Ollie Clark—Friday, June 28, 2019
Cindy sighed as she counted out paper money. “You know, when we were kids, we used to rob the bank.”
“Pretty sure there’s something against that in the rules.” Eli scooped up the pile of fake cash and started organizing it by color.
“If everyone playing agrees, the rules can be whatever you want. The only one that always applies is you can’t change them in the middle of the game.” She pushed the dice over to Ollie.
“Your childhood sounds lawless and exciting,” Eli observed.
She shook her head. “It actually meant we rarely played because there was no way all six of us were going to agree on anything. Split into smaller groups and it limits your options.”
Ollie nodded. “Yeah, that’s why we’ve got what we’ve got.” She landed on one of Cindy’s properties, but the bills she handed over didn’t make up for what she’d just lost to Eli. “A bunch of them had to be okay for two people. Dad’s not a board game kind of guy.”
“Your mom’s the one who taught me to play most of them.” Eli owned a nice long stretch of the board so his turn was highly unexciting. “She was nice about it, though. She didn’t act like it was something every kid from a happy, healthy home should know.”
Cindy winced. “Did a lot of parents do that?”
“Well, I can’t really say a lot because I wasn’t exactly invited many places, but there were enough pity faces. And you’d think teachers would know not to do that kind of thing, but …” He shrugged. “I guess it’s better than them acting like they didn’t expect any better, but by the time I was six I knew Jared was the golden boy who rose above his situation instead of … whatever I was doing.”
“Reading beyond your grade level,” Ollie offered. “Annoying Ms. Meindertsma because you knew what negative numbers were and she wanted us to tell her you can’t do subtraction and end up with something less than zero.”
“Library cards are free,” he reminded Cindy. “We didn’t have a tv, but I borrowed all kinds of books. Compared to this one, though”—he tilted his head at Ollie—“my speed is abysmal. Thank God for audiobooks.”
Cindy chewed on her lip and then looked up from the board to meet Eli’s eyes. “I don’t get it. Your dad left, but so did Jared’s. And they were brothers, so it wasn’t like Randy knew one better than the other. And your moms …”
Eli raised his hand. “Mine’s the slut. In case that clears things up.”
She frowned and looked to Ollie like she expected the younger woman to correct him, but he’d accurately represented public perception. “That’s it?”
Eli licked his lips and looked at Ollie, but she wasn’t sure what he wanted from her. Permission? Intervention? Then he turned back to Cindy. “I know you only met him like five years ago, but before? Jared was popular. Confident, charming … sassy without stepping over the line. He had the wordplay and the grin down. His grades weren’t great, but they weren’t awful, and teachers loved him. He’d raise his hand and try at least half the time. And he was good at sports—just naturally agile. He came by those records honestly. He’s big, but he could move. Put him on that football field and after freshman year the other schools just trembled in their cleats. He had a reputation, and he kept smashing it. He was friends with everybody in his grade and the grade below, which meant he didn’t have to be friends with me, and I think he was fine with that. He was going places. Not college, but … places. And then …” He looked at Ollie again, passing it off.
Sighing, Ollie shrugged. “Publicly he dated Birdy all of six weeks, but she was eighteen years, six weeks, and two days old when she died, so maybe they had a thing before then.” She closed her eyes because Eli backed her into a corner, and maybe it wasn’t entirely accidental. “They looked good on the outside, but they were really toxic together.”
Eli’s hand went to her thigh, gave it a squeeze, and rested there.
“Toxic?” Cindy echoed.
“Okay, so.” Ollie sighed and held out her hands like she was weighing something in them. “On the one hand you’ve got Birdy, who always needed to be the center of attention. She had to have the best stuff, or the worst weekend, or just … I think she struggled with how much attention Mom got inside our family, how everything seemed to be based on what Mom could or couldn’t do, so she just needed someone to focus on her. And then you get Jared, who had it easy for so long and then left high school and was all ‘Now what?’ She was very clear in what she wanted from people, and he could give her the attention she wanted.”
“I think …” Eli rubbed his mouth, looking at something only he could see. “I think Jared was used to saving people. Making them look good. I know the football thing makes it sound like he liked the spotlight, but he was never entirely comfortable with that. He was always like hey, we’re a team. He’d rather support someone and let them shine.”
“Birdy thrived on people wanting her to shine?” Cindy suggested.
Ollie shook her head. “She thrived on people telling her she was shining.”
“And what did you thrive on?” her stepmom wanted to know.
Ollie winced and looked at Eli, who leaned over to kiss her forehead. “You thrived on going off to college and not having to think about your sister every waking minute,” he said with an apologetic shrug.
“I loved her.”
“Honey.” Eli caught her chin in his free hand and gently forced her to look at him. “You know that doesn’t mean you had to like her. You liked Birdy better from a distance. She was a better sister from a distance. And you didn’t abandon her, but you put up those boundaries. Email once a day, call once a week … it’s okay to grow apart from someone. To admit you need the space and they’re not your responsibility.” Then he raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. “Which is what you’ve been thinking about me and Jared, right?”
