Don't Believe It

by Charlie Donlea

  Grace smiled. “Probably. It’s common knowledge.”

  “Do you think Charlotte knows or not?”

  Grace turned from the mirror. “I don’t know, E. How would she know?”

  “Maybe Daniel told her.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “To be honest. To start their marriage off on the right foot.”

  “Telling your fiancée that you slept with her maid of honor is not getting off on the right foot. It’s self-sabotage, and Daniel is too smart for that.”

  “He’s not that smart,” Ellie said. “He came to your cottage to pledge his love to you two days before his wedding.”

  “He did not pledge his love to me.”

  “Then why did he come to your room?”

  Grace turned back to the mirror. “I’m not talking about this anymore.”

  Ellie took a sip of rum. She glanced quickly at Marshall, who was lost in his chessboard. “I thought this was supposed to be Daniel’s.” She held up a long pouch that had been resting on the bed.

  Grace walked over and took the pouch from Ellie. She untied the tassels and stared down at the lock that was inside, an ancient-looking thing given to her by her grandfather. Turning the bag over, she allowed the heavy lock to fall into her palm. Engraved on it were the names: Grace & Julian.

  She studied the lock now, thankful to have only fallen once to the urge of engraving the name of a high-school boyfriend onto it. One mistake was plenty. Any more and she would have ruined the lock.

  “No,” Grace finally said. “This lock is meant for Julian. I brought it to St. Lucia to show him how much he means to me. Daniel’s name was never meant to be on the lock. That whole thing was a mistake. A big, shitty mistake that’s thankfully in the past.”

  “Let’s hope it stays there. You know he still loves you.”

  Grace faked a laugh, glancing quickly again at Marshall. “Daniel does not love me.”

  “Have you seen how he looks at you? He could barely make eye contact at the pool yesterday. He’s still shy like he’s in high school trying to work up the courage to ask you to prom.”

  “That’s because Charlotte was around and he still feels guilty.”

  Grace took the lock and dropped it back into the satchel, cinching the cords and tying them off, before placing it on the dresser.

  “Sleeping with the groom and being the maid of honor is a delicate balancing act,” Ellie said.

  Grace smiled at Ellie. “Why are you being a bitch?”

  “I’m trying to protect you.”

  “Thank you. But it’s only a balancing act if Daniel and I were still involved.” Grace turned to the mirror and went back to her lashes. “And the subject is only delicate if someone starts talking. And I’m certainly finished discussing it.”

  Grace looked into the mirror and locked eyes with Ellie.

  “Just be careful, Gracie. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Hurt happened a long time ago. Everyone’s over it. Now get dressed, we’ve gotta go.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Tuesday, June 6, 2017

  ON TUESDAY MORNING, THE DAY AFTER SIDNEY VISITED THE SEBOLDS in Fayetteville, she and Derrick left the network headquarters in Midtown and cabbed to Bellevue Hospital. Inside, directions came from the information desk, and after two elevator rides and a quarter mile of fluorescent-lit hallways, they found the OB-GYN ward.

  “Sidney Ryan to see Dr. Reiser,” she said to the receptionist.

  “Through the doors and to your left.”

  Derrick lifted his camera and set it on his shoulder. He peered through the viewfinder and adjusted for the bright lighting on the obstetrics ward. After a moment, he put his thumb and index finger together to give Sidney the okay sign as the automatic glass doors opened.

  A brief perusing of Grace’s visitors over the years showed only a couple of nonrelatives that had consistently made the trip to Bordelais Correctional Facility in St. Lucia: Ellie Reiser was one of them. As Sidney knocked on the door frame, Dr. Reiser was already moving across the office to greet her. With a broad smile, she shook hands with Sidney as Derrick backed into the corner of the office to capture the meeting. Heels pushed her to nearly six feet tall. Dressed in a chic, slim-fitted dress, Ellie Reiser looked more like a model than a surgeon. But Sidney knew well the preparation people took when they were about to be recorded.

  “Thanks for meeting with me,” Sidney said.

