Brian Freeman - Spilled Blood

‘I could really go for a Juicy Lucy,’ she said.

He didn’t say anything. Olivia was in jail, and she was talking about cheeseburgers like she needed a new Facebook status. He wondered if she didn’t realize the gravity of her situation or if she was simply stalling. He also thought: She texted me on Saturday. That was the day after the murder.

‘Why didn’t you say anything?’ he asked.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You texted me on Saturday to ask what I was doing that night. Ashlynn was dead. You’d just been through one of the worst nights of your life, and you didn’t say a word about it, Olivia. Why not?’

Her lower lip quivered. ‘I don’t know, Dad. I couldn’t believe it was real, you know?’

‘Your mother says you wouldn’t tell her what happened.’

‘I couldn’t. I can’t deal with Mom right now. It’s easier to talk to you.’

Or maybe it was easier to lie to him. He put that thought out of his mind.

‘Okay,’ he told her softly. ‘Here I am. Let’s talk.’

Olivia sat frozen. Words didn’t pour out of her.

‘I don’t know what to say, Dad,’ she told him finally. ‘I don’t know what happened.’

He was afraid she would give him an excuse. An apology. A plea for forgiveness. It was an accident. The gun went off. I didn’t mean it. He waited for her to go on, but she didn’t.

‘Just tell me what you know,’ he said.

‘What’s the point? No one will believe me.’

‘Not true. I’ll believe you.’

Olivia swung her head, and he saw those dark, pretty, mysterious eyes again. ‘I’m not so sure, Dad. You’re already scared of what I’m going to say, aren’t you? That’s why you haven’t asked me the Big One. Whether I did it. Whether I killed her. You think I’m going to say yes.’

She was good. Chris had sat across the table from dealmakers who spent their whole careers perfecting their skills at psychological warfare. These were lawyers who conducted opposition research like politicians, knowing what buttons to push, figuring out every weakness they could exploit. He’d built a suit of armor for those confrontations that had never failed him, but against this teenager, he was defenseless. She saw through him as if his heart were opened up on an autopsy table.

‘Lawyers don’t usually ask their clients whether they did it,’ he said. ‘That’s not how it works.’

‘Because you assume I’m guilty, right?’

‘No, because I assume you’re innocent.’

His daughter pushed back her chair, stood up, and folded her arms. ‘If I did it, what difference does any of this make? They should just lock me up.’

‘It makes a big difference,’ Chris explained. ‘You’re sixteen years old. You were drinking. You were mourning the loss of your best friend. There are a lot of mitigating circumstances. If a jury understands what was really going on, they may conclude you weren’t responsible for your actions.’

‘If I killed her, I’m responsible.’

‘Not necessarily. Not legally.’

Olivia stared at the ceiling, as if to hide that her eyes were filling with tears. She shook her head in despair. ‘See? You think I’m guilty, too.’

‘I didn’t say that at all.’

She looked at him, bereft. ‘Don’t you get it? I don’t want a lawyer to play games for me. I want a father who cares whether I did this.’

‘I do care, Olivia. I just want you to understand that nothing you tell me will change how I feel about you. No matter what you say, I’m here to help you.’

‘Ask me,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘ Ask me ,’ she repeated, her voice breaking. ‘Please.’

She needed to tell him, and he realized that he needed to hear it. He got up and put his hands on her shoulders. ‘Olivia, did you do this? Did you shoot that girl?’

She sucked in a long, loud breath. ‘ No. ’

As if she assumed he would doubt her, as if she thought he would wonder in his heart if she were lying, she wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve and repeated herself calmly, so he could hear every word. ‘I didn’t do this. I swear to you. I didn’t. You have to believe me.’

She cried again and threw her arms around his waist. It didn’t matter what he knew or didn’t know about the girl in his arms. He knew one thing. She was his daughter, and she was innocent.

‘Tell me what happened.’

Chris had his briefcase open and a fresh yellow pad in front of him. He’d given Olivia a tissue and asked the police officer outside for a bottle of water, which she sipped in small swallows. She’d composed herself, and when she spoke, he was reminded of how intelligent and passionate she was. Physically, she looked like him. Emotionally, she was Hannah’s child.

‘Tanya and I met at the ghost town on Friday night,’ she said. ‘She drove from her dad’s house in Barron, I drove from St. Croix. The ruins are west of both towns, maybe five miles out. It must have been about ten o’clock when we got there.’

‘Hannah says you used to go there with Kimberly.’

Olivia stared at the wall as if seeing a ghost. Her grief over her friend was near the surface. ‘Yeah.’

‘I know it was the anniversary of her death,’ he said.

‘I know you two were close.’

‘I’m not sure you really do, Dad.’

‘Okay, tell me.’

A tiny frown sprouted on her face. ‘Look, it sucked when Mom and I left three years ago. Right? Sucked big-time.’

‘I’m sorry. It sucked for me, too, kiddo.’

‘I was pissed at Mom. I was pissed at you. I hated this place. I wanted to get out. If I hadn’t met Kimberly, I don’t know what I would have done. I mean, I was thinking some bad things, Dad. She saved me.’

He hated to think of his daughter feeling like an outcast. ‘I’m glad you found her,’ he said. He added softly, ‘Had she already been diagnosed with leukemia?’

Olivia struggled with her emotions. ‘Yeah, she was going through chemo. She was sure she was going to beat it, even though three other kids had already died. It was really awful, Dad.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘Kimberly sort of became my mission, you know? Mom says I have to have missions, like her.’

He smiled again. ‘I know.’

‘Anyway, the first few months, when she still had the energy to go out, we did a lot of exploring. The ghost town was one of her favorite places. She loved how creepy it was, all the ruined buildings. She said she heard the echoes of the people who lived there, especially at night. That’s what she called them. Echoes. I think that made her feel better, you know? She liked the idea of ghosts and hauntings and stuff like that.’

‘Okay.’

‘Tanya hung out with us, too,’ Olivia went on. ‘Mostly, it was me and Kimberly, because we lived so close to each other, but Tanya was over at the church a lot in those days. Her dad was filing the lawsuit, and Kimberly’s dad was one of the plaintiffs. Tanya hooked up with the two of us.’

Chris waited.

‘When Kimberly died—’ Olivia continued, but then she stopped. She wiped her eyes again. ‘I go back there sometimes. Like maybe I’ll hear the echoes, you know?’

Chris covered her hand with his own. ‘I get it.’

‘It’s stupid.’

‘No, it’s not.’ He understood her state of mind that night, but he was afraid that a jury might think a girl in that fragile state of mind would take revenge when it was offered to her. ‘How about we go back to Friday night, okay? What did you do?’

‘Not much,’ she said. ‘We dug inside a couple of the old buildings. We walked along the railroad tracks.’

‘Did you see anyone else?’

‘No, it was just the two of us.’