by Amanda Tru
This meant Cosette’s attacker and Dottie’s murderer was someone Josh knew.
Somebody Josh knew well.
Somebody who would go to any lengths to make a point.
“I think I know who did it,” Cosette told her parents.
“Wait, you’re telling me you think it was that Missy person after all?” Dad asked Cosette.
She nodded, hoping she wouldn’t have to explain every single logical step she’d taken to arrive at her conclusion yet again. Grace hadn’t returned from her phone call, and Cosette knew she’d have to repeat everything when the detective came back into the room anyway. She hoped that, for now, a brief summary would suffice.
“Here’s what we know,” she said, feeling something like Sherlock Holmes offering a young Dr. Watson an elementary demonstration of his deductive reasoning skills. Cosette counted the points off on her fingers. “One. Missy, Josh, and Josh’s girlfriend all knew each other. The girls were best friends. Missy herself told me that she was the one who encouraged Dawn to break up with him after they graduated. She said it was because Josh was keeping her back from her ambitions, but what if it was so Missy could have Josh entirely to herself?”
“So we’re talking about a teenage love triangle,” her dad stated. “That can be deadly,” he added without a hint of sarcasm. Cosette wondered how he could remain so composed. Did he think this was just some mystery show on TV? Did he realize his daughter was lying in a hospital bed and a woman she’d met only last night had been killed? Cosette realized that apart from the murderer herself, she and Josh may have been the last two people Dottie saw before her death. The idea made her shiver, so she forced it out of her brain and focused more on the case at hand.
“Two. You heard the detective say it was Missy’s witness that got Josh behind bars in the first place. Well, what if Missy was lying? What if Missy was the one who killed Dawn because she was in love with Josh the whole time, except her friend was standing in her way?”
She expected her father to laugh, but he stroked his chin and stuck out his lower lip. “I suppose it’s possible,” he mused. “After all, nobody’s going to look too closely at the daughter of a senator. Nobody wants to upset her daddy unless they’re totally sure she was guilty.”
Cosette grew only more excited when she realized she was getting through to him. “See what I mean?”
“I’m beginning to,” her father admitted.
Mom looked up from Cosette’s bedside table, which she’d been rearranging ever since the detective stepped out. “I really don’t think a girl would kill her best friend over a crush.”
“It certainly wouldn’t be the first time jealousy led to fatal consequences,” her dad replied.
Cosette didn’t want to lose her train of thought. “Three,” she went on and had to pause to remember where she was in her treatise. “Three,” she repeated, “is that Missy and I were together before she dropped me off at the diner. So that means she knew where I was and who I was with. It means she might have followed Dottie home if she was really desperate.”
“It also means she could have been the one to poison you,” Mom added as she leaned down to pick up the box of tissues she’d knocked over.
“Huh?” Cosette asked.
“You said you and Missy ate together before you went to the diner, right? So she could have poisoned you then.”
“That would take an awful lot of planning ahead,” Dad remarked. His hand hadn’t left his chin for several minutes.
Cosette felt as if there were a few more pieces to connect before she had the puzzle completely solved. “What about this,” she announced, adding form and shape to her hypothesis as she spoke. “What if Missy was in love with Josh. What if she’s always been in love with Josh. That’s why she killed her best friend from high school. Josh got blamed for the murder. I don’t know if she meant that to happen or not, but then the courts realized there wasn’t enough evidence against him, and they overturned his conviction.”
“The facts of his exoneration do seem somewhat secretive,” her father conceded, “at least in the way the detective tells the story.”
Cosette didn’t want to get mired down in the legal terms. She nodded briefly and kept going. “So Josh spends a few years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, then they let him out. He’s got a bad reputation by now. A lot of people still think he’s guilty, so he changes his name and becomes a trooper. Maybe he decides it’s a way he can make sure other people don’t suffer the same injustices he has.”
“I think I see where you’re going,” her dad inserted encouragingly.
Cosette’s lips could hardly keep up with her brain. “So then, he starts this new life in Glennallen, new name, new career. Things are going okay. But he doesn’t start dating right away because even though he was proven innocent, that’s still going to make for a really awkward first-date conversation.”
Cosette stopped, realizing only too late how deeply she felt about Josh’s lie of omission. Maybe if he’d been up-front with her earlier on, if he’d explained the facts of his own story in his own words instead of waiting for Cosette to learn the tragic details on her own…
Had he been going to tell her earlier? He’d said something about that when they were pulling into the gas station. She was already feeling the effects of the poison so profusely by then she would have had a hard time holding onto his words in the first place. Had he tried to tell her? But that wasn’t the sort of thing you wait until you’re seven months into a relationship to divulge.
There are some things you have to be honest about up-front, or your significant other will never be able to trust you again.
Never able to trust him again…
Dad seemed to sense Cosette’s hesitation and picked up the speculative story where she’d left off. “So, the exonerated defendant who was formerly known as Adam Bird changes his name and tries to start a new life for himself. Becomes a trooper, all that jazz. Then he signs up for a long-distance dating service. Maybe he thinks that there are too many people in Alaska who know his story. Even with the name change, maybe he’s convinced he has to look somewhere outside if he’s going to find true love. And then he meets you.” Dad leveled his gaze.
