Floating Staircase

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Adam dropped me off that evening. Weakened, spiritually fatigued, I entered the house with no greater designs other than to crawl beneath the stream of a warm shower and wash the tiredness from my marrow.

Jodie was standing at the foot of the stairs, half-cloaked in shadow.

The look on her face immediately froze my blood. “What?”

“I think . . .” She looked around—a blind child suddenly given the gift of sight. “I think . . . someone was in the house.”

“What are you talking about? Were you asleep?”

“Yes. But noises woke me. Thumping noises. Like an animal in the attic or trapped behind the wall. I got out of bed to see what it was. I thought maybe you’d come home and I hadn’t heard the front door. So I called your name.” I watched as a chill zigzagged through her. “Oh, Jesus.”

“What? Jodie . . .”

“I called your name, and then I heard someone run across the living room and slam the front door.”

“Babe.” I went to her, embraced her. “You were dreaming.”

“No. I was awake.”

“There’s no one here. I just unlocked the door now. It was locked.”

“Are you sure?”

“I swear it.”

“Jesus.” She laughed nervously against my collarbone. “Oh, Jesus.”

In the morning, Adam showed up with a document for me to sign. It looked very official and said Consent to Search at the top. “Strohman wants your permission for us to dig up your lawn once the ground thaws a bit.”

“He thinks Elijah’s buried in the yard?”

“He thinks if David Dentman could brainwash his sister so easily to lie to the police the first time, what’s to say any of what was said last night was the truth.”

“Are you serious?”

He handed me the consent form and a pen. It was serious, all right.

“They’ve both been charged.”

“With lying to the cops?”

“With murder,” Adam said. “David’s still at the station. He’s being charged as an accessory. Veronica’s being shipped to a hospital over in Cumberland this afternoon. She’s been practically catatonic all night.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“What is it? You look sick.”

Truth was, I felt sick. “It feels wrong.”

Taking the signed form from me, Adam folded it in halves, then slipped it into the back pocket of his chinos. “Vindication’s a little harsher than you’d hoped, huh?” He went to the door.

“Hey, you really think they’re going to find the body buried in the yard?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Adam said and left.

I called Earl and told him everything I knew. He would be the first to break the story.

“What do you do now?” he asked me after I’d given him all I had.

“Nothing,” I told him. “My part in this is over.”