Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: What the County Has

I put the friend's phone on Geraldine Penrose's desk at eight the next morning and told her to look at the photo.

She looked at it for a long time.

Then she took her glasses off, cleaned them on her blazer and put them back on.

"Give me a minute," she said, and picked up her desk phone.

She dialed a number she knew by heart and asked for someone by her first name.

I sat on the edge of the client chair with a paper cup of decaf and tried not to hear every word.

"Yes," Geraldine said. "No, I'm not asking you to break anything."

"I'm asking if a certificate was recorded on Saturday under two names."

She spelled them.

"Keene, with two e's. Oxley, with a W."

She was quiet for a bit.

Her pen moved on the legal pad.

I watched her write the word license, then underline it.

Then she wrote a date, and a second date beside it.

"Online application," she said. "Both parties?"

She listened.

"With photo ID uploaded for each. And the officiant returned it Saturday morning."

Her pen stopped. "Is there a statement on it about prior marriages?"

Another pause.

"Read it to me, please."

She wrote down a sentence word for word and did not look up.

"Thank you," she said. "I'll be in touch."

She hung up.

The room was very quiet, and I could hear the bakery downstairs running a mixer.

"Tell me," I said.

"First, a question." Geraldine folded her hands.

"On Thursday night, after Sabrina sent the booking link, what did Ross do with it?"

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