Fullepub 
Chapter 25
25
Rose Cutter stands nervously on Catherine Merton’s doorstep. Her palms are sweaty. She wipes them on her skirt and presses the doorbell. She doesn’t want to be here, but Catherine surely needs her support.
Rose owes her. Catherine’s been such a solid friend, ever since high school, where they met in English class. Catherine hadn’t been much of an English student, she was more into the sciences, and she wanted high marks. They’d been paired together on an assignment, and from there, Rose began helping her with her essays. An unlikely friendship flourished and expanded outside the classroom. Catherine was popular by virtue of who she was, and because of her lovely clothes—she could always afford the hottest new styles. Rose was a nobody and had zero fashion sense, which was the kiss of death in high school. She remembers how generous Catherine had been with her, how she’d made it clear to everyone that they were friends, and how differently the other kids treated her after that. Catherine invited her to things—parties, outings—and just like that, she was accepted.
Catherine knew Rose didn’t have the advantages she had. She helped her dress better, even giving her some of her own clothes, or taking her to thrift shops to find pieces she could actually afford. Sometimes Rose wondered if she was some kind of project for Catherine, if she’d befriended her out of some sort of rich-person guilt. But she realized after a while that although Catherine appeared to be popular, she was lonely, and with Rose she could be herself. They became close. Catherine wasn’t as confident as she seemed to be, and things were difficult at home. She needed a friend as much as Rose did. One day she’d even confided to Rose that she’d been caught shoplifting and told her she thought her father was going to kill her. Rose had been astonished—her parents were millionaires, Catherine could have anything she wanted, and she was shoplifting? It made Rose feel better, because she’d always known how greedy she was herself, and it was nice to know that she wasn’t the only one.
They’d stayed in touch while they attended different universities—SUNY for Rose, Vassar for Catherine—and reconnected when they both found themselves back in Aylesford as adults. The pattern continued. Catherine invited her to social events—sailing at the Hudson Yacht Club, and that charity polo match last year. Things that Rose could never attend or afford on her own. But mostly they met for coffee, or over lunch, and had long talks, sharing details of their lives, reminiscing about fun times they’d had.
Now, Ted answers the door. Rose has seen Catherine and Ted together socially on many occasions. She has always found Ted attractive—tall, broad-shouldered, the strong, silent type. She’s glad Catherine has him to lean on. She gives him a tentative smile and says, “Hi, Ted, can I come in?”
“It’s not a good time, Rose,” he says apologetically. “Catherine’s just come back from the police station.”
Rose hears Catherine’s voice in the background. “Is that Rose?” Then Catherine appears at Ted’s shoulder, joining him at the door.
“Rose,” Catherine says. She smiles a welcome, but it’s a smile that’s on the verge of tears.
“Oh, Catherine,” Rose exclaims, reaching out to hug her. She holds her close, breathing in the familiar smell of her. Rose finds herself fighting back tears, and squeezes her eyes shut.
Catherine is a dear friend, but she’s always been jealous of her for having everything Rose doesn’t have, all the advantages that money brings. Rose was brought up by a widowed single mother who scrimped and saved her entire life. That Rose has made anything of herself at all, she attributes mostly to her own hard work. She knows that the Mertons weren’t a very happy family, but they have millions.
Still, Catherine is her best friend. Rose trembles a little as they embrace. They must not find out what she’s done.
• • •reyes watches jenna merton walk into the interview room in ripped jeans and a black leather biker jacket. He’s struck again at how different the three Merton children are from each other. He thinks fleetingly of his own two kids—also both completely different from one another in looks, temperament, and interests. And then he directs all his focus on the woman in front of him. After a few introductory matters, he gets right to the point.
“You and Jake Brenner were the last people known to see your parents alive,” he begins.
She raises her eyebrows. “We were only five minutes behind the others.”
Reyes gives her a long look. “Except you weren’t. You didn’t leave shortly after seven o’clock, like the others. You left about an hour later, just after eight o’clock.”
She stiffens slightly but remains silent, as if considering what to say.
