In Sickness and in Lies novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: Half of What She Knew

The diner was on Roosevelt Road in Berwyn, forty minutes from Lake Forest and a long way from anyone Desmond knew.

I picked the back booth, facing the door.

Cilla came in at eleven, in a plain gray coat and a scarf over her hair.

She looked at every table before she looked at me.

There was no diamond bracelet on her wrist.

She slid in across from me and kept her purse on her lap with both hands on it.

"Thank you for coming," she said.

"You called me a charity case last night. In front of fifty people."

"I know what I said." Her voice shook a little. "Des wrote it on a card. I read it off the card."

"You could have read something else."

"I could have."

The waitress put down two menus and left.

Cilla didn't touch hers.

"I want to say something before I lose my nerve," she said. "I didn't know the bracelet was on your card."

"I signed the slip. The jeweler showed me. C. Dorn, authorized user."

"He told me it was a company card. He said it was how the firm thanked people." She pressed her lips together. "I signed where he pointed."

"So did I," I said. "For sixteen years."

Her eyes went to the folder on the seat beside me.

They stayed there too long, the way they had stayed on my mother's chart.

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