The Good Liar by Laura Caldwell

Author:Laura Caldwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2008-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

36

“He was working on a big story,” Stefan told Liza.

She nodded. She had so many questions, but she’d learned early to shut her mouth when someone wanted to talk.

They were sitting in his tiny living room in the rectory, both on wooden chairs with large arms and red cushions behind their backs. It was dark outside now. Stefan had made them black tea, which they drank from white cups.

Liza felt comfortable in this room, but then maybe it was because of Stefan, because of his special aura of calm, the feeling he was so close to God that some of it might rub off on her.

“What was the story about?” Liza asked.

He shrugged. “I do not know.”

“Do you know anything—the topic, the subject matter?”

“We all know what Aleksei liked to write about most.”

“The Mafiya.”

Stefan’s face became grim and stern. “It always brought him trouble.”

“It sure did.” Liza wondered if Stefan knew that Aleksei’s investigative reporting into the Mafiya had eventually pulled him into intelligence work, and that he’d only done that work because of threats against his family.

“We never understood the traveling, the moving from one place to the next,” Stefan said.

So Aleksei’s family didn’t know, Liza thought. Aleksei had suffered his knowledge alone.

“We all wanted him to find a wife,” Stefan continued, sipping his tea. “We wanted him to be happy in love.” He looked shyly at her. “Maybe with you.”

Liza started to laugh at Stefan’s earnest yet mischievous expression, but then the laugh stuck in her throat. She remembered that there would be no second chance at love for her and Aleksei.

“We miss him so,” Stefan said, tears rising in his own eyes. “He was the center of our family. I do not think he knew that. I do not think any of us knew that until…”

“Until he was gone,” Liza finished for him. “I understand. My brother, Colby, was the same way. When he died, my whole family just…crumbled.”

“We will never be the same.” The priest’s eyes began to tear, and he rubbed his face. “I am sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’ll tell you what I’ve learned from losing family members. You are right that you will never be the same. But you will be okay. You will be okay in a different way.”

He smiled at Liza. “I tell my parishioners something very similar when they lose someone dear to them. No one ever believes it.”

“But it’s true.”

“I hope it is true.”

They shared a moment of silence, then Liza put her tea on the arm of the chair and leaned forward. “You’re certain you know nothing about the story he was working on?”

“Very little. He said it was a big international investigation. He said the story would cause a lot of problems if he understood it right.”

“Problems for who?”

Stefan shrugged. “I know he was very close to finishing.”

Liza closed her eyes for a moment and imagined herself and Aleksei in Rio, all those nights in the safe house when she felt reckless, but safe enough to tell him about herself, to tutor him on everything from surveillance to storage.

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