I Know What You Did

by N L Hinkens

  Jo picked up her phone, typing and deleting several lines of text before finally hitting send.

  What do you want to talk about? I’ll only agree to meet if you haven’t been drinking.

  A few minutes later, Mia typed back a response.

  It’s about Robbie. Can you meet me in the park near the school after work? I haven’t touched a drop today. I swear on Olivia’s life.

  Jo reread the text, her thoughts plummeting into a bottomless well of despair. Robbie must be intending to pursue custody. How could he do such a thing after seeing how much she and Liam loved Claire? Was he really prepared to tear their family apart and possibly his own in the process? She gritted her teeth as she sent a reply.

  I’ll be there at three-fifteen. No more lies and no more games.

  She got the thumbs up emoji in response. Jo curled her lip. She didn’t relish the thought of meeting Mia, even sober, although she had her doubts that would be the case. But if Mia was planning to forewarn her about Robbie’s intentions, it was important to hear her out. She and Liam would have to hire a lawyer and find out what their rights were. At least this way they’d have time to prepare before they were hit with a lawsuit.

  As luck would have it, Jo found herself in a last-minute meeting with a particularly vulnerable sophomore whose parents were getting divorced and moving away from the area, forcing her to change schools and leave her friends behind—an unfathomable act of tyranny from the girl's point of view that merited a spate of cutting. Jo had no choice but to patiently talk her off the ledge—anything less would have been irresponsible. It was already three-twenty by the time she pulled out of the school parking lot and after three-thirty by the time she reached the bench where Mia was sitting, pushing Olivia’s stroller back-and-forth.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Jo panted. “My meeting ran over.”

  Mia batted her eyelashes. “I’m used to it with Robbie.”

  Jo eyed her furtively. “I’m relieved to hear you haven’t been drinking today.”

  Mia twisted her lips, staring at the stroller. “Robbie went through the house and found my stash of wine and confiscated everything. It’s worse than living with Tory.”

  “He’s only trying to help you. He cares about you.”

  Mia turned and looked at Jo, her face pinched. “I don’t think he does. He’s losing interest.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “He spends all his time in front of the TV when he comes home. He used to want to talk to me, now he just wants to be left alone, unless he’s giving out to me or telling me what to do.”

  “That might have something to do with the fact that you’re always drunk when he comes home.”

  “I’ve been under a lot of pressure,” Mia said, her voice almost plaintive.

  “It’s hard with a newborn,” Jo admitted. “But it’s not a reason to start drinking.”

  “I don’t mean that kind of pressure.” Mia twisted her wedding band on her finger. “The truth is, I’m afraid of Robbie.”

  Jo hesitated before responding, wrestling with her tendency to immediately rush to Robbie’s defense. Was this another one of Mia’s attempts to manipulate the situation in her favor? Or was there a darker side to Robbie? Jo took a shallow breath. All her instincts told her to tread cautiously. “Why are you afraid of him?”

  “He flies into rages. You saw how angry he got yesterday, how he yanked my arm. That’s assault.” Mia's eyes bored into Jo’s. “He gets so angry sometimes I think he's going to … to kill me.”

  Jo let out a gasp. “Don’t be absurd. You can hardly blame him for getting angry about what we told him. My husband would have reacted the same way if someone had dropped a bombshell like that on him. It takes a lot to get Robbie riled up.”

  Mia arched a challenging brow. “He comes across as easy-going, but it’s all an act. He’s very intense when we’re alone—very controlling. Especially if I don’t do exactly what he wants me to do.”

  Jo thought for a moment, trying to recall any incidents when Robbie had got angry or intense about something. It didn’t seem to fit his character. Sarah had hinted at problems between them but she’d never mentioned anything about Robbie having an anger problem. On the other hand, Mia had proven she was an accomplished actress, but Jo thought better of pointing that out. Instead, she said, “Give me an example of what you’re talking about, other than yesterday. How’s he controlling?”

