The Truth About Her by Annie Taylor

Author:Annie Taylor [Taylor, Annie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Psychological, Suspense, Crime, Family Life, General, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9781405954594
Google: vCGrEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2023-07-19T23:00:00+00:00

32

Varma calls me into the station the next morning. I’ve been trying to eat my breakfast, stomach a twisted knot of anxiety, when I get the call. She offers to send someone to collect me, but the police station is a short walk from the Mermaid, so I tell her I’ll be there as soon as possible.

I’m grateful for the time spent outside, and the morning is cold and bright – the cloud finally lifted, the sun cracking its way through. It feels as though the world is opening up again, the hermetically sealed town returning to normal life, and my anxiety is soothed by this. But as soon as I walk through the doors of the station, the day suddenly dim again, I remember why I’m here.

Varma smiles thinly at me by way of greeting, and I follow her down the now familiar corridors, to her interview room of preference.

‘I need you to explain a few things to me, Callie,’ she says, when we’re all set up, names, date and time all stated, and the camera recording somewhere, invisible, watching. ‘The first is how Matthew Lowe’s hair got inside your rental car.’

I blink at her. My breath stops short in my chest.

‘What?’ I manage to croak out.

‘Strands of Matthew’s hair have been found in your rental car. We did a forensic search of your cabin and car yesterday. We got the results back this morning, and they’re a match.’

‘I – I don’t know,’ I say, lost and scrambling. I swallow, wishing I had some water, panic pushing at my breastbone, filling my lungs with cement. And then: ‘Wait. I … The first time I went to the Lowes’ house, I’d had too much to drink to drive home, so I left the car there. I didn’t go and pick it up until the next afternoon. Maybe he got in then. Messing around or something.’

Varma’s face creases. ‘Without the keys?’ she says.

‘Oh,’ I say, deflating immediately. ‘Sorry, I didn’t think of that. It’s the only explanation I have for you.’

‘It’s not an explanation at all, Callie.’

I stare at her, shaking my head, mirroring the shaking in my voice, in my limbs and hands, as I say, ‘You can’t think … I didn’t hurt Matthew. What reason could I possibly have to hurt him?’

‘Maybe you didn’t mean to hurt him,’ Varma says, and her voice is gentler now. It makes me cringe, the delicacy of the proposition, and it’s only then I notice the file sitting in front of her, because she flips it open and pulls papers out of it, turning them to face me, laying them out in chronological order. ‘I’d like you to explain these to me, Callie. If you don’t mind.’

And her voice is so gentle still, so full of pity it cracks me in two.

But I’ve already been cracked in two.

So, before she can say anything else, I look into her warm brown eyes – as full of gentle pity as her voice is – and say, ‘I think I need a lawyer.

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