Cosette clenched her jaw. Now would be a stupid time to cry. She wouldn’t let it happen.
“So there’s one question I still have,” Dad continued. “How did Missy know you’d be flying in to Anchorage?”
Cosette didn’t have to think very long to answer that one. “If you check his social media account, that’s about all he’s talked about for the past couple weeks. How excited he’s been.”
“So this Missy girl still isn’t over him, she sees him posting about your visit, and she decides what? To poison you and attack you and frame Josh for murder?”
That was where the story began unraveling. “I really have no idea,” Cosette admitted.
Dad moved the blinds and peeked out the window to the hallway. “Here comes Detective Grace,” he announced. “Maybe she can give us a little more enlightenment.”
It was difficult to discern if Detective Grace was annoyed or not to have Cosette and her father playing armchair sleuths. Still, she listened patiently as Cosette’s dad explained their hypothesis. Surprisingly, he was able to take everything Cosette had rambled on about for ten or more minutes and wrap it up into a few succinct sentences that made the entire scenario sound even more plausible.
“So you think Missy is responsible for attacking Cosette out of jealousy?” Grace asked, taking Dad’s summary and compacting it down into a single question.
“It’s not too big of a stretch, is it?” he asked.
Grace didn’t answer.
Cosette blinked at the detective. There were so many things that didn’t make sense. How Missy could have intercepted Cosette at the airport. Why Josh would have never told her about his past.
And if he’d kept that from her, what else had he kept hidden away, secret?
Maybe Mom had been right all
along. Maybe Cosette really didn’t know him at all. She’d flown all the way to Alaska to meet a stranger and nearly lost her life as a result.
She was tired. Tired and overwhelmed, and her brain felt as if it might explode under the stress of all her unanswered questions.
“… could have been the one who tracked Cosette to the gas station and attacked her there,” Dad was concluding. Cosette hadn’t followed the bulk of his conversation with the detective. Even though she’d been the one to come up with the hypothesis in the first place, now she wasn’t sure it made sense. She had other things on her mind at the moment.
If Josh lied to her about being accused of murder, then she didn’t actually know him. Which meant he was just as likely the one who’d assaulted her as Missy was.
“… explain why there was no sexual trauma,” the detective said, her arms crossed, her pen tapping against her clipboard.
“But if that’s what happened,” Mom jumped in, “then where’s this young man now? Where did he go?”
In the past, whenever they’d talked about Josh, it annoyed Cosette how Mom would refuse to speak his name. But now calling him this young man made more sense. Who was he? Josh? Adam? Someone else entirely?
“Are you all okay?” Mom asked, leaning over Cosette’s hospital bed. “You look kind of ill. Do you need anything? More pain meds? Some ice chips? I can go ask the nurse if you’re ready to have anything to eat.”
Cosette shook her head even though the action sent the world swirling around her. “I’m all right.”
“You look like you could use some sleep,” Mom said, adjusting Cosette’s sheets and extra pillow. “Why don’t you shut your eyes and try to take a little nap. We’ll try to whisper, I promise.”
Cosette knew she’d never be able to fall asleep now with all the thoughts and questions swirling around in her mind, but she didn’t have the energy to argue with her mom.
“Okay,” she said and shut her eyes. Maybe if she lay here quietly, she could not only get some rest but try to make sense of everything that had happened. There had to be some kind of answer, didn’t there? Some way to explain what was going on that didn’t involve Josh being accused of murder, that didn’t involve him lying to her or attacking her the very first night they were together.
There was an answer somewhere. Cosette wasn’t sure she’d be able to find it stuck here in this hospital bed, but since she didn’t have any other options, for the time being, she prayed for answers, waited for clarity, and tried not to fall asleep.
Both of her parents were gone when Cosette opened her eyes. Dragging herself out of her sleepy mental fog, she recalled something Mom said about getting food from the cafeteria. Or maybe that had been a dream.
The detective was gone too. “Quiet afternoon, isn’t it?”
Cosette was startled at the words, and the nurse on the other side of the room apologized. “Sorry. I thought you heard me in here tidying up. Didn’t meant to startle you.”
“That’s okay.” Now that she was fully awake, Cosette realized how much her head hurt. Not just her head either, but every part of her body ached.
“How do you feel?” the nurse asked.
Cosette gave a little shrug. “All right, I guess.” It was hard to say if the physical pain or all the questions churning around inside her mind were more disorienting.
“Up for a visitor?”
Cosette gave a startle. Visitor? Could it possibly be Josh? Had he found out where she was? Maybe she was finally going to get the answers to all her questions.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Said they were a reporter.” She lowered her voice. “You don’t have to talk with them, you know. Want me to send them away?”
