River Road by Carol Goodman

smelled liquor on her breath when I caught up to her at the wall. She was drunk. She stumbled over the wall and then she said she was sorry.”
    â€œSorry for what?”
    â€œI think for running over Leia. She left this at Leia’s shrine.”
    I pulled the pink barrette out of my pocket and laid it on the table between us. Sergeant McAffrey’s face turned pale.
    â€œYou recognize it, don’t you? You’re the one who found it wedged into Hannah’s radiator grille after she hit Emmy.”
    â€œLots of little girls wear these. My niece did when she was going through that pink stage all girls go through. Now she wants to be a cowgirl and will only wear stuff with horses on it. What makes you think it was Hannah who left this on Leia’s shrine?”
    â€œBecause she left this too.” I took the bottle of Four Roses out of my pocket and saw his eyes widen. Too late I realized what it looked like: a drunk carrying around booze in her coat.
    â€œI found this on the shrine tonight. It’s Hannah’s brand. There were daffodils too, like the ones Hannah’s been leaving for me since she got out of prison. She’s been hanging around my house, leaving me notes, saying she wants to make amends. Don’t you see? She must have been driving to my house the night Leia died—drunk as usual. She’s the one who hit Leia.”
    I finished in a rush, gulping for air. Sergeant McAffrey was staring at me, not with the flash of epiphany I’d hoped for but not with disbelief either. Instead he looked sad, as if I’d let him down. But all he said was “Interview concluded” and the time and flicked off the tape recorder. I’d forgotten I was being recorded. Then he spoke into an intercom.
    â€œLouisa, would you please have Ms. Lewis’s statement typed up for her to sign. I’ll drive her home when she’s done.”
    He left without looking at me. Half an hour later a woman in a red and green Christmas sweater, Santa earrings, and glasses dangling from a chain around her neck came in with my statement. She told me to read it carefully and sign if it was all correct. I reread the story I’d just told McAffrey and saw how outlandish it sounded. But that’s what really happened , I wanted to say, just as my students did when I critiqued their writing.
    A minute after I signed it Sergeant McAffrey came in, as if he’d been watching me. He looked preoccupied. When I handed him the statement he looked up from the page to my face, his eyes narrowed.
    â€œProfessor Ballantine says that he was on his way to see you when he hit Hannah on the road. Were you expecting him?”
    â€œNo,” I said truthfully. “But he said he was coming to say he was sorry that he didn’t defend me at the vigil.”
    â€œI was there and saw what happened. He didn’t look sorry.”
    It was what I had thought but hearing Sergeant McAffrey say it made me realize all over again how strange it all was—Ross coming to see me, just happening to come around the curve when Hannah ran out. But what other explanation could there be?
    â€œI guess he had a change of heart,” I said.
    â€œUh-huh,” he said, not sounding convinced. “And you said you last saw Leia in the kitchen at the holiday party talking to Ross Ballantine? Did you hear what they were talking about?”
    â€œNo, I . . .” The sudden change of topic from tonight to the night of the party had taken me by surprise. “I was upset myself.”
    â€œWas Leia upset?”
    I recalled Leia swiveling around when I came into the kitchen, spilling the wine she’d been pouring, her eyes wide and startled. Like a deer in the headlights . I’d thought she was surprised by my abrupt entrance but now I recalled that her eyes had been red around the rims and her cheeks were splotchy.
    â€œYes, I think she was upset about something. Cressida Janowicz