Chapter 9: Say It Again

Silvan walked Spencer to the curb himself.

I watched from the porch with my arms wrapped around my ribs.

They stood under the streetlight for less than a minute.

Silvan said something short, and Spencer said something longer.

Then Spencer got into his car and drove off without turning on his headlights.

Silvan came back up the walk with his hands in his pockets.

"What did you tell him?" I asked.

"That his badge would stop working at eight on Monday."

"You can do that?"

"I own the building."

He said it plainly, as a fact, and went inside.

Lydia was on the stairs.

She had taken off her shoes and set them neatly beside her, and she sat with her chin on her knees.

Deborah was two steps below her with a hand on her ankle.

"I'm all right," Lydia said, to nobody.

"You are not," said Deborah. "You're allowed."

I stopped at the bottom.

"Lydia, I'm sorry. I should have told you on the phone."

"No." She looked up, and her mascara had run down both cheeks.

"You told me the only way I'd have believed you. On the phone I would have argued."

"I'd have argued."

"I'd have hung up on you." She wiped her face with the heel of her hand. "I was going to be his wife."

"You'd have been his second one," I said.

She stared at me.

Then she laughed, a cracked and horrified little laugh, and Deborah laughed too, and somewhere in it Lydia began to cry properly.

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