Someone We Know: A Novel

Becky and Larry Harris are having dinner at home; she has told him nothing about being questioned by the police. The detectives arrive to question Larry. Becky blurts out to Larry that she slept with Robert Pierce. She then repeats her claim that Paul Sharpe was having an affair with Amanda, but the detectives share Paul’s admission of speaking with Amanda about ending her affair with Larry. Larry admits to being caught once with Amanda by Paul but insists that there was no affair. Becky feels better about her own fling with Robert. Larry claims that, on the weekend Amanda disappeared, he was at a conference at the Deerfields Resort in the Catskills. Webb notes that it is near where Amanda’s body was found.

The next morning, Olivia—consumed with worry about Raleigh, Carmine, and her husband, who seems increasingly distraught—receives a surprise visit from Becky, who looks haggard and unkempt. Becky springs on her the news of what she saw weeks earlier: Paul arguing with Amanda in her car at night. Olivia scoffs, but Becky tells her that Paul has admitted it to the police. Becky repeats Paul’s claim and Larry’s version of the events. Becky confesses to sleeping with Robert twice but maintains his innocence. Olivia is not so sure. Meanwhile, the detectives summoned Robert to the station to ask him about the rumors. He says that he suspected no infidelity until Amanda’s disappearance. Moen then asks him why he cheated with Becky, and Robert dismisses it as meaningless. Webb tells him that Amanda was probably having an affair with Becky’s husband, and Robert struggles to control his anger. The detective suggests that Robert began the affair with Becky to get back at both of them.

Olivia shares Becky’s revelations about Paul and Amanda with Glenda. Glenda believes Paul’s claim of warning Amanda off her affair with Larry. Olivia tells her about Becky’s confession, which shocks Glenda and prompts her to express nervousness over any snooping in the neighborhood. Noticing the lines of fatigue on her friend’s face, Olivia asks how she is, and Glenda expresses stress because her son, Adam, and husband, Keith, fight often. As Glenda walks home, she wonders if Paul might really have cheated on Olivia with Amanda, and remembers how flirtatious and seductive the younger woman was at that summer party. Her husband Robert simply sat there.

When Paul comes home from work, Olivia confronts him. Paul angrily repeats the story he told the police. He says he told them he was alone with Olivia the weekend of the murder, but Olivia reminds him that he was actually visiting his aunt.

Becky wonders if Larry’s sexual contact with Amanda was truly a one-time encounter. Meanwhile, Detectives Webb and Moen have found a six-hour gap in Larry’s alibi. Webb thinks the killer, who was probably counting on the car never being found, is someone they have already talked to. At the Harris house, Becky and Larry argue about Amanda, and Larry denies having anything to do with her murder. Larry accuses Becky of planning to use his connection to the murder victim in a possible divorce settlement, and she reflects that, since she gave up her career for him, she should get something. Finally, he confesses that he had a weeks-long affair with Amanda, meeting her regularly at a hotel outside of town. He has no alibi; he was alone in his room moping over Amanda’s breakup with him. Hours afterward, he threw the burner phone he used to communicate with her off a bridge. Becky realizes that many bridges have security cameras.

Robert Pierce, sipping whiskey in his living room, wonders what the detectives may have on him. He has known about his wife’s affair with Larry Harris for a while, even before he found her burner phone and called one of the two numbers saved on it, recognizing Larry’s voice. There was no answer from the second number, which troubles him, since Amanda texted that Robert is a “psychopath.” The phone holds many secrets, and he never wants it to be found. He thinks how little he knew of Amanda when he married her.

Later that night, Raleigh sneaks out of his house. He tells himself that this is the last time he will break into a house. He rides his bike to a house whose owners are away. Using an ATM card to jimmy the lock on the back door, he creeps upstairs and uses a USB boot stick to hack into the office computer. Just then, the front door opens: The homeowners have returned, and Raleigh barely escapes. He knows that the homeowners will call the police.

Meanwhile, Carmine hears noises outside and sees a drunken teenager staggering down her street, wielding a broken hockey stick. The next morning, Glenda tells Olivia that Adam came home drunk again. Her husband, Keith, seems oblivious to her worries. Olivia says that Paul wasn’t seeing Amanda, but rather warning her after catching her with Larry, which makes Glenda feel much better. She asks Olivia if she thinks Larry could have murdered Amanda, but she thinks it was Robert. 

Olivia returns home and finds the detectives waiting outside her house. This is the first time she has met Webb and Moen. Inside, her husband tells them that he was mistaken about his alibi, that he was actually visiting his elderly aunt. This aunt, however, lives near the lake where Amanda’s body was found, has dementia, and will probably not remember his visit. Moreover, Paul’s cell phone’s location history cannot place him at her house during that time, because he had turned it off to save power. He claims he returned home around eleven, when Olivia was asleep.

Robert Pierce receives a visit from Carmine, who shows him the unsigned letter she received about the break-in at her house. He recognizes it as the same letter he got, but lies and says he knows nothing about it. Carmine says that she heard the culprit is good with tech, which worries Robert, who knows that the intruder found his wife’s burner phone. Carmine says she wants to make the teenager feel uncomfortable, and Robert wonders what measures he will have to take.

In the Sharpe house, Raleigh sees the two detectives as they are leaving. His father assures him that the police have been questioning him. Raleigh notices that his mother looks worried, and he wonders if he can trust his father. Detectives Webb and Moen also noticed how distraught Olivia looked, and they consider Paul a suspect.

From security camera footage and a clerk’s testimony, the detectives establish that Amanda Pierce and Larry Harris made regular visits to a hotel. Webb notes that they need to check the security camera footage from the Deerfield Resort to check on Larry. Rattled by his near-capture, Raleigh resolves not to break into houses. He thinks of the burner phone at the Pierce house, and though he did not hack into it, he worries about his fingerprints. He worries that everyone, even his parents, have secrets. 

Olivia walks to the Harris house and asks Becky what she knows about her husband. Becky assures her that she only saw him with Amanda once. They commiserate together as wives of men who are suspects without alibis.

Robert Pierce feels light empathy for Larry since they were both cheated on and are being investigated by the police. However, he feels cold hatred for the other unknown man. He worries about Carmine going to the police about her break-in, which might lead them to Amanda’s burner phone.

Becky, meanwhile, has grown out of her infatuation with Robert. She tells the detectives that Robert knew that Amanda was having an affair. She says that she believed in his innocence, but now that he has threatened her, she is scared. Detective Webb replies that he has seen footage of Larry meeting Amanda regularly at a hotel, making him a prime suspect. Blindsided, Becky stumbles to her car. She hopes that Robert Pierce is found guilty of his wife’s murder, as this is preferable to being associated with her husband if he is the murderer.