Page 19 of The Happy Month

“I was just a kid. Barely eighteen. I didn’t have a lot of friends. Didn’t get along with my parents. I was interviewed by the police a couple times, the DA four times, maybe five. Each time they seemed to want me to go further. Make more definitive statements. So, I did.”

“Are you saying they coached you?”

“I guess you could call it that, yes.”

“Did they tell you what to say?”

“Not exactly.”

“What did they say?”

“They kept asking me if I thought Larry killed Pete. I knew they wanted me to think that.”

Lydia glanced at me. If they coached her that might be a violation of some kind, I wasn’t sure which. It was also going to be hard to prove.

I made a note on my pad, it just said “think.” I wanted to ask Anne who she thought killed Pete all those years ago. I knew that Lydia deliberately avoided asking that since we didn’t know the answer. It wouldn’t be good if she said she thought Larry killed Pete.

Lydia continued. “You say that Larry asked you to sayyou were Pete’s fiancée, when was that? Did you visit him in jail?”

“No. He called me.”

Lydia glanced at me again, and I knew we were in trouble but didn’t immediately know why.

“How are you feeling, Anne?” she asked. “Do you feel all right?”

“I’m fine thank you.”

There was a pause. I could tell Lydia was trying to decide how to move forward. I still wasn’t sure what the problem was.

“When Larry asked you to say Pete was your fiancé, how did he phrase it?”

Anne seemed surprised for a moment and then said, “Oh, well, it was weird I guess. He said he was sorry about what happened to Pete, and that he didn’t do it. He thought it would be okay if I told people I was engaged to him. That I didn’t have to keep it a secret anymore.”

“You took that to mean you should lie and say Pete was your fiancé?”

“Yes. At some point, I don’t remember whether it was before he said that or after, but he said that I shouldn’t curse because we were being listened to. So I knew why he couldn’t just ask.”

Ah, that was what had made Lydia pause. Their conversation would have gone to the police. And he knew that, so he couldn’t say anything directly. If Anne said he asked her directly that would not be believable. Lydia had been worried she was about to expose a lie.

Carefully, she asked, “How did you respond when Larry said that you and Pete were engaged?”

“You know, he must have told me they were listeningbefore he said that. Because I didn’t say much. I didn’t correct him. I probably said I’d think about it.”

“When did you decide to go along with the lie?”

“The police came to my house a few days later. I’d already decided I couldn’t do it. I guess they heard the tape of the conversation, because they asked me directly if I was Pete’s fiancée, I told the truth. I told them we weren’t engaged. They didn’t believe me. They called me a liar. My parents were right there, sitting next to me on the sofa. I couldn’t say that Larry was gay because they’d have been upset that I was friends with him. I mean, they were already upset that I knew him. They thought he was a killer. I didn’t want them to think he was agaykiller. I just… I had to say I was engaged to Pete. Everyone was going to be unhappy if I didn’t. Even Larry.”

“You’ve been telling a lie for twenty years,” Lydia said, not exactly a question.

“Can I change something I said—or modify it, I guess?”

“Yes, of course. You’re here to tell the truth.”

“I think part of why I said those things at trial, making it seem like I thought Larry was the killer, I think by then I was angry. At him. And I wasn’t sure he didn’t kill Pete. I mean, I wasn’t there so I… don’t know.”

“The phone call you received from Larry. Do you remember when that was?”

“A few days after the murder. Maybe three or four, I don’t remember exactly. I remember he had to call a few times. My parents wouldn’t accept the call.”