Chapter 11: Witness Tampering

Eliot was at the stove when I came down on Tuesday morning, burning eggs.

He'd showered and shaved.

There were shadows under his eyes.

"You didn't sleep," I said.

"I slept beautifully." He scraped the eggs onto a plate and looked at them with deep suspicion. "For about three hours. Then I had papers."

He set the plate in front of me.

Then he bent and kissed the top of my head, quickly.

I sat there holding my fork and didn't eat for a full minute.

He was back in his classroom at nine.

I was at the café by seven, and by ten the campus paper had a new story online.

Faye read the headline out loud from behind the register, in the voice she used for health inspectors.

"'Professor's Wife Houses Accuser. Dean's Office Calls It Witness Tampering.'"

Tori was wiping table five.

She stopped.

"There's a photo," Faye said. "Of Tori. Carrying a box of cups. Through our front door."

"Do I look bad?" Tori asked faintly.

Faye squinted at it.

"You look like you're stealing cups, honestly."

"I'm not stealing them, you told me to move them."

"I know, babe. The internet doesn't."

At twelve-thirty the bell over the door rang, and the line of students at the counter went quiet.

Theresa Danforth walked in, in a grey coat and her pearls, and went straight past me to table five.

Tori was clearing it.

"Ms. Ingram," Theresa said warmly. "Can we talk?"

Tori looked at me over Theresa's shoulder.

I put down the piping bag and came around the counter.

"You can talk here," I said.

"I'd rather speak to the student privately."

"Then you're out of luck," Faye said from the register. "She's on the clock."

Theresa smiled, patient as ever, and took an envelope out of her coat.

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