Page 78 of Over Her Dead Body

This morning, I made the same mistake.

I am not going to be nearly as easy to get rid of.

Someone took a lie I told Margot and turned it into a client who requested me by name.

Someone wants me back in Lisbon.

Celeste is prepared to pay for it. The family has specifically requested me. Apparently, none of the hundred girls waiting for my job will do.

I type an email to Celeste.

If I take the assignment, the partnership vote stays on schedule.

She can vote against me if she likes. I would prefer she do it in a room where someone might ask what I have been doing for the house for the past twelve years.

Her reply takes less than a minute.

The vote stays. I expect you to treat this assignment seriously.

I have every intention of treating it seriously. I will arrive on time, wear the appropriate shoes, and assess whatever they put in front of me.

If there is a collection, they will get an excellent appraisal.

I fully expect the collection to exist only in that email. When I return, I will have a report explaining what was there, what wasn’t, and why the house should be grateful I know the difference. They are paying for my judgment. Sometimes that means telling them there is nothing worth buying.

Celeste can hardly insist I take an assignment and then complain that I assessed it.

She will, of course. Which is why I am keeping the email about the vote.

That takes care of work. I will also be in Portugal, where I understand people occasionally enjoy themselves.

My first visit involved an airport, a bar, and an apartment I should have left considerably sooner. Lisbon cannot possibly be held responsible for all of that. I am willing to give it another chance.

There will be dinner somewhere I choose. Wine I drink because I like it. Possibly a man whose marital history does not require me to produce a death certificate.

Surely Lisbon has Todds.

I open a separate email to Admin and confirm that I’m going.

Then I check the weather. If the house is sending me back across the Atlantic, I intend to pack something that has never been worn to a client meeting.

CHAPTER 30

ANONYMOUS

The next report begins with something I almost never hear.

I was wrong about the girl upstairs.

Voluntarily. In writing.

I check the date. Apparently, this is a day I will want to commemorate.

People around me are wrong with remarkable regularity. They generally treat I was wrong as a confession with sentencing implications. Depending on the mistake, this is not unreasonable.

So they use preferred alternatives:

I misunderstood.