by Becky Durfee
“She understood English, yes.”
Elijah remained quiet, so Archer continued. “You didn’t realize that, did you? With all of those comments you made about her, you had no idea she could understand every word you said. Do you know how hurtful some of your remarks were? You and your buddy Jacob made her cry more than once.”
“I don’t remember being mean to her,” Elijah confessed. “Jacob and I both found her to be quite beautiful. I don’t think I would have said things that were cruel.”
“Not cruel,” Archer corrected. “Degrading. You would always make remarks about her anatomy, or talk about the things you wanted to do to her. She was a nice girl, you know, and she couldn’t understand why you guys would think so little of her.”
Hanging his head, Elijah said, “We didn’t think little of her. We thought very highly of her, actually; we were just too stupid and immature to articulate it in any way other than to make cat calls.” He looked down solemnly. “We were boys.”
“Well, your words were hurtful.”
After a moment of silent reflection, Elijah became all business again. “But I don’t understand. You said she didn’t want people to know you were friends to protect her…from us?”
“That’s right.”
“But what danger would she have been in if we knew you were friends?”
“She didn’t want anyone to know she spoke English. If we were seen together, people might come to the conclusion that we could understand each other. She preferred that people think she didn’t know a lick of English, so she spent all of her time by herself.”
Elijah’s confusion was evident. “Why wouldn’t she want anyone to know she spoke English?”
“She feared torment.”
“But why would we have tormented her?” Elijah asked.
“Why would you have cat-called her?”
Elijah stroked his hand over his bald head, his frustration mounting, although Jenny wasn’t sure if the frustration was with Archer or his eighteen-year-old self. “I’m asking you a serious question. What was she afraid of? Why would she want to keep her knowledge of the English language hidden?”
“She had her reasons.”
“And those reasons would be…”
Archer interlaced his fingers and placed them stubbornly in front of his chest. “Secret,” he replied. “Her reasons were secret. I promised to keep quiet about it, and I still will.”
“You do realize my goal is to find out who killer her,” Elijah reasoned. “And you withholding information is impeding my investigation.”
“Her secret has nothing to do with her murder.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I know what the secret is,” Archer said like a child. “And I know it isn’t useful.”
As Elijah’s aggravation level was about to reach a boil, Pam interjected. “Let me ask you something, Archer. If my husband’s comments were so offensive to Lena, then why did she show up at a party at his house?”
Archer’s tone softened, evidence that he had far less against Pam than he did Elijah. “She wanted to prove a point,” he explained. “She wanted to show all those kids that she wasn’t a slut like all the boys thought, and she wasn’t a bitch like all the girls thought. Everyone seemed to have their own misconceptions about her, but nobody really knew her. And she’d just had enough…she wanted to set the record straight.”
“Okay,” Elijah said with renewed focus. Pam’s interjection seemed just long enough for him to gather his composure again. “Tell me how you came to be such good friends with Lena.”
“She lived down the street from me,” Archer replied. “So I went over one day and said hello.”
“You just went over her house?” Elijah asked skeptically.
“Yes,” Archer said, the edge in his voice returning, “It’s what nice people do when new neighbors move in.”
Ignoring the dig, Elijah continued. “So what happened when you introduced yourself?”
“Not much at first. She just smiled. After that I would see her outside sometimes, and we’d walk home from the bus together. Before too long we became friends, and we would hang out at each other’s houses.”
“And what would you do at each other’s houses?”
“We played a lot of video games,” Archer said. “She really liked them. It was something we had in common. She’d also eat some of my new recipes. I spent a lot of time cooking back then—it’s always been my hobby—and she’d let me know which meals were good and which ones weren’t. She was honest about it, which is a good quality in a critic. And a friend.”
“I get it. You were friends. Are you sure the reason she didn’t want anyone to know that was because she wanted to keep her knowledge of English a secret? She didn’t have, say, some other reason?”
Jenny looked at Elijah with saucer-sized eyes, surprised by the rudeness of his question.
“You mean was she embarrassed of me? Because I was fat and nerdy?”
“You said that,” Elijah noted. “Not me.”
“I’ll have you know that Lena was not embarrassed of her friendship with me. She valued our friendship. She felt comfortable around me. She could disclose things to me that she wouldn’t disclose to anyone else.”
“And then at school she insisted she not be seen with you,” Elijah said. “And that made you angry.”
Suddenly Jenny understood where Elijah was going with his questions.
“That didn’t make me angry,” Archer insisted. “I was happy to do it. I was keeping her secret. That’s what good friends do.”
“Good friends hang out together. In public.”
“Think what you will,” Archer said. “I am positive she wasn’t embarrassed of me.”
“Then why didn’t she bring you to Jacob’s party?”
“For the same reason we didn’t acknowledge each other at school. Wouldn’t it have looked stupid for her to show up with me and then not say a word to me all night? Besides, I didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go. I tried to convince her not to.”
“Why didn’t you think it was a good idea? Did you know her life was in danger?”
