Page 33 of The Night We Lost Him

“So why did the sale fall apart?” Sam asks.

“I assumed it was that he decided to leave it to you and your brother.”

“He said that?”

“He didn’t say much of anything to me, quite honestly. I mostly dealt with your uncle Joe.”

“Why was that?” I ask.

She turns back to me. “How do you mean?”

“If you and our father go so way back—”

“We all go way back. And Joe and I are quite close. Our kids grew up together. My husband still has a house down the street from him. Ex-husband, I should say… Still getting used to that.”

Ex-husband. I try to keep my face neutral, but I clock that. Apparently, Sam does too. I see him look at me out of the corner of his eye.

“It was recent?” he says.

“What was recent?”

“Your separation.”

“Which time?”

She smiles at him, as if she knows what he is trying to factor in. Did the end of her relationship fit into this? Did it have anything to do with the end of our father’s most recent marriage?

“You must have been curious, though,” I say.

“Excuse me?”

“From what my brother here tells me, you and my father were pretty far down the line on the sale,” I say. “A vague idea as to why it fell apart was enough for you to let it go?”

She takes me in, clearly not liking the question. Maybe because it’s coming from me and maybe because she doesn’t want to answer, whoever it’s coming from.

“In my experience, when someone pulls away, they don’t usually know why. And I try to avoid unreliable narrators.”

She picks up the wine bottle, pours herself and Sam what’s left. “I’m going to need to invite my associates back in soon, so do you want to tell me why you’re really here before I do?”

Sam starts to speak, but Cece stops him.

“Not you.” She points the wine bottle in my direction. “You.”

“Sorry?”

“From what your father has told me about you, his company is the last thing you would drive ninety miles to hear about. So while I appreciate the guessing game as to why he chose to pull out of our agreement at the eleventh hour, I’d like to know what’s going on here.”

“We have some concerns about our father’s fall,” I say. “About the night he died.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nora,” Sam says.

Cece puts up her hand to quiet Sam.

“What does that mean?”

I don’t look at Sam. I don’t let him stop me. “We’re trying to figure out if maybe he wasn’t alone that night.”

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