Page 46 of The House Across the Lake

It would be a sound theory if I hadn’t seen Tom’s comment on the picture.

Keep the home fires burning, babe!

“That means it really is their apartment,” I tell Marnie after explaining what I saw.

“Fine,” Marnie says. “Let’s say itistheir apartment. That either means Katherine’s there and the doorman lied, or it means she posted a photo that was saved on her phone to hide the fact from her husband that she’s not really at their apartment. Either way, none of this points to Katherine being in danger.”

“But I heard Katherine scream early this morning,” I say.

“Are you certain that’s what you heard?”

“It wasn’t an animal.”

“I’m not suggesting it was,” Marnie says. “I’m merely saying that maybe you didn’t hear it at all.”

“You think I imagined it?”

The delicate pause I get in return warns me that Marnie’s about to drop a truth bomb.

A big one.

Atomic.

“How much did you have to drink last night?” she says.

My gaze is drawn to the mostly empty whiskey bottle still overturned on the porch floor. “A lot.”

“How much is a lot?”

I think it through, counting the drinks on my fingers. The ones I can remember, at least.

“Seven. Maybe eight.”

Marnie lets out a small cough to hide her surprise. “And you don’t think that’s too much?”

I bristle at her too-earnest tone. She sounds like my mother.

“This isn’t about my drinking. You have to believe me. Something about this situation isn’t right.”

“That might be true.” Marnie’s voice remains annoyingly calm. Like someone talking to a kindergartener throwing a tantrum. “It still doesn’t mean Tom Royce murdered his wife.”

“I didn’t say he did.”

“But that’s what you think, isn’t it?”

Not quite, but close enough. While it’s absolutely crossed my mind that Tom did something to hurt Katherine, I’m not yet ready to make the mental leap to murder.

“Be honest,” Marnie says. “What do youthinkhappened to her?”

“I’m not sure anything happened,” I say. “But something’s not right about the situation. Katherine was here, and suddenly she’s not. And I’m not sure her husband is telling the truth.”

“Or he told you what hebelievesto be the truth.”

“I don’t buy that. When I talked to him, he gave me a very simple explanation to something that, at least from what I saw, looked like a complex situation.”

“What you saw?” Marnie repeats, my words sounding undeniably stalker-y. “Is this how you spend all your time? Watching them?”

“Only because I sensed trouble the minute I started watching.”

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