by B. M. Hardin
The ride to the police station, in the back of the car, was the longest ride of my life.
I’d never so much as even had a ticket, and now I was headed to be questioned on someone’s disappearance.
“So we meet again,” the officer from my office and during my lunch, Officer Parks, said after I waited in a room for a long while.
“What is this about? I told you, I don’t know where she is. I didn’t do anything to Summer.”
“Did you or did you not tell Mr. Blake Griffin to kill her?”
What?
Did Blake tell him that?
“No.”
“No? The next door neighbor had her window up, and she said that she specifically heard you tell Mr. Griffin to kill Ms. Waters. I have a written and signed statement.”
“Well, if I said it, I said it out of anger because she said that she enjoyed screwing my husband. But I didn’t mean it. And if that’s the case, if I told him to kill her, why am I here and not him?”
“You put a hit out on her.”
“What? It’s only a hit if they actually do it. Blake didn’t kill her. Or are you saying that Blake confessed killing Summer?”
“No. He denies any involvement, but if you asked him, you could have asked someone else to do it.”
“I didn’t ask anyone else to kill her because I didn’t mean it. I didn’t want her dead. I was just angry.”
“Angry enough to kill her yourself? Or angry enough to get someone else to do it?”
“No.”
“Where is the body Hannah?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know where Summer is.”
“Where did the blood come from?”
“I don’t know because I didn’t do anything.”
“We have a motive. Angry wife upset with her cheating husband. A backstabbing friend. The neighbor will testify to the ordered hit. We can force Mr. Griffin to say that those are the words that you said to him. We have her blood on the living room floor, which suggests foul play and let’s not forget the envelope that looks like she was trying to spell out your name in her blood. We have a good bit to go on. Soon, we won’t need much else to get this show on the road Hannah. Help me so that I can help you.”
“No. I’m innocent. I didn’t do anything to her.”
I started to sob.
This was insane.
“Then who did? Who did if not you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, but I believe you do.”
“But I don’t. I haven’t seen Summer since that day.”
“You were her friend, right? Before finding out the ugly truth?”
I nodded.
“Who was she dating?”
“No one.”
“Was she sleeping with someone? Other than your spouse of course.”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then it leads right back to you Hannah.”
“I didn’t kill her!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Then who did?”
I placed my head in my hands.
I didn’t know.
They didn’t even know if she was dead.
“Come on Hannah, give me something.”
I shook my head and then looked up at him.
“It could have been Blake.”
Considering the circumstances, I was about to sing like a canary.
It’s the only thing that I could do.
I couldn’t go down for something that I didn’t do I was harmless.
“He’s the one you should be worried about.”
“Who?”
“Blake. Mr. Griffin.”
“Why is that?”
“He’s a killer.”
“How do you know this?”
“I’m his therapist, duh.”
“Who has he killed?”
“I don’t know their names.”
“Then how can you say that he’s a killer?
“Because he confessed to them. He plans on committing another one. If he hasn’t done so already.”
“He could have been lying.”
“No, he isn’t. He’s telling the truth. He’s going to kill someone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. It could have been Summer. He hasn’t revealed it to me yet.”
“Why not say something before? Why not come to the police?”
“I’m his therapist. There are some laws that apply and I thought that I could fix him. I thought that I could help him. Save him and his next victim one session at a time. But I am not responsible for Summer’s disappearance. If she is dead, I did not do it. Whether Blake is responsible or even if it is my husband---,”
“Why would you mention your husband?”
“Because Blake has this strange thing of sitting outside of people’s houses, watching, stalking. He revealed to me that Joel had gone to Summer’s house later that evening on the same day of the altercation. I asked him about it, he said he went by to talk to her, but he swore that she was alive when he left.”
The officer looked at me.
“He didn’t mention that part to me.”
“Why would he? All you care about is trying to make someone out to be something that they aren’t.”
“No, I care about justice. I care about finding Ms. Waters. And if something happened to her, I care about making sure that it doesn’t happen again to someone else.”
“Well whoever you are looking for, it’s not me.”
“This is a strange circle; you, Mr. Griffin and your husband. And I don’t know which one of you are guilty, but I know that one of you knows what happened to her. And I’m letting you know that I am going to be all over you. You do understand that right?”
“I have nothing to hide. Let me help you. I can prove my innocence. I will get Blake to confess. All I have to do is my job, and he will confess. He always confesses…eventually.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
“Then I’ll work on my husband too in the meantime. Or maybe Summer will show up, and this would be all for nothing because you don’t even know if she’s dead or alive. But I’m innocent. I’m innocent,” I cried.