  “He doesn’t want Tory babysitting anymore, and he doesn’t want me taking Olivia over to her house either.”

  “I thought Robbie liked your mom.”

  “I thought so too,” Mia replied, her tone conspiratorial. “But ever since Barb died and he got control of her money, he doesn’t want Tory involved in anything to do with Olivia. He says we can afford to hire a babysitter if we want to go out.”

  Jo furrowed her brow. “Do you know how much money was in Barb’s estate?”

  “A little over four million.”

  Jo’s jaw dropped. “What? Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I saw the paperwork. Why?”

  “No reason. It’s just that I always assumed it was a few hundred thousand dollars.” Jo's heart was racing. People killed for a lot less than that. She leaned forward and peered into the stroller at a sleeping Olivia, so innocent of the lies and intrigue that surrounded her young life. Was it possible Sarah had been killed for the money she stood to inherit? And what had really happened to her mother? “Speaking of Barb, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Jo said casually. “Was she in good form that Sunday afternoon you went to visit her?”

  Mia shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, she didn’t know who I was, but then she never could remember my name.”

  “Why did you go that day instead of Robbie?”

  A smug smile crept over Mia's lips. “He asked me too, he wanted to surprise me with something. While I was gone, he assembled some furniture for me that’s been sitting in the garage in boxes since Olivia was born.”

  Jo swallowed a painful knot in her throat. Sweat prickled along the back of her neck. Robbie had made a point of telling her that Mia insisted he stay behind. Yet again, one of them was lying. The problem was that they took turns doing it and it was becoming increasingly difficult to sift through their deception and find out what was really going on.

  23

  Jo couldn’t focus on the juvenile probation report she was trying to read on one of her troubled students. It was clear she would have to make a difficult call to his parents at some point, but at the moment she was more preoccupied with the crime she was about to commit. Liam was due to arrive at the school at six o’clock, purportedly to undertake some maintenance work on the servers. The school janitor didn’t arrive until eight so that should give them more than enough time to accomplish their task.

  It was highly unlikely any of the teachers would be working late in their offices on a Friday. Nonetheless, Jo wouldn’t be able to rest until she watched the last of her colleagues leave the building. She’d enlisted one of the other moms at Claire’s daycare to pick her up and drop her off with the babysitter next door. Jo had every intention of being here with Liam when he searched Robbie’s computer, partly because she wanted to know at once if he found anything, and partly to act as lookout in case any of the staff returned unexpectedly.

  When the final bell rang signaling the end of classes, the corridors quickly filled with the usual sounds of Friday mayhem. The extra buzz of adrenaline associated with the weekend was palpable as students made a beeline through the main exit to freedom. Jo kept her office door closed, hoping to dissuade any last-minute crises from materializing in her office. The students thronged past, backpacks slung haphazardly over their shoulders, pushing and shoving each other jovially—thankfully none of them throwing as much as a backward glance in her direction.

  A couple of teachers knocked on the glass inset in Jo’s door and waved good-bye in passing. She smiled and waved in return, immediately focusing her attention back on
her computer screen. Once the sound of footsteps faded, and the last stragglers had disappeared from the building, she left her computer and made her way to the staff break room to make herself a coffee. She still had a couple of hours to kill before Liam showed up. She’d left herself plenty of work to do, but now that she was alone in the building, she couldn’t bring herself to tackle it. Instead, she found herself wandering along the corridor in the direction of Sarah’s old classroom. On a whim, she unlocked the door using the master key on her wristband and then closed it quietly behind her. She pressed her back against the door and shut her eyes briefly, inhaling deeply. She could almost sense Sarah’s spirit in the room. They’d spent countless hours in here talking and laughing as Sarah prepped for her art classes.

  Jo let her gaze travel around the room, taking in the extensive art projects that covered every square inch of the walls, and even the ceiling. Much of the art on display was work done by students Sarah had taught. Jo knew from counseling many of Sarah’s former students that they sorely missed her.

