Chapter Thirty-Seven
Now
“I’m surprised you wanted to come tonight,” Nasser said as we pulled up to a hot new downtown restaurant to celebrate Sara Carr’s birthday.
“I like her,” I said. “It was nice of her to personally reach out and ask me to come.” Plus, there were some questions I needed to ask her.
Sara’s party was in a private room at the back of the restaurant.
It was a small gathering. I recognized the core group of college friends.
Ben was there but I didn’t see Ian, and there was a handful of other people I didn’t know.
I briefly pondered whether Lizzie would attend since she was in town. But I didn’t spot her.
“I’m so glad you came.” Sara hugged me as I handed her my gift.
We chatted briefly, but the birthday girl had to see to her other guests.
I mingled a little, trying some of the Japanese-inspired appetizers.
Most of what I sampled was new to me. As we got older, Ali became a less adventurous eater, so we mostly stuck to restaurants that we knew we liked.
I purposely didn’t seek Nasser out. I needed to learn how to be in the world on my own.
Now was as good a time as any to start finding my legs.
Nasser didn’t approach me either. He mingled and laughed and had a couple of drinks.
It felt natural to go to him, but I held myself back.
I sensed his continuing interest in me and didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.
At dinner, I was flattered to find myself seated next to Sara. “This way we’ll have time to chat,” she said as we took our places. She asked me about the kids and work, taking care to integrate me into conversations with her other friends seated nearby.
“Do you know Lizzie’s brother?” I asked Sara midway through the meal. “His name is Bill Warren.”
“I’ve met him a couple of times.”
“Are they close?”
“I don’t think so. He mostly seemed exasperated by her whenever I saw them together. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” I didn’t want to go into it during the party when the focus needed to be on Sara. But later, after dinner was over and we’d cut the cake, Sara and I sat off to the side alone, and she raised the issue again.
“I think Lizzie’s brother gets annoyed with her always being so emotional and distracted,” Sara said. “But she’s got good reason to be.”
“Why is that?”
“I actually spoke to Lizzie recently. She called me out of the blue.” Sara poured the last of the wine bottle into her glass. “Lizzie is dealing with a situation.”
“What kind of situation?”
“Someone is stalking her.”
“She told me. Do you believe her?”
“Why would she lie? That’s why she’s been so off the radar and never shows up to anything.” Sara sipped her wine. “Apparently this stalker has been relentless since she got divorced. She never told her ex about it because she didn’t want him or the kids to get involved.”
“She said she knows who he is now. That he found her after all the publicity about my lawsuit and the North Carolina house. Do you know the man?”
“Yes, but she swore me to secrecy. She doesn’t want to provoke the guy.”
For the first time, I felt the stirrings of real empathy for Lizzie. If her story was true. “What a terrible way to live.”
“Especially since it was someone in our college group,” Sara said in a dramatic whisper before bottoming out her wineglass.
“What? Can you tell me who it is?” I cajoled, hoping the alcohol lubricated her tongue enough to spill confidences she might otherwise keep. I still wasn’t sure I believed the stalker story. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“It was Ian!” Her eyes sparkled, and her cheeks were flushed. “Can you believe that?”
“Ian, Ian?” I gaped at her. “Seriously? Is that why he’s not here tonight?” We were interrupted by a trio of guests who came to say goodbye. Sara stood and hugged each guest lavishly. “Thank you so, so much for coming.”
Her husband came to her side, chuckling. “Sara is very effusive when she’s had more than two glasses of wine.”
With a wave in my direction, Sara disappeared into her crowd of friends.
On the way home, Nasser was disbelieving when I told him about Lizzie’s supposed stalker. “Ian? I don’t believe it.”
“That’s what Lizzie told Sara.”
“Maybe she’s mistaken.”
“Maybe, but that would partially explain why Ali helped Lizzie conceal the purchase of her house.”
“Why partially?”
“Ali helping Lizzie conceal her purchase of Cozy Glenn to protect her from a stalker is absolutely something Ali would do. But the Ali I knew wouldn’t break my trust by keeping such a big secret. He would have told me about the situation and sworn me to secrecy.”
“You believe in Ali again.” Nasser’s face was in the shadows. “What’s changed? Have you learned something new that I don’t know about?”
“No, I just finally got my head on straight. Once I stopped doubting my memories and started trusting my judgment, I realized that I did know the real Ali. And he wasn’t a cheater. Or a liar.”
