“No,” Owen said.
“How about friends?”
“She didn’t need a lot of people. She found them draining.”
“I see,” said Burns.
“There’s something you should know,” Owen said.
“What’s that?”
“I was having an affair. You were going to find out eventually. Thought I’d save you the trouble.”
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t kill my wife.”
Burns clicked her pen and poised it over a pad of paper. Owen wondered why the detective bothered to take notes when they were being recorded.
“Now, this woman,” Burns said, “that you’d been sleeping with. Was that Luna Grey, the jogger who came upon the body?”
“What? No. That—no. It’s not like that. Luna and I are old friends. Just friends.”
“Always?”
“Always.”
“Can you give me the name of the woman you were seeing?”
“She has nothing to do with any of this.”
“I understand. But I’ll still need her name.”
Owen paused for a long moment. “Amy Johnson.”
Burns slipped a piece of paper and pen in front of Owen and asked him to write down Amy Johnson’s address and phone number.
* * *
—
Owen found Luna sitting on the steps of the police station. She’d been released an hour earlier and waited for him. In the interim she’d turned on her phone to a storm of buzzes, alerts, and dings. She scrolled through her recent callers—Whitman, Sam, Whitman, Sam, Maya, Casey, Sam, Whitman. She couldn’t phone any of them until she consulted with Owen.
Owen sat down on the stoop next to her, ridiculous in his voluminous sweats. Luna reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of Marlboro Lights and a book of matches.
“Here,” she said. “I figured you’d need it. Today at least.”
“Probably tomorrow as well.”
“You have a week. Then you quit,” Luna said.
Owen lit his cigarette and took a drag.
“I’m so sorry,” Luna said.
“I know.”
“I loved her too,” she said.
When she said it, she hadn’t realized how much she meant it. It had taken some time for Luna to warm to Irene. She had to learn to love her, but she did. Quiet tears slid down her cheeks.
“What am I supposed to do?” said Owen.
“I don’t know. Mourn, plan the funeral.”
“I think I’m a suspect,” Owen said.
“The husband is always a suspect,” Luna said.
“Who would kill her?”
“It could have been a stranger.”
“Why would a stranger shoot a jogger running through a cemetery?”
“I don’t know. People do terrible things to other people, and sometimes there’s no reason for it. At least no reason that you can understand,” Luna said.
Owen took another deep drag on the cigarette and experienced a head rush, followed by nausea. He put his head between his knees.
“You okay?” she said.
“Did they ask you about Markham?” Owen said.
“They don’t know. Not yet,” Luna said.
“They will,” Owen said.
“Yeah. They’ll know everything soon enough.”
October–December 2003
Scarlet had been patiently waiting for Owen to call since the morning after they’d slept together. When he didn’t, Scarlet decided there was no reason that she couldn’t call him. She called three separate times before he answered. When he did, she asked Owen if he wanted to hang out sometime. He said, “Sure, sometime,” but refused to make an actual date. A few days later, Scarlet ran into him at another party. Both drunk, they left the party together and went back to Owen’s dorm. Soon after they had sex, Owen told Scarlet to get dressed. He’d walk her home. She wanted to stay the night. Owen explained that he couldn’t possibly sleep through the night sharing a twin bed. Roughly the same scenario happened two more times.
After the third time, Scarlet sought Luna’s counsel.
“I probably shouldn’t have fucked him that first night, right?”
Luna never wanted to play anyone’s confidante. Secrets were generally perceived as barter, and Luna could never reciprocate.
“I know he likes me, because we keep hooking up. Why won’t he make a regular date with me?”
“I don’t know,” Luna said.
Oh, she knew. She’d gotten Owen’s side of the matter. Luna hated the way Owen used Scarlet. And she hated that Scarlet let him. They were both idiots as far as Luna was concerned. But Scarlet was so obviously at a disadvantage, Luna wanted to even the playing field. That’s why she helped her.