Brian Freeman - In the Dark aka The Watcher

“What, does that shock you? I’m sorry. Laura never wanted to see me as a lost cause, either. She was the only one who ever tried to help me.”

“I wish you wouldn’t talk like this.”

“Hey, at least I’m not blaming anyone but myself anymore. For years, I blamed my mother. Even after Rikke and I got out of North Dakota, I figured that I was who I was because of what my mother did to us. That didn’t change anything, though, so I started blaming Rikke. It was all her fault that I couldn’t stand on my own two feet. I even moved away for a few years. But after another stint in rehab down in the Cities, I realized the only person that fucked me up was me. So I came back here. Nothing changed.”

“How is Rikke?” Tish asked.

Finn downed the last of his beer. He was wobbly. He leaned forward and pressed his face against the glass window of the boat. They were in the ship canal now, heading back toward the harbor. The bridge was up, and Finn bent his neck back to look at the span suspended above them.

“She’s like me. Bitter.”

“Is she still teaching?”

Finn swung his head back and forth. “She left the schools years ago. She was fired for having an affair with a student. These days, you do that, you go to jail. Back then, they just swept that kind of thing under the carpet.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not. Laura liked Rikke, but you didn’t.”

Inside the harbor, Tish felt the wavy rocking of the boat diminish. She saw the ribbon of land on the Point and thought about Stride and Serena living there. Ahead of them, she saw the towers of grain elevators and the giant docks for the ore boats. They looked darker and larger in the evening gloom.

“Why did you want to see me, Finn?” Tish asked.

He shrugged. “I think about the old days a lot.”

“Sometimes I wish I could forget them.”

“I’ve forgotten way too much already. I’ve had blackouts all my life. Big gaps where nothing’s left. Maybe it’s better that way.”

Tish said nothing.

“I hear you’re writing a book about Laura’s death,” Finn continued.

“That’s right.”

“Why would you want to do something like that?” he asked.

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, why dig up the past? Wasn’t it bad enough as it is?”

“I guess I felt like I owed it to Laura,” Tish said.

Finn’s hands twitched. He eyed the bar, but he stayed on the bench. “You know I was in love with Laura back then.”

“No, she never told me,” Tish murmured.

“That’s okay. I knew she didn’t feel the same way. I never told her how I felt, because I didn’t want to hear her say it. But like I said, she was the only person who ever gave a shit about me. Other than Rikke.”

Finn put his hands on top of his skull and squeezed. He closed his eyes and opened them, blinking rapidly.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. As okay as I’ll ever be.” He added, “What happened between you two?”

“What do you mean?”

“That May, Laura hung out with me a lot. You weren’t around. She was really upset that you were gone. She needed someone.”

“Things happen between friends,” Tish said.

Finn nodded. “Do you feel guilty for leaving her behind? I mean, maybe if you’d stayed, she’d still be alive.”

Tish felt as if she’d been struck. She opened her mouth to deny it, but she couldn’t. “Yes, I think about that.”

“Me, too. I wanted to be the one to save her. Instead, look how it turned out.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“No?” He hesitated. “Listen, there’s something I need to tell you. There are some things I need to get off my chest.”

“About what?”

“Laura’s murder.”

Tish held her breath. “What is it?”

“A lot of it is missing, you know? Gone. I only remember bits and pieces. I was high, out of my mind, like usual. I just thought, maybe this would help you.”

“What are you saying?”

“I was in the park that night,” Finn told her. “The night Laura was killed.”

Tish’s hands clenched into fists. “What did you see? Did you see who killed her?”

“No.”

“Why were you there?” Tish asked.

“When I saw Laura and her sister in the park, I began following them. I was watching them down by the lake.”

Marijuana, Tish thought. “Why follow Laura?”

“Because I loved her. I told you.”

“Were you stalking Laura? Did you send her those letters?”

“What letters? What are you talking about?”

She looked for guile in his face and didn’t see any. “Never mind, what did you see that night?”

“I saw her leave her sister and her boyfriend by the lake. I followed her along the trail until she got back to the softball field.”

“Then what?”

“Someone attacked her in the field.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. It was too dark. I couldn’t see him. All I could see was the guy jumping her, pushing her to the ground. She screamed.”

“What did you do?”

Finn stared at his feet. “Nothing.”

“My God, Finn, how could you? You just let it happen?”

“I thought about shouting for help, but I didn’t want anyone to know I was there. Anyway, it didn’t matter.”

“What do you mean?”

“While I was watching, I heard someone behind me. Someone came running when Laura screamed. I ducked into the woods, and this guy ran out into the clearing. It was a big black guy. I didn’t know who he was.”

“What did he do?”

“He saved her.”

“How?”

“He picked up a baseball bat in the field and swung it into the guy’s back. Then he pulled the guy off Laura and beat the crap out of him. Laura ran the opposite way, into the woods, toward the north beach. You know, where they found her body.”

“What did the black guy do?”

“He followed her.”

“With the bat?”

Finn shook his head. “No. The bat was still lying in the field.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“I’m sure. I saw the black guy throw it away.”

“Then what?”

“Then nothing. I don’t remember any more.”

“Did you go home?”

“I told you, I don’t remember,” Finn snapped.

“This is important,” Tish said. “You have to think.”

Finn’s face twitched. “Don’t you think I want to remember? After that, it’s all black. I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember anything at all.”

Stride watched the face of the county attorney, Pat Burns, as Tish recounted Finn’s story. Her brown eyes were intense and focused behind her half-glasses, but he couldn’t see belief, disbelief, surprise, or worry. When Tish was done, Pat reclined in her swivel chair behind her desk and slid the end of her glasses between her teeth. She considered Tish without saying a word.

“You’re a writer, Ms. Verdure,” Pat said. “What’s your interpretation of what Finn told you?”

Tish glanced at Stride, who was seated beside her in front of Pat’s desk. “I think this changes everything,” she said.

“How so?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious? The whole theory behind Dada committing the crime was that his fingerprints were on the bat. Now we know why. It wasn’t that he attacked Laura, it was that he rescued her by fighting off Peter Stanhope. Peter was trying to rape her. They weren’t dating. There was no secret meeting planned. He assaulted her, and then this black man Dada broke it up.”

“According to Finn, Dada was the one who followed Laura toward the beach where her body was found,” Pat pointed out.

“Yes, but without the bat. That’s important.”

Pat nodded. “Isn’t it odd that he would remember a detail like that so clearly?”