False Witness

In 1998, Callie (Calliope), 14, is babysitting Trevor, 10. Trevor is the son of Linda and Buddy Waleski. Linda is a nurse, and Buddy is a sports bookie. As Callie bakes, Trevor taps on the glass of his fish tank. Even when Callie tells Trevor to stop, he continues. Trevor then joins Callie in the kitchen: “Trevor suddenly appeared behind her like a serial killer. He threw his arms around her, saying ‘I love you’” (1). Trevor goes to take a bath, while Callie makes herself an alcoholic drink and steels her nerves for the inevitable battle that comes with trying to put Trevor to bed.

Buddy comes home from work and sexually abuses Callie. When Trevor interrupts them, Buddy orders Trevor to drink some NyQuil and go to bed. It’s revealed that Buddy, an adult, has been sexually abusing Callie, a child, for months. Buddy is depicted as a pedophile/rapist who is obsessed with how small Callie is; he calls her nicknames like “little bit and baby girl and doll” (7). Further, Buddy has been videotaping his assaults and inviting his friends over to watch the videos. Earlier that day, Callie found a hidden camera.

Callie threatens to tell Linda and picks up the phone to call her. In response, Buddy punches Callie. Callie fights back, slashing Buddy with a knife on his upper thigh. She slashes his femoral artery. Callie watches Buddy bleed out. Instead of calling 911, she calls her sister, Leigh (Harleigh).

On a Sunday in spring 2021, Leigh is with her soon-to-be-ex-husband, Walter, at their 16-year-old daughter Maddy’s school play. The reason for Leigh’s and Walter’s separation is described thus: “Leigh had finally accepted that she was the bad type of woman who couldn’t stay with a good man” (24). Walter is a legal counsel for the Atlanta Fire Fighters’ Union, while Leigh is a defense attorney. The narrative alludes to the COVID-19 pandemic—each playbill comes with a mask and a reminder about handwashing.

During the show, Leigh gets a text message informing her that she’s been assigned a new case: “Stranger assault, not date rape, which isn’t the norm. The client is up on some serious charges. He claims he’s innocent—ha, ha” (29). Leigh notes that, even with these serious charges, the client likely won’t be held pending trial; because of the pandemic, judges are allowing people to avoid jail in favor of wearing ankle monitors. Leigh explains, “Prisons and jails were worse than nursing homes” in terms of spreading the virus (30).

Leigh meets with Cole Bradley, one of the senior partners of the law firm where she works, who briefs her about her new client, Andrew Tenant. Bradley warns Leigh that Andrew wants to go to trial (by jury) and that he wants a not-guilty verdict. Andrew refuses to plead to a lesser charge because this could result in him being linked to other assaults in the area. Bradly and Leigh have the following exchange:

‘Apparently, a guilty admission on this particular reduced charge could lead to further exposure.’

[…]

Leigh asked, ‘How much exposure?’

‘Two, possibly three.’

Women, she thought. Two or three more women who had been raped (37).

Andrew fired his previous lawyer and asked specifically for Leigh. At first, Leigh isn’t sure why. Then Leigh meets with Andrew and his mother, Linda, and realizes that Andrew is Trevor. Tenant is Linda’s maiden name; Linda and Trevor both reverted to her maiden name after Buddy’s mysterious disappearance.

Andrew/Trevor casually asks what Callie is up to these days; Leigh lies and says Callie is living in Iowa on a dairy farm with her husband and children. In fact, Callie is in Atlanta, struggling with substance use disorder (which began after she had a cheerleading accident in high school and was prescribed painkillers). Leigh is horrified when she realizes who Andrew really is. She thinks back to the night 23 years prior: “Callie’s terrifying phone call. Leigh’s frantic drive to reach her. The horrific scene in the kitchen. The familiar smell of the dank house, the cigars and Scotch and blood—so much blood” (41).

Later, it will be revealed that Andrew/Trevor knows that Callie and Leigh killed Buddy and covered up his murder. The girls made it look like Buddy ran away, which was plausible because he owed a lot of people money. Trevor knows the truth because there was a camera hidden in the kitchen that filmed the entire incident. The Tenants recently listed their old house for sale; while cleaning it out, Andrew/Trevor found his father’s old tapes hidden in the crawlspace. Since then, Andrew/Trevor has been raping women and cutting them on the upper thigh, just as Callie cut Buddy. Andrew/Trevor has asked Leigh to be his lawyer because he wants to blackmail her into making sure he gets off the rape charges, even if it means she has to break the law or play dirty. Otherwise, he will release the tape of Callie and Leigh killing Buddy, and the tapes of Buddy raping Callie. Leigh doesn’t yet know that Andrew/Trevor knows this or that he has the tapes (nor does the reader).

Later, in Interlude 3: “Summer 2005, Chicago,” it will also be revealed that Maddy is actually Callie’s daughter. She gave Maddy to Walter and Leigh right after giving birth to her.

The next day, Leigh reviews Andrew/Trevor’s case file. The woman Andrew/Trevor is accused of assaulting and raping is named Tammy Karlsen. Leigh wonders momentarily if Andrew/Trevor might be innocent: “Leigh wasn’t one of those believers in bad blood or apples not falling far from the tree. […] People could transcend their circumstances. It was possible to break the cycle. Had Andrew Tenant broken the cycle?” (46). It’s revealed that Leigh used to babysit Andrew/Trevor before Callie did; she has memories of him as a boy and has trouble thinking he could now be a violent rapist.

