Bledsoe adds reassuringly, “We’re doing everything humanly possible to find Avery. We’d like you to come down to the station with us, if that’s all right.”
“What?” Erin says, her stomach curdling.
Bledsoe doesn’t answer, just steps back so that they can follow Gully to the elevators. But Erin doesn’t move.
“Why did you tell the press our house was a crime scene?” she asks.
“We didn’t tell them anything,” Bledsoe answers. “They draw their own conclusions.”
* * *
? ? ?
William grabs a muffin and take-out coffee in the almost empty hotel dining room, and coaxes Erin to do the same. Michael gets a muffin and a carton of juice. None of them are enthusiastic about eating, though, and the muffins remain in the paper bag. The uniformed officer who spent the night outside their door has been sent home. Soon William finds himself with his wife and son in the police station downtown. He’s never been inside the police station before, never been inside any police station, for anything. This one needs paint and smells of sweat and stale coffee.
Gully and Bledsoe lead the Woolers behind the reception area and down a hall to another, smaller waiting area. Here, William and Erin are told they will be taken into different interview rooms, while Michael waits. He will be interviewed later, with a parent present.
William starts to feel afraid. His heart begins to pound. He can see a similar fear in his wife’s eyes, the anxiety and confusion in his son’s. His wife is guilty of nothing. She could never harm their daughter—surely they will see that. William looks back over his shoulder at his son and sees his troubled face as his parents are led away.
The interview room is small and plain, with a metal table and four chairs. He sits down on one side, Bledsoe and Gully sit side by side on the other. William wonders if he should ask for a lawyer. But he’s worried about how that will look.
“We won’t be long,” Bledsoe says. “This is purely voluntary, just to cover all the bases. You can leave at any time.”
William isn’t sure he believes him. “Sure, anything I can do to help. I just want you to find Avery.”
Bledsoe nods. He sits back in his chair, relaxed. “We’d like to get some basic things out of the way. For instance, if you could tell us where you were yesterday afternoon, before you arrived at home at five forty. It seems you weren’t at your medical practice, or at the hospital, from about two o’clock on.”
So they’ve already checked. He tries to keep his voice steady. “No, I wasn’t.”
“So where were you?” Bledsoe asks.
He’s already thought about this. He’s been thinking about it all night. He knew they would ask. He could tell them about the affair and not give them Nora’s name. He could. But he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want Erin to know, not right now, not like this. But then he wonders if they’ve already found his other phone. He keeps it hidden in his car, an Infiniti G37 sedan. His car is in their garage. They must have searched it last night when they searched the house. But one of the reasons he recently bought that car is that it has a secret compartment in the rear-seat armrest. Do they know about that? Is it possible that they missed it? The room is too warm, and he feels himself beginning to sweat. They are looking at him, waiting for him to answer. He says, “I just needed to get out. I didn’t have any appointments and I didn’t feel like facing my paperwork.”
“Where did you go?”
“I went for a drive. I drove north along the river, stopped at a viewing point for a while. I just wanted to think.”
“What did you want to think about?”
Shit. “Nothing in particular.” He adds, “You know, life.”
“How’s your marriage?” Bledsoe asks.
“It’s fine.”
“And if we ask your wife, she’ll say the same thing?”
William doesn’t know what his wife will say. “Look, what’s this got to do with my daughter?”
Bledsoe ignores him. “Your daughter is difficult.” He looks down at a file he has open on the table. “Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Behavioral problems.” He lifts his eyes. “That can’t be fun.”
William is getting angry now. “Yes, she can be challenging. We’ve been very up front about that. But it doesn’t mean we don’t love her. Of course we do.” He adds urgently, “We just want her back.”
“On this long drive,” Bledsoe continues, “did you stop in anywhere? Get a coffee? Buy something? Get gas? Can you give us something that can verify where you were?”
Now William realizes something. The motel could verify where he was. He didn’t use his own name, and he always paid cash. But the person on the front desk would certainly recognize him. She’ll recognize him as soon as his picture makes the front page, probably today. He feels a spike of adrenaline shoot through his veins. He realizes, too, that the motel staff won’t necessarily know what time he left, because he forgot, in the shock of Nora dumping him, to return the key on his way out. He’d thrown it away, after, into the river. He could say he left the motel when his wife called him. He and Nora always parked around back, so their cars weren’t visible from the motel office. The motel staff probably won’t know what time he left. Nora’s not going to say anything. He swallows, balances on the edge of a decision. “No, I don’t think so.”
“So, no one can verify where you were between three forty-five when your daughter left school and when you arrived home at five forty. Good to know.” Now he leans in. “Did you go home yesterday, Dr. Wooler? When your daughter was in the house?”
“No.” He summons all his internal strength and meets the detective’s eyes steadily. “I didn’t go home till Erin called me, around five twenty. I got there at five forty. The police were already there when I arrived.”
Bledsoe nods. “Okay. That’s all we need for now. Thank you.” He gets up. “If you don’t mind, you can remain here while we talk to your wife.”
Nine
Erin sits nervously in the interview room, waiting for Bledsoe and Gully. She doesn’t know how long she’ll be here. She’s frantic about her missing daughter, thinks all this is a waste of time. She’s worried about what the detectives think. She frets about Michael alone in the waiting room. He’s only twelve years old. This will damage him. It will damage all of them.
Finally, the door opens, and Bledsoe makes his way in, followed by Gully. Erin’s not so sure of Gully anymore.
“Let’s get started,” Bledsoe says, as he and Gully sit down across from her. He smiles at her. “This is purely voluntary. You can leave at any time.”
This is a surprise to Erin. It doesn’t feel that way. She wonders what they would do if she got up and left. Bledsoe has a file in his hand, which he places on the table. Erin wonders what’s in it. She wishes she knew what her husband said in his interview.
Bledsoe begins. “You said that you were at work when your son called your cell yesterday at four fifty-five p.m.”
So they are definitely suspects. She feels a mounting hysteria. Will they put their energies into finding Avery, or into trying to pin this on her and William? “Yes.”