Page 64 of Stay Awake
“You, of all people, should know why you can’t get ahold of Amy,” she says.
My throat is paralyzed. I don’t know what to say so I say nothing as she goes into a furious rant. Her voice comes and goes in between angry crackles of electricity inside my head.
“How could you! You are sick. Sick!! Calling me like this. Don’t you have any decency, any…” She hangs up.
I shudder at the silence on the dead phone line. I walk numbly against a tide of pedestrians streaming toward the subway entrance. I’m surrounded by people jostling me, but I’ve never felt more alone in my life.
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
Wednesday 4:35P.M.
The front door of the apartment opened as far as the latch chain would allow. Halliday flashed her detective’s badge toward a woman peering through the gap.
“What is it that you want?” the woman asked, making no attempt to unlatch the door.
“It would be easier if we came inside to talk,” Halliday responded, noncommittally.
The woman released the latch chain and swung the door open to let them in. She wore jeans and a cream cashmere sweater. Her honey-colored hair was arranged in a loose chignon. She told them her name was Elisabeth.
Halliday and Lavelle glanced at each other to silently decide who’d do the talking. Halliday nodded slightly. She’d do it.
“We’re actually here about Edward Cole. What is your relationship to him?” Halliday asked when they were all seated.
“Nobody calls him Edward. We all call him Ted,” said Elisabeth. “Ted is my fiancé. Why are you asking about Ted?”
“Edward Cole—Ted,” Halliday corrected herself, “rented a short-stay apartment for a week. We found the body of a man in that apartment early this morning. We believe that man might be Ted.”
“You’re wrong.” Elisabeth was emphatic. “Ted was here last night. You’ve made a mistake.”
“Very possibly,” said Halliday. “But we need to know for sure. I’d like to show you a photo, if you don’t mind.”
“Go ahead,” said Elisabeth, steeling herself as Halliday turned on her iPad and found a crime scene photo that clearly showed the victim’s face.
Halliday turned the screen around. Elisabeth inhaled sharply. Her complexion turned to ash. She put her hand over her mouth as sobs racked her body.
Ten minutes later, Elisabeth sat with a blanket over her shoulders, her body trembling as she cupped a mug of sweetened coffee that Lavelle had made for her. Despite her grief, she insisted on answering their questions.
“I met Ted at a dinner party. There was an instant chemistry. Within a couple of months, Ted and I had moved in together and he’d proposed to me.”
“Sounds like a whirlwind romance,” said Halliday.
“We didn’t want to waste time dating when we both knew we wanted to be with each other for the rest of our lives. We were going to start a family straight after the wedding. Ted would have been an amazing dad.” Elisabeth put her fist against her mouth to gain control of her emotions.
“Do you know why Ted rented the apartment nearby?”
Elisabeth nodded. “He was helping a friend who was in trouble.”
“Which friend?” Halliday asked.
“It was more than a friend,” Elisabeth admitted. “It was his ex.”
“So he rented the apartment to help his ex-girlfriend?”
Elisabeth nodded. “Ted came here last night and told me everything. He said he didn’t want to keep secrets from me.”
“Do you know his ex’s name?”
