The Perfect Couple(81)

She is a social misfit and now Greer will know it.

“Let m-m-me think ab-b-bout it,” Celeste says, hoping Greer will assume there are too many young women to choose from and Celeste will need to whittle the list down.

But Greer, of course, sees the humiliating truth. It’s because she’s a novelist, Celeste supposes. She is perceptive to a fault; it’s almost as if she reads minds.

“I shouldn’t get involved,” Greer says, “but I do think Abby would love to serve as a bridesmaid.”

Celeste perks up immediately. Abby! She can ask Abby Winbury, Thomas’s wife. She’s the right age; she is appropriately girly; she has probably been a bridesmaid twenty times before. Celeste relaxes even as she realizes that the Winburys are providing for her once again.


Celeste tells Benji that she’s asking Merritt to be her maid of honor and Abby to be her bridesmaid and Benji gets a crease in his brow.

“Abby?” he says. “Are you sure?”

The nice thing is that Celeste doesn’t have to hide anything from Benji. “I c-c-couldn’t think of anyone else,” she says. “You’re marrying the most socially awkward g-g-girl in New York.”

Benji kisses her. “And I couldn’t be happier about it.”

“So what’s wrong with Ab-b-by?” Celeste asks.

“Nothing,” Benji says. “Did she say yes?”

“I was p-p-planning on e-mailing tomorrow f-from work,” Celeste says.

Benji nods.

“What?” Celeste says. Abby would be filling a glaring gap. And besides, as Thomas’s wife, wouldn’t Abby be insulted not to be asked? It’s true, Abby can sometimes be a bit off-putting—she was a sorority girl at the University of Texas and she has retained some shallow cattiness, and she is presently obsessed with getting pregnant—but she is family.

“I get the feeling Thomas and Abby are on the rocks,” Benji says.

Celeste gasps. “What?”

“Thomas is always taking trips alone,” Benji says. “And going out with his friends after work. Not to mention his obsession with the gym.”

“Oh,” Celeste says. She knows Benji is right. They have met Thomas and Abby for dinner a few times and Thomas is always the last to arrive, often straight from the gym, still in his sweaty workout clothes. Abby won’t even let him kiss her unless he’s showered, she says. He has to shower before sex, and sex is kept to a schedule since they are trying to conceive. But why try so hard for a baby if you’re not planning on staying together?

“I’m not asking Thomas to be my best man,” Benji says.

“W-W-What?” Celeste says. This shocks her even more than the news of Thomas and Abby’s supposed marital discord. “But he’s your b-b-brother.”

“Something is going on with him,” Benji says. “And I want to distance myself from it. I’m having Shooter serve as my best man.”

“Shooter?” Celeste says.

“I’ve already asked him,” Benji says. “He was so happy. He teared up.”

He teared up, Celeste thinks. So happy. “What are you g-g-going to tell T-T-Thomas?”

“I’ll tell Thomas he can be an usher,” Benji says. “Maybe.”





Saturday, July 7, 2018, 3:30 p.m.





GREER


At half past three, when all of the guests have been called and all of the friends and relatives back in England have been notified about the tragedy and all of the wedding preparations have been summarily undone—except for those that are part of the “crime scene”—Greer takes a moment to peek out the window at the second cottage, the one where Merritt was staying. It’s wrapped in police tape like a tawdry present, although the forensics men have left and no one is there to stop Greer from entering. She would love to go in and poke around, but she fears the Winburys are in enough trouble as it is; she can’t afford to cause any more.

Tag took Merritt out in the kayak.

Merritt, not Featherleigh.


Greer needs to speak to Tag alone but he said he had to make a phone call, probably to Sergio Ramone, who is not only a friend but a brilliant criminal-defense attorney. Greer isn’t sure even Sergio can get Tag out of this mess. He took the girl out on the kayak and she shows up in the morning dead. Drowned in the harbor. Greer retreats to the master suite and perches on the sofa at the end of the bed, waiting for Tag, although she expects him to be led from the house in handcuffs the instant the police figure out this affair was going on.

The boys handled the news badly. Benji exploded. “Did you kill her, Dad? Did. You. Kill. Her?”

“No,” Tag said. “I took her out on the kayak, yes, I did. But I brought her back to shore safely.”

He sounded like he was telling the truth. His inflection and tone were full of calm conviction, but Greer now knows he’s been lying to her for a long time—maybe for the entirety of their marriage—so how would she know for sure?

Thomas hadn’t said anything at all. Possibly he, like Greer, had been too stunned to speak.

The ring that Greer thought Tag had bought for Featherleigh he’d bought for Merritt. Greer had seen the ring on Merritt’s thumb—she had seen it!—but she had one thing so firmly lodged in her brain that there hadn’t been room for any other possibilities.