Page 53 of The Gallagher Place
“I know the detectives were probably a bother, but I wanted to ask you a few things myself.”
Sean glared. “Do you want my alibi? For the four-hundredth time?”
Marlowe recoiled slightly. His alibi had always been airtight. Out of town with his cousins, a dozen witnesses to prove it. She had never considered him a suspect, but others must have. The whispers could be deafening around here. Maybe that was why he blamed her family. The Fishers had power, connections. What couldn’t they hide?
“I know it wasn’t you,” Marlowe said. “I know you were a good boyfriend to Nora. I always believed that.”
“I doubt that.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his head and held up a hand. “Nora always wanted more from me. I was always letting her down. But, hey, what teenage boy doesn’t let people down? It’s all water under the bridge.”
“Sean, I know this is awkward, but I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.” Marlowe’s cheeks were burning as she held his gaze. “Did you and Nora ever sleep together?”
His anger faltered, replaced by a stunned silence. He cleared his throat, dragging a hand across the counter. Then he looked up, and his shock turned to confusion. “How is it possible you don’t know?” he said. “I thought Nora told you everything.”
Marlowe bit the inside of her cheek, fighting the sting in her eyes. “I thought so too.”
Whatever Sean saw in her face, it made his shoulders sag. “Twice,” he murmured. “The fall before we broke up.” He rubbed the back of his neck. She gripped the strap of her purse and nodded.
“Did she ever say anything about me? Or my family? Something that struck you as odd.”
She was trying to disguise the real question:Did Nora dump you because she wanted my older brother?
Sean let out a dry chuckle. “Everything she said about your family was weird. She wasobsessedwith you guys. It seemed like her life didn’t happen unless she was with you.”
Marlowe had heard it before. The privileged Fishers, and Nora, their poor adopted daughter. But it wasn’t like that. It never had been.
“I felt the same way about her,” she admitted. “Nothing mattered as much as the two of us.”
For a few weighted moments, neither Sean nor Marlowe had anything to say.
“I lied to the first detective,” Sean said, finally. “Told him we never had sex. I was terrified.”
“But this time?”
“I told them.” His eyes darted to the window, as if he was hoping for a distraction.
“What else did they ask?”
“They asked me to describe Nora. So I did.” With that, he pulled his computer keyboard in toward his stomach and shook the mouse to wake the monitor. “Look, I gotta get back to work,” he said, gesturing at the screen. “End-of-year inventory.”
“Right.” She nodded. “Sorry to bother you. And thank you.”
She hesitated before pulling a scrap of paper from her purse and jotting down her number.
“If you ever want to talk,” she said, setting it on the counter. “You can call me.” She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, Sean.”
He picked it up, sliding it somewhere underneath the counter, likely planning to throw it away as soon as she left. He would go home and tell his wife about the crazy lady who showed up at work, rehashing one of the most painful episodes of his youth.
As she turned toward the door, Sean called out, “Marlowe. Have a Merry Christmas.”
Marlowe swung her head around. His smile was faint, tinged with remorse. She nodded again. “You too.”
She didn’t return to her car. Instead, she walked to the coffee shop and ordered a latte. The room was packed with weekendersand locals alike. Marlowe could easily distinguish between the two. The locals wore hoodies and muddy shoes, Carhartt jackets. The weekenders wore boots that held their shine, and tan or forest-green barn coats.
A tinny Christmas song echoed over the speakers. It was an older one. Sadder. No upbeat jingling of bells, just a melancholy croon mourning Christmases past.
Sipping her drink by the window, she turned over all the new information in her mind. Nora wasn’t a virgin. She had slept with Sean and never told Marlowe. It didn’t have to mean anything, but Marlowe couldn’t imagine any scenario in which Nora wouldn’t share such earth-shattering news with her.
