Page 485 of The Sinner: James

“I have no idea where he is,” she says.

Lifting an eyebrow, I slowly fold my arms over my chest.

“You know he’s in danger.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“He wouldn’t have vanished if he weren’t.”

“Listen...”

She pauses.

“James,” I say.

“James. I don’t know who you are. You look exactly like him, and I can only assume you two are related. Perhaps you’re his brother. But even if that were the case, I still can't help you. Tiago and I are only friends and nothing more. If he went away, he must’ve had his reasons. And as I told the people who came looking for him a while back, Tiago and I have separate lives,” she says nervously.

“Not separate enough for him not to visit you in the middle of the night a few times a week.”

Her face is pale like the lamp on the side table.

“And not to fuck him while he was in high school,” I add.

Life goes out of her eyes.

“That is not true.”

“Oh, yes, it is, darling.”

“He was already out of school,” she blurts, her face scarlet. “And I did everything I could to stay away from him.”

“Like quitting your teaching job and following him to London.”

“That was a coincidence.”

“And living only a few blocks away from him.”

Her hands fly up.

“Okay... All right. I didn’t want to follow him, but I needed a fresh start once I quit my teaching career. Besides, we’d never been a real couple, and we’d been on and off. And there were other women in between, as you can imagine.”

“And yet, you’re the one he trusts the most. And that’s exactly why I’m here. I want to know where he is.”

She leans back in her seat, looking frazzled.

“Do you have his money?” I shoot at her directly.

Her eyebrows slide up.

“What money?”

She seems genuinely surprised.

“Tell me more about him...” I say, shifting gears and not offering more information.

She weighs her answer.

“He got into some trouble with the people he had worked for. That’s all I know.”

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