You Owe Me a Murder(61)

“Sure. What’s up?” Alex pulled on his shoes.

I glanced at the clock by the bed. Now wasn’t the time. Not when we had to be downstairs in half an hour. If I was going to do this, I needed to do it right. “It’s a long story. Can we go out later? Just us.”

“Sure—?maybe we can grab lunch at our Thai place?”

I inhaled deeply, letting my lungs fill. “That would be great.” My phone rang and I fished through a pile of laundry for it, hoping it was Emily.

I clicked on the call.

“I’ll see you downstairs,” Alex said.

“I guess that explains where you were last night.” Nicki’s voice was clipped. “Don’t make an excuse. I can hear him in the background. You two were messing around instead of doing what you promised. I don’t mind you getting a bit on the side, but not when you’ve got a job to do.”

Alex paused at the door, waiting for me to acknowledge him. My mouth was totally dry. I nodded and forced my lips into what I hoped looked like a smile. He blew me a kiss, then opened the door.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” someone called out.

“Damn! Things on the third floor are getting hot!” another voice yelled.

Before the door shut, I could make out the sounds of Alex mumbling and people teasing him as he headed for the stairs.

“You’re going to wish we’d never met,” Nicki said, her voice sliding through the phone like ice shards into my ear.

“I already do,” I said, but she’d hung up.

With any luck, by the end of today I’d have figured out a way to make her regret meeting me even more. I was pretty sure what I would have to do. Alex would want me to go to the cops. But he’d come with me. It was risky, but it wouldn’t be so scary with him.



* * *





A few hours later I squeezed into a tiny booth at the back of the restaurant. I wanted to sit against the wall so I could make sure that Nicki didn’t sneak up on me. All morning long I’d practiced how to tell Alex.

The waitress didn’t even bother with handing us one of the battered laminated menus. She knew our regular order. “Two Thai tea, one order veggie spring rolls, one pad thai, no shrimps?” she asked as she poured two cups of water from a scratched plastic pitcher. We nodded and she bustled off.

“I’m going on the record: I don’t think I get modern art,” Alex said, referring to what we’d seen earlier at the Tate museum. He picked up his untouched fork and knife and wiped them with his napkin.

“I liked some of it.”

“I wasn’t sure what most of it was supposed to be.” The waitress put down our drinks and Alex smiled in thanks. He mixed the thick condensed milk into the tea, the colors swirling together.

“I’m not sure the art is supposed to be anything. I think it’s meant to make you feel something.” I rubbed my hands on my pants. “Thanks for coming.”

“So what’s going on?”

I swallowed hard. I could do this. “I need your help. I have to tell you something and it might change how you feel about me.”

Alex put down the fork he’d been messing with again. “Okay.”

“Promise me that you’ll hear the whole story before you walk out or anything.”

“I’m not going—?”

“Just promise.” I waited for him to nod. “I told you about Connor.” He nodded again. I could see in his eyes that he was wondering where this was going. “I was really mad at him for what he did. For how he treated me.”

“I get that.”

“I didn’t kill him,” I said, just in case Alex was unsure.

“I didn’t think that,” he rushed to say, looking really worried now.

I paused, waiting for a large group of businessmen dividing up a check at the register to finish their argument over who had the beef satay with extra peanut sauce before I continued. “Have you ever gotten yourself into a situation and not known exactly how things got so bad?”

“Um, sure.” Alex had his palms down on the plastic tablecloth as if he were bracing for a blow.

The waitress dropped our plates onto the table. “I met someone—?” Alex pulled back and I rushed to explain. “No, nothing like that. I’m talking about Nicki, the girl from the plane. I told you that I told her about breaking up with Connor. She had a story to tell me too, about her mom.”

“I don’t understand—?”

“I need you to just listen.”

“Sorry.” Alex held up his hands in surrender and then started to eat. “I’ll keep my mouth full so I’ll shut up.” He spun his fork through the rice noodles and popped them into his mouth.

“So, Nicki seemed to get how I felt. I told her how angry I was, how I could just kill him.”

Alex paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. “Seriously?”

“It was just a thing to say.” I touched my chest. “I didn’t mean it.”

“But then—?”

“Then Connor ended up dead.”

Alex froze and I wondered if he was starting to put it all together, but then he dived under the table, fishing through his bag.

“Alex?”