Cosette wasn’t sure what she wanted, what would be best. After all she’d gone through, she didn’t trust herself to make any kind of rational decision right now. “Where are my parents?” she asked before the nurse had the chance to exit the room.
“They went to the store, I believe. Your dad said something about your mom needing to pick a few things up.”
“Okay.” Cosette didn’t like to think of her parents out in a snowstorm, nor did she relish the idea of facing anyone alone. “Where’s the detective who was here?”
The nurse frowned. “That I don’t know. I’ll ask about that at the nurse’s station, though, and let you know straight away.”
An alarm sounded over the hospital intercoms, and the nurse hurried out. Cosette tried to remember. When was the last time she’d actually been alone like this? In the airport, she’d talked to Missy, and they’d gone out for food. After Missy dropped her off at the diner, Cosette was at a table by herself, but with as chatty as the waitress had been, you could hardly say she’d been alone.
There were so many things that still didn’t make sense. Like who would have wanted to hurt Dottie from the diner? And why? Maybe Detective Grace was on the phone getting answers to some of those questions right now. Cosette certainly hoped so. And as much as she didn’t want to meet some news reporter, maybe she could get some answers out of them. Answers that had been plaguing her all day.
“They told me outside you were awake.”
Cosette had a hard time believing her ears or her eyes. “Josh?”
He winced when she spoke his name and put his finger to his lips. “Shh. Not right now. We don’t have much time. I don’t know how long that detective’s going to take before she comes back in here. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to get the chance to…”
“What are you doing here?” Cosette snapped. Why did she sound so angry? She was happy to see him, so glad to know he was safe.
Wasn’t she?
“Listen,” he said, his voice low, “I know there’s a lot of things they’ve probably told you about me. You’re in danger, Cosette. That’s what I came here to say. You’re not safe.”
Cosette wished she weren’t hooked up to these stupid monitors, wished it wouldn’t be so easy for Josh to look over and see how quickly her heart was beating in her chest.
“I thought you were hurt,” she barely managed to croak.
“Shh. I’ll explain all of it soon, I promise. But right now, I need you to trust me.”
Trust him? Cosette didn’t even trust her own five senses right now. What was Josh doing here? He didn’t look injured at all. How could he have abandoned her when she needed him so much? If he had just been there at the gas station, if he had stayed by her side, she wouldn’t be in this terrible mess. Would she?
He took her hand, and she instinctively drew back. She could tell from his face she’d hurt him.
“Cosette,” he said with a pained tension in his voice, “it’s me. You know me.”
“Where were you?” she demanded. Even now, she wanted to believe that he had some kind of logical explanation, some way to let her know that everything going on had a reasonable answer behind it. Josh wasn’t her attacker. He’d never killed a woman. He’d never been falsely imprisoned and lied about it. She wanted to believe each and every one of these things.
But she couldn’t.
“The detective’s on her way back.” Cosette hoped Josh couldn’t detect her bluff. She didn’t know a thing about him but still suspected that over the course of countless phone calls and video chats, he’d come to read her every expression. He knew her fears right now, knew her mistrust.
He knew she was lying about the detective. Cosette had no idea when Grace would be back. She just hoped it was soon.
She glanced at the emergency button on the side of her hospital bed, wondering how quickly she could press it if Josh attacked. Should she sound the alarm now? Why was he even here posing as the press if he wasn’t trying to cover up for something terrible?
She still didn’t think he’d murdered his girlfriend so many years ago. But she knew she’d never be able to trust him again. She set her expression, wrapped her heart up in a case of iron will, and reminded herself that everything her mom had told her
previously was correct. Cosette didn’t know this man. She’d flown all the way out here to meet a stranger. Now he was playing with her emotions, trying to get her to remember those intimate conversations they’d had, trying to remind her of all those months when she’d thought she’d been falling in love.
She had to fight these feelings. Had to remember that Josh didn’t even exist. He was Adam, a man accused of murder.
A man who could hurt her very badly right now if he wanted.
But he wouldn’t, would he? This was a hospital. There were witnesses. There were nurses all around. Cosette was still hooked up to the monitors. If he tried to suffocate her or something, the alarms would go off. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her breathing, trying to remember all those verses her mom used to recite to her about God’s protection and loving care. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
God wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. Not here. Cosette had acted stupidly, unwisely, immaturely. But God was here. He wasn’t going to let Josh hurt her again.
Cosette was safe. If she were lucky, she would stay that way.
No, not lucky.
Blessed.
“I need you to listen to me.” Josh was leaning toward her now. His eyes looked so genuine. Cosette resisted the urge to believe every word he spoke. And yet he still pulled her soul toward him with a dangerous, magnetic attraction. She had to fight it. Had to remind herself that nothing she thought she knew about this man was real.
She’d already been attacked once. Did she have to go through yet another near-death experience to finally learn not to trust him?
Stop acting so stupid, Cosette, she wanted to scream. And yet when she looked into his eyes, she felt her heart melting like candle wax. She wanted to trust him so badly. The intensity of her longing was enough to nearly overshadow the physical pain from her wounds.