Page 171 of Over Her Dead Body

CHAPTER 59

EMMA

By Friday, everyone has an explanation.

This is apparently all it takes for life to resume.

Reid Calloway killed Charles Whitaker during a burglary ten years ago. He ran. Celeste helped him disappear and, according to the lawyers currently earning enough money to put several children through college, helped keep him dead on paper.

And to think I introduced them.

The auction house has released a statement expressing shock.

We are very shocked.

Celeste was found dead yesterday morning.

Her death is being treated as a suicide.

Apparently, there was enough evidence in the room to make the explanation uncomplicated.

Reid is in custody. Celeste is dead. The painting is being returned to the Whitaker family. The house has begun the lengthy process of determining which transactions Celeste touched and whether any of them require the kind of phone call that starts with We regret to inform you.

For the first time all week, the disaster has boundaries.

I find that comforting.

Margot and I are speaking.

Technically.

This morning she appeared beside my desk holding two coffees and set one down without asking whether I wanted it.

I drank it.

Neither of us mentioned Lisbon, my clients, or the fact that two days earlier she had been standing beside Celeste while I was fired.

It was not forgiveness.

It was coffee.

Sometimes you take what is offered.

Owen has spent most of the day discovering how many meetings Celeste attended that no one else wanted.

This has improved my mood considerably.

At four thirty, Owen appears in my doorway holding a folder and wearing the expression of a man who has recently learned that authority comes with administrative consequences.

I point at the folder. “You’re enjoying this.”

He shrugs. “A little.”

“I can tell.”

“You should work on that.”

He puts the folder on my desk.