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“I’ll call you this weekend as soon as I know more,” Kyle says. “You’ll be around, I take it?”
“Yes, I’ll be home.”
He doesn’t thank her for what she’s shared with him, but at least the usual hostility isn’t seeping from his pores as they say goodbye.
On the drive back to Westport, Emma’s relieved to have the meeting done with, and yet she can’t stop thinking about what might ensue from Kyle’s efforts. What if she’s actually stumbled onto a real lead in her first husband’s death? It will not only get the police off her back, but also resolve the endless, torturous questions about the murder, for her and for Derrick’s remaining family.
Two hours later, as Emma’s sitting at her desk in the studio, the sound of the door opening drags Emma’s attention away from her computer. Looking up, she’s surprised to see Tom standing on the threshold. Dario and Eric glance over, both startled, too. Tom’s never dropped by midday before.
“Hey, Em,” he calls out, “can I grab you for a minute?”
He makes it sound casual, but she can pick up the strain in his voice.
“Sure,” she says, jumping up. Though she kept her tone light, just like her husband tried to do, it must be obvious to Eric and Dario that something’s up.
“Is there news?” she asks as soon as she and Tom have walked a few feet from the studio.
“Yeah, something weird,” he says, no longer trying to hide his agitation. “But first, do you still have those notes that were left on your windshield?”
“I stupidly tossed the first one, but I’ve got the second upstairs in our bedroom. And there’s one more that was left the other day, right here in the door of the studio. With everything that’s been happening, I forgot to mention it.”
“Can you get them for me?”
“Why? Tom, what’s going on?”
“You’re not going to believe this, but I thinkTaylorwrote them.”
She stares at him. Why would Taylor have wanted to mess with her head that way? “That makes no sense.”
“Let me see the notes and then I think I can explain.”
She hurries with Tom to the house and into their bedroom, where she retrieves the two notes from the dresser drawer and hands them to him. He smooths them out and studies both with a knitted brow.
“So?” she asks.
“Yeah, I’m almost certain Taylor wrote these.”
He gestures toward the bed, indicating they both should sit. She’s close enough she can smell traces of the almond soap he uses.
“Tom, please,” Emma urges. He’s staring at the notes again, biting his lip. “Explain this to me.”
“Sorry, I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. Okay, the police asked me to come in this morning—I had my lawyer with me, by the way—and when I got there, they explained that they’d found some things in Taylor’s apartment that suggested she might have had a bizarre crush on me. They didn’t offer a lot of specifics, but it sounds like she’d kept a journal filled with pages about me, saying we were meant to be together.”
“Holy cow,” Emma says, floored by the revelation. “She was in love with you?”
“I wouldn’t call it love. More like some kind of obsession.”
“Did she ever come on to you in any way?”
He shakes his head. “Definitely not, but in hindsight I realize there were some odd warning signs. As you know, she’d always been superattentive, but around six months ago, it started getting fairly extreme. She was always double-checking things with me, often in person. I talked to her a couple of times about relaxing a bit, but she didn’t, and I hate to say this about someone who’s so recently died, but I found it annoying. Like... like that night we were having dinner at the Whelk when she came in to tell me Dan really needed to see me. He hadn’t been in a rush at all.”
A memory flutters to the surface of Emma’s mind: the way Taylor’s eyes lingered on Tom that night at the restaurant. It had seemed a little strange to her, but she’d had enough going on not to dwell on it at the time.
She kicks up her chin toward the papers in Tom’s hand. “And you’re guessing she left me those notes to rattle me? As her rival?”
“It’s more than a guess. The police showed me a note she’d drafted at her home and asked if I’d ever received anything like it. I hadn’t, of course, but I realized that the wording was similar to the language in the notes you found. It said, ‘You still haven’t figured it out, have you?’”
“Yeah, that’s very similar.”
