Page 70 of Home Is Where the Bodies Are

“How?” I ask. Apparently, I’m going to have to pull every single detail out of him. We used to never keep anything from one another, but now it seems we keep everything.

He lowers his head. “Eddie killed him.”

My breathing immediately changes. It’s deeper, coming from my gut rather than just my lungs.

“What? How? What happened?” The words come out sharp.

Brian sighs heavily. “We were at the Boar’s Nest, Eddie and I, and then Charles showed up. He kept to himself, but Eddie couldn’t take his eyes off of him.”

“Why didn’t you leave then?”

“I tried to convince Eddie to leave with me. I didn’t want any more trouble, but he wanted to stay and have a good time. Then, he started pounding shots, and the more he drank, the less he paid any mind to Charles. So, I thought everything was fine.”

“But it wasn’t, was it?” I say.

Brian shakes his head. “No. At some point, Eddie said he had to use the bathroom. It was shortly after Charles left. But he never came back. I went to check on him, thinking he got sick, but he was gone. Figured Eddie headed home, so I closed out and decided to do the same.” Brian lets out a deep breath and rubs the back of his neck.

“Then what?”

“When I was crossing through the park, I heard a muffled cry, so I followed the sound of it, and I found Eddie. He was curled up beside a tree, covered in blood, sobbing—and a few feet from him, Charles was lying in the snow, bloodied and beaten.” Brian chokes back tears.

“Did you call the police?”

He whips his head in my direction, but I don’t look at him. I just keep staring at the black screen. “Of course not.”

“Jesus, Brian. Don’t give me ‘Of course not.’ Why wouldn’t you?”

“You think I’m going to call the cops on Eddie?”

“He killed a man.”

“Yeah, because he was convinced Charles had something to do with his daughter’s disappearance.”

“Charles would have never been involved if it weren’t for you and your anonymous tip.” I narrow my eyes.

A look of surprise stretches across his face, but he doesn’t argue, so I know it’s true. He called it in just so they’d stop looking. Charles was an easy target. There was already the question of her shoe prints being in his yard. Plus, no one in town cared about him. So, of course others went along with it, echoing Brian’s anonymous lie. The Grove wanted justice for Emma, and they didn’t care where they got it.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I just wanted to protect us.” His voice cracks and he hangs his head in shame.

“You’ve done everything but.”

“That’s not true, Laura. I am protecting us.”

“Where’s Charles now? I mean, his body,” I ask.

“I took care of it.”

“What do you meanyou took care of it? How?”

“You know how.”

I massage my temples with my pointer and middle fingers, rubbing them in small circles. I don’t have a headache yet, but I will by the end of this conversation.

“And what about Eddie?”

“I got him cleaned up, walked him home, and told him to not tell anyone about what happened, not even Susan or Lucas,” Brian says. “I said if anyone asks, he and I walked home together at twelve thirty a.m.”

“You should have never phoned in that tip.”

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