  She began wandering around the room, tracing her fingers over the artwork, wondering how much coaching and time Sarah had poured into each picture. She could almost hear her cheering her students on, her bright smile convincing them that they could accomplish anything. How could someone who had loved life so much have committed suicide and encouraged one of her students to do the same? It was unthinkable.

  Jo shook her head as she eyed the paintings. No, it was impossible. The Sarah Gleeson Jo knew would never have taken advantage of one of her students. That left only one alternative. Someone had murdered her. It seemed unlikely that it was Noah, but Jo couldn’t rule out that possibility yet. Mia had been very convincing in her outburst in front of the lockers when she’d accused Noah of cheating on her. What if he’d been stalking Sarah and killed her when she rejected his advances, before killing himself?

  Jo rubbed her temples. Her theory that someone had murdered Sarah was almost as preposterous as the idea that she’d committed suicide—almost, but not quite. If Liam didn’t turn up anything on Robbie’s computer tonight, she’d figure out a way to get a hold of Mia’s laptop next. And if that didn’t uncover anything, she would sit down with Lydia and Sérgio Tomaselli and try to find out if they’d noticed anything strange about Noah’s behavior in the months leading up to his death. Someone had orchestrated Sarah’s death. Somehow, some way, she’d get to the bottom of it all.

  She walked back to the filing cabinets in the corner of the room and pulled open a drawer at random. She flicked through some old art projects, admiring the talented contributions that were lying in a drawer in the dark. It was such a shame. They were worthy of a place on someone’s wall. She would talk to Ed on Monday about the possibility of returning some of this artwork to the students who had graduated. Maybe they would appreciate the pieces as a memento of a favorite teacher.

  Working her way from the top of the filing cabinet to the bottom she browsed through the miscellaneous folders, losing herself for a while in a sheaf of student caricatures, trying to guess which of the students she was looking at. Her heart stopped when she pulled out a caricature of Noah Tomaselli. His broad football shoulders had been exaggerated to the padded dimensions of the Hulk, and his wide toothy grin encompassed half of his face, but there was no mistaking the handsome features lurking in the drawing. It was heartbreaking to think Noah was gone, but it was even more terrifying to think he might have killed Sarah.

  Throwing a furtive look over her shoulder, Jo slipped the drawing into an empty file folder and set it aside. She would use it as an excuse to visit the Tomasellis and do some digging. Now that Noah was gone, they would treasure items like this, another piece in the composite of the life lost to them. She was about to slam the file drawer shut when she noticed something lying on the bottom tucked beneath the hanging file folders. She pushed the folders back in the drawer and squeezed her hand between them to grab what looked like a notebook of some kind. Flipping it open, she sucked in a breath when she saw the name Sarah Gleeson in the top right-hand corner in her friends’s artistic handwriting.

  She cast another sidelong look in the direction of the door, then went behind the desk and sat down in the swivel chair to look through the journal. It was unlined, more like a sketchbook. As she opened it to the first page, a small smile turned up the corners of her lips. It was a sketch of a hand raised up toward the sun, fingers outstretched. Beneath it, Sarah had written, When the new day dawns, dare to be grateful. Jo turned another page, in awe once again at Sarah’s artistic talent. As she flicked randomly through the book, she found herself drying her eyes at times when she was particularly moved by some of Sarah’s thoughts or annotations. She’d never been a perfectionist and had often crossed out words here and there or altered quotes and added lines at awkward angles to make them fit on the page. It was more of an eclectic doodling book that she might have occupied herself with while her students were working on other things in the classroom. The pages were filled with the exuberant joy with which she had always lived life, no hint of underlying sadness or depression.

  Jo closed the book and stared at it for a long moment. She didn’t want to put it back in the dark drawer. It felt too much like putting a live body in the morgue. But there was no one to give it to now that Barb was dead. Robbie wouldn’t want it. After a moment’s hesitation, Jo slipped it inside the file folder along with the caricature drawing of Noah. She closed up the drawers and then exited the art room, locking it behind her.

