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Fool Me Once

“I didn’t just want to see Joe. I needed to see him. I needed to make it real. If you don’t see a body, you don’t quite get it. It’s like…”

“Like what?”

“Like maybe it didn’t happen. Like maybe they’re still alive. You dream about them.”

“You dream about the dead too.”

“Oh, I know. But it’s different without closure. When we lost Andrew at sea…”

Again that stupid phraseology.

“… I never saw his body either.”

That surprised Maya. “Wait, why not? They recovered it, didn’t they?”

“That’s what I was told.”

“You don’t believe it?”

Caroline shrugged. “I was young. They never showed me his body. Closed casket again. I have visions, Maya. Daydreams about him. Still. To this day. I have these dreams where Andrew never died and I wake up and he’s standing right there, by that soccer net, and he’s smiling and making saves. Oh, I know he’s not here. I know he died in an accident, but I also don’t know. Do you see? I could never accept Andrew’s death. Sometimes I think he survived the fall and swam off and he’s on an island somewhere, and one day I’ll see him and it’ll all be okay. But if I could have seen his body…”

Maya stood very still.

“So I knew. I knew this time I couldn’t make that mistake again. That’s why I asked to see Joe’s body. I begged really. I didn’t care if he looked messed up. That might have even helped me in a way. I needed to do it so I’d accept that he was really gone, you know?”

“And you didn’t see him?”

Caroline shook her head. “They wouldn’t let me.”

“Who wouldn’t let you?”

She looked back toward the goalie net. “Two of my brothers. Both dead so young. It could just be bad luck, you know? It happens. But in both cases, I didn’t see the body. Did you listen to Heather? No one will officially declare Joe dead. Both my brothers. It’s like…” She turned and stared straight into Maya’s eyes. “Like they could both be alive.”

Maya did not move. “But they aren’t.”

“I know it sounds crazy-”

“It is crazy.”

“You had a fight with Isabella, right? She told us. She said you were screaming about seeing Joe. Why did you do that? What did you mean?”

“Caroline, listen to me. Joe is dead.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I was there.”

“But you didn’t see him die, right? It was dark. You were running away by the third shot.”

“Listen to me, Caroline. The police came. They’ve been investigating. He didn’t get up from the two shots I saw and walk away. The cops even arrested two suspects. How do you explain all that?”

Caroline shook her head.

“What?”

“You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

“The officer leading the investigation,” Caroline said. “His name is Roger Kierce.”

“That’s right.”

Silence.

“Caroline, what is it?”

“I know this is going to sound crazy…”

Maya wanted to shake the information out of her.

“We have this private bank account. I won’t go into details on it. They aren’t important. But let’s just say you’d never trace it back to the source. Do you know what I mean?”

“I think so. Wait. Is it called WTC?”

“No.”

“It’s not out of Houston?”

“No, it’s offshore. Why were you asking me about Houston?”

“It doesn’t matter. Go on. You have a private overseas account.”

Caroline stared at her a beat too long. “So I started going through some recent online transactions.”

Maya nodded, tried to look encouraging.

“Most of the transfers went to numbered accounts or offshore holdings, stuff that bounces to various places so it can’t be traced back. Again there is no reason to go into details. But there was a name in there too. Several payments made to a Roger Kierce.”

Maya took the blow without so much as blinking. “Are you sure?”

“That’s what I saw.”

“Show me.”

“What?”

“You have online access to the account,” Maya said. “So show it to me.”

* * *

Caroline tapped in the password. The same message-“ERROR: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS”-popped across the screen for the third time.

“I don’t understand,” Caroline said. She sat in front of the computer in the library. “Maya?”

Maya stood behind her and stared at the screen. Don’t rush, she told herself. Think it through. But this part didn’t take much thought. She quickly whittled down the possibilities and realized that one of two things was happening here: Either Caroline was playing her or someone had changed passwords so Caroline could no longer access the online financial records.

“What exactly did you see?” Maya asked.

“I told you. Money transfers to Roger Kierce.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know. Three maybe?”

“How much were they?”

“Nine thousand dollars each.”

Nine thousand. That made sense. Anything below ten grand could go unreported.

“What else?” Maya asked.

“What do you mean?”

“When was the first payment made?”

“I don’t know.”

“Before or after Joe was murdered?”