At that, the young woman collapsed in the closest chair. “What do you mean?” she asked, her gaze darting from one to the other.
“As I was trying to explain to you,” Simon said, “a friend of mine was pressured into committing suicide. In his case he was told that his wife would be murdered or found dead with a bullet hole in her head if he didn’t go through with it.”
She stared at him in horror. “Oh my God, that’s terrible.”
“Which is why he ended up jumping. He was already potentially partially suicidal to some degree,” he said. “I didn’t know about it but he was on forums where there was a support group.”
“Yeah, support group,” she said, with a wry smile.
“Some of them are supportive, and some of them aren’t, it seems.”
“Exactly.”
“And did you encounter somebody like that too?”
“Yeah,” she said, “but it wasn’t about killing my spouse.”
“What were you being blackmailed about then?”
“My younger sister died,” she said painfully. “She choked to death. But he says he has the medical file to prove that I murdered her. And that, if I don’t jump, he would release that information to the police.”
“Well, first things first,” Kate said, in her usual blunt way. “Did you?”
The woman looked dazed, as she lifted her gaze to her. “Did I what?”
“Did you kill your sister?”
“No, of course not. She did choke.”
“So why would you worry about it?”
“Because of my parents,” she said. “They’re already torn apart by all this, and for them to even have that come up as a possibility would destroy them,” she said simply.
“Would they not believe your version?”
“They would, but I don’t know that everybody around them would. They’ve always been very leery about the public and what people say. Even back then when it happened,” she said, “people looked at them sideways, and they felt they were being judged for not having been good parents. If it even came out in a rumor that I had killed her, I know that they would suffer terribly,” she whispered.
“And yet that isn’t a good reason for killing yourself,” Simon said. “And, if you think about it, if your parents have any suspicion that her death was deliberate in any way, by killing yourself, you would essentially appear to be proving your guilt had driven you to suicide.”
She stared at Simon in shock. “But I wouldn’t do that normally.”
“But where are your parents at mentally? Would they understand that?” he asked quietly. “This guy is trying to manipulate you.”
She nodded slowly. “I know. I know,” she said. “It started off friendly, and then it turned not-so-friendly. He was my friend, and I talked to him way too much, like, over the last year or so. I didn’t even see it coming. Then, all of a sudden, he seemed less friendly and more ominous. Then he started to say I wasn’t a good person, and it would be better off if I wasn’t around in the world. He said my parents would be better off, and it was too bad the wrong sister had died,” she said, tears pouring down her cheeks. “And he’s asking why I did it, but I’d told him clearly that I didn’t do it, but he wasn’t listening.” By now she was openly sobbing.
Kate crouched in front of her. “Do you know who this person is?”
“No, just someone from the chat.”
“But, in all that talking, did he ever email you?”
She nodded. “Yes, he had this file and pictures. I don’t know,” she said. “It’s on my laptop. Every time I come in, I see it, and it makes me just want to head back out to the bridge again.”
“The bridge won’t make this go away,” Simon said firmly. “And not only will the bridge not make it go away, it would cause so much more trauma for your family, and so much more guilt that they couldn’t help you because they were so tied up in grief over your sister.”
She stared at him and said, “I know that,” her voice barely above a whisper. “But I didn’t know how to stop it.”
“We’ll help you stop it,” Kate said firmly. “But first I need you to promise that you won’t commit suicide. I need a commitment that you won’t listen to this guy and that you will not follow through.”