He was quiet for a moment. “If that’s the case, then what’s your theory regarding Cozy Glenn?”
“I think there’s more to it. Something pretty extreme had to happen for Ali to hide the house from me. I feel like Lizzie and her brother know what it is. They’re still hiding something.”
“Like what?” He glanced over at me before refocusing on the road. “Uh-oh. I don’t like that look on your face.”
“What look?”
“One that suggests you have a plan.”
I did have a plan. But I was keeping it to myself at the moment because Nasser definitely would not approve.
“I don’t want to be a pest, but I worry about you.” He lowered his voice. “I care about you.”
Anxiety arrowed through me. That slight discomfort, the uneasy awareness, still lingered between us.
I was afraid of losing Nasser as a friend if he openly confessed to having feelings for me.
But he couldn’t be anything more. I might be a widow, but I was still married to Ali’s memory.
I couldn’t imagine ever being ready to move on.
“I need to create a little space to make my own decisions,” I told him. It was past time for me to be completely true to myself, for once, even if that meant losing people who were important to me. “I hope you can understand that.”
“I know you want some breathing room,” he said. “But can you blame me for being protective when your house has been broken into twice?”
“What?” I swung my head toward him. “How do you know about the second break-in?”
He paused. “You told me.”
“No, I didn’t. I absolutely did not tell you,” I insisted. “In fact, I made a point of keeping it from both you and Lulu.”
He was quiet, his eyes on the road. Uneasiness twinged through me.
Nasser was the one who installed the security system.
The intruder came in through the unlocked window in the garage.
Nasser would have seen that window was unlocked when he installed the sensors. He could have even unlocked it himself.
“Well?” I pressed, my voice a little shaky. “How did you know about the garage break-in?”
“I have friends on the police force. I asked them to keep me posted if there were any incidents related to your case.”
“But the break-ins happened even before I met Detectives Fox and Lloyd. You were keeping an eye on me before we knew Ali’s death might not have been an accident?”
“I wanted to make sure you were safe.”
I thought back to Julia’s warning not to trust Nasser. I’d pretty much blown off her advice, but now I wondered.
“What if Nasser was behind both break-ins?” I asked Lulu, who I called as soon as I got home. The creepiness of that possibility shivered through me.
“I can’t believe you kept that second break-in a secret until now,” Lulu complained. “Why would you do that? I tell you everything.” She actually sounded hurt.
“Can we just focus on Nasser right now?” I asked as I went around the house making sure all the windows and doors were locked.
“Fine,” she said with attitude. “Why would Nasser break into Ali’s car and office?”
“What if Nasser was up to something shady financially? Ali did do the taxes for Nasser’s law firm. Maybe he had proof.”
“Do you really think Ali would risk his CPA license to cover up Nasser’s shady dealings?”
“No, Ali was a straight arrow, especially about accounting.” I racked my brain. “What if Nasser just wanted to scare me?”
“Why would he do that?”
“We know he’s had a thing for me. What if he wanted me to be so afraid that I needed him to come over and protect me bodyguard-style?”
“He’d have to be a real sicko to do that. Did Julia say why she’s suspicious of Nasser?”
“She just said she doesn’t trust him, that he was jealous of Ali.”
“I mean anything is possible—”
“My God.” A thought suddenly came to me. “Nasser has my security code.”
“He does? Have you changed it yet?”
“No, but I’m doing it right now,” I said determinedly. “If Nasser thinks he can scare me out of my home, he’s got another think coming.”
“Calm down. We don’t even know it’s him. An attorney caught breaking into someone’s house would probably lose his license, wouldn’t he?”
“I’m not saying it is Nasser for sure. But I am changing the code.
Just to be safe.” The ground beneath my feet felt shaky again.
Had I been wrong to place my faith in Nasser?
Who else couldn’t I trust? I sighed, fatigue settling into my bones.
I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and hide out from the world for a few hours.
“OK. Let me go. I’m meeting Ian for brunch tomorrow. ”
“What?” she asked. “You’re meeting the stalker?”
“In a public place. It’ll be fine.”
“Are you completely mejnoona?” Lulu went ballistic. “Who invites a known stalker to coffee? It’s like you’re trying to become his next obsession!”
“There are still so many unanswered questions. I need to find out whether Ian has some of the answers.”