Brianna grunted, throwing her head back and downing the last of the amber liquid. “No doubt they had plenty of nice things to say about Ellora and nothing but hate for Anderson.” Her hand shook as she gestured with the glass in hand, but her deep brown eyes softened as the alcohol took effect. “I hope you don’t think any less of me for day-drinking.”
Ellie shook her head. “I know reliving that day must be hard.”
“You have no idea. I haven’t been the same.” She ran the fingers of her free hand through her hair. “I tried to stop him, but it all happened so fast.”
Treading carefully, Ellie waited for Brianna to set the empty tumbler down before she spoke. “What made you think you could have stopped him?”
“We were friends. I thought if I could get close enough, he’d listen to me.”
“Were you work friends, or did you know Anderson before you worked together?”
Brianna’s fingers twisted in her lap. “Before. We met in a support group.”
“What type of support group?”
“For OCD. It was the first time in my life that someone really got me.” She laughed and turned to gaze out the window. “I know this is going to sound stupid, but Anderson changed my life. I grew up thinking I was a freak. You know how people are. They think OCD is a bunch of overzealous handwashing and superstitions about stepping on cracks. But Anderson came from a family that embraced who he was.” She scoffed, brown eyes haunted when she turned back toward Ellie. “My mother prayed over me day and night trying to rid me of the demon within. No matter what the doctor told her, she was convinced that she could fix me with traditional remedies and impassioned pleas for mercy. Which just made the symptoms worse.”
“Then you met Anderson.”
Brianna nodded, glancing longingly at the empty tumbler. “I was younger then. Anderson was thirty-five, and even though he was still struggling with his illness, he had this calming quality about him. I felt instantly at ease. And he was a gentleman, you know?” Brianna blushed. “We were just friends, and he didn’t try to take things further. I felt safe with him.”
“How old were you when you met Anderson?”
“I’d just turned twenty-one, and I was self-medicating.” When Ellie’s eyes went to the empty glass, Brianna shook her head. “I didn’t go overboard, and mostly just enough to take the edge off.”
“No judgment here.” Ellie set her pen down and folded her hands over the notepad, giving Brianna an understanding smile. “You were of legal age, and it was thirteen years ago.”
“Twelve years, eleven months, and six days.” Brianna’s cheeks reddened. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. So, you met Anderson…”
“At a seminar about taking control of compulsions. He was older than me, but we had so much in common, and we hit it off. A few months later, Anderson helped me get my job.”
“What about the person giving the seminar? Do you remember anything about him or her? What was the seminar called?”
She shook her head, fidgeting in her seat, obviously wanting to get up and refill her glass. “We both left early.” She laughed. “Everyone else was on the edge of their seats, but Anderson and I saw right through it. It was a money-making scheme.”
“There are lots of entrepreneurs who get rich quick selling what amounts to snake oil.”
“That’s part of the reason we bonded, because we were smart enough to dodge that.” Her breath shuddered, and her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “Anderson helped me so much, and when he died, it hurt to know that people thought so little of him.”
“They didn’t understand him like you did.”
She nodded and took another trembling breath, her forehead wrinkling into a deep frown. “And no one ever said a word about the way Ellora treated him.”
“He filed several harassment complaints.”
“She teased him mercilessly. Coming into his cubicle and bumping into things so they were out of place, counting out loud whenever she saw him touching his thumb to his fingertips.” She demonstrated, touching her thumb to each individual finger on her left hand. “Then she’d cackle and walk off like it was the funniest thing.” Brianna’s lower lip quivered. “Still, she didn’t deserve to die, especially not like that.” A tear dripped off her chin. “And especially not the innocent baby she was carrying.”
“But you feel she had some culpability after bullying him over his illness?”
Brianna’s soft waves bounced as she shook her head. “Not at all. That’s what I tried to tell the detective who investigated the case. What happened wasn’t about OCD. People with OCD don’t just snap and kill their coworkers.”
“Maybe it was something other than the OCD that made him lose control. Sometimes people have more than one mental illness.”
“No.” Her tone fervent, the tears dried up as her focus changed. “He didn’t have another illness.”
Ellie pursed her lips, choosing her next words carefully. She didn’t want Brianna to shut down. “People keep secrets, Brianna. Maybe he didn’t tell—”
“He would’ve told me.”
“Then how do you explain what he did?” Ellie kept her voice soft. “A healthy person doesn’t do something like that for no reason.”
“You didn’t know him. He wasn’t crazy, but when he showed up that day, he was like a different person. He was…” She groaned, like the memory was a physical pain. “I don’t know how to explain it. It was like he was in a trance. He kept saying the same phrases over and over, but they didn’t make sense. He was ‘a man of action,’ and Ellora was ‘going to be so surprised.’ He repeated those words so many times in this eerily calm tone, but when our eyes met, he looked terrified.”
Ellie perked up. “What do you mean by that?”
“I was screaming his name, and he turned toward me.” Unchecked tears flowed down her cheeks and neck. She sniffled but didn’t wipe them away.
“It’s okay, take your ti—”
“No!” Her fingers gripped the hem
