Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

AFTER SUPPER AND dishes, Paula Acosta pours herself a glass of wine, another one for her husband, and takes them both into the TV room. Taylor has gone upstairs to her bedroom, seemingly unperturbed. But Paula isn't so sure. She never knows what her daughter is thinking these days.

‘Thanks,' her husband, Martin, says as she hands him the glass. He's relaxing after a tough week. It's Friday night, and it's their habit to have some wine and watch something bingeable on television.

She sits down beside him. ‘I'm worried about Taylor,' she says.

‘You're always worried,' he says absently.

‘Someone around here has to do the emotional work,' she answers a little sharply.

He looks up then, alert. ‘What's wrong?'

‘Nothing. Everything.' She sighs. It's hard to put into words, it's just a feeling, a feeling that everything is slipping away from her, at risk somehow. ‘Taylor is so quiet. She spends all her time in her room these days. She used to see her friends more.' She pauses, takes a sip of her wine. ‘I don't think she has any friends any more. I saw her this morning, sitting all by herself in the cafeteria before classes started. And then—' She thinks of everything else that happened that day. ‘And then the horrible news about Diana. It's such a tragedy, so awful what happened to her. She was such a bright girl. She had so much going for her.'

‘I hope they figure out who did it,' her husband says.

‘Me too.' She sips her wine. She knows she's not supposed to say anything, but if she tells Martin, he's not going to tell anyone. It won't go any further. ‘If I tell you something, you must promise not to breathe a word of it to anyone,' she says to him.

He looks surprised. ‘Of course. What is it?'

‘There's something the police don't know yet.' He puts his wineglass down on the coffee table and gives her his full attention. She tells him. ‘The gym teacher, Brad Turner. Diana had complained about him.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I don't know, exactly. Kelly told me a while ago that she came to him and said Turner had been inappropriate with her. Kelly told me it was all just a misunderstanding. It was kept quiet. He only told me because he needed to talk to someone, and I'm the only one he confides in. Apparently that was the end of it. It was all kind of swept under the rug. I don't even know if he put a record of it in his file.'

‘What did he do?'

‘That's just it. I don't know the extent of it – Kelly didn't say – but he seems to think it was nothing. It's just – I'm not sure he's the best judge. It all got settled without anything official being done, so it couldn't have been that bad, surely?' She looks at her husband anxiously.

‘So – do you – are you afraid that the gym teacher might have killed Diana?' He seems shocked.

‘I don't know.' She shakes her head. ‘I spoke to Kelly about it this afternoon. I asked him if he was going to mention Diana's complaint to the police investigating her murder. Kelly wasn't planning on telling them, but I convinced him he should.'

‘And?'

‘And he said he would tell the detectives. But he also implied that I was being terribly na?ve, and that if it got out it would ruin Brad's life for nothing – because he never did anything wrong and there's no way he killed Diana.' She looks at him now, worried. ‘Have I done the wrong thing? Should I have stayed out of it? I mean, just because he may have been inappropriate with Diana – and apparently there's no proof that he was – it doesn't mean he's a murderer.'

Martin looks back at her, considering. ‘I don't know.'

She doesn't know either.

‘I guess it would depend on what he actually did, if anything – how serious it was.'

She doesn't answer for a moment. She takes another gulp of wine. Then she says, ‘That's just it – there's never any real proof with this kind of thing – it all comes down to who's telling the truth. To who you believe.'

Edward Farrell stands in the basement watching his wife's back as she retreats up the stairs. She's dropped this bombshell on him, and now she wants to just ignore it all, and not talk to their son about it? Cameron has lied to the police. He hesitates for a long moment, and then he charges up the stairs. He finds her in the kitchen. She doesn't want to meet his eyes.

‘Shelby,' he says, coming up close to her, his voice low and urgent, ‘Cameron didn't do anything to Diana. We both know that.' She looks up at him then, nodding. He pulls her into his arms and holds her, his heart pounding. He's trying to think. His first instinct is to go upstairs and ask Cameron to explain. But that's not what Shelby wants to do.

He's suddenly afraid. Can they ignore this? Should they? There might be a perfectly reasonable explanation. Maybe Cameron did lie about the time because of his curfew. He's just a kid, and kids do stupid things, make bad decisions. Or maybe he lost track of time, and he thought it was much earlier, but Edward finds that hard to believe – he's always got his phone in his hand; he always knows what time it is. As he holds his wife, he realizes with a sinking heart that while she might be able to live with not knowing, he can't. He has to talk to their son. He releases her from his arms and speaks quietly.

‘Shelby, we have to talk to him about this.'

‘No! It's better if we don't know. I'm a terrible liar. You know that. What if the police bring me in and question me—'

He stares back at her, aghast. What the hell does she think their son did? He's almost angry at her. ‘They won't bring you in. He's not a suspect.'

‘What makes you think that? They're treating him like a suspect.'

‘They have to ask him questions! He was Diana's boyfriend. He was the last one to see her. He'd just had sex with her. But I think that will be the end of it. They can't honestly think it was him.' Edward looks at his frightened wife. But if she can have doubts, what will the police think?

She starts to cry and collapses against his chest. He folds his arms around her again and makes a decision. ‘It's okay,' he whispers. ‘We won't ask him. We'll leave it alone. Everything is going to be all right. Cameron didn't harm Diana, so it doesn't matter if he lied about the time. They'll find out who did it.'

But as he holds her, he decides uneasily that he will ask Cameron himself, when Shelby isn't around. He will leave his wife out of it; he'll tell Cameron that he heard him come in after one in the morning and get an explanation. And if he has to keep the answer to himself, to protect his wife, to protect his son, then he will.