Leigh goes to a meeting with the private investigator who is helping on Andrew/Trevor’s case, Reggie Paltz. Also present are Andrew/Trevor and his fiancée, Sidney. Sidney is Andrew/Trevor’s alibi for the night of Tammy’s assault. Again, Andrew casually asks about Callie, and Leigh dodges his question. Sidney waits in the parking lot, while Reggie, Andrew/Trevor, and Leigh review the evidence, including a CCTV security video from the bar that shows Tammy and Andrew/Trevor meeting. The meeting seems innocent and flirtatious. However, the next morning, Tammy woke up stripped down and handcuffed to a park bench, without any memory of what had happened (she’d been drugged)—but with clear signs of physical and sexual assault. Tammy had a cut on her left thigh, a few inches south of the groin—close to the femoral artery. The knife that made the cut hasn’t been found.

Andrew/Trevor asserts his innocence, suggesting Tammy is lying: “The sad part is, the MeToo movement really woke me up. I try hard to be an ally. We should believe women, but this—it’s unconscionable. False allegations only hurt other women” (50). Andrew/Trevor further asserts that it would be ridiculous for him to try to hurt anyone, given how there are cameras everywhere these days: “It defies logic that you could hurt someone—anyone—without a camera catching you in the act” (72). He also uses this opportunity to hint at what he knows to Leigh: “It’s not like when we were kids. You could get away with cold-blooded murder back then. Couldn’t you, Harleigh?” (73). Thanks to Andrew/Trevor’s hints about the video and the unique placement of the knife cut on Tammy’s thigh, Leigh realizes that Andrew/Trevor knows about Buddy’s murder.

Leigh leaves her meeting with Andrew/Trevor and Reggie in a panic. She’s trying to figure out what she and Callie missed on the night they killed Buddy—how does Andrew/Trevor know? They ditched Buddy’s body, bloody clothes, and car. Leigh wanted to get rid of the knife, but Callie insisted that Linda would notice it was missing, so they washed it and returned it to the kitchen. While driving, Leigh recalls her own experience babysitting Trevor. She was 13, and Trevor was 5. On Leigh’s first night, Buddy drove her back to her mom’s house after her shift—and sexually assaulted her. Leigh never told anybody, not even Callie. Leigh feels immense guilt that she allowed Callie to take over the babysitting job, and that Buddy then assaulted Callie (and videotaped the assaults and showed them to his friends). Leigh also feels guilty because she gave Callie COVID the previous year, and Callie almost died as a result. Leigh goes to find Callie.

The narrative flashes back to the night of Buddy’s murder, this time from Leigh’s perspective. Leigh gets a phone call from Callie, telling her that she thinks she killed Buddy. Leigh goes to the Waleskis’ house to help Callie, feeling responsible for what has happened. When Leigh arrives at the house, Buddy is still alive. Leigh considers calling for help and using the videotapes to help Callie—they could claim self-defense. However, Callie is embarrassed by the tapes, and Leigh realizes that “unless [the video] showed Callie screaming No the entire time, the cops, the lawyers, the judges, would all say that she had wanted it because, no matter what happened to women, men always, always covered each other’s asses” (98). Leigh wraps plastic wrap around Buddy’s head and suffocates him. He’s too weak from blood loss to fight it. Leigh thinks, “She was finally doing to a man the same fucking thing that men had been doing to Harleigh and Callie for their entire fucking lives” (104).

The narrative returns to the present, spring of 2021. It’s still Monday. Callie is at work, at a veterinary clinic run by a kind man named Dr. Jerry. Dr. Jerry always gives Callie a job, even though she often disappears for extended periods and is stealing medicine from the clinic. Later, Callie will learn that this is because Dr. Jerry had a son who died due to substance use disorder. Callie has been in recovery from addiction before but “g[ave] up on hope ages ago” (107), resigning herself to addiction. She has even considered suicide in the past: “She could get a front-row seat to Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse talking about a what a douche Jim Morrison could be” (118). When Callie returns home after work, Leigh is waiting for her.

Leigh takes Callie to eat and tells Callie about Andrew/Trevor and the charges against him. Callie says, “So, he’s like Buddy after all” (129). Leigh tells Callie that Andrew/Trevor seems to know about their killing Buddy. Leigh still isn’t sure what Andrew/Trevor is going to do or what he wants from her. Callie responds, “People don’t make threats unless they want something. What does Andrew want?” Leigh realizes he wants her to break the law for him, perhaps by committing perjury, obstructing justice, or suborning a witness—things that, if discovered, would mean Leigh losing her license and possibly going to jail.

Leigh is worried that Andrew/Trevor will find Callie, since he’s been asking about her. To keep Callie safe, Leigh drops her and her cat off at their mother Phil’s apartment. Phil has always been a neglectful and abusive mother. She allows Callie to stay with her on one condition, a condition that Leigh and Callie already know from childhood: “You can’t stay at my house unless you’re funding me, feeding me, or fucking me” (145).