“I’m here, for fuck’s sake,” he said. “Please stop shouting.”
Leo snailed down the steps on his titanium knees.
“What were you doing up there?” Luna asked.
The first floor of the Mann-Boucher house had everything a guest might need. Only the master suite and Irene’s office were upstairs.
“I was looking for a book I lent Irene,” Leo said.
“What book?” Owen said.
“The Hockney coffee-table book. I’m sorry. It’s precious to me.”
“You could have asked,” Owen said.
“You were busy with that woman,” Leo said.
Owen’s phone chirped and then the doorbell rang. Luna winced at the competing sounds. Owen turned to Luna, his eyes wide in panic. What now?
“I’ll get it,” Luna said.
It was Sam, still wearing his scrubs. Sam always claimed that he wore them because it was easier than assembling another outfit, but Owen wasn’t buying that bullshit.
“Hey,” Sam said to Luna. “I thought I should—”
“Right,” Luna said.
Owen had noticed that soon after Sam and Luna met, they began to speak in an inelegant shorthand. Sure, husbands and wives often finished each other’s sentences. But this was different. He thought they sounded like frat boys agreeing to a previously conceived plan.
Sam drifted past Luna and approached Owen. The two men hugged awkwardly.
“I’m so sorry, Owen,” Sam said.
“Thanks, man.”
“She was a good woman,” Sam added.
Sam’s tone was soft and sincere, which was incredibly rare. Luna took notice. He was really trying, she thought.
“I should call a car,” Leo said.
Owen breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“Yeah. Get some rest,” Luna said.
“I’ll drive him,” Sam said.
Leo appeared stunned by the offer. “I wouldn’t think of it. I’ve got this app on my phone,” Leo said, fumbling with his phone and glasses.
“Put your phone away,” Sam said. “I said I’d drive you.”
Leo sank his phone back into the pocket of his jacket. “That’s very generous,” Leo said. His words and tone were mismatched.
“Yeah,” said Luna, surprised.
After Sam and Leo departed, Luna and Owen compared notes.
“That was weird, right?” Owen said.
“Yes,” said Luna.
She wasn’t sure which element was the weirdest, Sam offering the ride or Leo not wanting to accept. Sam was Leo’s doctor. A few years ago, he’d replaced both of Leo’s knees in close succession. Leo had always seemed fond of Sam.
Owen’s phone buzzed on the coffee table. As Luna handed it to him, she saw the name Amy on the screen.
“Amy? That’s her?”
Owen nodded.
“Did you tell her?”
“Not yet.”
“Tell her before the police do,” Luna said.
“I will.”
“And do not text anything you don’t want the police to read,” Luna said.
“I know.”
“You don’t think—”
“No, Luna. She didn’t do it.”
“Okay,” Luna said. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” Owen said, although his conviction had already weakened.
December 2003
“Luna, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Owen asked.
Luna was sprawled out on her bed, smoking a spliff that Mason had sweetly shoved under her door that morning. It was just one day before winter break. Luna had taken her last final that morning; Owen, yesterday afternoon.
“Good,” Luna answered.
What kind of answer was that? Owen thought. “You’re already good,” he said.
“I’m not. But I’d like to be. One day.”
“I meant, what do you want to do with your life? You never talk about that,” Owen said.
“Because I don’t know.”
“What did you want to be when you were a little girl?”
“A firefighter or a horse trainer. Frankly, both of those jobs still sound awesome.”
“You really don’t think about this stuff?”
“Not often.”
“One day you’ll need a job, and there are so many awful jobs.”
“Maybe I’ll be a drug rep,” Luna said. “I hear they make a lot of money.”
“Dude, you can’t be serious,” Owen said.
Two quiet knocks were followed by two more quiet knocks.