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“I also wanted to apologize for forgetting about our six o’clock call yesterday. I was on the phone with Dean, of all people, and to be honest, that was also the reason I slept through the library event. I’d been up late the night before talking to him.”
Emma cocks her head, a little surprised. “Are you two thinking about getting back together?”
“Not sure yet. I’m still trying to decide if his shitty behavior last spring qualifies as a go or a gone.”
She looks at him quizzically.
“Oh, it’s just something kind of silly an influencer said in one of our relationship surveys. A go, she said, is something someone does that you should let go of and not worry about. A gone, though, is a big deal and it should have you gone from the picture immediately.”
“Ha, she probably already has a book deal. But good luck whatever you choose.”
“Regardless of what I decide, I promise not to let the relationship interfere with my work again. I love my job and working with you.”
“I’m so happy to hear that, Eric.” Sheis, and it means she misinterpreted some of his recent behavior. But inside she’s also cringing. Who knows what will happen with Hawke and Company over the coming weeks and months? Will they still be working out of the studio? Will she be living in this house with Tom? At this exact moment, Emma doesn’t have a clue.
“I should let you get back to decompressing,” he says, rising. “Oh, before I forget, that professor pal of yours, Addison, called the office at the end of the day yesterday. She said she’d tried your cell but wasn’t able to reach you.”
Shehadnoticed a message from her but hadn’t bother to call. Maybe Addison means well, but Emma bets she’s probably nosing for gossip. She’ll send her a text and tell her she’s fine and then let things fade. The friends she wants in her life right now are women like Bekah and Lilly.
About a half hour after Eric departs, and just as Emma is starting to worry, Tom returns with a rotisserie chicken and several salads.
“How are you feeling?” she asks.
“It helped to be out and about for a bit, though I could see people eyeing my shiner. I was tempted to say, ‘You should see the other guy.’”
They ready the lunch together, working side by side in silence, though it doesn’t feel like one of those good, companiable silences. It feels portentous.
“The reason I was gone a little long,” Tom says as they set the food on the table, “is that I got a call from Brittany onmy way back and I decided to pull over to fully concentrate. You know the whole story, right?”
“Yes, but I felt she should tell you directly. I’m so sorry, Tom. It must have been terrible to learn what she did.”
“Yes, and honestly, I’m not sure how I go about trying to fix things between us. It’s such a betrayal.”
“Do you want to bat around some ideas?”
He shakes his head and locks eyes with her. “At some point, yes, but what I want right now is to talk about why you left the house last night. You said on the voice-mail message that you were at the ferry terminal. Were you intending to go back to the mainland?”
Emma inhales deeply.
“Okay, I want to talk about it, too,” she says, taking a seat, “but before, there’s something important I need to share with you about Taylor’s murder. I... I think I’m partially responsible.”
Tom pulls back in shock and then drops into a chair on the other side of the table.
“What do you mean?”
“The day before she was killed, I asked her to dig up information for me about the client weekend at Stowe.”
He narrows his eyes, and she senses he knows where this is going. “You askedherabout Stowe.”
“Yes, specifically about what restaurant you ate at Saturday night. It was before I knew about the injured snowboarder. I lied and said I was planning a ski trip for the two of us, but I really wanted to confirm your whereabouts when Derrick died.” As she speaks, Emma knows how awful it must sound to Tom.
He winces, visibly pained. “Ahh, so that’s why she brought the weekend up with me—which annoyed the hell out of me at the time. Stowe was one of the events Justine and her event planner had cashed in on, and I didn’t want anyone drawing any attention to it until the forensic accountant was done with the investigation.”
“I told her not to tell anyone I was asking about it, but you know how Taylor could be. She clearly asked you, and I’m thinking she said something to Justine, too.”
Tom leans forward, listening intently. “Because Justine did the planning?”
“Right. She said she’d just look in the file, but I bet that when she called me to report you hadn’t been at the dinner, it must have been because she’d ended up asking Justine about it. And now I’m thinking that Justine might have mistakenly thought Taylor had started to figure out what was going on with the embezzling.”
