The Good Liar(84)

“Cecily?”

I turn around. The waiter who replaced me is standing there, looking anxious.

“Mom, can I call you back later? It’s busy here.”

“Of course. But, Cecily?”

“Yes?”

“Take care of yourself, okay?”

I hang up, staring at the phone. Does my mother know what’s going on? How could she? No, it’s just momtuition; I have it myself sometimes with the kids. I put the phone away and go back to work.

Finally, around five, Teo texts me that they’re ready, and I suggest they meet me at six thirty. I call Cassie and ask her to take Henry out to dinner and a movie so we can have the house to ourselves. Cassie asks if Kevin can go with them, and I agree. If I could send Henry as a chaperone on all her dates, I would.

Teo’s car pulls up at the same time as mine. I don’t know what I was expecting his investigator to look like—some variant of Humphrey Bogart, perhaps—but Joe Connor is a short, small man with round glasses and a bald head, no fedora in sight. Being unassuming is probably a good thing in his line of work.

I direct them where to put their hats and coats and go to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. I feel chilled to the bone, though the house is warm. Teo and Joe sit at the kitchen island while I hover.

“What did you find?”

Joe pulls a blue file out of his bag like the one Teo had the other day. He opens it. An arrest photo of Franny is sitting on top. I take the piece of paper: Eileen Warner, eighteen, arrested on suspicion of murder.

“Murder? She’s a murderer?”

“They never laid charges.”

“Who was she accused of killing?”

“Her parents.”

“Jesus.”

“Her sister turned her in. Said she’d seen her tampering with the car the day before the accident that killed them. The brakes failed, and they drove into a ditch.”

I feel even colder. “How come she got off?”

“They couldn’t find any signs of tampering with the brakes, and there was a long history of animosity between Eileen and her sister. No evidence of a crime plus unreliable witness means no prosecution.”

“But did she do it?”

Joe swings his head back and forth. “She might’ve done. I spoke to her sister. She’s convincing. Says that she and Eileen actually got along all right growing up. But then Eileen started hanging with the wrong crowd, ended up in some kind of juvenile detention program, mixed up in drugs and petty larceny. When she got out of the program, she was very angry with her parents. Telling them they’d ruined her life and whatnot. Then Sherrie saw her working on the car, and the next day her parents are dead.”

“Is there . . . Should we be reporting this to someone?”

“Probably no point in that. I didn’t find any more proof than what the police had at the time. Absent a confession, it’s highly unlikely they’d reopen the investigation.”

“Well, what about that? Why don’t we get her to confess?”

Joe takes off his glasses and polishes them with the end of his shirt. “You’ve been watching too much TV.”

“I have?”

“If you think I’m going to be able to get her to confess in a way that will stand up in court, you surely have.”

“There’s no point in getting a confession that can’t be used,” Teo says. “And we could end up the ones in trouble. Besides, that wasn’t the point of all this. We wanted to find enough to persuade her to leave Joshua, right? This, and the other things we’ve found, should do the trick.”

“What else did you find?”

“The name change,” Joe says. “And her sister says she wasn’t adopted. I looked into it, and she’s right. No adoption records anywhere in Wisconsin by her parents. And they lived there since before Eileen was born.”

“Couldn’t they have come to Illinois to adopt?”

“They could’ve, but I checked the records here, too.”

“Aren’t those records sealed?”

“Some are and some aren’t.”

He looks blasé. If I press him about where he got his information, I’m sure he’ll give me some variation of “I have my methods.”

“Why are you surprised?” Teo says. “You were the one who told me that she wasn’t Kaitlyn’s daughter.”

“I know, it’s just . . . My source isn’t the most reliable person.”

“How so?”

“Let’s leave it at that, okay?”

Joe looks curious. Too curious.

“Right, Teo? We had a deal.”

“We do—don’t worry. Joe’s not going to go investigating without getting paid, right, buddy?”

“True enough.”

“So how do we do this?” I ask. “How do we convince her to leave? She’s not even returning my calls or texts right now, and I’m not sure where she is.”

“She’s back with Mr. Ring,” Joe says. “They reconciled apparently.”

I feel stunned, though I’m not sure why. Joshua doesn’t know what I know. They got into a fight because he was hurt about Kaitlyn and Tom.

“Well,” I say. “That makes it easier, I guess. Poor Joshua.”