Everyone Here Is Lying(81)

“Avery, we all know the basic outlines of what happened to you—you disappeared on Tuesday, October 12—just over a week ago. At first it was thought that you disappeared on your way home from school. Your parents declared you missing, and a massive manhunt was underway. Can you tell us what happened that day?”

Avery finds her voice. She starts slowly, but gains confidence as Casey nods encouragingly at her. She tells how her father found her in the kitchen.

“What happened when your father came home?” Casey asks gently.

“We had an argument, and he left,” Avery says. She glances briefly at her father, and she sees the relief on his face. He owes her one, she thinks. No one outside their family—except the police—knows he hits her. She tells how she went to a neighbor’s house, Marion Cooke’s, how she had considered Marion a friend, and how she woke up in the basement, locked in, unable to escape.

Casey looks at her sympathetically, shaking her head, her eyes like warm pools. “I can’t even imagine. What were you feeling when you found yourself a prisoner?”

“I was scared.”

Casey nods again. “Of course you were! It must have been so frightening.” Her voice is soothing, her expression one of concern. “Did she restrain you?”

Avery shakes her head. “No. But I was locked in, and I couldn’t get out.”

“Did she hurt you, physically?”

“Not really.”

Casey asks gently, “Did you know why she’d done this?”

“She told me.”

“What did she tell you?”

Avery feels quite comfortable now. “Marion was a nurse at the same hospital where my dad worked. He’s a doctor. She told me she was in love with him, but he was having an affair with Nora Blanchard. She was a volunteer at the hospital, and she’s Ryan’s mom. Marion wanted to hurt them both. So she locked me in her basement and told the police that she’d seen me get into Ryan Blanchard’s car.”

Casey looks back at her, shaking her head. “How awful. And you’re just an innocent victim in all this, an innocent child.”

Avery nods. “She was going to kill me.”

“What did you think about, for those four days, when you were trapped in that basement, alone, afraid for your life?”

“All I thought about was how to escape. But I couldn’t. She kept the door to the upstairs locked. The windows were barred. There was no way out.”

“And at what point did you realize—I’m sorry, Avery, this must be difficult—at what point did you realize that she meant to kill you?”

Avery pauses. It was when she realized that Marion had been locking the door, had gone behind her back about Ryan, and hadn’t admitted to the police she’d lied like she said she would. But she can’t say that. She thinks, unsure of what to say for a moment. “I knew all along,” Avery says. “Her plan wouldn’t work unless I was dead. She couldn’t let me go. I knew what she’d done, and why. She was afraid I would talk.” Avery’s voice has dropped almost to a whisper, and she puts on the pained expression that she’d practiced in front of the mirror.

Casey shakes her head as if in horror. “All I can say is, you are a very brave and resilient young lady, and I’m glad you’re sitting here with me today.” Her eyes seem to fill for a moment, as if she might spill a tear or two. She composes herself and asks, “Did she bring you food and water?”

“There was a bathroom downstairs with running water. And she brought me food.”

“You were trapped in that basement, with no idea what was going on outside those four walls, the massive search going on for you. What did you imagine was happening?”

“Oh, I knew. We watched the news together every night, so I knew what was going on.”

“You watched the news together? So you weren’t in the basement the whole time?” Casey looks back at her in obvious surprise.

Avery has made a mistake. She must fix it. “There was a television in the basement,” she explains. “Marion would come down and make me watch it. She wanted me to know what was going on—she wanted me to see how clever she was. I think she wanted someone to talk to about it, and she didn’t have anyone else she could tell.”

“I see,” Casey says slowly. “It must have been odd, since you were friends before, and then watching television together, knowing that she meant to kill you. It must have been confusing.”

“It was confusing. And terrifying.”

“Can you tell us about the day you escaped? What happened?”

Avery clears her throat. “She was bigger and stronger than me. I realized that the only way to escape was to take her by surprise. So I hid behind the door at the top of the stairs and waited for her to open it. And when she did, I pushed her down the stairs as hard as I could and ran.”

“That was good thinking,” Casey says.

Avery allows herself a small smile.

“Marion Cooke was, unfortunately, killed in that fall,” Casey says, “but thankfully you escaped, and you’re able to talk to us today.”

Avery watches Casey wrinkle her forehead, as if she’s confused about something.

“I’m just wondering about something. If you knew from the beginning that she meant to kill you, was there a reason you waited four days before pushing her down the stairs?”