“If I had known her life was in danger, I would have insisted she not go. Or I would have gone with her,” Archer said. “The truth is, I just didn’t see why she gave a shit about what all those people thought of her. Everyone at that party had judged her unfairly; I couldn’t figure out why she wanted to impress them so badly. As far as I was concerned, everyone at that party was beneath her.”
“Here’s another theory,” Elijah said. “You managed, somehow, to befriend the prettiest girl in the school, and then one night she tells you she’s going to a party. Without you. And you felt threatened that she was going to ditch you for a more popular crowd.”
“I didn’t feel threatened,” Archer insisted.
“No? Not even a little bit? She was about to go to a party thrown by one of the most popular boys in the grade, who also happened to be a star athlete and a good-looking guy.”
“A good-looking guy who told her—in disgusting detail—that he wanted to fuck her every time she walked by.”
Pam cringed at Archer’s words. Even Jenny couldn’t help but think that was an awful thing to say in front of the man’s pregnant wife.
Unfazed, Elijah pressed on. “Well obviously she wasn’t that offended. She did go to his house. Maybe she liked what he had to say.”
“You watch what you say about Lena,” Archer warned with a finger in Elijah’s face. “She was devastated by the shit you had to say about her. She just wanted to prove you and Jacob wrong, that was all.”
“Or maybe she got tired of playing video games on Saturday night and she wanted some real fun.”
Archer and Elijah locked eyes, which elicited fears in Jenny that fists were about to fly. Instead, Archer simply leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “You are such an asshole,” he whispered. “You were then, and you are now. I thought maybe I could
give you the benefit of the doubt—that maybe the years had changed you. But they haven’t. You’re still just as much of a prick now as you were then.”
“What if I tell you I think you may have had something to do with Lena’s murder?”
Archer laughed. “Then you’re not just a prick, you’re a dumbass, too.”
“You’re getting a little defensive, don’t you think?”
“Defensive? What you see isn’t defensiveness, my friend. What you see is anger and hatred. You put my friend through hell back in high school. And now fifteen years later you’re not even competent enough to solve her murder.”
“We’ll just see about that,” Elijah replied, standing up. He turned around and began to walk away.
“For the record, Murphy,” Archer called to him as he left. “If I was going to kill anyone back then, it would have been Jacob Crawley.”
“Don’t let him get to you,” Jenny said softly on Elijah’s couch. “He was just angry. He lost a friend and has no one to blame. I think he’s just taking that pent-up anger out on you.”
Elijah shook his head. “No. He was right. I did treat her like shit, and Jacob was even worse. I deserved every bit of what he said back there.”
“I’ve already told you,” Jenny began, placing her outstretched hand on top of his, “you can’t own what that stupid high-school kid did. You said it yourself—you thought she was pretty and you didn’t know how to handle it. That’s because you were eighteen.” She curled her legs up on to the couch, tucking the skirt of her dress underneath them. “If it makes you feel any better, I wasn’t much older than that when I decided I wanted to marry Greg Watkins, and I’m also working on not beating myself up for that decision. It isn’t easy, but I think you and I both have to realize that young people make foolish choices sometimes. It’s part of the growing process…like the fart game.” She looked at him playfully, waiting for a smile that didn’t come.
“I just wish I could take it all back.”
“But you can’t,” Jenny said. “The best thing you can do to honor Lena’s memory at this point is to solve her murder.”
“I think Archer was right about that too.” Elijah hung his head. “I’m not sure I’m competent enough.”
“Okay, Eeyore, that’s enough,” Jenny proclaimed. “You’re starting to bum me out. No more feeling sorry for yourself. It’s time to get cracking on this case. So…” She poked at him with her finger. “What do you think Lena’s secret might have been?”
Reluctantly, Elijah lifted his head and began to speak. “I don’t have the foggiest idea. He said she was fluent in English before she even came here. I can’t imagine what would possess a girl to move to another country and pretend she doesn’t speak the language.”
“It does seem a bit odd.”
“Maybe I should talk to Archer’s parents,” Elijah said, thinking out loud. “Perhaps he might feel inclined to keep Lena’s secret, but his parents may see things differently—especially if I tell them it might help solve her murder.”
“See?” Jenny said cheerfully. “Now you’re thinking.”
“Do you know what else I’m thinking?”
“What’s that?”
“I never did ask Archer what he was doing the night of Lena’s murder. Dammit! I let him get to me and I didn’t ask the right questions. See? This is why I always prepare my interviews in advance.”
Jenny felt helpless as Elijah tortured himself on the couch; the whole process was painful to watch. She wished there was something she could do to help.
Then she realized there was.
“Well, I could use a good dinner tomorrow,” she noted. “Perhaps a little something from the Archway Grill…” She flashed him a smile out of the corner of her eye.
Elijah looked at her like she was crazy. “The Archway Grill is in Charlotte. That’s North Carolina.”
“I know where it is,” Jenny said laughing. “It’s half way between here and Evansdale. I can stop in for dinner tomorrow, claiming I’m just on my way home.”
“Are you going home tomorrow?”
“No,” Jenny said. “But Archer doesn’t have to know that.”
