Page 157 of This is Why We Lied

Before Sara could recover from the surprise, Faith asked, “As a doctor, what did you notice about Cecil?”

Sara shook her head. The question had come from nowhere. “Be more specific.”

Faith said, “Can he get out of the wheelchair?”

Sara shook her head again, but more to try to clear the confusion. “I don’t know the extent of his injuries, but two-thirds of mobility device users fall under some degree of ambulatory.”

Faith prompted, “Which means?”

“They’re not paralyzed. They can walk short distances, but they use the chair because of chronic pain or injury or exhaustion or because it’s physically easier.” Sara mentally flashed through her brief interaction with Cecil at the cocktail party. “He can use his right arm. He shook our hands last night, remember?”

Will said, “His grip was strong.”

“You’re right, but there’s no way to extrapolate from that data point absent a full exam.” Sara tried to think it through, but she couldn’t see a way to be helpful. “I can’t tell you whether he can walk unless I see his medical chart and talk to his doctors. Even then, willpower is amazing. Look at how long Mercy stayed alive after being stabbed so many times. Science will never explain everything. Sometimes, bodies can do things that don’t make sense.”

Faith asked, “Can they get an erection?”

Sara felt the shock of the implication. They had honed in on Cecil. “Give me more information.”

Will said, “You were in the house. Did you see where Cecil was sleeping?”

“They converted one of the sitting rooms on the ground floor,” Sara recalled. “He’s using a regular bed, not a hospital bed. But—this might not mean anything, but I would expect a bedside commode. The downstairs toilet is too narrow for a chair. The bathtub didn’t have a transfer seat. Cecil was in boxers when I saw him on the front porch this morning. He wasn’t wearing a urine collection bag. There weren’t any catheters in the bathroom. I also saw a set of men’s toiletries laid out on a shelf above the toilet. Even if the bathroom was accessible, he wouldn’t be able to reach them from a chair.”

Faith said, “You told me it was weird that there’s not a wheelchair van in the parking pad.”

“I didn’t say it was weird. I said that he probably had people to help lift him in and out of the truck. Bitty’s too small to do it on her own. She could’ve asked Jon or Christopher. Or Dave, for that matter.”

“Wait,” Will said. “When I rang the bell, Cecil was the first to come out. Then I saw Bitty, but I didn’t see her pushing the chair. Cecil was just there, and then Bitty was there. Christopher didn’t show up until later. Neither did Jon. Delilah was still upstairs when I came back from Gordon and Paul’s cottage. You said it yourself. There’s no way Bitty could lift Cecil on her own. She’s not even five feet tall, maybe a hundred pounds in her socks. So how did Cecil get in his chair?”

“He got up and walked,” Faith said.

Sara couldn’t debate the walking anymore. “What did Paul tell you that set all of this off?”

Will provided, “He saw Mercy at 10:30, but she didn’t go up the trail. She went inside the house. Paul watched Cecil get up from the porch and follow her inside.”

Sara didn’t know what to say.

“The first call from Mercy to Dave was at 10:47,” Faith said. “Dave didn’t answer. Mercy stewed. Then she went to talk to her father. Maybe Cecil panicked because he thought Mercy would talk to Paul again and find out how Gabbie really died. What did Cecil do to Mercy in those ten minutes?”

Sara put her hand to her throat. She had heard the kinds of things that Cecil McAlpine was capable of.

“Whatever happened with Cecil put Mercy into a tailspin. She called Dave at 10:47, 11:10, 11:12, 11:14, 11:19, 11:22. We know she was somewhere in the Wi-Fi area when she made these calls.”

Will held up the map so that Sara could see. “Mercy was probably still inside the house when she started making the calls. She packed her backpack, stuck in her clothes and the notebook. She ran down to the dining hall. She kept trying to get in touch with Dave.”

“There’s an office safe in the back of the kitchen,” Faith said. “Kevin opened it with Christopher’s key. It was empty.”

Will said, “Remember what Mercy said on the voicemail: ‘Dave will be here soon.’”

Faith said, “She was talking to Cecil.”

Sara looked at the map, taking in the distance between the house and the dining hall, the dining hall, and the bachelor cottages. “Cecil could possibly make it to the dining hall, but not down to the bachelor cottages. He wouldn’t be able to manage the Rope Trail, and Old Widow would take him too long. Not to mention having the physical strength to stab Mercy that many times.”

Will said, “Which is why he sent someone else to take care of her.”

Sara needed a moment to process exactly what they were saying. She looked at Will. Now she understood the haggard expression on his face. “You think Cecil had an accomplice?”

Will said, “Dave.”