The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

Author:Ariel Lawhon [Lawhon, Ariel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-53763-6
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2014-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

STELLA heard Jude walk down the pier, but she ignored him. She leaned out over the lake, eyes focused on some distant point, as he came to a stop behind her. Stella didn’t turn around until he cleared his throat. Back in New York, she had been terrified that he would discover the hidden envelopes and hadn’t noticed how handsome he was. Dark hair. Steel-blue eyes. A strong, square jaw and broad shoulders.

“Detective Simon,” he said, extending his hand.

It hovered between them for a several seconds before she gripped it with cold fingertips. “We’ve met.”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d remember. Do you have a few minutes? I’ve come to take your statement.”

“You could have done that when you came to my apartment.” She could not keep the irritation out of her voice.

“That visit was unofficial.”

“Meaning unsanctioned?”

“No. Meaning off the record until my superiors were certain how to proceed.”

“You mean until another headline in the New York World forced them to proceed?”

“Should we sit? No point making this uncomfortable.”

Stella motioned to two Adirondack chairs at the end of the pier. The white paint was peeling and the wood splintered in places, but they were comfortable. She settled into the one closest to the water and tucked her bare feet beneath her legs, wrapping Joe’s dinner jacket tight around her chest. One hand wandered into the pocket. She lifted a cigarette from the pack and fumbled with the matchbook. Stella didn’t want to smoke it—was sick from the last one, in fact—but she needed something to hold. Detective Simon pulled a silver lighter from his pocket and held it out to her. The flame was tall and immediate, and she passed her cigarette through, eyes watering at the acrid smell of singed paper and burning tobacco.

“I’m sorry about your husband,” Jude said. “But I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Are you? Sorry, that is. You didn’t know him.”

“I met him a few times, actually.”

“Did you like him?”

“I didn’t know him well enough to dislike him.”

“Fair enough.” Stella laughed. She drew on the cigarette but didn’t inhale; rather, she held the smoke in her mouth until her tastebuds tingled and then spit it out.

“When was the last time you saw your husband?”

“August third. We had dinner at the Salt House.”

“What happened that night?”

“When we arrived, Joe went to make a phone call. He was gone about twenty minutes, and when he came back to the table, he told me that he had to return to New York first thing in the morning to ‘straighten a few things out.’ ”

Jude scratched at his notepad in shorthand as she spoke. Each stroke was deliberate and thick, indenting the page. “What sort of things?”

“The sort you don’t discuss with your wife, apparently.” Stella flicked the cigarette and then jumped to brush the hot ash from her lap.

“Do you know who your husband phoned that night?”

“No, I do not.” She put Owney Madden, and their agreement, out of her mind as quickly as possible so the lie wouldn’t register on her face.

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