Inflated Ego novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Lie

They let me go at dawn.

VanBuskirk handed back my phone and told me not to leave the city.

Margot waited on the steps outside, with her coat buttoned to her chin and a paper cup of coffee in each hand.

She held one out to me.

I didn't take it.

"Why did you lie?" I said.

"Good morning to you too."

"Why did you lie to a homicide detective?"

She set the coffee down on the step and stood.

The wind caught her hair, and she looked small, and tired, and furious.

"Because the man I slept with last night was about to be charged with murder."

"You left at two."

"I know when I left."

"You told her ten to three."

"I know what I told her."

She came close enough that I could see the tiny gold flecks in her green eyes.

"You want to explain what you were doing in my grandfather's building at three in the morning?"

"I told VanBuskirk."

"You told VanBuskirk you wanted your portfolio. You did not walk across Manhattan at three a.m. for a binder, Mason."

She had a point.

I was a terrible liar to people who cared about me.

"You took my card," she said. "I looked in my blazer this morning and it was gone."

"Margot."

"Don't tell me you didn't."

I had nothing to say.

"I don't care," she said, and her voice cracked on it. "I don't care what you were doing. I'm not going to let that building turn you into a murderer because you were stupid and angry and I liked you."

"You liked me."

"Don't."

"You said it."

"I said it and I'm furious about it."

I looked at her ear.

The left one had a small green stone on a gold post.

The right one was bare.

I felt the cold go down my spine.

"Where's your other earring?"

Her hand flew to her ear.

She went white for one second, and then red.

"I lost it," she said. "On your stairs, probably."

"It wasn't on my stairs," I said.

"Then I lost it somewhere else."

It wasn't lost on any stairs.

I stared at her, and she stared at me.

Neither of us said it.

A bus roared past on the avenue, and the world was bright and loud and ordinary.

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