Chapter 12: Blocked

Desmond came to the front steps on Monday night, at eight.

He didn't ring the bell.

He sat down on the top step with his back to the door, and I watched him through the glass for a full minute before I opened it.

He had been to the motel and had not slept.

His phone was in his hand, and the screen was lit.

"She blocked me," he said without turning around. "Rosalie. Four hours ago she was calling me honey, and now I'm blocked."

I came out and sat down on the step below him.

Libby and Kenzie stayed in the hall behind the door.

I had asked them to.

"I need to show you something, Desmond," I said.

"If it's the divorce papers, I've read them."

"It isn't."

I took out my phone and opened the picture of the tablet screen.

I held it out to him, and he took it between two fingers.

He read the first line, and I saw his lips move.

"'C, she won't sign the letter.'"

He read the second, then the third.

"'Don't pay the yard loan on Wednesday.'"

He stopped.

"'Let it go delinquent, and the bank can go after D and the house in Cambridge.'"

He looked up at the street, then down again.

"D," he said. "That's me."

"Yes."

"'We'll have the new place in Portland under my name by then. He'll have nothing and neither will she.'"

His voice had gone small.

"She wrote that to Carl. By accident, in our chat. And then she tried to take it back."

"Yes."

"When?"

"This morning at nine forty-two."

He pressed the phone against his forehead.

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