My lawyer entered the room.
Calvin was a longtime family friend of my father’s.
He had been around since I was a little girl.
I didn’t see him too often; actually, I hadn't seen him in years, since my father’s funeral.
But he was indeed the only lawyer that I knew and the only one that I could trust.
After a few words, I was heading out of there.
Joel was waiting for me.
I looked back at the officer, and he nodded his head as if to say game on.
But he was barking up the wrong tree.
Maybe it was Blake.
Maybe it was Joel.
Maybe it was someone else or no one at all.
All I knew was that it wasn’t me.
I didn’t touch her. I didn’t do anything to her. I didn’t know where she was and I sure as hell didn’t kill her.
But I had to find out which one of them was behind this, and I had to figure it out fast, or I was going to jail for a crime that I didn’t commit.
From this point on, no one could be trusted, and everyone was my enemy; especially Blake and including my husband.
~***~
Blake didn’t show up for therapy.
I wondered if he’d saw me from afar being led out by the police or if he was already two steps ahead of everything and had already disappeared.
Summer could be dead and gone, and all he had to do was disappear.
I headed out of my office only to be stopped by my colleagues.
“We’ve been talking, and we think that you should take some time off.”
“What?”
“The publicity of what’s going on is affecting us, as well. Our patients are questioning us and some are saying that they don’t want to be in the same building as someone that might have something t
o do with someone’s disappearance. We all know that you are innocent, but convincing everyone else of it is the thing. Soon this all will blow over. You will go back to doing what you do best. You’ll go back to being “the good listener” in no time. We just think that you should lay low and stay away from here for a while.”
I didn’t even respond to the crap that was coming out of their mouths.
I just walked away.
And it would be for good.
That was a for sure sign that when all of this was over, I was stepping back for a long while and if I ever decided to go back to practicing, it wouldn’t be with them.
As I drove down the road, my phone started to ring.
Blake.
“You have officers watching you at the office and at your house. I’m sure they’re both probably bugged or something too. Meet me at the park.”
I headed towards the park.
No one was there, and it was easy to see him.
I looked around and wondered if the police were somewhere looking on, but if they were, they were out of sight.
I pressed record on my cell phone and put it in my pocket.
Maybe he would say something that I could use to prove that I didn’t have any involvement in whatever was going on.
I approached him.
“You know they are going to ask me to testify or for some kind of written statement for what you said to me. I wouldn’t say anything but the neighbor heard it.”
Well, at least he hadn't admitted to my words yet.
I said them, but I wished with everything in me that I could take them back.
“Why didn’t you tell them?”
“If you stop recording me, I will tell you,” he looked at me.
Damn.
He was always two steps ahead of me.
I took out the phone and turned off record.
I sat the phone on the bench.
“If something ever comes out of it all, I’ll probably already be gone anyway so there was no point in adding fuel to a burning fire. In their mind, you are already guilty, and they aren’t even sure of the crime yet.”
“But I didn’t do anything.”
“I’m not the one that you have to convince. And I know that you probably shared some of my secrets with them. And you probably promised that you could get a confession out of me.”
“How? How did you know that?”
“I know people. I told you, I’m better at your job than you are. And despite your degrees and everything else, you aren’t much different from everyone else. You’re normal. Ordinary. And ordinary people are predictable.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I didn’t tell them much of anything. I just said that it was a possibility that it could be you or Joel. It wasn’t me.”
I thought about his threat.
“You said if I ever went to the police that…”
“You didn’t go to the police…they came to you. And whatever you said, they didn’t believe you anyway. Because they will go by facts. And the facts so far are pointing to you. I didn’t kill Summer. That’s the truth. If they found blood, maybe she is dead. But I didn’t kill her. And she wasn’t my victim.”
I looked into his eyes, and he allowed me to.
He was being honest.
He hadn't killed her if she was dead.
“So it wasn’t Summer?”
“No. I thought that trying to defend her or save her would give you some kind of kick that you needed to dig deep and find what’s wrong with me. But Summer wasn’t my next victim.”
So, we were back to square one.
Again.
“But even though you came here with your own agenda, a part of me is still hoping that you can help me. There’s something that you haven’t said. Something that you haven’t asked that could possibly give you the right words and the right inspiration to inspire me, to change me forever. I need you to find it. I need you to find it fast. Then if you want some kind of fake confession, fine, I’ll give you one and then disappear. That will clear your name and by the time you go to the police with it, I’ll be long gone.”
My mouth opened, but nothing came out of it.
