Chapter 5: The Photo

I took the photograph out of my coat and laid it on the marble.

He looked at it for a long time.

He didn't touch it.

"Rourke gave you that."

"Through a car window. He said your last fiancée didn't survive the arrangement."

"That's his version."

"Then give me yours."

He pulled out a stool and didn't sit on it.

He stood with both hands flat on the counter.

"Her name was Elena. She was never my fiancée."

"The cuff link in the picture is yours."

"I sat at her bed every night for nine days."

"Why?"

"Because I put her there."

The refrigerator door was still open.

I reached over and shut it.

The kitchen went dim, lit only by the city through the glass.

"Tell me," I said.

"My brother was Nico. Seventeen. He drove everything too fast."

His voice was flat and clipped, like he was reading a chart.

"Twelve years ago he took my car out in the rain. Elena was in the passenger seat."

"Why was she with him?"

"She was twenty-two. She worked in my office. Nico had a crush on her, and she was kind about it."

"Kind how?"

"He asked for a ride to a party. She said she'd go along so he wouldn't be on the road alone."

"And?"

"The car left the road at the Hudson overlook."

He stopped.

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