Chapter 51
THE SHERIFF HAS TAKEN CUSTODY OF ALEX. HE COOPERATED BUT DEMANDED as they marched him across the field to the patrol car the right to call his lawyer ASAP. The sheriff, a short man with a wide chest, reassured him that he’d get his phone call.
Mary and I ride with Wyatt in his truck to the sheriff’s office to give our statements.
In the sunlight, the little town is neat and friendly.
Storefronts and diners are filled with people but not crowded.
Up here by the Canadian border, there isn’t the tourist trade like farther south near the coast. Mary’s town looks like a nice place to live.
And I can see why she chose to live here.
While we sit in the lobby waiting to be called back to talk to the deputies, I glance at my phone. My messages are a mile long. But I can’t deal with them now. And I know that the media attention is going to be brutal.
“Do you think I need a lawyer?” I ask Mary, who is sitting beside me.
She smiles and glances at Wyatt. “We’ve got the best lawyer in Maine right here,” she says.
Mary goes on to tell me that she and Wyatt have been a couple for more than twenty years.
He knows all of her secrets and has been asking her to marry him for the last nineteen years.
But she won’t until her part in covering up Carol’s death is dealt with.
He’s repeatedly told her that he will be with her every step of the way.
Mary grasps my hand. “I’ve got the courage now, Emma, to do what I should’ve done nearly thirty years ago.”
“You were so young and scared. Surely, the courts will take it easy on you.”
Wyatt leans forward, his gaze meets mine. “That’s what I’ve been telling her. In any case, we’ll finally get this off your chest, Nina. And I’ll be right there with you.” He drapes his arm around her shoulders, and I feel a sense of peace I haven’t felt since my mother died.
The news media is finally getting wind of what’s happened. And as the day has passed with us still at the sheriff’s office awaiting FBI agents, news vans have made their way here from towns all over the northeast.
Noah and I have been texting sporadically, enough to let him know that I’m safe. Now that I’ve given my statement, I walk to a corner of the small station and call him.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yes. Fine. You heard the whole story?” The news coverage has been nonstop.
I glance out at the parking lot, where reporters clamor for statements.
The sheriff told them that they’ll put together a press conference when they are able but no time soon.
That doesn’t stop the reporters from congregating, hoping for crumbs.
“I’ve seen what they’ve been reporting,” Noah says. “You made a mad dash to northern Maine. Alex followed and has been arrested. Oh, the police executed their search warrant this morning at Spencer House and apparently found damning evidence.”
“The boxes in the turret room? Alex would’ve removed them like he did the first time. He wouldn’t have left them there. He was tipped off about the search.”
“I don’t know what they found then. They won’t say. They can’t yet.”
“Have they reported on Nina?”
“The woman who helped you? What about her?”
Apparently not. “I’ll tell you when I see you. Do they know who helped me get out of the attic?”
“That whole thing hasn’t made the news yet, but I know who it was. I spoke to him, and the cops took him down to the station.”
“Who?”
“Jeffrey.”
I lean against the wall, let go a breath. “Wow. Really?”
“Yes. He apparently has a wealth of information about the Spencers. And he told the cops that it was Alex who pushed his grandmother down the cellar stairs three years ago because she knew too many of the family’s secrets.
Alex threatened Jeffrey to keep his mouth shut and he did, but when you showed up, Jeffrey plucked up some courage and was determined to not only help you but to bring Alex down. ”
I’m speechless. I wipe my nose with a crumpled tissue I found earlier in my jacket pocket. I’m so grateful.