Gone Girl

friend, and since the police couldn’t do anything about it, I made my peace with that. I never felt like he meant me active harm, although I really didn’t like being this close to him. Geographically. I think that’s what put him over the edge. Knowing I was so close. He walked into my house with … He was sweaty and sort of nervous but also determined-looking. I’d been upstairs, I’d been about to iron my dress when I noticed the big wooden handle of the Judy puppet on the floor – I guess it had fallen off. Bummer because I’d already hidden the puppets in the woodshed. So I grabbed the handle, and I had that in my hand when I opened the door.
    B: Very good memory.
    A: Thank you.
    B: What happened next?
    A: Desi barged in, and he was pacing around the living room, all flustered and kind of frantic, and he said, What are you doing for your anniversary? It frightened me, that he knew today was our anniversary, and he seemed angry about it, and then his arm flashed out and he had me by the wrist and was twisting it behind my back, and we struggled. I put up a real fight.
    B: What next?
    A: I kicked him and got away for a second and ran to the kitchen, and we struggled more and he clubbed me once with the big wooden Judy handle, and I went flying and then he hit me two or three more times. I remember not being able to see for a second, just dizzy, my head was throbbing and I tried to grab for the handle and he stabbed my arm with this pocketknife he was carrying. I still have the scar. See?
    B: Yes, that was noted in your medical examination. You were lucky it was only a flesh wound.
    A: It doesn’t feel like a flesh wound, believe me.
    B: So he stabbed you? The angle is—
    A: I’m not sure if he did it on purpose, or if I thrust myself onto the blade accidentally – I was so off balance. I remember the club falling to the floor, though, and I looked down and saw my blood from the stab wound pooling over the club. I think I passed out then.
    B: Where were you when you woke up?
    A: I woke up hog-tied in my living room.
    B: Did you scream, try to get the neighbors’ attention?
    A: Of course I screamed. I mean, did you hear me? I was beaten, stabbed, and hog-tied by a man who had been obsessed with me for decades, who once tried to kill himself in my dorm bedroom.
    B: Okay, okay, Amy, I’m sorry, that question was not intended in the least to sound like we are blaming you, we just need to get a full picture here so we can close the investigation and you can get onwith your life. Do you want another water, or coffee or something?
    A: Something warm would be nice. I’m so cold.
    B: No problem. Can you get her a coffee? So what happened then?
    A: I think his original plan was to subdue me and kidnap me and let it look like a runaway-wife thing, because when I wake up, he’s just finished mopping the blood in the kitchen, and he’s straightened the table of little antique ornaments that fell over when I ran to the kitchen. He’s gotten rid of the club. But he’s running out of time, and I think what must have happened is: He sees this disheveled living room – and so he thinks, Leave it. Let it look like something bad happened here . So he throws the front door open, and then he knocks a few more things over in the living room. Overturns the ottoman. So that’s why the scene looked so weird: It was half true and half false.
    B: Did Desi plant incriminating items at each of the treasure hunt sites: Nick’s office, Hannibal, his dad’s house, Go’s woodshed?
    A: I don’t know what you mean?
    B: There was a pair of women’s underwear, not your size, in Nick’s office.
    A: I guess it must have been the girl he was … dating.
    B: Not hers either.
    A: Well, I can’t help on that one. Maybe he was seeing more than one girl.
    B: Your diary was found in his father’s house. Partly burned in the furnace.
    A: Did you read the diary? It’s awful. I’m sure Nick did want to get rid of it – I don’t blame him, considering you guys zeroed in on him so quickly.
    B: I wonder why he would go to his father’s to burn it.
    A: You should ask him. (Pause.) Nick went there a lot, to be alone. He likes his privacy. So I’m sure it didn’t feel that odd to him. I mean he couldn’t do it at our house, because it’s a crime scene – who knows if you guys will come back, find something in the ashes. At his dad’s, he has some discretion. I thought it was a smart move, considering you guys were basically