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Interesting. “How? Josh lied. About having another wife. About this Meredith woman.”
Harris groaned as he dropped the duffel. “Jesus, Elisa. You’re getting—”
“Do not say paranoid.” Too defensive, but still.
“What word do you want me to use?”
Fine. She’d spell it out. “Two dead wives, one of whom was a complete secret. A missing girlfriend. Another mystery woman who says she’s in a relationship with him... Can you not hear how unreal this sounds? You have to admit it’s too much to be a coincidence.”
“Did you tell the detective about Lauren?”
His question stopped her. The words spinning in her brain fell away. “Not yet, but why is that your concern?”
“I was just asking.” Some of the heat had run out of his voice. “And Josh said he didn’t know the redhead, so take her out of this.”
“You don’t get to subtract women. Her name is Meredith.” Elisa hoped that was the woman’s real name because sheplanned to do a bunch of computer searches to find out more about her.
He put his hands on his hips, ready to plunge ahead with the lecture that he clearly had waiting and ready to go. “She’s not an ex or current or whatever.”
He just believed Josh. Full stop. No questions.
She no longer had that luxury. “That’s not what she said.”
“Am I supposed to believe her?”
“You could try believing me.” Seemed simple to Elisa.
He exhaled, sounding exhausted and annoyed. “Tell me what you want me to do here. Josh got into trouble years ago, but not with women and he’s not that guy anymore.”
“Would Lauren’s mother agree with that?”
Harris glared at her but kept talking. “He can be a jerk sometimes. He doesn’t like to be challenged, but do you really think he’s churning through women? Killing some. Burying others.”
She gathered up her robe and bunched it in her fist. “Who said ‘burying’?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Imagine you’re me for a second.” She closed the gap between them and put a hand on his chest. She had to make him understand before her questions and his quick defense of Josh tore their marriage apart. “You find out about a secret wife.”
He shook his head. “That was my fault for not telling you.”
“Your friend is missing and no one is asking questions.” When he tried to interrupt her again, she kept talking. “And now a woman is appearing wherever you go and she says she, too, has a connection to Josh.”
Another deep exhale. “I’d think something was going on.”
Maybe they were inching closer to an understanding that didn’t rely on the idea of her being unhinged. “‘Something’?”
“He’s not that guy, Elisa. Even you didn’t think so until a few days ago. But with no evidence and without any warning, you expect me to put aside years of knowing him, of working with him, of trying to be a good role model, and believe he’s a guy who hurts women? That he’s been doing all of this in front of me and I didn’t see it. Didn’t stop him.”
His love for his brother and all those years of playing pseudo-father were getting in the way of the truth. “No one is questioning you or all you did for him. This is about Josh and the things he hides, even from you.”
Harris stood there, watching her. For almost a minute he didn’t speak. When he did the strain still lingered in his voice. “Do you understand you’re the only one who’s seeing this, worrying about any of this?”
Unhinged. That’s the way he saw her. He wasn’t ready or willing to dissect Josh. She could only assume he found it easy to analyze her and find her lacking.
She dropped her hand and stepped back, putting a bit of air between them. “I guess I am.”
“I just want you to be okay.”
