33. Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Two
Laura
I had trouble sleeping last night after hearing Natalie's confession. That she was the one responsible for Allie's disappearance. I didn't ask for any details because the less I know, the better. And Natalie did it for me. Because we're friends.
I can't rat out my best friend. As it turns out, Natalie is my only friend, just like I'm hers. I've officially lost Jax, and I know Allie will never allow me back into their little group. I'm out of all of their lives forever.
A familiar pounding on the front door had me groaning, and I answered it, telling the detectives I had nothing to say without a lawyer. They told me that was fine, read me my rights, had me turn around, and they slapped cuffs on me. The words, "You're under arrest for the assault and kidnapping of Allison Bennett" repeating in my head over and over again.
So, here I sit in an interrogation room next to a man in an ill-fitting suit, and I know he's a court-appointed lawyer. I never actually retained one after our last conversation, but I wish I had now .
"You're crazy," I say as Shields and Parsons sit down across from me. Shields with her hair tied up in a tight bun and Parsons with his fart-smelling face plastered on. "I never touched Allie."
"Walk us through what happened the night she was taken, Laura. What happened when you left the bar?" Parsons says.
How many times do I need to answer this question for them? I roll my eyes and rest my arms on the table, the cuffs still on. "I left before Allie was supposed to arrive, and I went home. I wanted to be alone as I cried because I knew that she'd say yes when he asked her to marry him. That he'd no longer be mine."
"He was never yours, Laura," Shields says.
"You know what I mean," I snap at her.
"Did you happen to run into Allie on your way home?"
The lawyer I don't know the name of nods at me. I sigh and shake my head. "No, I did not."
"Maybe you were leaving to go home and saw Allie walking to her Jeep. You wanted to say something to her, but Allie said something mean that set you off. You were already emotional, it was raining, and it was a perfect combination of events. Her words with everything else instigated the violence, and you hit her," Shields says. "Then, when you thought you'd really hurt her, maybe even killed her, you panicked knowing how much trouble you'd be in. She saw you, so you couldn't just leave her in case she wasn't dead, so you loaded her up in the back of her Jeep and drove her to an abandoned house where you kept her locked up in the basement."
Parsons nods. "That would give you the perfect opportunity to have Jax all to yourself."
"Simply getting rid of Allie didn't give me Jax, you moron," I snap. "In fact, it took five years before he even considered asking me out. That's a lot of time and effort to put into trying to get a man. Injure and kidnap his girlfriend to lock away in a basement while spending years trying to get him to notice me. Yes, that sounds like something a totally sane person would do."
"That's assuming we believe you're completely sane."
The man gets under my skin, and Shields jumps in before I can tell him where to shove his assumptions.
"You've been in love with Jax since you were a kid, right? Aged twelve, maybe thirteen? You spent more time watching him in love with Allie than it took you to convince him to date you."
"Have you even considered the fact Allie's pulling one over on all of us? That she's faking all of this? That she did it to herself?"
"And why would she do that?" Parsons asks.
Everyone keeps asking me this when it's pretty fucking obvious. "To get his attention. To get attention in general," I say. "She and Jax weren't as happy as they wanted us to believe, and I heard Allie was at risk of losing her job. That, combined with relationship problems creates a pretty decent reason to want to disappear."
Tilting his head, Parsons narrows his eyes at me. "If they were having such problems, why would Jax go to such a big effort to propose to her? If you truly thought they weren't that happy, that she might need to get his attention, you'd have no reason to go home and cry yourself to sleep. They wouldn't make it down the aisle just like you didn't."
This asshole.
"And unhappy people don't typically plan over-the-top romantic gestures," Shields adds.
"Just because Jax was proposing doesn't mean Allie was happy. The rumors were that she was about to lose her job because she slept with her boss. Her married boss. And when he refused to leave his wife for her, she threatened to tell HR about the affair. She was going to tell them he abused his power."
He sighs. "If she wasn't happy, why were you so sure she'd say yes when he proposed?"
"Have you ever had a room full of people expecting you to say yes? Of course, she was going to say yes in the moment."
Looking in the folder in front of her, Shields shakes her head. "Allie's boss was female. There's also no indication Allie was at risk of losing her job. In fact, she was shortlisted for an upcoming promotion. Everyone at the company gave extremely high praises about her. The bank even offered up a reward for any information leading us to find Allie."
Frustrated, I slap my hands on the table. "Of course, they'll sing high praises of her after she's gone missing. Who's going to say someone was a raging bitch when they’ve just disappeared off the face of the earth, especially in the company parking lot? Come on, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out."
"You don't watch a lot of police dramas, do you?" Parsons asks.
"No, I'm more of a Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs fan," I say with a sneer.
Shield and Parsons exchange a glance as she says, "Well, that's interesting."
"Why is that interesting?" I ask.
"If you did watch police dramas," Parsons says, ignoring me, "you'd realize that nothing stays hidden in a police investigation. Nothing."
"When Allie hit her head on the parking curb from the lot behind the bank, she left blood evidence. Concrete is extremely porous, and even with the rain and the amount of time that has passed, there were traces of her DNA left there. The same person who forced her to slam her head into the concrete block had some medical training to tend to her wound in the basement she was locked in. Not a professional doctor, but someone who knows some about the medical field," Shields says.
Looking through his own folder, Parsons glances up at me. "You're a certified nurse's assistant, aren't you? You have first aid training? Basic medical training?"
"I think it's time we end this interview," my lawyer says.
"Finally," I say, leaning back in my chair.
No way is Allie going to pin this on me. I had nothing to do with it, and they’ll figure it out soon enough. If not, I might have to share what I know about Natalie. Assuming she doesn’t show up and confess to save me soon.