Then she rises gracefully from the bench, leans down, and whispers, “I’m Team Sam.”
She walks away without looking back, leaving a trace of her perfume behind her.
43
Lizzie remains glued to the park bench, her heart racing. She’s so rattled that she forgets to watch Clara.I’m Team Sam. She’s just spoken to the wife of Derek Gardner, the man who was sleeping with her sister. Was she threatening Sam with that message? What does she know? It unnerves her that this woman, Alice, has sought her out, that she must know, somehow, that Lizzie’s on the Facebook group. Does she know she is posting as Emma Porter? How could she? Had she been standing, watching, beneath Sam’s windows, waiting for her to come out? Lizzie shudders involuntarily. She feels like she’s been exposed.
The sun moves behind a cloud, and suddenly she’s chilled. She gets up off the bench and moves closer to where Clara is wandering around the playground. After twenty minutes, she calls Clara to her and says it’s time to go. She takes her hand and prepares to walk back through the media and into the condo. They take more photos but let them pass mostly unmolested. Someone calls out,Who were you talking to?She keeps her mouth shut.
“You weren’t gone that long,” Sam says, once they’re back inside the apartment. “Everything all right?”
“It was cold,” Lizzie answers, helping Clara remove her jacket. She suggests to Clara that she go work on her puzzle again. Once she’s gone into the other room, Lizzie tells Sam about Alice and her warning,Tell him he’s not going to get away with it.She doesn’t mention the bit about Team Sam.
“What the fuck?” he says. “How dare she approach you! We should tell the police.”
“Should we?” Lizzie asks uncertainly.
“She’s harassing us! She’s obviously afraid her husband did it. If she wasn’t worried, why would she use you to deliver that message? You have to tell the detectives.”
Lizzie’s not so sure. She’s worried that Alice might know something; she’d seemed so confident.He’s not going to get away with it.
But shewouldlike to talk to the detectives again.
•••
When Jayne is informedthat Lizzie Houser is here to see her, she summons Kilgour and together they meet Lizzie and take her into an empty interview room. Does she have something she’s decided she now wants to say? It’s always helpful when the family surrounding a suspect starts to crumble. But what comes next is entirely unexpected.
Lizzie says, “Alice Gardner accosted me in the park outside the condo this morning. She knew who I was. “She was…threatening.”
“How do you mean?”
“She told me she had a warning for Sam.”
“Go on,” Jayne urges.
“She told me to tell him ‘He’s not going to get away with it.’ ”
“Did she say anything else?” Jayne asks.
“No.” Lizzie asks, “Don’t you think it’s suspicious? I mean, is that the way the wife of an innocent man would act?”
Jayne glances at Kilgour, beside her, wondering what he makes of it. She answers, “I don’t know what’s going through her mind.”
“Well, can you talk to her? Tell her to leave us alone?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Jayne says, and rises to show her out. But Lizzie remains stubbornly seated.
“My parents and I want to know how the investigation is going,” Lizzie says. “We’re entitled to that. Bryden was my sister. My parents are going out of their minds. You must tell us if you’re making any progress.”
But Jayne won’t be telling this woman anything. Anything she tells Lizzie will make it right back to Sam. “We’re doing everything we can. We’re making progress. I can’t tell you more than that.”
Lizzie gives her a contemptuous look, one Jayne hasn’t seen from her before. Lizzie stands up. “Thanks for nothing.” On her way out the door she turns back and says, “You know, if it weren’t for me, you probably wouldn’t even have found her by now.”
“Excuse me?” Jayne says.
“I’m the one who asked you to get the cadaver dog, remember?” Then Lizzie asks, “Are you close to making an arrest?”
Jayne regards her. “As I said, we’re still conducting our investigation.”