“That was a suggestion,” I replied tersely, “not a hard-and-fast rule.”
There was a crackling silence between us.
“Anyway,” I said, “I can guess what you’re going to tell me. I know all about the husband and how he died and left his kids out of the will. Tina told me herself.”
“Did she also tell you about Ruth?” Brian asked.
“Her friend who went missing?”
Another pause, this one worrisome. “Actually, Pamela,” Brian said, “it seems you don’t know what I was going to say.”
* * *
Tina was spearing a plate of salad when I came downstairs. “You two were taking forever,” she complained as I slid into the red leather booth across from her. The restaurant had stone walls and timber beams, wild game on the menu, and a rowdy, dispersing crowd. It was nine thirty on a Friday night, and the group at the bar was readying to move on to a popular line-dancing club down the block.
“There was a mix-up with our bags,” I said, glancing at the untouched place setting. I wondered if I had enough time to have this conversation before Carl joined us, if I should hold off until I knew we wouldn’t be interrupted. “I need to ask you something,” I ended up saying in a spontaneous burst. “About Ruth.”
“Shoot,” Tina said, fitting a fat wedge of tomato in her mouth.
“Was Ruth…” I found I didn’t know what word to use. “Your lover?”
Tina’s fork clattered to her plate, and her hand went to her mouth. For a moment, I thought I had offended her, and I almost apologized. Then I noticed her shoulders quivering. She was laughing. Silently, her eyes in slits. It turned into such an ordeal that she had to spit out the unchewed piece of tomato into her dinner napkin.
“Sorry,” she managed, bundling up its pulpy remains. “But lover?” She made a puke face, caught the giggles again. “Is Brian your lover?”
“Excuse me,” I objected. “No. He’s my steady boyfriend. Fiancé, actually.”
Tina did something approximating a seated curtsy. Fiancé. How noble. “Congratulations are in order then,” she said mordantly, retrieving her salad fork and wiping the handle clean. “Ruth and I had a romantic relationship, sure.” She went back to lancing the bed of lettuce before her. “It’s not a secret or anything I’m ashamed of.”
“Except it was a secret.”
The fork struck the plate in a caustic way that made me grind my back molars.
“You called her a friend,” I said stridently. I was angry, I realized. I felt lied to, taken advantage of. “And I’m sitting there wondering why her family aren’t the ones chasing answers for her. Or why the police don’t seem to like you or want to work with you. And it turns out it’s because you haven’t been forthcoming about your relationship with the victim. I’m prelaw—”
“So you’ve mentioned—”
“And people who omit key information,” I boomed over her, “people like you, you aren’t considered credible. You left out an important piece of the puzzle in order to convince me to be in cahoots with you, and now I look like I’ve been manipulated. Now my reputation could be in question.”
Tina had amassed quite the collection of spinach leaves while I spoke, none of which she showed any intention of eating. “Maybe I prefer to prove myself a credible person first.” She sniffed, disgusted, like she’d caught a whiff of a foul odor. “Since the world isn’t all that understanding of people like me.”
“What you do in your personal life is none of my business.”
Tina laughed abrasively. “Right back at you, Pamela.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Infuriatingly, Tina said nothing. She kept stabbing away at her salad. I couldn’t take it one more second. I snatched the plate away from her. She froze with her fork raised mid-blow.
“What have I done that could possibly invite criticism from anyone?” I demanded. “I do everything by the rule book.”
“By whose rule book? That sexist cult they let you think you run?”
I sent the plate spinning back in her direction. “That’s sexism, actually.”
Tina picked spinach off her blouse; flicked it onto the table. Coolly, she asked, “Does the council tell you to say that?”
“No one tells me to say anything,” I fumed. “I’ve been a member of this organization going on four years, and I’ve seen it with my own eyes. The chapter exists to support like-minded women in their goals and values.”