“I already have everything ready to go. Fix me and it all goes away. I walk away free from whatever has had a hold on me all of these years, and you walk away a free woman; if she doesn’t show back up of course.”
I looked at him.
“You would really do that? Even though you are saying that you had nothing to do with her disappearance?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I just would. It wouldn’t affect me any.”
“But that means that somewhere in there you have a heart Blake. You do realize that don’t you?”
He was quiet for just a second.
“It’s not a big deal. And I would only do it because I’m for sure that they would never be able to find me. You would be surprised at what features on my face aren’t really mine. They’ll never find me. Believe me. People and papers lie.”
I studied his face, hard.
I tried to figure out what he meant by false features.
What was he talking about?
“We don’t have long; on my end and on yours. I’m ready to leave, and the police won’t stop looking until Summer shows up, or until they find something that will stick.”
I knew that he was right.
“I have something that I want to talk about today,” he said taking a seat.
He started talking.
He said so much and so fast.
He told me that he had killed five people in total.
He told me every reason behind the murders. The only thing that he didn’t say was their names and where he’d killed them.
He told me how he’d gotten to be so smart.
Blake was more open with me than he had ever been and I knew that he was only doing it because he was now in some type of rush.
He was really ready to move on, and he knew that he either had to kill or be cured.
Those were his only two options.
He told me more about his Hawaii trip and how he imagined being back there.
I had a feeling that there is where he was going to end up.
I didn’t mention my thoughts to him, but I was sure that he was going there.
And I had the feeling that he wanted to go there in peace.
He hadn't killed Summer or did anything to her.
I was sure of it.
So if it wasn’t Blake.
And it wasn’t me.
Was it Joel?
~***~
“We’re going to get through this. I am here if you need me. I’m not going anywhere.”
I just looked at Joel.
I could have cared less about what he said.
“Can I ask you something?”
He nodded.
“Why her?”
He looked at me.
“Why Summer? Why someone so close to me? Why not go find some random woman that I didn’t know?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t know. She was there. She was interested. She listened.”
“I listened to you.”
“No. You didn’t. You listened and heard everyone else, except for me. I could tell you I was unhappy. And instead of trying to fix it, you would try to adjust it and try to accommodate yourself. But you never actually heard a word that I said.”
Maybe Blake was right.
Maybe I wasn’t as good as a listener as I thought I was.
“That didn’t give you the right to step out on me.”
“No, it didn’t give me the right. But it gave me the courage, the want to find someone that appreciated me.”
“She appreciated you?”
“More or less. I didn’t feel worthless in her presence or less than a man.”
“If she made you feel like that then why did you kill her?”
“I didn’t kill her,” Joel sa
id.
I thought I would throw that in there, but he denied it with no hesitation.
No one admitted to killing her.
No one knew where she was.
But maybe it wasn’t one of us.
Maybe it was someone else, or she could just simply not want to be found.
Maybe she had just left and decided that she never wanted to look back.
“So I was just a horrible wife,” I said.
“No. You weren’t. Somewhere along the way, you just forgot about me. We used to be best friends. We could talk for hours and never run out of things to say. When I wasn’t around you, I would think about you so much that it made me feel sick. I couldn’t wait to get back close to you. I couldn’t wait to get near you. My love for you made me weak. But over the years. The more patients you saw. The more newspaper articles that were written on you. The more recognition you received, you forgot about me.”
He’d never said all of this before, and the sad part was that he was right.
But being that I was in the position to lose everything, I guess I saw things a little differently.
I was consumed with work.
I wanted to be the best.
Part of all of that was the reason that I was going through everything that I was going through right now.
That was the reason that I agreed to try to help Blake.
That was the reason that my husband had an affair.
“If it means anything, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I forgot you. I’m sorry that I neglected you.”
Joel looked at me.
“I’m sorry for my affair. I probably contributed to pushing you away. Especially when I lost my job. The question now, is can we fix it?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t think so. Especially with this Summer situation hanging over my head.”
“When it goes away because it will, can we try again?”
I looked at Joel just as my phone started to ring.
It was Blake.
“I don’t think so, Joel. I’m not even sure that I want to.”
I let Blake’s call go to the voicemail, but he started to call again.
Considering all that Joel had just said, I didn’t want to be rude and answer the phone, but with the sudden knock on the door, it didn’t matter anyway.
“Blake?”
“I need to talk to you.”
Joel stood behind me, and I could feel that he wasn’t too fond of Blake popping up.
Blake spoke, but Joel didn’t.
I walked outside, and Joel just stood in the doorway as I headed with Blake towards the end of the driveway.
