Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Carlotta

M y body shook uncontrollably and my teeth were chattering together hard enough to make them ache. I clamped my jaw tightly closed for a minute and the chattering stopped, but the second I relaxed my jaw again, it started up again more intense than before. The chattering was so loud by then that I was convinced that half of the precinct would be able to hear it.

I had managed to hold myself together while I was being interrogated, or as Officer Dumont had put it, questioned. Questioned, my ass. They had a murder victim and two clear suspects, and I knew how this would work. They would hound William and me relentlessly, hoping to get one of us to turn on the other one. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. We were both drunk when it happened, and regardless of the cops’ tactics, we couldn’t tell them what we didn’t remember.

I clamped my jaw together again, trying desperately to get my teeth to stop knocking together. Holding myself together while I was being questioned was only useful if I could hold myself together the whole time I was in the precinct. I had watched enough cop shows to know what was happening here. They had questioned me, and now, someone would be watching me through the two-way mirror on the wall before me, watching for any sign of anything unusual. It probably wasn’t unusual for me to be shaky now, though. I had seen a dead body only hours earlier, and on top of that, I was hungover to all hell.

I tried to focus my mind, if not my body, and I had slightly more success with that. I had told Officer Dumont that William and I were drinking heavily and that we were both too drunk remember the night before. I told them I recognized Candy and how. But I didn’t tell them William and I had been arguing about the girl prior to going to bed. And I didn’t tell them about the affair. It was none of their business and telling them about the affair would make William look guilty, I knew that much. It wouldn’t exactly bode well for me, either. I would be seen as the wife who snapped.

I had also known that I had to tell them something to explain why Candy had turned up at our home in the middle of the night. Her working as an intern at the same company that William worked for was hardly reason enough for her to break into our house in the middle of the night and come up to our bedroom while we were both sleeping.

If I didn’t tell them something, they might start to think that William and I had invited her over, and that didn’t bode well for either of us. It would look like we lured her in with the intention of killing her. It would implicate us both in the murder.

I had decided to tell them the truth about Candy stalking us, just not the true reason. She was clearly unhinged, and if I showed the police that, they might start to see that whatever had happened, it had to be self-defense. Surely, they would accept that if some crazed chick who stalked you turned up in your bedroom in the dead of night, that you had every reason to assume the worst and defend yourself.

I could feel my thoughts starting to spiral out of control as I went back over my answers again. Every time I started to get a handle on myself and calm myself down, I saw the dead girl laid on our lawn. I saw the glassy, unseeing eyes, the bent leg. And I imagined that I saw her falling, her arms and legs pinwheeling wildly as she fell. I heard her scream, and I heard the thud of her body landing, the scream cutting off mid-note. And after that vision had gone, a new one flashed before my eyes. Me in a jail cell. William in a jail cell. I knew I had to stop that from happening. I just didn’t know how.

Carlotta Alden, get a grip of yourself and stop imaging things. Don’t even think about what happened last night at all. You will find a way to fix this , I told myself.

I needed something to focus on, though, and I slowly looked around the room, taking in my surroundings. There wasn’t much to see. The room contained three hard plastic chairs, the one I was sitting on and two more opposite me. Between the chairs was a metal table. And that was pretty much the extent of the room. The walls were off-white, grubby looking, and the floor was hard and unforgiving. It was the sort of room people wouldn't want to spend more time in than they had to. That was most likely the plan. Make the room uncomfortable, and people might just crack quicker to get out of it.

I wondered vaguely if the door was locked, but I refrained from getting up to check. I wasn’t under arrest, and I knew that technically, I could leave anytime, but I also knew if I tried to leave, it would make me look guilty and would likely result in my being arrested. All I had to do was keep my head straight and answer their questions, and then I would be able to leave without making myself look suspicious.

As I was looking around, the door to the room opened. I looked up expecting to see Officer Stanford, but instead, I saw a man I didn’t recognize and the male officer who had come to the house. What was his name again? Yes, Officer Dumont. I was thinking clearly again.

The man I didn’t recognize wasn’t in uniform. He was dressed in black pants and a light blue shirt. His collar was open, and he wasn’t wearing a tie. He smiled at me as he entered the room.

“Hi, Mrs. Alden. I’m Detective Del Rey. I have a few questions for you,” he said.

He sat down in one of the chairs and Officer Dumont sat beside him. I smiled in a way I hoped didn’t make me look as terrified as I felt.

“I’ve already told Officer Stanford everything I know, which isn’t much,” I said.

I noticed a flashing red light behind Detective Del Rey. This interview was obviously being recorded. I tried to remember if the light had been on for my first interview, but I couldn’t. I had to assume it had been, though.

“I know, and I’m sorry that we have to keep going over this again and again,” Detective Del Rey said. He smiled again, a warm and charming smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “But a girl is dead, and we need to know what happened to her.”

