Chapter 7: The Thing Brandon Didn't Know Kayla Had
Three days passed.
I stayed at my mother's.
Lily went back to school.
I slept in the small guest room with the yellow curtains my mother had never changed, and I woke up every morning with my ribs aching and my mind already moving.
Detective Reyes called on the second day.
Marcus Teller had been brought in for questioning.
He was cooperating.
She didn't tell me what he said.
She told me to stay available.
On the third morning, Kayla came to my mother's door.
My mother opened it, looked at her, and turned without a word and went to the kitchen.
Which was, for my mother, practically a warm welcome.
Kayla stood in the living room.
She looked like she hadn't slept.
Her hair was pulled back and she was wearing the same jacket she'd had on three days ago, and she held her bag in front of her with both hands like a shield.
"I brought something," she said.
I didn't say anything.
She reached into her bag and took out a phone.
Not her regular phone — an older one, a model I didn't recognize.
She set it on the coffee table between us.
"It's Brandon's," she said.
"His second phone.
He doesn't know I have it.
He left it at the apartment — the new one — about two weeks ago and I found it in the kitchen drawer and I didn't say anything because I didn't know what it was at first." She paused.
"Then I looked at it."
I looked at the phone on the table.
"Why are you bringing it to me?" I asked.
"Because of what's on it."
"Tell me."
She sat down across from me, uninvited, and I let it go because her hands were shaking.
"There are messages," she said.
"Between Brandon and Marcus.
Going back four months.
They're talking about — they're talking about you, Nicole.
About your route home.
About your schedule.
About the insurance policy." She stopped.
"And there are messages from after the accident.
Brandon telling Marcus that it didn't work the way they planned.
That you survived."
The room was very quiet.
"It didn't work the way they planned," I repeated.
"Yes."
"He's saying I was supposed to —"
"Yes."
I stood up.
Kayla flinched slightly.
I wasn't moving toward her — I was just standing because I couldn't sit anymore.
"You were with him," I said.
"For seven months.
While he was planning this."
"I didn't know." Her voice broke.
"Nicole, I swear to you I did not know.
I found out the same time you did, when I looked at that phone.
I called you the same night."
"You should have called the police."
"I know.
I was scared.
I didn't know what to do." She looked at the phone on the table.
"I'm telling you now.
I'm bringing it to you.
Tell me what to do and I'll do it."
I looked at my sister.
I had known her face my entire life.
I knew the way she looked when she was lying and the way she looked when she was telling the truth, and right now she was telling the truth, and I hated how much that complicated everything.
"You're going to take that phone to Detective Reyes," I said.
"Today.
Right now.
You're going to give her your statement, everything you told me on the phone, everything you just told me now.
And you're going to answer every question she asks."
"Okay."
"And Kayla." I waited until she looked at me.
"If there is anything else — anything you've left out, anything you think might not matter — you tell her.
Everything."
"There's one more thing," she said quietly.
I waited.
"He has a lawyer.
He called one yesterday.
Someone told him he was being looked at." She met my eyes.
"I think someone at the precinct tipped him off."
I thought about Reyes.
About the careful way she'd spoken.
About the folder she'd already had on her desk before I walked in.
"Does he know about the phone?" I asked.
"No.
He thinks he lost it."
"Then go.
Right now.
Before he figures out it's gone."
Kayla stood.
She picked up the phone and held it carefully, like it might break.
At the door she stopped.
"Nicole.
I know I don't have the right to ask you anything.
I know that.
But I need you to know —"
"Not now," I said.
She nodded.
She left.
I stood in my mother's living room and listened to her car start in the driveway and pull away.
Then I called Reyes.
"She's coming to you," I said.
"She has a second phone.
Brandon's.
There are messages on it."
A pause.
"How long until she gets here?"
"Twenty minutes."
"I'll be here." Another pause.
"Ms.
Nicole.
Don't contact Brandon.
Don't let him know anything has changed."
"I wasn't planning to."
"Good." Her voice was steady.
"This is moving.
I want you to know that."
I hung up and stood at the window.
Lily would be home from school in two hours.
I needed to have something normal ready for her — a snack, a question about her day, the ordinary shape of an afternoon.
I went to the kitchen to see what my mother had in the cupboards.
My phone buzzed on the counter.
A text from Brandon.
*Nicole.
I think we should talk.
I've been thinking about everything and I want to explain.
Can we meet?*
I set the phone face-down.
He wanted to explain.
He wanted to meet.
He didn't know about the phone.
He didn't know about Reyes.
May you like
He didn't know that Marcus Teller was already cooperating.
He thought he still had time.