  “Of course. When Grace told me you finally contacted her, we were elated.”

  “I received your letters,” Sidney said. “I read all of them.”

  Over the years, Ellie Reiser had been nearly as persistent as Grace with letters and e-mails asking for Sidney’s help.

  “I’m sure you’re swamped with requests,” Ellie said. “I’m just grateful Grace’s story will finally be told. So much of what’s out there was distorted during her trial.”

  “We’re going to work to clear that up,” Sidney said. “Derrick will record while we talk. You’ll get used to the camera. Just ignore it the best you can.”

  Ellie pointed to the desk and they both sat down. Derrick moved into position.

  “How much of what we discuss will be used?”

  “As much as is relevant,” Sidney said. “But I’ll let you know what I think we’ll use before I cut the episode. All I need is for you to answer the questions honestly. I know we’re talking about events from ten years ago, and longer, so do the best you can. Like you said, the public knows only Grace Sebold, the convicted murderer. In the next episode, we’re going to show them who Grace was before Sugar Beach. I spoke with the Sebolds yesterday and understand a lot about Grace that I didn’t know before. I’m hoping to expand on that history today. Are you ready?”

  Ellie Reiser nodded.

  “Tell me how you know Grace.”

  Ellie offered a small laugh. “Grace and I have been friends since grade school. Gosh, third or fourth grade, I suppose. We’ve been inseparable since then, all the way through high school. We stayed close through college and medical school. I was at SUNY and Grace was at Boston University.”

  “And you were with Grace in St. Lucia at Sugar Beach?”

  “Yes. Charlotte Brooks, one of our best friends from high school, invited us to her wedding. She was marrying Daniel Greaves, another friend of ours. We all gathered at Sugar Beach, like it was a high-school reunion. Julian was Grace’s plus one.”

  “And for the last ten years, you’ve practiced medicine?”

  “Yes, obstetrics.”

  Over the years when Ellie Reiser had learned to survive the rigors of surgical residency and the demands of hospital life as a busy physician, Grace Sebold had learned to survive in a foreign penitentiary. Sidney would make sure that point came through clearly in the next episode.

  “Did you know Julian Crist?”

  “Not well,” Ellie said. “But, yes, I knew him. I knew Grace was crazy about him. They met in India during the summer after second year of medical school when Grace volunteered for a couple of weeks with a Doctors Without Borders program. Julian was at NYU, so I had only met him a couple of times before Sugar Beach.”

  “During the trip to Sugar Beach, Grace and Julian broke the news that they were accepted to the same residency program in neurosurgery. But Grace’s interest was not always neurology, am I correct?”

  “That’s right,” Ellie said. “She had wanted to go into obstetrics, same as myself. For most of our childhoods, we both wanted to deliver babies. Grace was born with—” Ellie stopped. “I’m not sure how much Grace told you, but she was born with a rare form of leukemia.”

  “Yes,” Sidney said. “Marshall was a matching bone marrow donor.”

  “That’s right,” Ellie said. “It made Grace want to deliver babies. She said she wanted to protect them.” Ellie smiled. “That was our thing, sort of our childhood dream that we shared.”

  “What changed her mind about obstetrics?”

  Th
ere was a short pause as Ellie searched for the correct wording. “Marshall’s accident. Did Grace’s parents tell you about that?”

  “They did.”

  “He’s . . . Marshall has had a lot of trouble since then. He’s not . . . TBI can change a person’s personality, and cause a number of physical ailments as well.”

  “TBI, traumatic brain injury,” Sidney said to clarify.

  “Correct. Marshall was never the same after the accident, and it broke Grace’s heart. Marshall’s condition is what caused Grace to go into neurology.” Ellie blinked a few times. “That was the plan. She obviously never got the chance.”

  “The accident,” Sidney said. “I understand the driver of the U-Haul truck was charged with DUI.”

  “Yes.”

  “I still sensed, though, that Marshall Sebold holds you in contempt. He had a roundabout way of telling me about you.”

