Page 13 of Death Row
“Yes . . .”
“It will be good for you to meet with the chaplain,” she says. “You’re almost at the end now.”
Yes. I am almost at the end. Short of a miracle, I will not avoid execution.
The only thing that could stop it is if my husband is still alive, because you can’t be executed for murdering someone who is still alive.
I follow Rhea to the visiting area. She’s right—I’m shaking like a leaf, and when we get close, I nearly trip over my own feet. It’s entirely possible that this man is just an ordinary prison chaplain. In fact, that is the most likely scenario.
We reach the visiting area, and I am the only one here. Much like the yard, they have cleared it for me to be alone. There is only one man waiting on the other side of the glass. He is here to give me my last rites.
Slowly, I walk toward the man dressed in black with the white stripe on his collar.
Chapter 13
Before
While my house slowly fills with gas, Kinsey and I are sitting together at a Korean barbecue restaurant.
Before I left, I sent a text message to Noel, telling him that I was going out with my friend, but I left food on the stove for him to heat up—just some spaghetti and meatballs left over from the night before. I put it in a pot and covered the lid, making it as easy as possible for him. All he has to do is light the stove.
He hasn’t responded to my text message. He’s probably running late as usual. He’ll probably saunter in at around eight, and the first thing he’ll do is shower off the smell ofherperfume, but after that, he’ll go right for the stove because having sex with his mistress works up an appetite, I’m sure.
I’ll have to stay out until at least nine o’clock. Or until the police call me to tell me what’s happened.
“You seem distracted, Talia,” Kinsey says. “Is everything okay?”
Distractedis an understatement. I stare down at the flame of the barbecue pit between us, wishing we had eaten anywhere else. All I can think about are the flames that will becoming out of my stove. The ones that will torch my cheating husband alive.
“I’m fine,” I say.
I’m not fine. Why did he do this? How could he do this to me?
I loved him so much. I wanted to spend my life with him. I wanted us to have a family together. Yes, it’s been hard to deal with his work schedule, but that is something I can understand. But his betrayal is something I can never forgive.
My phone buzzes from where I left it in my purse. It’s probably Noel, telling me he’s going to be late. I don’t reach for my phone. It would be rude, since I’m having dinner with my friend, and if I have to stay out until ten, Kinsey will be up for it.
I will have the perfect alibi.
“How is Noel doing?” Kinsey asks.
Noel is the last thing I want to talk about right now. “Fine. Great.”
She frowns. “Seriously, are you okay?”
I’ve opened my mouth, ready to tell her to mind her own damn business, when we get interrupted by an unfamiliar voice. “Talia? Is that Talia Kemper?”
I rotate my head around. There’s a woman in her seventies standing over me, wearing a pink blouse and woven dress pants. Her white hair is cropped close to her head, and she’s got on a pair of huge tortoiseshell glasses with a beaded chain hanging from them.
“Can I help you?” I ask the unfamiliar woman.
The elderly woman beams at me. “My name is Lisbeth Sharp. We haven’t met before, but I recently came aboard the project that your husband is working on. I’ve been a chemist for forty years, so I was hoping to lend my expertise.”
“Oh,” I say. “I’m sorry ... he hasn’t mentioned you.”
She laughs and waves a hand. “Maybe not, but he talks aboutyouall the time. He’s always so anxious to get out of the lab to get home to you. I recognized you right away from the photo he keeps tacked in his workspace.”
As the woman babbles on about their project, I become aware of something that is making my stomach sink.
