting, Detective. We’re friends, nothing more.”

Jayne nods. “All right.” She pauses for a moment. “We have some new information that’s come to light.” She pauses and asks Kilgour to read Paige her rights. When he’s done that, she asks, “Would you like to have an attorney present?”

Paige shifts in her seat, pale but resolute. “I don’t need an attorney.”

Jayne proceeds. “We have a witness who got in the elevator in Bryden’s building at approximately one thirty on the day of the murder.

There was someone already in the elevator, with a suitcase, the same suitcase Bryden was found in.

” Paige doesn’t visibly flinch, but Jayne thinks she sees something nervous in her eyes.

“We know it was you in the elevator with the suitcase, Paige.”

Paige’s mouth drops open in apparent shock. “What? That’s impossible. I wasn’t there that day. I was home, sick. The witness is mistaken. Everyone knows how unreliable eyewitnesses can be.” Jayne waits, letting the silence fill the room, until Paige adds, “I had nothing to do with Bryden’s murder!”

“The witness says you received a phone call in the elevator,” Jayne says. “The ringtone was the opening bars of ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by The Verve.” Kilgour presses a button on his phone. They all hear it, the distinctive opening strains of the song, coming from Paige’s handbag.

“I want a lawyer,” Paige says, visibly shaken.

Jayne suspends the interview.

···

Paige waits for her attorney to arrive. She’s outwardly calm, but she’s quaking inside. This is all falling apart. It’s the end of everything. She’s been carrying all this fear inside ever since it happened—she’s been almost paralyzed by it, and now she realizes none of this was worth it.

Her attorney arrives, a woman in her forties named Kate Dixon. They talk quietly together in private. When the interview resumes, they are prepared.

“We know you were in the building at 100 Constitution Drive and were in the elevator with the same suitcase that contained Bryden Frost’s body at approximately one thirty last Tuesday, around the time that Bryden Frost was murdered,” Detective Salter begins. “Do you want to tell us about that?”

Paige doesn’t answer. She feels numb.

“Why did you kill your best friend, Paige?”

“I didn’t!”

“Was it because she was in the way? Because you’re in love with Sam?” When she doesn’t answer, Detective Salter leans in and says, “We know it was you in the elevator, Paige. There’s no getting around this.”

Something inside her breaks. Her beautiful dream is falling apart.

She’s not going to marry Sam and be a mother to his little girl.

They will find out that she left her apartment that day, and when.

She remembers that hideous ride down in the elevator with the suitcase, remembers that someone got on, and got off, a young woman who’d seemed never to lift her eyes from her phone. But she’d heard her get that call.

“I didn’t kill her,” Paige says now, voice breaking. “Sam did.”