  Ellie nodded slowly. “I’m afraid that will likely never change.”

  Sidney pulled a stack of papers from her bag. “I counted sixty-two letters that you’ve sent me over the last three years asking for help,” Sidney said. “What makes you so certain Grace is innocent?”

  “Oh . . . so many things,” Ellie said. “She’s my best friend, first of all, and I know she could never kill anyone. But that’s a subjective answer, and I understand it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. That’s just what’s in my heart. The better answer is that I was with Grace the night Julian died. Slept in her cottage at the resort. Simply stated, I’m her alibi. You can run the timeline anyway you’d like—and I have many times over the years. There is no way Grace could have killed Julian that night.”

  “How did the investigators and detectives in St. Lucia respond when you told them this?”

  “They didn’t. They interviewed me once, and never asked me another question.”

  “During that lone interview, though, did you tell them you were with Grace the night Julian was killed?”

  “Of course. But they weren’t interested in details that didn’t support their narrative. I eventually told my story to Grace’s attorney, but my testimony was not allowed during the trial.”

  “Why?”

  Ellie offered a dejected expression.

  “The prosecutor argued that I’d been drinking that day, and that by evening, I was intoxicated. He argued that although I slept in Grace’s room, I was too drunk to know if she left after I . . . what they suggested, passed out. At trial, the prosecution petitioned the magistrate to keep my testimony out of the courtroom. The request was granted.”

  “Had you been drinking?”

  Ellie nodded. “We were twenty-five years old and on spring break. We were all drinking.”

  “Were you drunk?”

  “Not to the point that I don’t remember being with Grace that night.”

  “Did you pass out?”

  Ellie shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve never been a big drinker. I didn’t even taste alcohol until my twenty-first birthday. So I was not intoxicated to the point that the prosecution was suggesting. I . . . fell asleep at some point. But did I fall-on-my-face pass out? No. I went to sleep.”

  “In Grace’s cottage?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you sleep in Grace’s room that night?”

  “She was upset. She and Julian had gotten into an argument. Grace asked me to come to her cottage, so I did. I was being a good friend.”

  “The fight about Daniel?”

  Ellie nodded. “It was probably my fault, the fight they had.”

  “How so?”

  “I wasn’t keen on how fast things were moving between them. I felt like Grace might be getting in over her head.”

  “In what way?”

  Ellie shrugged. “Julian was planning to propose. I thought it was a bad idea.”

  “How do you know this?” Sidney asked.

  “Because he told me. I mentioned that I thought it was too soon to ask her.” Ellie shook her head. “It didn’t matter, he never got the chance.”

  Ellie’s eyes glassed over as though she might cry.

  “He was gone the next day.”

  The Girl of Sugar Beach

  “The Proposal” Part of Episode 2

  *Based on the interview with Ellie Reiser

  The members of the wedding party lay on loungers around the pool and soaked up the Caribbean sun. The guys drank Piton beer and the girls sipped rum runners and mojitos. Charlotte Brooks, the bride, had invited five of her girlfriends as bridesmaids, including Grace and Ellie. In their midtwenties now, they were all at different stages of life. Charlotte was an elementary-school teacher about to marry her high-school sweetheart, whom she had dated since they had all met in Fayetteville, New York. Grace and Ellie were now in medical school. One other bridesmaid was finishing law school, and the others were scattered in marketing and event planning.

  Daniel Greaves was the groom. He, too, had invited a host of friends from high school as his groomsmen. Since the group had known each other for years, many of their parents were invited to the wedding, and a few—including the Sebolds—had made the long trip to St. Lucia.

  “Ellie,” Charlotte said. “Where did you place?”

  “Duke.”

  “To deliver babies?”

  Ellie smiled. “Yes. OB-GYN.”

  “So, if Daniel and I get pregnant, you can deliver my baby?” Charlotte laughed. Too many mojitos.

  “Give me a few years to figure out what I’m doing first.”

