Page 25 of Death on Riddle Road
“I hope you were gentle.I know how they feel.”
“Finish something, Sheila.Stop giving yourself an out.And when you’re done, plan on self-publishing.”
I groaned.
“It’s work,” she said, agreeing with the groan, “but it’s worthwhile.Especially selling direct from your own store.That’s the way to start from the beginning.”
“I thought we aspiring authors weren’t supposed to think about publishing or marketing until we finished something.”
“Smartass.You’re a special case, because youshallfinish and publish.And then you’ll start again.”
Unspoken was that she would be on my tail if I didn’t.
If you’re thinking I shouldn’t have told Kit I was trying to write if I didn’t want her on my tail about not writing, you’re right.Except I didn’t tell her.She just knew.
Clara and Teague knew, too.Otherwise, I wasn’t spreading this around until — unless — I published.
I didn’t want people asking, even in the most well-meaning way, how the book was coming when I asked myself that all the time and the answer was never good.
But Kit...Well, I envied those people she talked to at the library.She didn’t have their phone numbers.
Not bothering with subtle, I changed the subject.“Are you going to see your gentleman friend?”
“Yes.”
“I expect you’ll hear all about how he spent the holidays and you can tell him about yours.Though maybe you won’t want to talk about Puzzle Place and all that.Depending on the kind of relationship you have.He might not—”
“Why are you talking so fast and—” She broke off, but followed up so quickly I didn’t have time to prepare for what came next.“You didn’t.Already?I haven’t even been gone a whole day.”
I tried anyway.“If you mean did I call Teague the way you were hounding me to and set up a time for us to talk when I’ll tell him all about how you and I lived before you moved there and I came here, then it’s my turn to say yes.”
She cut through my run-on sentence like it was the proverbial butter and she was the proverbial knife.
“About time you tell that boy.Don’t know why you’ve put it off.”
“Because I don’t know how he’ll react—”
“And you never will until you tell him.On top of how you two clearly feel about each other, you’ve got the default to belief concept going for you.”
She’d given me academic papers to read on the truth-default theory, which says humans’ inclination is to believe information they are given as truth, even without evidence.And that once they do, they resist changing that stance even despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Academics maintain that without the truth-default, human interactions could be even more difficult than they are.
Maybe.
The problem is, if someone falls for an initial lie, then resists any and all evidence that reveals it as false, that causes a lot of strife.Maybe we’d be better off being skeptical all along, testing the logic and likelihood of what we’re being asked to accept.
Kit calls it the liar’s advantage.The liar sucks people in with that first lie and then benefits from the lie-ee’s refusal to see the truth.
My stomach sank.
Had I used the truth-default on Teague?Benefited from him accepting my initial less-than-truthful account of my background, then having his belief in me bolstered by this human reaction?
“Or is default to belief going to work against me when he knows the truth?”I muttered.
“Again, won’t know until you tell him,” she said briskly.“But that’s not what I mean about you talking fast to cover up.You’ve already landed in another investigation.I can’t believe it — but I do.It’s like you were waiting for me to leave Kentucky.And here I thought we did well together, you and Clara and me.”
“Waiting for you to leave,” I scoffed, more than willing to veer away from the upcoming inflection point in my relationship.“And we did do well together.It’s...Well, okay, yes, someone asked Clara for help and Clara called me — I’d barely hung up with Teague and I wasn’t even home from the airport yet and she started telling me all this stuff and then when I did get home, Teague was here and it turns out he actuallywantsus to talk to people this time, because—”
