You Let Me In - Camilla Bruce Page 0,44
fall out of love with Tommy Tipp. Tommy Tipp was already dead—”
“Or maybe—if he suddenly changed, or even reverted, turned into a man who was different from the one you married and made promises to keep. That is a way of ‘falling apart’ too, if his personality or loyalty disintegrated somehow.”
“I don’t know why you keep asking me these questions. I have told you already what happened. The magic was up, the spell was broken.”
“Many married women feel that way, but they don’t necessarily decorate the trees with their spouses’ body parts.”
“It was only natural that he went back to the woods that he came from.”
“Twigs and leaves?”
“Moss and stones.”
“They didn’t find his heart, though.”
“I told you already, Pepper-Man ate it.”
“They are still searching, you know. What would you do if they found Tommy’s heart?”
“They won’t.”
“But if they did, would you still say that Pepper-Man ate it?”
“I would say that Pepper-Man made it for some reason, for the police to find, perhaps. Made it from a birch root, or a paw.”
“But the body would still not be Tommy Tipp?”
“No.”
“Just a creature you made?”
“A shell of twigs, yes.”
“And nothing they find out there can change your mind?”
“No. I know what happened.”
But I was the only one who did—and no one seemed to believe me.
* * *
And despite our confidence when we wheeled the remains into the woods, I didn’t even have time to report Tommy missing before the mushroom hunters had found the body.
The two middle-aged ladies were quite hysterical, and very graphic in their descriptions to the press: Macabre feast in the woods! sounded one headline … Body parts hung as garlands … We never saw that coming, to be honest. I was quite unprepared for it all.
I am sure you have seen it for yourselves, on yellowing pages with faded ink. Wife suspected of murder known to be very jealous … She was talking to the devil in class, former classmate says … They tell a story that people were more than happy to believe. The whole affair shed some limelight, too, on those in S— who wanted to seek it. Tommy Tipp’s old lovers came forth, always anonymous with blurred photos, and so did other people that I’d had the poor fortune to associate with. Our neighbors turned against me overnight, shaking their heads and muttering about “poor Tommy.” “We always knew that girl was bad,” they said when asked. “Always knew she was a little ‘out there’—never thought it was this bad, though…”
And there I was, knowing it all to be a lie, and in my fear and confusion I told it like it was, and begged them all to believe me.
Except for that incident with Tommy thirteen years before, I was hardly a murderer. I was a normal housewife.
I have no idea why the detectives claimed to have found Tommy’s blood in the basement. I have no recollection of Pepper-Man ever bleeding down there. Maybe he had cut himself repairing something—he was less graceful when wearing human hands. It could have been when we moved all those crates the year before, lots of hauling and carrying then; he could have nicked himself on a splinter or scratched his skin on the wall.
At the very least, the blood couldn’t have been found in the amounts they were saying. I think the whole thing was a setup from the start, they wanted someone to blame, and the one they chose to put it on was me.
XIX
Well, Janus and Penelope—I’m thinking you imagined more drama, more heated feelings and passionate slashes; a crime of jealousy and rage—Aunt Cassie on a psychotic break.
Especially knowing what you do about those other deaths—or think you do. The things Olivia has told you—the reason why our little family is even smaller, now.
That’s not how it was, though, was not how it happened—I was never crazed—nor ill.
Tommy Tipp’s second death was inelegant and crude, but it was not a murder. It was merely the result of my worlds colliding, human frailty, and the impact this all had on both sides. It was an issue that refused to resolve itself, a wrinkle that wouldn’t be ironed. I can’t even blame anybody involved, they all just see one side of the coin. Pepper-Man cannot, despite his years as Tommy Tipp, quite relate to human rules.
What is the justice system to him, or anyone who lives for a thousand years? How could he properly assess the risks and see the potential consequences for me? My lawyer, Myra