Page 66 of Over Her Dead Body

“No.”

Owen gives a quiet laugh. “That took a while.”

“I was deciding whether to be polite.”

“And?”

“Still no.”

“Okay.”

No argument. No wounded silence. He lets me refuse him as if coffee is the only thing I said no to.

“Call if you change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

“I know.”

The call ends.

The dating app gives me another Todd before I put down the phone.

Thirty-eight. Commercial real estate. A Labradoodle.

He asks about drinks.

I say yes.

Another message appears.

Owen.

He has sent me a link to a Portuguese business registration for Martin Hale in Lisbon.

The same one already open on my laptop.

Of course he was searching while telling me to sleep.

Owen is not a Todd.

That is the problem.

CHAPTER 25

ANONYMOUS

By the third reading, the facts are no longer the point.

I check the bottom of the final page again as if a name might have materialized since the last time I checked.

It hasn’t.

So I start over.

Martin Hale did not behave like new money.

That was the first interesting thing about him.