  “Don’t worry,” Charlotte said, leaning back in her lounge chair and crossing her legs. Her Bottega Veneta crocodile flip-flops were covering her feet. “We’ll need some practice before we have a baby.”

  “Wear those eight-hundred-dollar flip-flops to bed,” Ellie said, “and I’m sure Daniel will want to practice often.”

  This brought laughs from the other intoxicated friends who sat around the pool. The peaks of the Pitons, draped with green foliage and rain forest, rose up on either side of the resort. Petit Piton to the north, and Gros Piton to the south. Massive twin volcanic structures that held Sugar Beach Resort between them.

  “Are you guys ever going to stop making fun of my shoes?”

  “I could finance medical school with what you spend on footwear,” Ellie said.

  “But they’re so pretty. Anyway, Daniel and I have been together since high school, so we’re not going to wait too long. We know we’re right together.”

  “You guys broke up for a while, didn’t you?” Ellie asked. “In college?”

  Grace put a stare on Ellie, and squinted her eyes. What the hell, she mouthed as she brought her mojito to her lips.

  “Yeah,” Charlotte said. “But just for a couple of months. Besides that, we’ve been together for close to ten years now.”

  “Of course,” Ellie said. “That’s my point.” She glanced briefly at Grace with a suppressed grin. “You guys took a break to see other people and then decided you were right for each other. It’s the best way to do it. Make sure, you know.”

  “I was a mess for two months. Never left my house that summer. Daniel was the same way. Neither of us dated anyone, just took a break and then ran back to each other.”

  “Well,” Ellie said, “you two did it the right way. Took a break, got into other things.” Another quick smirk at Grace. “And then found each other again.”

  “Yes,” Grace said. “You’re great together. You, Daniel, and your outrageously overpriced shoes. Cheers to you guys. Really, Char. We’re so happy for you.”

  They touched glasses.

  “So Ellie will be at Duke. And where did you end up?” Charlotte asked.

  “Cornell. In New York,” Grace said.

  “Neurology, right?”

  “Neurosurgery.”

  “Wow!” Charlotte said. “That sounds so . . . I don’t know. Serious.”

  Grace looked back at Ellie. “OB-GYN is serious, too. And seriously difficult. But, yes, I’m expecting it to be a
challenge.”

  “And Julian?” Charlotte asked.

  “Julian and I placed together.”

  “Aww,” Charlotte said. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. So when are we all coming back here for your wedding?”

  Grace smiled. “Who knows? Maybe after residency.”

  Ellie Reiser had met Julian Crist a handful of times over the last year and a half since he and Grace started dating. The first time Julian had caught Grace’s eye, Ellie knew, was during the summer after second year when Grace went off to do volunteer work in India. She met Julian on that trip, both spending a three-week stint aiding in a general-surgery clinic in Delhi. Despite that Julian was at NYU and Grace was in Boston, the miles didn’t seem to hurt their relationship. Grace and Ellie had discussed the pros and cons of a serious relationship during medical school and what sort of distractions it might cause. And about how difficult long-distance relationships were to maintain. Ellie had gently warned her friend to be careful going into the crucial third year of medical school. Eighteen months later, Grace and Julian were going strong, were damn near inseparable, and were both heading off to a highly competitive surgical residency, where they would be pitted against one another.

  Ellie stirred her mojito at the thatched-roof beach bar, sitting on a stool and looking out toward Pitons Bay and the sun waltzing over the calm water. Julian walked up next to her.

  “Hey,” he said.

  Ellie smiled. “Hi, Julian.”

  “I’ve hardly had a chance to talk with you this trip.”

  “I know. This is the first afternoon the bridesmaids haven’t been ordered around. I think Charlotte saw that we were all stressed out and pissed off that we came to this beautiful resort and haven’t had the chance to enjoy it.”

  “You guys are good friends,” Julian said. “I don’t even talk with anyone from high school anymore.”

  “Really? We’re like a cult.”

  “No kidding. I’m feeling a little like an outsider.”

  “Don’t be silly. Everyone loves you. Grace loves you, so that’s good enough for me.”