Chapter 32

32

Irena is anxious as she arrives at Catherine’s house late that afternoon, having been summoned. As Irena greets everyone, she tries to read the room. Catherine looks tense, and so does Ted. Dan is emotional, saying wild things. Jenna watches everything warily. Irena’s own nerves are beginning to fray.

She observes Dan closely. There’s sweat along his hairline. Lisa looks ill, alternately staring at her husband and then glancing away. Irena remembers them as children, Dan, Jenna, and Catherine, squabbling and crying, and her trying to make everything better. She can’t make this better.

Dan says, “They’re going to arrest me—and I didn’t do it!” He tells them about the search, how they even dug up his dead dog. Lastly, he tells them about the discovery of the disposable coveralls in his garage.

At this, the room goes very still.

Dan says, “They think I wore a disposable suit, and that’s why they can’t find any evidence at the scene, or anywhere else. I told them I got them to spray foam the attic, but they’ve already made up their minds. They think I’m guilty and I didn’t do it!”

This is met with an appalled silence.

Then Catherine says, “It doesn’t matter what they think, Dan. They need evidence, and they don’t seem to have any. The fact that you had a package of disposable coveralls in your garage doesn’t matter. You explained why you had them.”

“But they know I went out that night,” Dan says nervously. He glances at Lisa. “Lisa tried to cover for me, but they have witnesses who saw me go out. I just went for a drive. I go for drives all the time. I didn’t go over there and kill them!”

Irena fights a wave of nausea.

“That’s not enough,” Catherine says after a moment. “They know I went out that night too.”

Irena, startled, turns to stare at her.

“What?” Dan says.

“I went out that night too,” Catherine repeats. “They caught it on camera—the neighbor across the street has a porch cam.”

“You lied to the police?” Dan says, incredulous.

“Yes, I lied to them, just like you,” Catherine says sharply.

“Why?”

Irena sees Catherine hesitate and glance uncertainly at her husband and Jenna. Catherine swallows. “I went over to Mom and Dad’s that night, around eleven thirty. And . . . they were already dead.”

There is another moment of absolute silence, filled only with the clock ticking.

“You found them,” Irena finally exclaims, utterly shocked, “and you didn’t say anything? You left it to me to find them?”

Catherine tries to explain herself. Her voice wavers. “I’m sorry, Irena. I lied about going over there because I didn’t want them to suspect me.”

“They’re not going to think you did it,” Dan protests. “You’re the favorite. Why would you kill them?”

Jenna interjects. “Dad said he was going to sell the house that night, remember?”

Dan turns to face her. “So what? That’s not worth killing them over.” He turns back to Catherine. “They’re never going to suspect you, Catherine.” He pauses. “That’s not like you at all. Why wouldn’t you call 911?”

Irena has already figured it out, but now she sees the realization dawn on Dan’s face.

“Oh, I get it,” he says slowly. “You thought I did it.” He looks aghast at his older sister.

Irena reads the shock on Lisa’s face, the guilty expressions of Catherine, Ted, and Jenna, and understands. Poor Dan, Irena thinks. She briefly closes her eyes and opens them again.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Catherine says carefully. “So I did nothing. I was in shock. I pretended it wasn’t happening.”

“Bullshit!” Dan says harshly. “You thought it was me!” He looks wildly around the room. “You all think I did it!”

No one speaks, and Dan turns on them. “Well, I know I didn’t do it—so maybe it was one of you.”

Irena remembers how they used to turn on each other as children. Relationships and patterns are established early; they don’t change. Family dynamics play out again and again.

Dan focuses his attention on his older sister. “Why should we believe you, Catherine?” he asks.

“What do you mean?” Catherine says.

“I mean, maybe they weren’t dead when you got there. Maybe you went over there and killed them!”

“That’s ridiculous,” Catherine says dismissively. “You just said I had no reason to kill them.”

He looks at her coldly. “Maybe I was wrong. We all wanted them dead. There’s all that money. And you wanted the house. Maybe you got tired of waiting for it and thought you could pin it on me—and then there’d be more for you and Jenna.” He sends a vicious glance Jenna’s way. “Is that what happened?”

Catherine stares back at him, clearly shocked. “That’s absurd, Dan, and you know it.”

Jenna protests, “If anything, we’re trying to protect you, Dan. Not throw you under the bus.”

“Protect me?” he cries bitterly. “When have either of you ever protected me? No one ever stepped in.”

Dan turns now to Irena, his face twisted with emotion. “Except you, Irena. You at least tried to protect me, and I’ll never forget that.” He adds bitterly, “But you shouldn’t have cleaned that knife.”

Irena looks at them wearily, this fractious brood she raised.

Catherine says, “We’re not trying to hurt you, Dan. I told the police I talked to Mom and I left.” She adds, “And we’re paying for your defense attorney.”

Dan turns to Jenna. “What about you?”

“What?” she says, startled.

“You have just as much to gain. How do we know you didn’t kill them? We all know you have a violent temper.”

“Jake was with me all night,” Jenna says coldly.

“Sure he was,” Dan says sarcastically. “We all know what that’s worth. He could be lying for you.”

“Well, he’s not.”

“Great. Then you won’t mind if I ask him.”

“Don’t be such an asshole.”

Irena watches, her nerves splintering, as Dan looks from Jenna to Catherine, taking his time, as if thinking about something. Then he says, “It’s just that both of you knew about those disposable suits in my garage. And either one of you could easily have taken one.”

Into the pregnant silence, the doorbell rings. And everyone in the room turns to look.

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•   •   •audrey has deep misgivings regarding what she is about to do. But something had made her point her car in the direction of Catherine’s house. And once she got there and recognized everyone else’s cars, she knew they were all gathered inside. Somehow she made her way up the driveway to the front door and rang the bell. Now she stands there, waiting, her breath coming fast.

She remembers how much Dan had frightened her earlier that day and thinks: What the hell am I doing? She considers turning on her heel and leaving quickly, but then the door opens, and it’s too late.

“What do you want?” Catherine says, with a note of hostility.

“Can I come in?”

Catherine seems to consider it, then steps back and lets her in. Audrey makes her way into the living room. She meets Dan’s eyes and quickly looks away. The atmosphere is thick with tension. She’s obviously walked into something, a family argument perhaps. She thinks: Someone in this room is the killer. . . . She feels fear stirring the fine hairs on the back of her neck.

“I won’t stay long,” she says brusquely, to disguise her fear, not even bothering to sit down. “I spoke to Walter yesterday. I’m sure you know by now that your father did not change his will in my favor.”

“Of course he didn’t,” Jenna says with contempt.

She turns on Jenna, incensed by her dismissive tone. “He didn’t have time, because one of you murdered him before he could do it!” She lifts her eyes to the others, who regard her with clear animosity, and perhaps fear. Audrey continues with barely contained fury. “Did your father tell you he was going to change his will? Or maybe it was your mother, going behind Fred’s back. She knew what your father was going to do, and she didn’t like it. So which one of you did she tell, I wonder?” She looks at each of them in turn and says, with a hint of menace, “I know it was one of you. And I know all your little secrets. Maybe it’s time everyone found out what this family is really like.”

And then she turns and walks out, both thrilled and frightened at what she’s done.