Thread of Truth, стр. 39
“Dad,” Olivia said, exasperated.
“I tried to tell you,” he said, ignoring her. “From the get go, I tried to tell you. I knew he was a liar and I knew he was lying to all of us. I warned you, Olivia. Multiple times. And I was right.”
“Congratulations,” she said bitterly, shaking her head. “You win.”
“If you'd just listened to me,” he continued. “I begged you to listen to me. If you'd just stopped for a second and trusted me—”
“Well, I didn't,” she said, sharply. “I didn't. And I can't change that. And don't act like this is the only thing he was. I gave you plenty of examples of Desmond being good, but you ignored them.”
The room went quiet. I wasn't sure that moment was the right time for Bill Cousins to make his point about having been right. I felt like he might've been missing the bigger point.
And the bigger question.
He looked at me. “I still don’t see what you have to do with any of this.”
“When I found out about the relationship, I went to speak to the teacher,” I told him. “She confessed to me what happened. And she told me she'd had a confrontation with your daughter. I wanted to talk to Olivia about that confrontation.”
“Certainly, you can understand why Olivia would've been upset,” he said.
“Of course,” I said. “But I also wanted to talk to her about what happened after the confrontation. Because that's when Desmond disappeared, and I'm fairly certain the timeline will show that's when he was hit and run off the road.”
Bill started to say something, then abruptly stopped. He looked at his daughter, confused. Something flashed through his expression. He looked at me again. “You think she did it?”
“I think she was angry,” I said. “I think she was hurt by what she'd learned and I think she'd just had one heck of an argument with the teacher. I think she might not have been thinking straight.”
He looked ready to argue back, then looked down at the floor for a moment. He cleared his throat and turned his attention to his daughter. “Did you do anything to Desmond?”
“How can you even ask me that?” she asked. “No, I didn't do anything to him. I was super mad at him. I was crushed. But if I was going to hurt anyone, it was going to be Gonzowski.”
“Gonzowski?”
“The teacher,” I clarified.
He nodded. “Right.” He shook his head, annoyed. “Well, you have my daughter's answer. She didn't hurt Desmond and, frankly, I'm offended that you brought it up.”
“She's going to need to account for where she was,” I told him. “The police are going to have questions.”
“The police?” he said, the look of annoyance growing. “What do the police want with her?”
“I'm required to report what I learned about Desmond and his teacher,” I explained. “This adds a different dimension to what happened to him. Prior to today, I think we all thought he was the victim of an accident. And maybe he was. But this is going to raise some other questions and the investigators are going have questions for her.”
“That's absurd,” he said, anger rising in his voice. “She didn't do anything to him.”
“And she'll get the opportunity to explain that to investigators,” I said. “I'm just telling you what's going to happen. They are going to come talk to you all. I can't help that.”
“You could if you didn't say anything,” Olivia said.
“I can't do that,” I told her. “I'm obligated to report what I know now. I can't walk that back.”
“Is Olivia going to be a suspect?” Bill Cousins asked.
“I don't want to assume anything,” I told him.
“What about the teacher?” he demanded. “Shouldn't that woman be investigated?”
“I'm sure she will be,” I said. “I don't mean that it'll just be Olivia. They will be talking to her about the relationship that existed and about his accident.”
“This is bullshit,” he muttered. “I can't believe you're bringing this into my home.”
I was inclined to stand there and tell him that if his daughter had been honest with me – and him – from the beginning, none of this would've been a surprise. She'd made the choice to not tell us about Desmond and their argument. I couldn't help that, and I couldn't help that I knew about it.
But I knew he was protecting his daughter and I didn't think arguing with him would change anything.
“I'll go,” I told him.
“Good,” he said.
“No one's going anywhere,” a voice said behind us.
We all turned and all I saw was the barrel of a gun.
THIRTY FOUR
“Mom, what are you doing?” Olivia asked.
Sharon Cousins was standing in the hallway, a small handgun pointed at me. She wore a navy blue tracksuit and running shoes that were decidedly at odds with the weapon in her hands.
“And where is Thomas?” Olivia asked, her voice laced with panic. “You took him for a walk. Where is he?”
“He's fine,” Sharon said. “He's in his stroller back here at the door. He's just fine.”
“Sharon, what are you doing?” Bill asked. “And what are you doing with a gun?”
“Protecting this family,” she said. “Like usual.” She motioned at me. “Go sit down.”
I moved slowly, but kept my eyes on her as I sat on the edge of the couch.
“Sharon, put that away.” Bill sounded more annoyed than afraid. “You look like a crazy person.”
“Do I?” she asked. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You really do.”
She stepped around him, keeping the gun trained on me. “I'm not that crazy. And I'm not going to allow anyone to ruin this family. Not Mr. Tyler or anyone else.”
I looked at her, thinking through everything I'd learned in the preceding days, and it all clicked into place. “It was you.”
“Sharon,” her husband barked. “What the hell are you doing? Put that gun down. Where the hell did you even get a gun?”
“You ran him down,” I said. “You ran Desmond down. It wasn't an accident. It was you.”
Sharon Cousins eyed me, but didn't say anything.
“Mom?” Olivia