Page 120 of Second Chance

Lily examines the bedsheets again.

“Lily,” Daniel tries again. “Why would you go along with everything he said? After Professor Lawrence? Why not call the police yourself?”

She shakes her head.

“You said you were scared. Was he threatening you with something? Was he going to hurt you?”

Caught, Lily glances between him and the detective. “I…no.” She taps out a quick rhythm on the sheet with her finger now, anxious and offbeat.

“You’re lying.” Tony can’t put his finger on how he knows, but he does. Her confusion made sense in the dingy bathroom of the movie theater when she was high and crying and confused. Now, though? Now, he doesn’t buy it.

Lily doesn’t have any problem meeting his eyes. That’s all right; she probably doesn’t understand what she did to him when she kidnapped Daniel.

“It’s not a hard question,” Tony insists. “What was he threatening you with?”

“I was scared—”

“Not what I asked.”

“Tony.” Daniel’s voice is sharp.

Tony ignores him. “Don’t protect him. Remember what Gianna said. Mario wasn’t worth ruining your life over. Neither is Sean.”

“But he—when I—the car— Iowehim.”

There it is. “A car crash is not the same thing as a murder.”

“He said—the insurance— There’s no way I can pay for it, and my parents can’t either, not after all my hospital bills and tuition. Sean’s going to tell everyone I was the one who killed her anyway, and who would believe me? I was too high todrive for, like, two weeks. I can’t even remember everything that happened. Who knows what I could have done?”

Tony remembers Lily sitting in the reception area of the garage, shooting videos of her dumb boyfriend about the crash, miserable and pretending she wasn’t for his benefit. Tony takes a breath and lets the anger go. “I’m not saying you made good decisions, but you’re not a murderer, and we believe you. We can clear it up with the insurance. I can help you.”

“Icrashed. I shouldn’t have been driving. I—”

“It’s his car and his insurance. If you’re not covered, he shouldn’t have let you drive.”

“But he was sohigh.”

“So, none of you should have been driving.” Tony gets it out through gritted teeth. “Still not your fault. And definitely not a reason to take the fall for him about Professor Lawrence.”

“You really think so?”

Tony wants to laugh. All this over goddamn car insurance. If she’d told Gianna, there never would have been a reason to kidnap Daniel in the first place. Gianna might not have been at the garage much lately, but she knows her insurance loopholes. “Yeah, Lily. You did the right thing, getting us the knife. We believe you, and I think detective Taylor here believes you, too, no matter what Sean says.”

Daniel looks between them, bemused. “How did you know about that?”

“Because Sean is a miserable shitstain, and he told me it was her who crashed.”

Lily sobs once, and Tony feels a little bad, but not bad enough to stop talking.

“His idea of taking the fall for someone is pretty one-sided.”

Detective Taylor has them walk through the entire car crash incident, first Tony and then Lily. Lily tells them there was no deer, that she hadn’t been able to concentrate, that she got too far to the middle of the road, swerved away, and hit the guardrail. After his angry outburst resulting in a slaughtered front tire, Sean came up with the lie while they waited for the tow truck, and Lily was so relieved she went with it.

With the car off her conscience, she explains fully what happened with Amelia Lawrence.

“He said no one would believe me.” Her hands clench when she says it. “He said everyone knew I was nuts and unstable, and he could use the crash to convince them. He came with me to Professor Lawrence’s office, said he would support me or whatever. Only, he took a bunch of pills before, and when I started crying, he got soangryat me. Professor Lawrence tried to—well, she got in his face, and then he—you know.”

Lily looks up at Daniel. “I don’t remember most of it. I wasn’t lying. The molly made everything feel weird. And I…I couldn’t watch, and I couldn’t stop him. Professor Rosenbaum, I’mso sorry. You were the one person I could think of who I could trust. When nothing happened after I gave you the knife, I had to see you…and then Sean followed me to you, too, and I didn’t know what todo—”

---