Page 82 of She Didn't See It Coming
I might even be responsible, in an indirect way, for finding her. They’d already searched the building thoroughly on the day she disappeared but couldn’t find her. I suggested to my police friend that they bring in a cadaver dog, and they finally did. It was the dog that found her in the storage locker.
Jayne remembers Lizzie, in the station, saying much the same thing.
That’s Lizzie, Jayne thinks. She’s sure of it. Lizzie is Emma Porter. And she posted about Alice talking to Lizzie at the park. She returns to her strange post from late last night.
…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….It almost sounds like she was there.If you’re strong enough…Jayne knows that Lizzie is a nurse. She would be strong enough.
…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!
Jayne stares at the computer. How could they have missed this?
•••
Lizzie refuses to lether parents come with her to the police station. She’s having a hard enough time holding it together as it is. Why does Detective Salter want to see her?
She hasn’t slept much the last couple of days, and she looks like crap. She has a quick shower, which makes her feel a little better, and puts on clean clothes. She forces down another piece of toast and a cup of coffee and drives to the police station. She’s led to an interviewroom, where she has to wait for at least fifteen minutes. Finally Detective Salter enters, with Detective Kilgour. They sit down.
“Hello, Lizzie,” Detective Salter begins. “Thank you for coming in. You’re here voluntarily—you can leave whenever you want. We just have a few questions.”
Lizzie nods, but her throat is dry. “Of course,” she says.
“Tell us about your relationship with your sister,” Salter says.
Lizzie is taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“Did you get along well with her?”
“Yes, of course. We were very close, as I told you before.” The detective lets the silence swell, obviously waiting for more. She adds, “We had occasional arguments, like all sisters do, but we shared everything.”
“You shared everything,” the detective says, “and yet you had no idea she was having an affair with Derek Gardner.”
“What is this?” Lizzie snaps back.
“I’m merely pointing out that your sister didn’t share everything with you, the way you imagined.”
“So what?”
“So I wonder if you were as close as you say. Bryden told her friend Paige about her affair.”
Lizzie realizes that the detective is trying to unsettle her, and it makes her nervous.
“What was it like, growing up in your family?” the detective asks now. “Your parents seem like decent people. Were they good parents?”
“Yes.”
“Just ‘yes’?” Salter prods.
“They’ve always been good to both of us. Very supportive. Loving.”
“Your parents are concerned about you,” Salter says.
“They’re my parents, they’re always concerned about me. They know I’m struggling with what happened to Bryden. We all are.”
The detective nods. “Your mother told me that lately you’re spending all your time in your room, that you hardly come out.”
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” Lizzie answers icily.
“What have you been doing in there, Lizzie?” the detective asks. Lizzie doesn’t answer. The detective continues. “I think you’ve been online, haven’t you, Lizzie, on a Facebook group called True Crimes in Albany NY.”
