Photo by Jonny Clow on Unsplash
He looks at me like I’m crazy. Like I’m lying.
“I didn’t do it,” I tell him. “That’s the truth.”
I shrug my shoulders. What more can I say? He looks unconvinced. So I raise my eyebrows and stare wide eyed. I saw a body language expert on a show once. He said if someone raises their eyebrows and opens their eyes wide, it means they want agreement. I want agreement from this guy.
Nothing.
Instead he starts listing off details of what they know.
“You couldn’t have been at home,” he says to me, leaning forward in his chair. Really getting in my face. I can practically count his nose hairs. His badge glints under the fluorescent light, practically shouting a warning.
“We have you on video. At Walmart. At 2:15 A.M. Buying a shovel. And duct tape. And a tarp.”
“I was planning a camping trip.” This part is true. It really was.
“Your wife was already missing,” he tells me.
Like I don’t already know. That’s why I’m here. She went out to the 7-11. We were out of charcoal for the grill. True story. We needed it for the camping trip. How’re we supposed to eat without fire? Am I right? I think I am.
“Look,” I say to him, without raising my voice, which is no easy feat. “I didn’t do it. I would never harm my wife. I’m telling you the truth.” That’s partly true, if I’m completely honest with you. Sometimes I feel like killing her. Like when she doesn’t fill the car up with gas, and we’re leaving in the morning to go camping. That can really be annoying. Set a person off. You know what I mean? I think you do.
“We have you on video,” the guy says again, his chair squeaking as he inches forward, getting even closer. “At the gas station. And we can see the blood dripping off the tarp that’s hanging out of the trunk.”
It can’t be true? Can it?
“You need to tell us now. What happened? Think hard.”
I sigh, involuntarily. Almost as if I’ve lost control.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you the truth.” I take a deep breath and look him square in the eye. “I did not mean to kill her.”
His eyes open wide as he raises his grizzled eyebrows at me. Is that surprise or agreement? I can’t tell. But I lean forward, still looking at him, directly into those bug eyes of his.
“It was an accident,” I say. “Honest.”
Samantha Seiple is the author of narrative nonfiction books for adults and young adults, including Louisa on the Front Lines: Louisa May Alcott in the Civil War (Seal Press, 2019), an Amazon Best Book of the Month; Nazi Saboteurs: Hitler’s Secret Attack on America (Scholastic, 2019), a Junior Library Guild Selection; Death on the River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Amazon Adventure (Scholastic, 2017), a Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Gold Award winner; Byrd & Igloo: A Polar Adventure (Scholastic, 2013); and Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska’s WWII Invasion (Scholastic, 2011), a YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Nominee.