Chương 9
Margaret saw him through the glass.
He looked as though he had aged overnight.
Evelyn did not look.
“He knows you’re here,” Margaret said.
“I know.”
“Are you going to talk to him?”
“Eventually.”
“He deserves whatever happens.”
Evelyn looked at Margaret.
“So do I.”
Margaret had no answer.
At one fifteen, Dana called a federal prosecutor she had worked with before.
At two, arrangements were made for Evelyn to present herself the following morning with counsel.
At three, Dana began assembling documents.
At four, Evelyn vomited in the conference room bathroom.
Margaret held her hair.
Neither spoke.
The intimacy of it was unbearable.
Afterward Evelyn rinsed her mouth and stared at herself in the mirror.
“I used to have great hair.”
Margaret laughed.
She couldn’t help it.
“So did I.”
“No, you had Margaret hair.”
“What does that mean?”
“It always looked approved by management.”
Margaret leaned against the sink.
“You’re an idiot.”
“I know.”
“Stop.”
“Sorry.”
They laughed again.
Then Evelyn began crying.
Margaret looked away.
Not because she was angry.
Because watching felt invasive.
Evelyn wiped her face.
“I missed you.”
Margaret’s throat tightened.
“You could have called.”
“I know.”
Margaret left the bathroom.
At five thirty Evelyn finally agreed to speak with Richard.
Dana allowed fifteen minutes.
Margaret stayed.
Richard entered.
He stopped when he saw Evelyn.
For a moment neither moved.
Then Richard said, “You look terrible.”
Evelyn laughed.
“You got old.”
“You’re older than me.”
“Still rude.”
His face broke.
He crossed the room and hugged her.
Margaret watched.
Richard cried into Evelyn’s shoulder.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Her hands rested against his back.
They looked married.
Not romantically.
Historically.
Two people whose bodies remembered each other despite everything else.
Margaret looked away.
After a minute Evelyn pushed him back.
“Sit.”
Richard sat.
His eyes were red.
“Why the card?” he asked.
Evelyn smiled faintly.
“I needed Margaret to find me.”
“You could have called.”
“She wouldn’t have believed me.”
Margaret said, “Correct.”
Richard looked at her.
“Claire left.”
“I know.”
“She won’t answer.”
“I wouldn’t either.”
Evelyn looked between them.
“You never told her about me.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“You were dead.”
“That’s convenient.”
“You asked me to keep you dead.”
“I didn’t ask you to pretend you’d never been married.”
Richard looked away.
Evelyn nodded.
“Thought so.”
Margaret almost enjoyed that.
Then remembered she was listening to two criminals argue about etiquette.
Evelyn leaned forward.
“Tomorrow I’m going in.”
Richard’s face changed.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t.”
“I can.”
“You’ll destroy everything.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“What everything?”
“My company. My marriage. My life.”
Margaret laughed softly.
Richard looked at her.
She shrugged.
“Sorry. Continue.”
He turned back to Evelyn.
“They’ll come after me.”
“Yes.”
“For helping you.”
“Yes.”
“You said you would never—”
“I said a lot of things.”
Richard stood.
“This is insane.”
Dana opened the door from outside.
“Sit down, Mr. Mercer.”
He turned.
“This is privileged.”
“No,” Dana said. “It isn’t. I represent Evelyn, not you.”
Richard looked at Evelyn.
“You told her everything?”
“Yes.”
“Everything?”
Evelyn nodded.
Richard’s face emptied.
Margaret watched.
There was another layer.
She could see it.
“What?” she said.
Richard looked at her.
“What else?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t.”
“Margaret.”
Evelyn stared at him.
Then she whispered, “The insurance.”
Margaret looked at her.
Richard said, “Evelyn.”
“The insurance,” Evelyn repeated.
Margaret stood slowly.
“What insurance?”
Nobody answered.
She looked at Dana.
Dana said, “Life insurance.”
Margaret felt something drop inside her.
“How much?”
Richard rubbed his forehead.
“Two million.”
Margaret stared.
“You collected life insurance on a woman you knew was alive.”
“I didn’t know when the claim was filed.”
“But when did it pay?”
Richard said nothing.
“When?”
“Three months after the funeral.”
“So you knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you kept it.”
“I used part of it to support her.”
Margaret laughed.
“That may be the most disgusting accounting statement I’ve ever heard.”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Return it.”
“And explain what?”
“The truth.”
He looked at her.
“You keep saying that like truth was simple.”
“It was simpler before twelve years of lies.”
Richard turned to Evelyn.
“You promised me.”
Evelyn’s expression was tired.
“I was terrified.”
“So was I.”
“I know.”
“You don’t.”
Something in his voice changed.
For the first time, Margaret saw not a wealthy man managing disaster, but a frightened thirty-nine-year-old who had made one terrible decision after another until all of them became his life.
It did not excuse him.
But it made him human.
Richard sat.
“I thought you were dead,” he said.
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“I buried you. I stood beside Margaret and your mother. I went home to our house and slept on the couch because I couldn’t go upstairs.”
Evelyn looked down.
“Then you called.”
Richard laughed softly.
“You called and said, ‘Richie, don’t freak out.’”
Margaret closed her eyes.
That sounded exactly like Evelyn.
Richard continued.
“I thought I was losing my mind. Then you appeared in a motel outside Bridgeport looking like someone had dragged you out of a fire.”
Evelyn’s scarred hand tightened.
“You begged me.”
“I know.”
“You said one month.”
“I know.”
“You said you’d fix everything.”
“I thought I could.”
“You disappeared.”
“I panicked.”
“You left me holding all of it.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You could have told the truth.”
“So could you.”
They stared at each other.
There it was.
Not one villain.
Two cowards.
Different kinds.
Margaret sat.
Richard looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
She almost laughed.
“For which year?”
He looked down.
The next morning, Evelyn surrendered.
There was no dramatic arrest.
No shouting.
No handcuffs in a crowded lobby.
A federal building security officer asked her to remove her belt.
She forgot she was wearing one.
Dana reminded her.
Margaret sat on a plastic chair and watched her sister place her belongings in a gray bin.
It was painfully mundane.
That seemed right.
Consequences, Margaret discovered, often arrived under fluorescent lights.
Evelyn spent nine hours answering questions.
May you like
Margaret waited.
She bought bad coffee from a vending machine.
