Page 73 of She Didn't See It Coming
Lizzie pauses, leans back in her chair. What can she tell them? She has nothing new to reveal. But—she couldinventsomething, and no one would know any different. People make stuff up on the internet all the time. She dives deeper into the rabbit hole.
The police are closing in on Derek Gardner. They’ve got CCTV of him and Bryden together at a hotel, which I cannot name. But it was in this city.
Take that, Alice,whoever you are, she thinks. It’s not true, but she doesn’t care. Then her mind takes off on her, and she’s typing recklessly, propelled by a strange compulsion.
But what if he didn’t kill her? What if he was sleeping with her, but someone else killed her? I know a lot of you think he did it, because he murdered his mother-in-law, but hear me out. I still think it could have been someone other than Sam or Derek. It could have been anyone who lives in that condo, or visits it regularly, has a friend or family there. Because all they had to do was knock on her door, force their way in, and hold a plastic bag over her face until she was dead. Easy enough to do, if you’re strong enough. If you take her by surprise. If she’s not expecting it at all and turns her back on you.
And you have to ask, why move the body at all? Why not just leave her there, dead? Why bother putting her in a suitcase and taking her downstairs and risk being seen? I’ll tell you why. Because the killer didn’t want the little girl to come home and see her mother dead! It’s so obvious. And how would the killer know she’d fit in a suitcase? Maybe they saw that thing on YouTube—Can Adrienne Fit in a Suitcase?It’s had millions of views. And everybody has a suitcase in their closet these days. My point is, it could have been anyone! We should think outside the box!
Feverishly, she hits post.
The comments come in quickly.
Jen McKague
Googling youtube.com forCan Adrienne Fit in a Suitcase?right now
Brittany Clement
Jen McKagueOMG that’s hilarious!
Karen Hennin
Maybe it was the sister. She might be worth looking into.
Farah Spence
Karen HenninSisters can have a real love/hate relationship. I know. I want to kill my sister all the time!
Brittany Clement
Karen HenninWhat do we know about her?
Lizzie watches the responses come in. She doesn’t like the comments about Bryden’s sister. She suddenly feels quite sick.
48
On Sunday morning, Alice looks down at the AlbanyDaily Pressin dismay. On the front page toward the bottom is the headline:Local Murder Case Takes Interesting Turn.
She stands inside the front door in her bathrobe and reads the article with mounting fury.
There have been new developments in the investigation into the murder of local woman, Bryden Frost. The 35-year-old mother of one was found dead last Wednesday in the basement of the condominium building where she lived with her husband, Sam Frost, at 100 Constitution Drive, in Buckingham Lake. She had been the subject of an intense search after she vanished from her unit on Tuesday. With the help of a cadaver dog, her body was found hidden in a suitcase on the following evening. The police have ruled the death a homicide.
Sam Frost has been questioned and released by police. Another man, Derek Gardner, whom the victim knew, has also been questioned and released.
It has now come to light that Derek Gardner’s mother-in-law, Mary Smelt, was killed March 27, 2019, in a hit-and-run outside of Roxbury, New Hampshire. The case remains unsolved. Alice Gardner inherited a substantial sum upon her mother’s death. According to New Hampshire police, Alice and Derek Gardner maintain they were at home in Albany, together, at the time of the death.
“What the fuck?” Alice yells from the front hall.
Derek comes quickly. “What is it?”
She shoves the newspaper at him. “I can’t fucking believe it!”
Derek takes the paper from her and reads, then looks up at her, his jaw tight. He clearly doesn’t like it either. Still, Derek says, “That case is dead in the water. There’s no way they can find any evidence now. This is just muckraking by the newspaper. We ought to sue them.”
“We should. Those bastards!”
“This will blow over,” Derek says. “It won’t go anywhere, it can’t, and they’ll move on to something else.”
