finally glanced up from his notebook. “And, why’s that?”
“Because that’s when Lily lost her grip on the tree and fell into the water.”
I had no idea what Hayle had told Dyck, or if he’d even been questioned yet. But, as far as I was concerned, they never needed to know about Lily’s last words or that the loosening of her grip had been intentional.
Clearly, I owed no loyalty to the woman, after all she’d done. My choice to stay quiet on this point had everything to do with Hayle. His mother’s final words had to be shredding him from the inside out, and I had no interest in feeding those lines to the authorities like a loaf of bread to a family of ducks.
When the detective didn’t visibly react to my description of events, I exhaled slowly through my teeth. Maybe that would be the end of it. No one could be confused as to why she wouldn’t have been able to stay balanced on that slim tree for long enough to be rescued.
“What then?” Dyck asked, returning to his notes.
“I kept my eyes trained on the water near where she fell, waiting for her to reappear, but she never did.”
My stomach roiled just remembering. It hadn’t made sense to me when she hadn’t come up for air, flailing against the tide, and my mind had whirred with the possibilities. Had she landed on a rock just below the waterline? Had her thick sweater gotten caught on something or weighed her down, making it impossible for her to resurface? Or had she intentionally sunk into the ocean, determined to let water fill her lungs?
Knowing he would ask for what happened next, I kept going. “Shortly after, Tristin showed up, and he called nine-one-one to report the incident. A few minutes later, Leo was there with a rope, and they tied the end into a loop for me to put around my waist. Tristin pulled me up, and then he helped me inside. That’s everything.”
Detective Dyck didn’t say anything for so long, I started fidgeting with my bandage again. When he looked up at me, he asked solemnly, “And what about Hayle during all of this? You haven’t mentioned his name since before his mother fell to her death.”
“As far as I could tell, he was in shock until Leo arrived and went to him.”
“So, he made no move to go after his mother when she fell?”
I scowled. “You mean, did he jump off the side of the cliff and go in after her? No, he didn’t do that, thank god.” At the time, I’d worried that he might. It had been a relief when, from my vantage, he hadn’t been able to do anything but stare into the waves.
“You didn’t want her to be rescued?”
Logically, I knew this was one of the moments when I should remain cool and composed. But it just wasn’t going to happen. Not after the night I’d had. “I risked my own life to help her, so yes, of course I wanted her to be rescued. But there was nothing either Hayle or I could have done at that point. There was no safe entry into the water, and we wouldn’t have even known where to look. And, to be frank, I’m insulted at your insinuation that we didn’t do everything in our power to save her.”
“After the reports of how she’s terrorized you, I’m honestly surprised you would bother trying to help her at all.”
I sat up straight in my chair. “What reports?”
His bushy eyebrows rose. “You don’t know?”
“Obviously not,” I replied, letting my snark flag fly. I was past caring.
“Vincent Sharpe came to the station earlier today and reported a whole slew of bad behavior on Ms. Crowder’s part, as well as a fair amount of his own.”
Oh my god. That’s what Lily had meant when she’d accused me of siccing the authorities on her. But it had been Vincent all along. No wonder Detective Dyck hadn’t seemed surprised when I’d recounted that part of my story. He already knew all about it.
“If what Mr. Sharpe told me is true, Ms. Crowder murdered your mother, and you knew it.” His expression turned a little too smug for my liking. “That sounds like a perfectly legitimate reason to let her drown to me.”
“You know what? It is a perfectly legitimate reason. She didn’t deserve for me to lift a fucking pinky to help her.” Hot tears of anger and frustration and sadness filled my