“I only wish I could be of some use to you, but as I told Officer Stanford, I had been drinking heavily and I really don’t remember anything from last night. I didn’t even know anyone had been in the house until I saw the broken window,” I told him.

“What is the last thing you do remember?” Detective Del Rey asked me.

“I remember William and me in the lounge, drinking scotch and talking about his work,” I told him.

It wasn’t exactly a lie. Candy did work for him, and all of his issues came from the docks project. God, why did he have to be so damned insecure? Why couldn’t he have been like a normal husband and been pleased for me and then moved on ?

“Is it possible that one of you invited Candy to your home?” Detective Del Rey asked me.

I shook my head quickly.

“No. There’s no way in hell either of us would ever have invited that little bitch to our home,” I snapped.

Dammit. I had said too much, and I knew it.

Detective Del Rey raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything. I was tempted to fill the silence, to try and explain away the venom in my tone and what I had said, but I knew that’s what he wanted. He wanted me to babble on and trip myself up, so I stayed silent.

“You didn’t like Candy, I take it?” he probed.

“I didn’t know her enough to make any real judgement,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “But she was stalking William, so there’s no way we would have invited her into our home.”

“She was stalking your husband? Did either of you report it to the police?”

“No. The ironic thing is William was going to contact his lawyer today and get a restraining order against Candy,” I said with a bitter laugh.

“He thought she was dangerous?” Detective Del Rey asked, raising his eyebrow again.

“More of a nuisance, really,” I said carefully. “ But surely, someone who is stalking a person is at least a little unhinged.”

“Why did your husband think this girl was stalking him?”

“My husband is rich and powerful. Girls like Candy, interns with ambition, tend to be drawn to someone like my husband, thinking that if they can get their claws into them then they’ll advance up the career ladder more quickly. Candy isn’t the first intern to attempt to use this strategy, and no doubt, she won’t be the last. But she is the only one I know of who turned up at our home. Is it such a stretch to think her next move was to break in?”

Detective Del Rey ignored my question, just like I knew he would.

“Do you and your husband have a happy marriage, Carlotta?” he asked.

The question threw me for a moment, and I paused for a moment too long before I answered it.

“On the whole, yes. We have our ups and downs, but what couple doesn’t? If you’re asking me if I thought Candy was a threat to our marriage, then I would have to say no, Detective.”

“So you had no reason to hurt the girl?” he asked.

I shook my head firmly. “No Detective, I did not. If anything, I pitied her. It’s pretty pathetic when you think about it, isn’t it? To continue to try to push your way into someone’s life when they’ve made it quite clear that they don’t want you in it. Even to the point where you go to their house to see their wife. It’s a shame it came to this. Someone in her family or one of her friends should have been looking out for her better and got her the help she so clearly needed.”

“So tell me, Carlotta. If you didn’t kill Candy, and there were only you and your husband present at the time, what do you think happened? Do you think your husband is capable of murder?”

“No,” I replied instantly. “I don’t. Not unless it was life or death.”

“So, what do you think happened?” he asked again.

I wanted to say I’m not the detective here, that it’s his job to answer that question, not mine. Something told me that wouldn’t be a good move, though. I thought for a moment and then shrugged my shoulders and sighed.

“Honestly, Detective, I have no idea,” I said. “My best guess is that Candy broke into our home and came into our bedroom for whatever twisted reason she had for it. Upon seeing that my husband would never be hers, maybe she jumped out the window on purpose, intending to kill herself.”

“That’s rather far-fetched, don’t you think?” Officer Dumont said.

It was the first time he had spoken since they had come into the room with me, and I turned my focus onto him to answer him.

“Maybe. But it’s certainly no more far-fetched than thinking either William or I, a professional couple with no criminal record, randomly decided to murder someone, is it? Although I agree it sounds rather bizarre, I would be quicker to believe that the deranged girl killed herself than to believe your version of events.”

“Thank you, Carlotta,” Detective Del Rey said.

His charming smile that didn’t reach his eyes was back, and he stood up abruptly as he spoke. He glanced down at Officer Dumont and nodded to him. Officer Dumont stood up too and they both headed for the door.

“Detective Del Rey, wait,” I called as they reached the door.

Officer Dumont stepped out into the hallway and Detective Del Rey turned back to me.

“When can I get out of here?” I asked. “I’ve told you everything I know. ”

He turned away and stepped out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him without answering my question.

All I could do now was wait. Wait and hope I had said enough to give the police another possible scenario, one where the focus wasn’t on William and me. Because while I was determined to prove my innocence, there were only William and me there last night, and if I proved I wasn’t guilty, it would be as good as telling them he was guilty. I had to find a way to answer their questions in a way that would protect both of us.