Page 66 of The Unmaking of June Farrow

I picked at my fingernail beneath the table anxiously. “In Norfolk. Taking care of my mother.” The answer was rote, repeated exactly from what Eamon and Esther had told me.

“When did you first hear she was ill?”

“I’m not sure. A few days before I left?” It was a total guess, but as long as I kept to the most logical of details, I had the best chance of getting out of whatever this was. June had left suddenly, so if she was going to see her mother, it couldn’t have been planned. “I got a letter.” I added.

Caleb made a note on the pad in front of him. “Do you still have this letter?”

“I don’t think so. I can look.”

“I would appreciate that. And what exactly happened to your mother?”

“She’d had a stroke and needed me to come look after her.”

“So, you’ve been in Norfolk since?”

I nodded.

“Answer aloud for the tape, please.”

“Sorry. Yes.”

“Can you provide the name of the hospital where she was treated?”

I could feel the pulse at my wrist beating harder by the second. “I…” I bit down on my lip. “I can’t remember it right off. I can find out.”

“You do that.” He met my eyes long enough to let me know that he thought I was lying. This was a game. One he thought he was winning. From where I sat, it appeared that he was. “Why haven’t you come home to visit in the last year?”

“I couldn’t leave my mother.” I was clumsily filling in the blanks now, grasping for the most reflexive answers.

“I see.” He folded his hands on the table. “Well, it’s been quite a long wait for us to sit down with you. You can imagine that we’re relieved to finally get some of these questions answered.”

I looked to Sam, who still stood by the door. He was facing the opposite wall, no reaction visible on his face.

“Why don’t you take me through that night again,” Caleb said, setting his pen down.

That night.The only thing he could be talking about was the night Nathaniel was murdered, but he’d saidagain.That meant he’d asked these questions before.

“June?”

“The night of the Faire?”

“Yes. The night of the Midsummer Faire.”

My mind was moving so fast now that I could hardly track the thoughts. They were one huge storm in my head.

That night, you were home. With Eamon and Annie. Just the three of you.

Esther’s frantic words rang in my skull.

“Where did you go after the Faire, June?” Caleb pressed.

“We were home. The three of us. All night.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed again. I’d said something wrong. “You went home together?”

“Yes,” I said, too loudly.

Caleb and Sam met eyes across the room, and I bit down so hard that my teeth ached. I’d messed up somewhere, but I didn’t know how. I was stumbling in the dark, Esther’s incomplete instructions and the few newspaper articles I’d read the only things lighting my path.