“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Elijah said, rubbing his eyes. “You plan to drive five hours—each direction—to go have dinner at the Archway Grill.”
“Yes.”
“So you can ask him the questions I didn’t.”
“Yes.”
Elijah gave the notion some thought. “You’d really be willing to do that?”
“Yes.”
Jenny could see the wheels turning in his head. “I’m not sure I want you going there alone. What if he turns out to be a murderer?”
If only Elijah knew the stuff Jenny’d been through already. “I’m one step ahead of you. I have a friend in Evansdale—actually, I think I’ve mentioned him before—Zack, my business partner. I’m sure he’d be willing to meet me there. He loves working on cases, and—like you—he doesn’t like me going it alone.”
“You really don’t think he’d mind? It’s an awfully long drive.”
“Clearly you don’t know Zack.”
Elijah rubbed his hands together as if he was coming up with a devious plot. “This might work, actually. If you can go down and ask Archer a few more questions, maybe I can contact his parents tomorrow and get some answers about Lena.” He glanced up at Jenny. “Do you mind staying here just a little bit longer before you go back to the hotel? I’d like to formulate a list of questions for you to ask Archer.”
Jenny smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving until I had that list in my hand.”
The sound of the wheels on the road became hypnotic after the first two hours, allowing Jenny’s mind to wander freely. She reflected back on her conversation with Pam who, despite her apparent discomfort, was clearly enamored with being pregnant. Based on what Jenny saw between Pam and Jacob, she appeared to be equally as enamored with her husband. Jenny twisted her face as she considered how jealous she was of Pam’s life. It was all Jenny ever wanted, really—to get married, be happy, and have a baby. Was that too much to ask? Why did things work out so perfectly for some while for others—like herself—the path to happiness was so convoluted that the goal may have proven eternally elusive?
Perhaps it was something she had done. Or hadn’t done. Pam had mentioned that the confident girl who approached Jacob in college was much different than the pathetic girl who had tried unsuccessfully to get his attention back in high school. Maybe that was the key. Maybe Jenny’s path until this point had been entirely dictated by her lack of confidence, and she’d screwed things up for herself by not gaining a self-esteem until she was seven years into a marriage. Pam apparently blossomed at a much younger age, so she was able to get things right the first time.
Once again, Jenny found herself wanting to go back in time so she could kick her nineteen-year-old self.
Sensing a growing frustration within herself, Jenny made the conscious effort to switch gears and think about the details of the case. Lena had been a girl with a secret—a girl who came to this country fluent in the language but unwilling to admit it. At first glance she appeared to have no friends, although she seemed—according to Archer—to have one. But was Archer delusional? Did he really hang out with the prettiest girl in the school—the girl that even the popular football players couldn’t attract? Or had he just formulated this fantasy life in his own mind? As convincing as Archer seemed to be, Jenny had to admit it was odd that this friendship had no witnesses.
Suddenly Roddan’s words popped into Jenny’s head: Lena’s world had been dark except for one lone pinhole of light. Could Archer have really been that bright spot Roddan had been referring to? Roddan had predicted that somebody had been welcoming to her, and Archer claimed to be that person. Perhaps Archer hadn’t been delusional after all.
Next Jenny began to consider motive. While nothing seemed to be a silver bullet, each set of boys did have their own reasons for poten
tially wanting her dead. Lena had humiliated Adam, who was drunk enough to do something out of character that night. And perhaps Archer did fear he was going to lose her to the popular crowd. But were either of those things really a motive for murder? Jenny distinctly remembered there were two people in the car that had approached Lena that night, which means the killer must have had an accomplice—an accomplice with a small, gray car. Were there really two people who were angry enough to want Lena dead? Or did the killer just have somebody wrapped so tightly around his finger that he could convince them to cooperate?
Jenny was truly stumped.
In an attempt to think about a topic with the potential to be more productive, Jenny once again began to consider Lena’s secret. She reviewed the conversation she’d had with Archer repeatedly in her brain, trying to determine if he had given any indication as to what her secret might have been. She had feared torment, according to Archer, if Elijah and Jacob knew she understood English, but she was well versed before she’d even moved here. And if she had been fluent, then why did Roddan pick up on the language barrier? It seemed there wasn’t a language barrier. She pretended to not know what people were saying. She chose not to speak to people.
Jenny froze. She had just figured out Lena’s secret.
Chapter 13
Jenny waited in the parking lot of the Archway Grill, looking impatiently at the clock on her dashboard. She had been early, which meant that when Zack showed up late—like he always did—she’d have been waiting a long time. She should have foreseen this and brought a book.
Just as she was having that thought, Zack’s car pulled around the corner. “Well I’ll be damned,” she said out loud as she got out of the car. “It’s only two forty-five. He’s fifteen minutes early.”
Zack got out of his car and approached Jenny. She had to admit he was a sight for sore eyes; seeing him again reminded her of how much she’d missed him. Instantly forcing that thought out of her head, she remained unemotional as she greeted him. “Wow. I never thought you’d be early.”