The Stand-in Wife's Deception

or swu

ds loose at his sides and his collar open and no

e water and moved be

n's voice was q

ened. His hands came together in front of him. "A p

me to m

tline from the east wharf. I

ked past him to the rail and put one hand on the wet

jaw mo

stake,

ng. "You'll have the sightline covered by morning. Every window, ev

s,

insi

with a soft click, and then it was just the t

idn't tur

tened you

't a qu

me for s

him angry before. This was something colder. "He's been building his case for months. Board meetings I didn't attend. Contra

u k

ing." He came toward

nds I'd had on the terrace with Elias,

id. "In your

an st

're tell

elling

moved behind his eyes that I couldn't read, and

. "It's cold, and I wa

e east side of the East

at seven, with the house still quiet and

d door. Somebody had put money into that strike, and none into the plate, and th

of it and thoug

. The night he

I remembered it the wa

. Vivienne played the piano. I turned the pages. She was twelve, ve and she was good, and I was twelve,

rong notes in the second movement, both small, both exac

m for something. I n

belt to her in the study, and I stood in the hall with my hands over my ears, and afterward

one, and he came out and found me there, and

I think because she would have been kin

ory down and loo

ke. No keyhole.

t the

ewed over it when they modernized. Four screws. The strike was

nd worked the edge of it under t

One hot,

b cheap - a shunt loop, the kind of short that makes a lock think the door

rike c

swung i

wn I was holding, and I stepped

smelled of dust and old wood a

losed. Chairs along the wall under white du

mantel, a

, with a pendulum arm and a weight and a winding

up and tur

sted, the grain didn't match the rest. A plug, set in and po

hairpin and turned the metro

hape as the first one. Same notches along th

ed twice, in my sister's

ory. The flow

a key in my hand and my sister's handwriting on my p

h of them written like she

ld look. The attic and the music room. The two n

ause they were precious. She had cho

w I wou

planne

how long I

ld around the metal. Long enough that

window

ck from. The glass simply exploded inward in a white spray, and something passed my head close enough that

the

swung and sang. Somewhere the metronome rol

rds, and my hand closed so hard around t

d hear again, and what I heard was th

sed m

ing in, sideways, across the floor. Glas

r off, a single point of

gh the reinforced glass and hit the w

cate had come i

e corridor. Fas

r bange

s right hand that I did not look at closely enough to name. H

looked

My hand was bleeding. My

down, and he did not ask if I was h

at my cl

said, "what's