The Sleeping Beauty Killer

60

Charlotte and Angela had decided to take a “divide and conquer” approach. Charlotte left her friend to continue working on the “home” set upstairs, while Charlotte circled back downstairs to decide the exact layout of the exercise-themed set on the ground floor.

She unpacked the yoga mats and hand weights from the bins Angela had used to transport them from the office. She was always impressed by Angela’s ability to find savings in a budget. They were renting the larger equipment like treadmills and Pilates machines for the show, but Angela was the one who’d raided Ladyform’s on-site gym for these smaller items.

Charlotte was trying to decide between two different layouts she’d sketched, but found her mind wandering as she looked at her sketch pad. She paused to read all of the notes that Angela had taped around the first floor for the set builders. She found yet another use of the term and also.”

She reached into her briefcase for her iPad, opened her email, and searched for archived messages from Angela. As she read through them, certain sentences jumped out at her in a new way. I confirmed with the light company. And also we need to discuss music. Let’s go to Lupa tonight. Best pasta! And also there’s a shop two blocks away I want to scope out.

And also. That was the phrase Laurie had highlighted from many of the negative comments posted about Casey online. Charlotte had never noticed, but Angela seemed to use the phrase, too. Maybe it was common, she thought. On the other hand, she couldn’t help but replay Laurie’s comments that afternoon. Angela may have already had suspicions. She was worried it would come to this. Neither one of us would be in this situation if she’d told us from the beginning she had her doubts.

Maybe Angela had known all along that Casey was guilty but didn’t want to tell the police. Casey and her parents had been Angela’s only family after her mother died. She could imagine Angela feeling torn about whether to turn on Casey if it meant losing not only her, but her aunt and uncle as well. But to post negative comments anonymously online while pretending to be her most loyal defender? To let Charlotte plead Casey’s innocence to Laurie, even as she carried her own doubts?

Charlotte could not believe that Angela would be so deceitful. She was tempted to ask her directly, but in the likely event she was wrong, she didn’t want to pile any more stress onto her friend’s plate.

Then she realized there might be another way to put her concerns to rest.