“Yes, of course.”
“The only reason I haven’t thrown you out is because I have a bad feeling about him. If he’s the guy I’m thinking of.”
Have—present tense. Did she not know that Frankie was dead? That anything related to her was, by definition, past tense?
“Bad feeling?”
“Creepy.” She shrugged. “I get that he’s your husband—if it’s the same guy. But if you’re here, you must want the truth. It’s the creep factor—that’s why I don’t think Frankie should be seeing him. The whole married thing is your problem, not Frankie’s.”
More present tense. Without a family to call, maybe this was what happened. News stalled. And given that the police already thought they had their man, there’d be no reason for them to ask questions of Frankie’s friends, at least not yet.
Gretchen held up her phone. “This is a picture of my husband.”
Thalia made a dismissive clucking sound and shook her head.
“That’s definitely him. I mean, for the record, Frankie claims they’re just friends. But I don’t buy it and neither does Noah.”
“Noah?”
Thalia looked up from the phone. “Another friend of ours from college. He’s like a human lie detector. He and I were just texting. Frankie’s been ghosting both of us.” She paused. “She gets that way when she knows we don’t approve of a new boyfriend, which is basically always. Although usually they are way younger, not way older.” She paused. “No offense.”
“Maybe theywerejust friends?” Past tense.Shoot.
Thalia frowned. “Sorry, no,notjust friends.”
“That’s a feeling you had or you saw something?”
Thalia rolled her eyes. “That would beanybody’sfeeling within a five-block radius. He just seemed kind of…fixated. Stalker vibes.” She hesitated. “I’m sorry. I’m sure this is…but you should give yourself credit. Most people don’t want to know the truth, about anything.”
Gretchen nodded. “Okay, well, thank—”
“Shit, I forgot the most important thing,” she said. “He came back.”
“He came back?”
“Yeah, your…he…” She shook her head. “Frankie doesn’t even know this because she’s been dodging me the past few days. Or she’s away—I guess that’s possible.”
Thalia looked off into the distance. It wouldn’t be long before she learned that her friend was dead, Richard arrested. After that, there was no way she’d be talking to Gretchen again. This was her last chance to get answers, even to questions she didn’t want to ask.
“What do you mean he came back?”
“He left with Frankie,” Thalia said. “Butthenhe comesback,like twenty minutes later. Alone. Asks me for her address.”
“Her address?”
“I don’t know if they got into a fight or something. Said he wanted to send flowers to her apartment.”
“Did you give him her address?”
“Are you fucking shitting me?” Thalia scoffed. “Frankie’sapartment is right around the corner. If she wanted him to know where she lived, she would have told him herself.”
—
Gretchen walked a couple blocks before texting Sam to pick her up. She needed air. By the time she messaged him, it took her a minute to even figure out where she was. Across the street was a little cluster of benches alongside a playground and basketball courts.Be there in 10,he wrote right back.Traffic’s bad.
She sat down and watched a crew of shirtless young men jostling for the ball. She might be old now, but she wasn’t dead.
“I need to be sure we’re clear,” a voice right next to her said. He was standing behind her, but she didn’t need to turn around to recognize the voice.
