The End of Her - Shari Lapena Page 0,77

spared this.

Lange stands up straight, his hand on Stephanie’s shoulder. She’s still bent over, probably so that she doesn’t have to look at him. Her worst fears realized, Patrick supposes. How wrong she is.

Lange turns his attention to Patrick, exhales deeply, and says what they all now know. ‘I’m afraid you failed the test, Patrick.’

Patrick shakes his head. ‘No. That’s impossible. The test is wrong!’

Stephanie slowly sits back up, but she seems to have turned to stone. Why does she believe the machine over him? He’s told her how unreliable these tests are.

Freed now from the wires, Patrick finds himself stumbling over to his wife, kneeling down beside her. ‘Stephanie, you know how inaccurate these tests are. It was an accident!’

She doesn’t even look at him.

Lange says, ‘Look, we have to make some decisions.’ He nods to the examiner, who is quietly leaving the room with his equipment. ‘Thanks, Roddy.’ He turns to Patrick. ‘Sit down,’ he says, moving back behind his own desk. ‘We’ve got work to do.’

Stephanie faces the attorney. Patrick doesn’t like the expression on her face. He can imagine what’s going through her mind. She thinks he did it. Maybe it’s all over between them now, Patrick thinks numbly. She won’t trust him after this. She won’t love him any more. He wonders how long it will be before she leaves him. The thought renders him frightened and hollow.

‘We’re expected at the sheriff’s. Here’s what I suggest,’ Lange says. ‘We know they will ask you to take a polygraph. You will, on my advice, decline. They will probably, in that event, arrest you on the charge of first- or second-degree murder. It will depend on the level of premeditation they think was involved.’ Patrick can only stare back at the attorney, frozen in disbelief. ‘You will then be in custody. You don’t have to talk to them. I will be there with you. I suggest we allow a brief interview in which you deny the charges unreservedly. You explain, again, that it was an accident. And that’s it. I won’t allow them to question you any further. It is up to them to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. We don’t give them anything to work with, got it?’

Patrick nods, unable to speak.

‘You won’t be going home tonight.’ The attorney glances over at Stephanie, and Patrick dully follows his gaze. ‘I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by your going to the sheriff’s with us,’ he says.

Patrick has to agree with him. Stephanie looks like she thinks it’s a foregone conclusion that her husband will be convicted of murder. He wants her to go home. She’s certainly not helping.

The attorney turns to him, and he must look as frightened as he feels because Lange says, ‘Chin up. It’s up to the state to prove it was murder, beyond a reasonable doubt. You sit tight. The burden is on them. And honestly – I don’t think they’ll go through with a trial.’

Patrick wonders if his own lawyer thinks he’s guilty. Does Lange care? To him Patrick’s just another client.

Lange comes from behind his desk and helps Stephanie up with a hand at her elbow. ‘I’m sorry, but I think it’s best if you just go to the airport. I’ll have my secretary call you a cab. Let’s go see her.’

Patrick watches her leave the room with his attorney without a backward glance. He feels terribly alone, and despite his attorney’s reassurances, what he’s facing terrifies him. And it’s all because of that treacherous bitch Erica.

Stephanie wanders around the airport, killing time until her scheduled flight. How strange, to be in an unfamiliar airport, drifting in and out of shops, while her husband is at the Sheriff’s Office, being charged with murder.

Finally, exhausted, she stops at a Starbucks and sits at a little table with a coffee. What she needs is someone to talk to. Someone she can trust. She has so much turmoil inside her, and no one to unburden herself to. She thinks about Hanna. Can she trust her? Can she tell her what happened at the attorney’s office today? No, she decides. She can’t.

She can hardly come to grips with it herself.

He hadn’t passed the lie detector test. What does that tell her? He did it. He killed his wife and unborn child on purpose.

She wrestles with the information, trying to get hold of it in some way that makes sense. Polygraphs can’t be counted on. Everyone knows that. He didn’t