He waits. They stare at one another. “You were seen,” he says, “by a neighbor walking his dog down his drive shortly after eight o’clock. He recognized your car. He’s seen it often enough.”
She takes a deep breath and says, “Fine, whatever.”
“What happened in that extra hour?”
She frowns, shakes her head. “Nothing much. We talked a bit. I guess I lost track of time.”
He pushes her on it, but she sticks to her story. He changes tack. “Did you go out again at all that night?”
“No. We drove back to my place. Jake stayed the night. We went to bed.”
After Jenna has been fingerprinted and left, Reyes says to Barr, “We have to check all their alibis.”
• • •audrey almost decides to call it a day. It’s uncomfortable—and mostly boring—to sit in a car in a parking lot. She’s been here for hours. Catherine had seen her—she’ll tell the others that she’s keeping an eye on them. Good.
She knows the detectives have spoken to Catherine and Jenna now, as well as Dan and Irena. She thinks that’s probably it. She’s about to start the car when she sees a familiar figure walking toward the front doors of the police station. She leans closer to the windshield, watching. She recognizes Dan’s wife, Lisa. They must be checking up on Dan, seeing if he has an alibi. Pleased, she settles back down in her seat.
• • •lisa swallows her fear and walks into the interview room. Her heart is pounding. She’s taking a risk. Dan hadn’t wanted her to come. He told her to refuse, to wait until he had a lawyer. They have an appointment later this afternoon with a top criminal lawyer, Richard Klein, thanks to Catherine.
But she held her ground. “Dan,” she said, “I’ll go in and tell them you were with me all night. That’s it. How will it look if I refuse to talk to them at all?”
So here she is. She knows what to say and what not to say.
They begin with generalities, but Detective Reyes soon says, “We know something happened at Easter dinner. Do you want to tell us about that?”
This is unexpected. She wonders who might have let something slip and shakes her head, frowns as if she doesn’t know what he means. “No, it was a perfectly ordinary Easter dinner.”
“Did you or your husband go out again anytime that night after you returned home?” Reyes asks.
She knew he would ask this; it’s why she’s here. She says, perfectly convincingly, “No. After we got home from his parents, we both stayed in. All night.”
• • •ted is uncomfortable; he can feel himself sweating—under his arms, down his back. He’s furious at Catherine for putting him in this position. He couldn’t very well refuse to come when they asked him in. Every one of them has been called in to the police station today, like ants marching in to a picnic. And they’re all having their fingerprints taken.
“Just tell them I was home all night,” Catherine said when they were finally alone. “It’s not hard.”
“You should have told them the truth,” he shot back.
“Yes, I probably should have,” she admitted with heat. “But I didn’t. I made a mistake. Now the question is, are you going to make it worse, or are you going to help me?”
He’d agreed that sticking to her original story was probably the best course of action, given the circumstances. So here he is. He’s a bit annoyed at her, too, for agreeing so quickly to pay for Dan’s legal fees. What if they run into the hundreds of thousands? But it’s her money—she’s the one inheriting a fortune, not him, so there’s not much he can say.
But he’s a confident man, and he knows he will be able to come across well in the interview. He knows Catherine didn’t murder her parents.
“Thank you for coming in,” Reyes says.
Ted denies anything unusual happened at the dinner that night. They’ve all agreed to stick to this—that it had been a pleasant evening and there were no conflicts. Finally Reyes asks the expected question. “After you arrived home from the Mertons’ on the evening of Easter Sunday, did you go out again any time after that?”
“No.”
“What about your wife?”
He shakes his head. “No. She was home with me all night.”
• • •once ted leaves the police station, Audrey decides to call it a day. It’s been so frustrating to be stuck in the parking lot when all the action is going on inside that building. The only place more interesting today is probably Catherine’s or Dan’s house, and she can’t get inside there either.
She checks her phone one more time and quickly looks at the local online news. Police teams are now conducting a search of the river near Brecken Hill, looking for evidence in the Merton murders. She pulls out of the parking lot.
