isn’t the ideal moment, but I have to talk to you. I put it off before because of all the pressure you’re under at work, and I realize I shouldn’t have.”
“Is it about the neurologist?” He levels his gaze at me, his face tensing with concern.
“No, there’s nothing beyond what I told you, unless the MRI turns up something on Friday. But there are a few things I need you to know.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“I wouldn’t use that word. But there’s stuff you should be aware of. First, the investigator I hired called with a couple of updates.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“Those tissues that were in my coat pocket? It turns out the blood on them isn’t mine. Mulroney—that’s his name—had an analysis done, and it’s type A positive. I’m O negative.”
“Wow. So whose blood is it?”
“I don’t have a clue, but I keep coming back to something Gabby said—that maybe when I was missing, I tried to help a person who’d been injured.” A stray thought crosses my mind as I’m talking. “Wait, what’s your blood type? You aren’t A positive, are you?”
“Gosh, I’m sure I knew at one point, but I can’t recall at the moment.” He smiles ruefully. “But if you’re thinking you might have taken a swing at me and bloodied my nose, that didn’t happen.”
“Of course not, I’m just trying to put all the pieces together. . . . Mulroney also says that video footage he’s secured shows me hanging around the East Village on Wednesday. That’s where that food place actually was. And I apparently looked pretty disheveled.”
He frowns. “Like you’d been injured?”
“No, I guess the same as on Thursday, as if I hadn’t showered.”
“But why the East Village?”
“I don’t know—I can’t remember the last time I was there. Can you?”
“Not really. I mean, we had dinner downtown a month or so ago, but that was the West Village.” He spears a piece of chicken with a fork and chews it absentmindedly. “That all the guy has so far?”
“For now, yes, but more will come in time.”
“Okay, I guess it’s a start.”
“There’s still something else I need to tell you. Not about Mulroney.”
I let it all spill out: my deception years ago, the way it came back to me the other night while sitting alone in our den, and my interview with the police today. Before my eyes, his expression morphs from perplexed to baffled to shocked. Not at all what I was banking on.
“Please, say something, Hugh,” I insist after I’ve finished and he’s sitting there, mouth agape. “You look horrified.”
“Ally, that’s ridiculous. I’m not horrified at all. But it’s a lot to digest.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. But I’ve been nervous about sharing all this with you. And like I said, I wanted to tell you earlier—but you’ve had so much on your plate.”
“You can’t hold things back from me, no matter how much pressure I’m under. I need to know this stuff.”
“You’re right,” I say, feeling a fresh twinge of guilt. “I’ll do better going forward.”
“It didn’t cross your mind that it might be smart to have a lawyer with you today?”
So he’s doubly annoyed. Not only did I neglect to loop him in, but I didn’t bother asking his legal advice.
“I considered it, but I was afraid doing that would make it look like I had a reason to be worried—and Roger agreed.”
“Roger’s a legal expert now?”
“I’m not saying that, but he has good instincts. And in hindsight, I realize that bringing a lawyer would have definitely rubbed this detective the wrong way.”
“So how did she respond to this new piece of information?”
“She said they would share it with the coroner, but she didn’t let on how significant she thought it might be.”
“Was she critical of you?”
“Uh, she didn’t seem to be. She said kids are often too stressed to divulge everything in a situation like that, and they leave stuff out.”
“That makes sense, I guess.”
I start to tell him about the part of the interview that made me so uncomfortable, but I hold back. Despite just having promised to be more forthcoming, I don’t want to dump anything more on Hugh tonight.
“Do . . . do you think my statement is enough, or that I’ll be asked to testify if someone is arrested?”
“You’d definitely be required to testify,” he says bluntly, as if he’s thinking, So now she wants my advice.
He pushes around the last piece of chicken on his plate without bringing it to his mouth. Instinctively I glance at