Chapter 14: The Readout

Briggs came down one step, so he was between us.

He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. He was twice as wide as Desmond.

"Why?" I said.

Desmond wiped the rain out of his eyes.

"The lawyer filmed it. You walking down off that stage with the ring." His voice was hoarse. "I've watched it about forty times."

"And?"

"And I'm tired of being the man in the back of the room."

Ninety-seven, the System had said.

I didn't feel anything about it at all.

"Your lawyers refused the detective this morning," Briggs said.

"My lawyers work for the foundation. The key is mine. I wrote half of that firmware myself."

Briggs looked at him for a long moment.

Then he took out his phone and walked to the end of the porch to call the detective.

Desmond stood at the bottom of the steps in the rain and looked at me.

"You were here," he said. "At his house. At midnight."

"I was."

He nodded slowly.

"Nine o'clock," Briggs said, coming back. "Here. She's bringing the ring."

"Here?" Desmond said.

"My kitchen. My table. My kid's at school by then." Briggs opened the screen door for me. "Not your office."

The detective arrived at five to nine with the evidence bag in her raincoat pocket and a gray case under her arm.

Goldie arrived at five past, with a coffee cake.

"I'm a witness," she said, when Briggs looked at it. "Witnesses bring cake."

We sat around the wobbly table.

Birdie's spelling list was still stuck to the fridge. Her cereal bowl was in the sink.

Desmond came last, dry this time, in a black shirt and his overcoat, with a thin silver laptop.

He didn't sit until the detective told him to.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Night Before We Got Married from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.