“Thank you.” Megan whispered.
“For what?” Evan was still lost.
“I don’t know what you did, or how you did it, but you fixed me. Evan, I feel you.”
Evan brushed his thumb over her cheek, clearing away a single tear. “I told you that you weren’t broken.” He smiled as he pushed a strand of hair from her face. “I should go.”
“Hey Evan?” Megan stopped him before he started to walk away.
“Yes?” He turned around to face her.
“Your uncle kept video recordings of what happened in his study…always?”
“He did.” Evan nodded, knowing exactly what she was about to ask him.
Megan hesitated. “Did you watch…all the tapes?”
“Not all.”
“But you did watch…”
He cut her off. “I did.”
“All of it?” Megan shied away.
“No.” Evan knelt down in front of her, placing his hands on her knees. “I couldn’t.”
Megan nodded. “So that’s how you knew I didn’t steal the test.”
Evan pursed his lips and looked to the videotape still on her bed. “No, Megan. I knew long before that.”
As he stood, he hovered briefly over her, and just barely placed his lips on her forehead. Megan closed her eyes as she savored his touch.
“See you around, Meg.” Evan hummed through his lips.
“Before you go…” Megan started as she stood with him and moved to the top drawer of her dresser. She bit her bottom lip as she met his eyes with her own. “Do you want your tape recorder back?”
From her dresser drawer, she pulled out the single piece of evidence that got her released from prison, and she held it out to him.
Evan accepted the device with an intentional smile. “You really are the smartest person on the planet.”
He didn’t have to hide any longer. Megan finally knew.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
It had been two months since she had seen Evan, and she was starting to get a little worried. She called him, but he never answered. She left him messages, but he never returned them. She even tried his brother, who always seemed to be rushing out to a meeting of some sort.
Megan debated stopping by his house just to check on him, but was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to explain herself or why she had come, and she really wasn’t in a position to step on any toes. After all, she was the one who called it all off. She was the one who said it was unhealthy for him to be around her. She was the one who admittedly turned him into a monster.
Seeing her might actually be the worst thing for him.
So she settled on letting him heal…alone. No matter how much she really did want to be there for him, and how much understanding there was in the final moments that they last saw each other. She knew there was still the possibility of him spiraling out of control, and it would all be because of her. It was better to keep her distance, no matter how much it might hurt him: no matter how much it might hurt her.
“Mail for you, Coulis.”
Davis dropped a large white envelope on her desk, shaking her from her dreams of Evan.
“What is this?” She looked up at him without reading the return address.
“Why don’t you open it up?” He was practically giddy.
Megan gave him a suspicious glare, and then turned her attention to the thick envelope in her hand. It was addressed to her, with the address of the police station under her name. Her eyes moved to the upper left hand corner, but it took her a second to process what the return address really meant.
“Stanford? Stanford University? But I didn’t…”
“You started it.” Davis jumped in, basically dancing from his excitement.
“But I didn’t send in my application.” Megan tore open the seal.
“I did.”
She stopped and stared up at him. “How?”
“I’m the chief of police, Megan. There isn’t much I can’t do.” He leaned on her desk, waiting for her reaction as she read the page in front of her.
“I got in.” She whispered. “I got in.”
“Of course you did. They don’t send out the big envelopes when they reject you.” He exuberantly laughed.
She covered her hands to her mouth. Her face turned pink and her eyes filled with tears. “I got into Stanford.”
“Congratulations, Miss Coulis.” Davis stuck his hand out in an offer to shake hers.
“I can’t believe you did this.” She was still in shock as she shook his hand.
“I didn’t do much. You had already written the essays. I just stole them off of your computer, found your transcripts, and wrote you one hell of a referral letter.”
Megan leaned back in her chair. She wanted to call someone. She wanted to tell someone the good news. But the only person she really wanted to celebrate with was Evan, and unfortunately, that wasn’t a possibility.
“Why?” She clung the papers to her chest, afraid if she let them out of her sight, none of it would be true.
Davis leaned his hip against the desk and looked up as he began to speak. “Because you’re too smart to be here, working in this silly little police station in this silly little town. It’s time for you to get out, to take on the world.” He made a silly hand motion as if he were the king of the universe, but with a chortle, he brought his hands back to his sides and leaned into her. “And honestly, I was afraid you wouldn’t do it on your own. So I just gave you that little push.”
Megan wasn’t sure when it was that Chief Davis had begun to take such an interest in her, but it seemed like more and more lately, he was stopping by her desk, seeing what she was working on, or asking if she needed help with anything. She had a sneaky suspicion that he might have feelings for her, but he never acted on them, nor seemed to have any sort of attraction to her.
