A Good Marriage(101)

“That motherfucker.” She shook her head in disgust. “How the hell did he even find that out?”

I shrugged. “Who knows. Other detectives?”

“Bet he pays them.” She smiled.

A nurse came in then with a tray of needles and small bottles of medicine. She set it on the counter behind Millie and, without making eye contact with either one of us, moved about, methodically adjusting various tubes. “You ready to get started in ten, sweetheart?” she asked Millie in a voice that was two parts robot, one part genuinely kind.

“Sure thing,” Millie said. “Soon as I’m done with my friend here.”

“Okay, sweetheart,” the nurse said distractedly as her phone buzzed. “I’ll be right back.”

She hustled out then, already on her phone.

“All right, we’ll figure out how to deal with Zach Grayson in a second,” Millie said once she was gone. “In the meantime, what did you find upstate? You have the prints? Not to reward your dumb-ass judgment, but as soon as I found out you went up there, I reached out to the lab. Got them to agree to run one more comparator sample for us on a rush basis whenever we have it. Just the one, and only to the print on the stair, and maybe the golf bag. But at least they agreed to bill us after the fact. All I need to do is call and say the word.”

“What about Vinnie?”

Millie waved a hand. “It’s one sample. He’ll survive.”

“You didn’t tell him.”

“Not yet.”

“Thank you,” I said with a dejected exhale. “But unfortunately all I discovered in St. Colomb Falls was that everything I thought I knew was wrong. Turns out Xavier Lynch is Amanda’s uncle, not her father. And Amanda’s father couldn’t have killed her because he’s dead. It happened twelve years ago. The father attacked Amanda’s friend; Amanda intervened. Her father and the friend both ended up dead.”

Millie let out a long whistle.

“I confirmed it with the St. Colomb Falls clerk’s office. Amanda was a juvenile, so the criminal records are sealed, but they told me enough.”

“I thought she had a whole journal about her dad stalking her?”

I nodded. “And she’d told her Park Slope friends that the dead friend was alive and well in Manhattan,” I said. “Amanda was troubled, clearly—seems to have been delusional, which calls into question all her observations. Or so the prosecution will say.”

“So no one was stalking her?”

I shrugged. “No one. Or someone other than her dad.”

“Weird that your friend Zach didn’t notice, huh?” And she meant weird as in: There’s no fucking way that’s true.

“Apparently, Amanda was high-functioning. Her friends didn’t notice anything wrong either. Then again, they’d only known her for a few months. But she had a job and took great care of her son, everyone agrees about that. Her delusions must have been contained. Zach claims she hadn’t said a word about her dad in years, not about any stalker either,” I said. “Sounds like they didn’t talk much about anything.”

“You believe him?”

“About that I do. Zach’s a narcissist. I don’t think he had any interest in hearing about Amanda’s problems. My guess is he made clear she was on her own.”

“Well, that’s fucking awful,” Millie said. “Where does it leave you?”

“Stuck on a case, and with a client I want the hell away from. But I’m pretty sure the only way to do that is to get the charges dismissed. Some unidentified person’s fingerprints are in the blood on those stairs. Which means somebody else was there that night. Somebody who didn’t call the police and who hasn’t come forward.”

“Of course it doesn’t necessarily mean your client didn’t kill her. He could have been there, too. He could have hired someone.”

“I know,” I said. “But even if he did, I’ve got to get him off if I want to keep my job. Unless I can figure some other way out, like finding something I can use against Zach. Make it worth his while to let me off the hook.”

Millie nodded. “I like that idea much better. Either way, just get your ass away from this whole thing. Life’s way too fucking short for this bullshit. Trust me.” She lifted one of the folders off the floor and held it out to me, but didn’t relinquish her grip. “This is everything I’ve got. And I’m giving it to you on the condition that you don’t do any more of your own sleuthing out in the field. I will find you someone to help for free if need be.”

I nodded too quickly. “Of course not.”

She let go of the file. “Hmm. That’s what you said yesterday. It’s bad karma to lie to people who are dying.”

“Come on, you’re not—”

“I am, Lizzie,” she said. Her expression was serious, but also calm. “That’s the reality. And it could happen anytime. That’s what the doctors have said. Point-blank. A bunch of times. They don’t go around telling you to get your affairs in order just for shits and giggles. This whole chemo thing is a Hail Mary pass. It’s possible it’ll even make me worse, fast. That’s why all the emails. I wanted to be sure I’d spoken to you … in case. You know I’ve always been more than happy to do anything that might make things a little bit easier for you. After everything your mother did for me when Nancy was sick, that’s the least I could do. But me being the intermediary—it was always a Band-Aid, wasn’t it?” She was quiet for a moment, then looked up at me through narrowed eyes. My heart was picking up speed. “What does Sam know, exactly?”