Page 159 of Over Her Dead Body

I cock my head.

“You saw me at the airport,” he says. “You didn’t know about Whitaker. You didn’t know what I was going to do in Lisbon.”

“And you’re going to tell them that.”

“It’s the truth.”

The termination letter sits between us. Six hours ago, Celeste used his lies to end my career. Now Reid is about to put the truth on the record.

“What happens to you?”

“Prison.”

He says it like it’s a calendar item.

“For how long?”

“I don’t know.”

I study him. For the first time since I saw him at the airport, he looks exactly like the man I remember. Not because of his face. Because he is standing in my kitchen pretending there are parts of this he can still control.

“I am sorry, Emma.”

I rest my bandaged hand on the termination letter. “For which part?”

At first I think there is no answer large enough.

Then he gives me one.

“For letting you bury a stranger.”

Reid looks toward the door. “I should go.”

This time I don’t stop him.

He reaches the door, opens it, then looks back. “Oh, and Emma?”

“Yeah?”

“For what it’s worth, I don’t have a friend named Tiego.”

I stare at him.

“Don’t know any butchers at all, actually.”

He smiles.

“You know me. I’m a steak-and-potatoes kind of guy.”

Then he leaves.

CHAPTER 56

ANONYMOUS

Celeste arrives early.

Not dramatically early. Celeste does very little dramatically. Eleven minutes is enough to communicate concern without admitting to it.