She never addressed it, as whatever his interest in her might have been, he was harmless. But now, while the gesture was beyond nice, he was trying to get rid of her. It only made sense that if he had had feelings for her, he wouldn’t have decided to help her apply to a school that was three thousand miles away.
No, it had to be something else.
“Chief, are you trying to get rid of me?”
“What? Why would you say that, Coulis?”
“Well,” she looked up at him, “you’re constantly telling me I’m too smart for this place, and now you’re literally sending me to the other side of the country.”
Davis laughed, but nodded along with her. “Do you ever feel as though you owe someone something?”
She didn’t answer, and he didn’t elaborate, but they shared a brief stare before he slowly nodded and made his way back to his office.
The truth was, she did feel as though she owed someone something: Evan. It was all she ever thought about. The night he had come to her, he had blamed her for giving up on him when he needed her most. She had her reasons, her excuses, but now they made no sense. She got scared, and she gave up. After everything he had done for her…
Everything…
She just gave up on him. And why? She loved him. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to share her successes, her failures, and herself with only him.
Megan picked up her phone and dialed his number. It rang three times before his voicemail picked up. He was still avoiding her. He was still ignoring her calls. He was doing exactly what she had asked of him. He was fixing it without her around.
Could she really fault him for that?
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Megan left the precinct shortly after her acceptance into Stanford. She had decided to take a few classes in the summer, so she gave herself a month off to get things in order. She found a place off campus to live. She’d settled on the fact that she would be a good seven or eight years older than her classmates, there was no way she would be sharing college housing with them.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving me again.” Megan’s mom stood in her doorway looking around at al
l the boxes.
“Well, if it’s anything like last time…” Megan began to joke.
“Don’t. No.” Her mother stopped her. “If you go and get yourself arrested again.”
Megan started to laugh. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m pretty sure getting framed for murder only happens once in your life.”
She shook her head at her daughter. “Well, I’m glad you can joke about it. But, God help you if you give me a heart attack like that again…”
“Calm down, Mom.”
“I’m calm. I’m calm.” She cracked a hint of a smile before winking at her daughter. “Hey Meg?”
“Yes Mom?”
“I’m proud of you.”
Megan looked up at her mother from among the boxes. They shared a heartfelt moment, before they both went about their business. Her mom left her with a smile.
Megan looked around at her room, completely ready to say goodbye to it forever. If she never saw those walls again, she would have no regrets. She was finally moving on with her life, getting out of the town that sucked her in, and this was the first step that needed to happen.
“Megan! Chief Davis is here.” Her mother called to her.
Megan stepped out of her room and saw her chief standing in the living room next to her mother.
“Chief. What are you doing here?” Megan quickly looked down at her clothes to make sure she looked at least half decent.
“Well, I knew you were leaving tomorrow, and I wanted to give you this.” He took a file folder from his bag and held it out to her.
Before reaching out to take it, she questioned him. “What is this?”
Chief Davis blew air out through his lips and squinted his eyes before he looked back up at her. “Think of it as your going away present.”
He placed the folder in her hand, said his goodbyes to both her and her mother before excusing himself out of the front door.
“What did he give you?” Her mother looked at her, just as anxious as she was.
Megan flipped open the first page of the file:
Case # 133673
The State vs. Megan Coulis
Megan’s eyes were peeled to the paper. “It’s my case file. It’s the whole reason I joined the force in the first place.”
Without another word, she stole away to her room.
The first page was filled with dates and times and numbers and things she already knew, things she had memorized.
The second page had the names of the officers involved. There was a Chief Migli, who was no longer with the force, three officers who she had known had long since retired, one who had transferred to another precinct, and, of course, Davis.
The third page began the transcripts of the interviews and interrogations. There was hers, her mother’s, a former teacher who spoke in her defense, and…
And…
Nothing. There were no other interviews: no other interrogations.
What about Evan? What about Darren? What about their father?
Were they not even questioned?
Megan flipped through the rest of the small file, looking for their testimonies, but the only thing left was a picture of the crime scene.
It was a single picture, shot quickly from the doorway. That was it: names, dates, times, one picture, and three testimonies. She had wasted all her time and energy planning out ways to get her hands on that file for nothing. It was nothing.
So why did her chief drop it off? Why did he go through the effort for something he had to have known would have just upset her?
