Page 54 of Deception

There was no way he wasn’t in on this.

“Rebecca wanted to be here, but she had a rough night,” Matt started.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Olive put her bag on the floor.

“She started having some pain in her stomach while we were sleeping. She called her doctor, and he thinks everything is okay. He told her to take it easy but to call if anything gets worse.”

Matt sounded sincerely worried. What if Rebecca really did have some type of medical issue, but it wasn’t as dire as she made it out to be? Like an ulcer or something?

“That has to be difficult,” Olive said. “I’m sorry.”

Matt nodded, his eyes dull.

One thing was for sure: his exhaustion was real.

“Anyway . . .” He let out a breath. “We watched the clip you sent us from the interview. It looked really good.”

That had been Nova’s doing. She’d stayed up late trying to get the video ready to reassure Rebecca they were legit.

It appeared their plan had worked.

“We’re glad you liked it,” Olive told him.

“It was well done.” Matt paused. “I know we don’t have a lot of time, so we should probably get started.”

Olive nodded, but a touch of guilt crept in.

She didn’t want to do more damage if this man was already suffering. They needed to determine whether their investigation was legit before things got too far.

She wouldn’t ruin an innocent person’s life, and if Rebecca’s cancer was real, then she needed to back off.

But if it was real . . . who was Motorcycle Man? Why was someone taking pictures of Olive and Mitzi at the coffee shop? And what about the cameras in Rebecca’s house?

This case was turning out to be entirely more complicated than Olive had ever guessed.

CHAPTER 30

“How did you and Rebecca meet?” Olive crossed her legs as she sat in a folding chair across from Matt in his office.

He sat in a blue corner chair, looking decidedly uncomfortable. Nova had added some powder to his face so it wouldn’t look shiny on film. But sweat kept popping through.

“Rebecca and I met in college,” he started. “She was in my world literature class. As soon as I saw her, I knew she was something special. She absolutely lit up a room when she walked inside.”

Olive smiled. “I can see that.”

“It took a long time for me to work up the nerve to ask her out. I thought for sure she’d say no. In fact, I almost didn’t ask. Then we were in a study group and ended up working together. We hit it off and started hanging out. One thing led to another and . . .” Matt shrugged. “What can I say? I got my wish. She kissed me first.”

“Took some of the pressure off of you, huh?”

A sad smile tugged at his lips. “Yes, I guess you could say that. We were inseparable after that. As soon as she graduated, we got married. A couple of years later, I got offered a job here in Oasis, and we moved. We had the same visions every newly married couple has. We wanted the house, the two-point-five kids, the family vacations. But life took an unexpected turn.”

He sounded sincere—sincere enough that Olive felt for him. If he was in on this, he was a good actor also. What were the odds?

“Can you tell me about the day Rebecca was diagnosed?” Olive asked.

Matt blew out a breath. “Rebecca hadn’t been feeling well. We thought it was just allergies or the stress of moving, starting a new job, etc. One night she felt especially bad, and I insisted she go to the doctor. That set off a series of tests and . . . here we are.”

“I can’t imagine how difficult that was.” Olive paused. “What have you learned throughout the whole experience?”