off-the-grid hippie these days. Both seemed equally plausible.
I padded into the kitchen and poured a glass of water. Stories are like mazes, an early boss had told me. When you hit a dead end, you just turn around and try another way.
Alex picked up his cell on the second ring.
“Hello?” He sounded as eager as I felt.
“It’s Lindsay again,” I said. Then when he didn’t answer: “Lindsay Bach.”
“Oh, hi! I’m sorry, I don’t have you in my phone and I thought it was…We made an offer on a place in Sleepy Hollow, and the home inspector was supposed to—”
“I just needed to ask you something,” I blurted out, afraid he’d rush me off the phone. “It’s about Lloyd. I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to talk about him, but it’s important.”
“Lloyd? Lindsay—”
“I know you guys fought. I know you had a big blowout. But do you know if he and Edie ever fought?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re the only one who knows,” I said, my voice taut, “we’re the only ones who know about them, so you’re the only one I can ask.”
“Lindsay, what’s going on? You don’t sound right.”
“He was with her, Alex,” I said. “The night she died. She talked to her mom and then out walked Lloyd to take her away. They were still seeing each other.” The long silence crackled. “I’m sorry.”
“You know this how?”
“Um…anonymous tip,” I said lightly.
“No, if you and I are the only ones who know, who told you? Did you talk to him?”
“Should I not have? Is he dangerous?”
“Lindsay, you need to tell me what the hell is going on.”
“Is he? Is Lloyd dangerous?”
“What? No. Lloyd’s a dick, but he’s not dangerous. Or at least he wasn’t the last time I talked to him.”
“When was that?”
“Lindsay, what is this?”
“When did you talk to him?”
“Ten years ago. Okay? We met up a few months later—after Edie—and he manned up and told me the truth and apologized. Now can you tell me what’s going on?”
“He wasn’t violent?”
“No, I told you.”
Well, maybe he hides it, I thought. Like I have for the past twenty years. “Did you know they were hooking up again?”
“Not while it was happening. But, like, it wasn’t cheating. We weren’t together anymore.”
“But he still felt the need to come to you and tell you and apologize?”
“I mean, yeah. Bro code.”
I scrunched my eyes closed. “Do you know what they talked about? Him and Edie, on her last night?”
“She was just upset. Because of her mom.”
“And her mom told her…?”
“Lindsay, you know this. That they were losing their condo. That they couldn’t pay Lindsay’s tuition.”
But why rush to Calhoun to tell her? I froze, another question solidifying: Why did any of us know what they’d talked about? Edie hadn’t had time to tell us. Lloyd couldn’t. How had this intel leaked? Had Mrs. Iredale mentioned it to someone—Sarah, maybe?
“I met with Mrs. Iredale,” I said. “Not Lloyd. That’s how I knew.”
“Now that is legit not a good idea.”
“What?”
“Talking to her.”
“How come?”
“You just don’t want to fuck with that lady. Trust me.” We had a weird…incident, he’d said in the restaurant, before polishing off his water glass.
“Tell me what happened. I know something happened with you and her parents.”
“Lindsay, have you lost your damn mind? This is nuts.” Why did he keep using my name?
“Please, I won’t try to talk to her again. I promise. Just tell me and you’ll never hear from me again.”
“That’s not what I…”
“Alex, please.”
He let out a sigh. “Are you okay? Do you need me to call someone for you?”
“I’m fine. I just bumped into Mrs. Iredale and learned about Lloyd, and the whole thing really shook me. I’ll feel better knowing I’m not crazy for finding her…unsettling.”
The phone line sizzled: three seconds, four.
“Okay,” he said. “Just please don’t tell anyone. So, when Edie and I first started dating, she was in her second semester of fashion school, right? And I started to notice that more and more, she just wasn’t going to class. And at first I thought, whatever, fashion school’s probably not that hard for a smart girl like Edie, maybe she just doesn’t need to be there, y’know?” A beat. “But after a few weeks, I started to question it. Like, are you getting notes from someone? Aren’t your finals coming up? Don’t you have, like, papers or assignments or something due? And it didn’t take long to figure out that she was just willingly flunking out of school. Well, I dunno