Page 26 of Last Seen Alive
“We broke up not long after I met Zoe, so last September.”
“Why did you split?”
Her sister, the head of the great inquisition.“Things fall apart sometimes. It was mutual.”
“But last night you went back to his place and… dot-dot-dot?” Kristen bobbed her eyebrows, the terminology a tribute to the movieMamma Mia!Her sister had probably watched the film a hundred and one times.
“Not exactly.” Amanda gulped back more iced tea. She was hoping that her sister would relinquish her interrogation, shoot off in another direction. And was it too much to hope for Zoe to come outside now and completely throw the direction of the conversation? Her sister wouldn’t accept a rain check on this conversation the way Becky had complied. Amanda would just stick to the bare basics and not trespass into territory that would violate the confidentiality of the case. After what felt like minutes of silence, Amanda eventually said, “There was a dead woman in his bed.” Best to get it out fast, and hearing it hit her ears it almost sounded like she’d made it up.
“A dead woman?” her sister parroted. “For real? What the f—”
“Mandy!” Zoe shot across the patio and hugged Amanda. She hadn’t even heard the patio door open and close.
“Hey, sweetie.” Amanda swept the girl’s blond hair back. “You having fun with Ava and your aunt Kristen?”
Zoe stood in front of Amanda. “Ah, yeah. Always.”
Amanda could imagine her addingduhto that in a few years. “Tell me what you’ve been doing.”
Zoe rolled her eyes in dramatic fashion. “Too, too much to say.” And with that she was gone, running back inside.
Yep, they grow up too quickly, Amanda thought.
“All right, talk to me.” Kristen leaned forward, her iced tea forgotten on the table. “Who was this woman?”
“This is between us?” A pact made between sisters was a strong one.
“Of course.”
“She was his wife, but it’s not like it sounds,” she hurried out at the widening of her sister’s eyes.
“Still though…” Kristen pulled back and gave Amanda this sharp glare that was so their mother. It impaled the receiver of said look with a spike of guilt.
“They’ve been separated for years.”
“If you say so.”
Amanda’s back tightened. “I do.”
“You trust this guy?”
“Yes. And I like to think I’m a pretty good judge of character.”
“That might be, but how do you explain his estranged wife showing up dead in his bed? And how did she die? I mean, did she have a heart attack or…?”
Amanda shook her head, not about to disclose too much.
“Was she murdered?”
Amanda sipped her iced tea.
“Oh.” Kristen’s mouth widened into anOjust like her eyes. “She was.”
“He didn’t do it, but he was arrested for it.”
“Are you sure he didn’t? There may be things you don’t know about.”
Amanda supposed that was possible, but she still found it near impossible to see Logan as a killer—and to murder Claire? Amanda could see he still loved her, and honestly that hurt a bit. Like she was just realizing that she was competing with a memory since she’d met Logan, and now she was up against a ghost. But Amanda could appreciate the bond that was made when two people exchanged nuptials. There was none like it. She supposed Logan faced the same challenge when it came to Kevin.
