Strangers In Death

“Lieutenant, Lieutenant, give her a chance. Give her a minute. Help us understand,” Baxter said to Suza

“I didn’t think it was going to be real!” Suza

“Spit it out,” Eve snapped. “Who said you had to what?”

Suza

21

EVE STEPPED OUT TO CALL CHER REO, AND TO give Baxter a few moments to help Suza

After finishing her conversation, Eve tucked her ’link back in her pocket, took the tube. “Thanks. PA’s willing to deal for the bigger fish. Ava’s a much bigger fish. A big, splashy one.”

“And Suza

“The choice was there; she made it.” Eve drank. “But I’m willing to deal, too.”

“I’ll be watching the rest. When she gets a lawyer, there will be a demand for a psychiatric evaluation.”

“She can have her head shrunk by a platoon of doctors, after I get my confession. And yeah, I’m perfectly aware I’m using her, too. I’ve got no problem with that.”

“You shouldn’t have, but-”

“She’s soft,” Eve interrupted. “That’s what you’re seeing, and you’ve got some sympathy for her. Go ahead. But I see Thomas Aurelious Anders.”

With a nod, Mira went back into Observation.

Eve stepped back into Interview. “Lieutenant Dallas reentering Interview,” she said for the record. “Here’s the deal, Suza

“Yes, I’m listening.”

“The PA will drop the charges down from one count of Murder One, one count of Conspiracy to Murder to one count of Murder Two. That keeps you on-planet, with visitation access to your kids.”

Tears dripped, as if Suza

“Fifteen to twenty.”

“Fifteen. Oh God. God. They’ll be grown.”

“You’ll be eligible for parole in seven,” Baxter told her.

“If you don’t cooperate, if this goes to trial, the charges bounce back. You’re looking at the probability of two life sentences, ru

“My kids. I…I have a sister. Can my kids go to my sister?”

“I’ll look into that. Personally.” Baxter nodded. “I’ll talk to your sister, to Child Services.”

“They’ll be better off with her. I should’ve taken them and gone to my sister years ago.” She swiped at the tears with the tissues Baxter gave her. “Everything would be different if I’d done that. But I didn’t. I thought, Ned’s their father and they should be with their father. I thought, I’m his wife, and I’m supposed to make the home. If I did better, everything would work out. But I didn’t do better, and it just got worse and worse. And then…”

“You met Ava Anders,” Eve prompted.

“Yes.” Suza

“You talked to Ava about that?” Baxter asked.

“What? No…Before, we talked before. Months ago. Just before the kids went back to school. When they were at camp and I went to the retreat, the end of August. God, Ned was so angry that I went, but it was good to be there. To have that time away. We’d talked before-Ava, I mean.”

Taking the cup of water, she sipped, paused, sipped again. “She was so nice to me. She’d sit with me late at night and talk and talk. She understood how hard it was with Ned that way because her husband hurt her, too. She never told anyone but me. He hurt her, and he made her do things. And he did things with girls-girls who were too young to be hurt that way.

“Everyone thinks he was so good.” Tears streamed out of Suza

“That’s what she told you?”

“She was afraid of him. I know what that’s like. We cried together. She couldn’t stand what he was doing to her, and more, to the children. She said he and Ned were alike. One day, Ned would hurt my babies. One day he could…with Maizie.”

She closed her eyes, shuddered. “He’d never-he’d never touched Maizie like that, but he hit the kids sometimes. When they were bad, or when he’d had too much to drink. I thought, what would I do if he tried to do to Maizie what Mr. Anders did with young girls? I said, I think I said, I’d kill him if he touched her that way.”

Her voice cracked, and began to waver and jump as she continued. “It would be too late then, Ava said, like she was afraid it was too late for her. She said she’d help me. We could help each other. We didn’t have to live like this anymore, or risk the children.”

Suza

“Stop?” Eve qualified.

Her shoulders hunched, Suza

She heaved a breath, looked up at Eve again. “She said stop, not kill. I knew what she meant, I did, but it seemed right when she said it. She’d stop Ned before he hurt my children, stop him from hurting me. And then, we’d wait again, two or three months, and I’d stop Mr. Anders.”

“Did she tell you how you’d stop him?”

Suza

“She said she thought she knew a way, so it would look like an accident. And so when they found him they’d know the kind of man he was. She knew I was strong, deep down, and good, a good mother, a good friend. She knew I’d save her, and she’d save me and my kids. We gave each other our word. We recorded it.”

“Recorded?”

“She had a recorder, and we each recorded our intention, our promise. I said my name and that I promised on the lives of my children to kill the monster Thomas A. Anders. That I would kill him with my own hands, and in a way that was symbolic and just. She said the same, except Ned’s name, and she swore on the lives of all the children of the world.”

“Dramatic.”

Little spots of color bloomed on Suza

“What did she do with the recording?”

“She said she was going to put it in a bank box. For safety. After we stopped Ned and Mr. Anders, we’d destroy it together. We didn’t talk much after that. Not for a while. She’s very busy. And when I got home, and everything was the way it is at home, I thought, none of that was real. It was just like a session. Or maybe I wanted to think that.”