A Good Marriage(104)

“Do you want me to call somebody?” Ideally, somebody to take you home so we don’t have to talk anymore. I’d already decided not to mention Amanda’s delusions until I figured out what I was going to do about them. But I was tempted to ask Maude, now that she was here. Maybe she’d noticed something.

“No, no, I’m fine,” she said.

“So you said the prosecutor came by?” I prompted. “Did you get a name?”

“It was that same Wendy Wallace,” Maude said. “She is … very intimidating.”

This wasn’t the worst news for Zach. A personal visit from Wendy meant that she was at least a little worried about her case.

“What exactly did she say?”

“Well, I told her that Zach was with me …,” Maude said, and now she definitely didn’t sound like she was telling the truth. “Anyway, she said that if I testified to that at trial, she would personally see to it that I spent a year in jail.”

“She means if you’re lying,” I said, trying to be diplomatic.

“I guess, yes,” Maude said, though this didn’t seem like much comfort to her. “But she also said something about our party, that it could make Sebe and me accessories to murder. She mentioned us getting sued civilly, too, by Amanda’s family for wrongful death.”

“First of all, you can’t be accessories to murder because you threw a party that the victim attended before she died. And Amanda doesn’t really have any family, so a civil lawsuit would not only be unsustainable but highly unlikely. Wendy Wallace is bluffing. As to the perjury, you haven’t even testified yet,” I said. Though I’d sure as hell still use Maude’s alibi if I couldn’t extract myself from the case—provided I could get away with it—even if I had some unconfirmed doubts about its veracity. Because that’s who I was now, thanks to Zach: someone willing to maybe suborn perjury as long as I didn’t know for sure that’s what I was doing. “You have nothing to worry about at the moment.”

“Right,” she said, though she didn’t look very relieved. When Maude pressed her lips together, her mouth quivered. “I’m here, really, because of Sebe.”

Sebe? If Amanda had indeed been upstairs with somebody, as Wendy Wallace had suggested at the hearing, could it have been Sebe? He was certainly attractive, and he and Maude presumably participated in this swapping. It was their party. I reached forward and squeezed the edge of my desk.

“What do you mean?”

Maude looked for a moment like she might cry, then grimaced and closed her eyes. Holy shit. Had Sebe killed Amanda? Was that possible?

“Sebe convinced me that I needed to come down here and tell you the truth,” she began finally. I gripped my desk tighter. “I wasn’t with Zach the night of the party.”

“Oh.” It was all I could muster. Maude was snatching back one of the only things I had stashed in my paltry defensive arsenal: Zach’s alibi.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sounding genuinely distressed. “I was—I was trying to help …. I realize that sounds ridiculous. But I just felt so responsible, with the party and everything. To be honest, I’ve been having some serious problems with my daughter, too, so I haven’t exactly been thinking clearly. Zach didn’t kill Amanda, though. I’m sure of it. And when you came to me, all I could think about was poor Case. Amanda loved him so much. What will happen to him if Zach is in jail? Especially if there is no extended family?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Oh, that sweet child.” Maude pressed her trembling fingers to her lips, then shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. Finally she swallowed and tried to compose herself. “I’m sorry if I’ve made your job harder. And I’ll never forgive myself if I’ve made things worse for Case.”

“Listen,” I said, taking pity on her. I had no doubt that she was genuinely worried about Case, and it made me feel like a bad person that I hadn’t been thinking more about him. My anger at Zach had all but erased Case’s existence. “Don’t worry. Your alibi isn’t even part of any official record. Withdrawing it now will have no impact on the outcome. But I am glad you told me. It could have complicated things later.”

She nodded, looking down. Finally, she stood. “And please, with Case … if Zach—if he needs someone to help with him. We will. We will do anything for Case that we can.”

“I’ll let you know,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said. She looked for a moment like she might say something more, before smiling unsteadily and turning for the door.

I took home everything I had on Zach’s case—his public defender files, the defense package, the preliminary filings, the research I had on Xavier Lynch, Amanda’s diary, the documents related to Zach’s loitering warrant, the file Millie had given me. I was determined to find a needle in that haystack. One I could stab Zach with, or one I could use to poke a hole in Wendy Wallace’s case against him. I was fine with either. This just needed to end.

It was past nine when I got home. The apartment was empty; I tried not to consider where Sam might be and simply be glad that he was gone. I was digging myself out, yes, but I could only deal with one problem at a time, and getting away from Zach was still the most pressing.