“Okay, except you get to pick it. I didn’t get a choice.”
He started to lean in and land his next kiss on her lips, but his phone buzzed. Sighing, he pulled it out. “Speak of the devil. Hey, Jare. What’s—?”
Ollie couldn’t hear what Jared said, but his voice was higher than usual and the cadence much faster. Eli tried to say a couple things, but he only got out single syllables because Jared simply didn’t stop. He finally said “Yes” and “Okay” and “I will,” but when Eli tried asking “Are you sure?” he took the phone away from his ear because the phone ended.
Cindy smiled sympathetically. “Trouble?”
Eli shook his head slowly and ever so gently placed his phone on the table. “That was his one phone call. Jared went down there this morning and confessed to the murders.”
Initial conversation, Jared Chapman and Lieutenant Samuel Johnson, June 28, 2019
JC: You’re the lead or whatever? The one going after Randy?
SJ: I am, Mr. Chapman, and I’m very busy, so—
JC: You need to hear this. Cindy said you guys found a gun? Somewhere?
SJ: Near his cabin in Covington, Mr. Chapman, but I don’t think—
JC: That’s not the gun that did it. I don’t know if you can tell that, but it’s not. I’ll tell you where the real gun is, but the thing is, I’ve got to tell you a lot first.
SJ: Mr. Chapman …
JC: I’ve done a lot of research since then, and I figured I’d never be caught, because you can’t match the gun. Even if you find it and my prints are on it, you don’t know it’s the right one. And where I put it … it seemed like a good idea at the time, even though now … But Randy didn’t do it. You have to believe me.
SJ: Mr. Chapman … we know you have a close relationship with Mr. Clark. We also know that there are no firearms registered in your name. I know you’re upset at this turn of events, but confessing to this horrendous crime in an attempt to clear his name—
JC: You only found one shell there by the door. The second one was in the alley. I only grabbed the one, because I didn’t see where the other one landed, and then I dropped it when I fell. I figured it didn’t matter, because I wiped them down and wore gloves when I loaded it, but that part didn’t make the papers. Or the trial. Everything said they found two shell casings, and you figured the guy didn’t care because he left them, but you didn’t say they weren’t close together.
SJ: Individual casings—
JC: Can fly different distances from the same gun, yeah, sure, but we’re talking behind the house, in that foot traffic alley, two houses up. I had the shell in my left hand and it flew out into those bushes, the scratchy ones. I tried to find it but I figured someone would’ve heard, so I grabbed the gun and kept going. I actually stashed the gun under my mattress again that night, and I was afraid you guys were going to find it before I had the chance to move it, but you didn’t. You didn’t even look at me.
SJ: Mr. Chapman, you’re making some very serious declarations.
JC: Confession. I know it’s a confession. You figured out it wasn’t Eli back then, but I don’t trust you to figure out it wasn’t Randy, either. He doesn’t deserve that, and he—God, he’s shit at judging people. Do you believe it? Saves my life, keeps dragging me in, keeps trying to care about me. Fuck, I didn’t mind when it was Kelly. He’s done enough, so what’s two more? And then I’d really be okay, nobody’d be after me, but nobody’s been after me, do you understand? Randy and Ollie and Eli all … all circled the wagons. Sorry, that’s racist, but that’s what they did, you know? And Ollie? Fuck, she’s an absolute sweetheart. Did you know? Because I don’t think Birdy did. She told me Ollie was stuck up and little miss perfect and all this but God, the emails between the two of them? All the stuff that came out? I feel … God, he should’ve just let me die.
SJ: Mr. Chapman, am I to understand that you’re confessing to plotting and carrying out the murders of Wendy and Catherine “Birdy” Clark?
JC: Plotting? No. You don’t understand. Birdy was supposed to be in Covington that night. She left me right before dinner, and she was going to eat and then get in her dad’s car and go. Right? So it was supposed to be Wendy and Ollie at home, and they were both bitches. Do you understand? The mom being all overbearing and controlling and just unfair, because Ollie got everything and Birdie got the shaft. And I’m not the only one who believed her, right? Kendra and them … they got on the freaking stand and told everyone, right? And I had even more than that, because Birdy just told me everything. All these rants, all these hours of how her parents were freaking Nazis and her sister’s farts were perfume, and I just … I believed her, you know? So when … when I actually got to know Ollie …
SJ: Mr. Chapman, I’d like to get a stenographer in here so you can start from the beginning.
JC: The beginning? Shit. The whole thing’s a tangled mess. Can I make a phone call first, though? I still get one phone call, right, even if I’m confessing to murder?
SJ: Yes, you can make a phone call. JC: Good. And then I’m going to need a glass of water, and you’ll have to send someone to check on the gun, and … well. You’ll have to let Randy go. He doesn’t deserve this.
Bury the Dead 26 – coming April 26
Rebecca Frost 