Fatal Marriage by Charlotte Byrd

Author:Charlotte Byrd [Byrd, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63225-113-8
Publisher: Charlotte Byrd

20

Aurora

I meet up with Jackie the following day. We meet up alone without Henry and that’s at my request. It’s a nondescript diner, one that I chose because no one I know ever goes here.

I get here early and take a seat. I’m hungry so I order a stack of pancakes. The waitress is a tired woman in her forties with thinning hair and sallow skin. She offers me coffee with free refills but I opt for an Earl Grey instead.

Jackie arrives a few minutes late and apologizes profusely. I wave my hand at him and tell him that it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t. I like having this time to think. The diner is empty since we’re meeting at the dead time between lunch and dinner when few people bother with restaurants.

“Why isn’t Henry here?” Jackie asks, getting right to the point.

I swallow hard and look up at him. His eyes are weary and he looks like he didn’t sleep last night.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

He nods and says, “I don’t look that great, do I?”

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” I say.

“I worked on a stake-out all last night following this husband who has been screwing around on his wife. She knows he’s doing it. I know he’s doing it and yet I couldn’t catch them in the act.”

“Maybe he’s not?” I ask.

“Let me tell you, around 6:30 this morning after sitting in front of the building for five hours, I started to think that, too, but then I saw him come out of a one-star hotel with his arm around his girlfriend and he gave her a big wet kiss right for my camera.”

“I’m not sure if your work is extremely interesting or extremely boring,” I say, taking a sip of my tea.

“A little bit of both.”

My pancakes arrive and it’s way more than I can eat. Luckily, Jackie is happy to oblige. He puts a few on his plate, smothering them in maple syrup. I bite into mine completely dry.

“No syrup for you?” Jackie asks.

I shake my head no.

“To answer your question,” I say, “things are a little bit complicated now but I wanted to get you this cup. It’s in my purse.”

“You got it? Already?”

I nod.

“That was fast.”

“I want this to end sometime soon. The sooner the better.”

“Everyone does but that’s not how investigations usually go.” Jackie takes another big bite, chewing with his mouth open.

“You don’t like me, do you?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“I’m giving you this investigation on an open platter. I’m doing everything and you seem to be…inconvenienced.”

“It’s not that,” he says, narrowing his eyes. “I appreciate you doing all of this.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“You. You and Henry,” he says after a long pause.

“How’s that?” I ask.

“You come from a different world and we both know that and he knows that but there’s another part of him that sort of doesn’t.”

I look down at my fork and watch the light streaming through the window bounce off one of the prongs.

“I don’t owe you an explanation,” I say.

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