Megan shook it off. “I don’t care.” She whispered to herself. “I never needed the file. I already got the answer I didn’t need. I already know…I…”
As Megan closed her eyes, she saw the crime scene photo in her head. She saw the detail, the blood, the broken glass, the tie…
The tie…
Megan jumped back up and opened the file. She stared at the picture until she found what she had seen in her head. Evan’s tie: the one with the ducks, the one his mother gave him. It was on the ground, soaking in a pool of blood.
“Oh my God. They knew…”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“It takes exactly twelve minutes to get from your place to the precinct.” Chief Davis looked at his watch. “So it took you all of three minutes to figure it out.” He sat up and leaned his forearms on his desk. “Damn, I really should have made you a detective.”
Megan stood in front of him holding the file in one hand and the small videotape Evan had given her in the other. She stared at him for a second before bringing herself to speak the words she was thinking. “You knew?”
Davis looked away quickly, and then kept his eyes down as he continued. “I did.”
“You knew if was Evan who killed Dr. Covington.”
“Megan, sit down.” He motioned to the chair in front of him.
“No!” She screamed, finding it difficult to control her temper. She rolled her neck from side to side, trying to calm herself. “You knew this whole time, and you said nothing.”
Chief Davis rose from his chair, realizing that her tone meant something other than what he had expected. “Wait, you knew?”
“What?” Megan stopped, as now she was being accused.
Davis covered his mouth as he lightly laughed. “You knew it was Evan Covington too.”
Megan finally took his suggestion and sat. “I did.”
“For how long?”
“Not long. Well…” Megan thought back. “I guess I’ve actually known for quite awhile.”
She did. The signs were as clear as day. She knew from the first time she saw him after all those years that he was hiding something. She knew there was something in his past that was refusing to leave him. She saw the fire, the command that he had gained from finally being allowed to take control. That kind of passion only comes from pain, from knowing what it is like to be completely powerless.
She saw that while she was growing toward him, he was only growing away from her. She saw that while he only wanted to keep her safe, he only knew how to hurt her.
Why did she have the strange feeling the Dr. Covington was killed because of his admission regarding the night of the Christmas party? Why did she have the strange feeling that the person on the other end of the conversation was trying to protect her? Why did she have the strange feeling that she knew the killer?
Because she did know the killer. The killer was Evan.
“Evan came into the precinct about a week after you were arrested.” Chief Davis started. “He found me sitting at the front and told me he knew who really killed his uncle.” Chief Davis eyed Megan, making sure she was ready for him to continue retelling his tale. “He explained to me what had happened, why it had happened, and then told me that his uncle kept some sort of hidden security camera constantly rolling in his office, so if I were to just go to the house, I would most likely be able to find it.”
“So he knew about the tape even then?” She held it up in her hand.
Chief Davis wrinkled his forehead and continued. “He wasn’t spitting out the details for more than five minutes before his father came through the door announcing that his son was mentally unstable due to the recent death of his uncle. He screamed at him that one more outburst and he would have him committed.” Davis looked to her. “I have to be honest, Coulis, I believed his father. Evan was a mess; he wasn’t making sense. And he wouldn’t stop ranting about his uncle and some sort of Christmas party and a girl…”
Megan quickly looked away, hoping he wouldn’t address the subject.
“Oh…” Chief Davis caught her deflection. “I…I didn’t know. Okay.” He closed his eyes for a second. “It all makes sense now.”
Megan whispered under her breath. “So you believed his father?”
“I didn’t. Not necessarily. I brought it to my chief who told me to keep my thoughts to myself and not to reopen a closed case. Still, just to make sure the facts were all straight, I went to the house. Evan took me
to his uncle’s study, but the tapes, the recording equipment…it was all gone.”
“His father got to them first.” Megan said, very much as a matter of fact.
“He must have.” Davis agreed. “And I tried yet again to bring it up to my chief, but he told me if I didn’t mind my own business, I’d be back in the dungeon.” Davis attempted a joke to lighten the mood. “And I’m sure you can understand why I decided to shut up after that.”
Megan half laughed, still letting it all sink in.
“After you were sentenced, we started receiving sizeable anonymous donations to the precinct. Each year, on the anniversary of your incarceration, we received a larger one than the last…up until this last year, of course.”
“You were paid to keep quiet.”
Chief Davis looked to the ceiling. “Hell, I guess we were. The strange thing was that if it happened the way Evan told me it did, it was an honest accident; and it was self-defense if anything. Evan would have never gone to prison. But Mr. Covington didn’t want his children involved at all. And we didn’t question it. It was just something about that family. People did what they said, without question.”
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