  She was almost back at her office when she heard footsteps approaching. She glanced at her phone, but it was only five-fifteen, too early for Liam, and far too early for the janitor. Her breath stuck in her throat when Robbie came striding into view. She took a hesitant step backward, for one terrible moment envisioning him lashing out at her in anger like Mia had described. The school suddenly seemed more dangerous in its desolation. He slowed his pace when he caught sight of her, his expression somewhat discomposed. “Hey, Jo, just leaving?”

  “Uh ... pretty close,” she stammered. “I thought I’d catch up on some reports I’ve been putting off. It’s hard to find a quiet time during the day to keep up with all the paperwork. What are you doing back? Forget something?” She was talking excessively, she only hoped Robbie wouldn’t pick up on her guilt-ridden tone.

  “Yeah, I meant to bring the chemistry quiz I gave my students home with me. I need to grade it before Monday.” He glanced down at his feet before giving Jo a shamefaced look. “Look, I want to apologize. This has all been a terrible shock and my reaction the other day was totally out of line. I just want you to know that I’d never do anything to separate you and Liam from Claire. I don’t want you to worry about that.” He shook his head sadly. “I can’t say it doesn’t sadden me in one sense knowing that Claire and Olivia won’t grow up as sisters, but I’m thankful you and Liam adopted her and not some strangers. I couldn’t ask for better parents for my daughter.”

  Jo fidgeted with the file folder in her hands. “I appreciate that, Robbie. It must be very difficult for you to come to terms with. I’m not going to sugarcoat things, though. Liam and I are still cut up about what you did, and the lies you told.”

  Robbie’s shoulders sagged. “It was wrong of me. It was immoral and illegal, and I realize you could report me to the authorities. You have the proof, after all—my biological daughter. The only thing I can say in my defense is that Sarah and I were drifting apart. I suspected she was seeing someone else, although she never admitted to it. And Mia, as you know, can be very persuasive. I was weak, feeling rejected by Sarah, and I gave in to temptation—it was just that one time, I swear.”

  “I never got the sense from Sarah that you two were drifting apart,” Jo replied frostily. “She was excited about taking that trip to Europe with you.”

  “That was a sore spot between us. I didn’t want to go but she insisted on booking it.” Robbie swallowed hard. “Did you know the Tomasellis had arranged to s
end Noah to Italy to visit relatives as a graduation present? I think Sarah was planning to hook up with him there.”

  24

  Jo stood rooted to the spot, digesting Robbie’s words in silence. Empty words. She had no way of proving or disproving them now that Sarah was gone. It was possible Noah’s family had been planning on sending him to Italy as a graduation present—she could ask Lydia about it. But that didn’t mean Sarah’s trip to Europe had anything to do with Noah other than being a convenient fit to Robbie’s narrative. Why would Sarah have invited Jo and Liam along if she was planning an illicit rendezvous with Noah? It didn't make sense. Jo didn’t know what to believe anymore. If Robbie wasn’t the friend she thought she’d known all these years, then the only feasible alternative was that he was a sociopath, and an extremely clever one. A chemistry buff who would know exactly how to kill someone with carbon monoxide. Her heart thudded in her chest. Maybe Mia had been telling the truth when she’d said she was frightened of him. Until Jo had proof in hand, she wasn’t about to challenge him. She’d give him the impression she was on his side for now.

  “I’m sorry, Robbie,” she said. “I had no idea Noah was going to Europe too. And of course, I’m not going to turn you over to the authorities. What you and Mia did was wrong, but you’re trying to do the right thing now. You have a young wife who needs you, and a beautiful daughter to raise. And thanks to you, Liam and I finally have a child to raise as well.”

  Robbie blinked back tears and then stepped forward to embrace her. Jo forced herself to respond in kind, all the while repulsed by his touch, wondering if the arms wrapped around her were the same arms that had killed her friend in cold blood. When he released her, she gestured toward her office. “I need to wrap things up and get home to Liam and Claire. Have a good weekend, Robbie.”