Page 50 of The New Couple in 5B

“Why were you trying to reach her today?” asks Detective Crowe.

Chad puts a distraught hand to his forehead.

“You don’t have to answer that,” says Olivia, stepping forward.

“I don’t have anything to hide,” he says. Olivia gives him an assenting nod.

Chad blows out a breath. “Dana left a message, saying that she was going to ruin my life if I didn’t sell the apartment and give her the money.”

Detective Crowe stares at him a moment, seems to size Chad up. There’s a slight wrinkle in his brow that tells me he’s less than impressed with Chad. “Can you play me the message?”

Chad takes the phone from his pocket, searching for the message, then presses Play.

Dana’s voice is icy, slicing with hatred and anger. “You have always been such an operator. Such a liar. Your lovely wife. She’s on the way up here, and I’m going to tell her everything, Chad. She deserves to know who she married.Orwe can make a deal.”

A shudder moves through my body.Whatwas she going to tell me?

“What was she going to tell your wife?” asks the detective, echoing my thoughts.

Chad shoots me a despairing glance. “I have no idea. Rosie and I have no secrets.”

I stand in front of the nude photograph of him. Is the detective going to recognize him?

“Maybe it was this?” Chad points at the photograph and I move aside, feeling my cheeks color. “That I posed nude for her and some of her fellow students. This was ages ago. Long before I met Rosie.”

“You posed nude for your cousin?” says Detective Crowe with a frown. “That’s a little weird, right?”

“It’s art,” says Chad with a shrug.

Crowe is right, though. It is weird. My eyes fall on the photograph again. In fact, we’re all staring at it with different expressions. Olivia looks embarrassed, turning away. Max frowns. Crowe squints, amused.

“My client is an actor and a model,” says Olivia, her voice cutting through the quiet. “This is not unusual. Students do all kinds of things for money.Andit’s time for us to go. Both my clients have cooperated with you. They are in shock and need to process their loss. If you have further questions of them, please contact me.”

Olivia puts her body between Chad and the detective, handing him a card. He offers a wry smile and a nod, takes it from her.

“What did she think you’d lied about?” Crowe asks over Olivia’s shoulder.

Chad offers a sad, slow shake of his head. “Like I said—she wasn’t well.”

Olivia begins herding Chad, Max and me from the room.

“No more questions for the time being. My clients are willing to come to the station if there’s anything further that they can provide.”

Chad puts his arm around my shoulder to lead me away, but Detective Crowe reaches for my wrist.

“Here’s my card,” he says, his gaze glancing off Chad before he meets my eyes. “I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”

Something about the way he says it makes my stomach bottom out. What does he see when he looks at my husband? At me? Maybe it’s just his job to be suspicious of everyone. I shove his card in my pocket, turn away from him.

Outside on the street, when Chad goes to talk to Max, I tell Olivia, “There were more pictures of Chad in the darkroom.”

She frowns, moves in closer. “What kind of pictures?”

“It looks like she was following him. For a long time—like years.”

I open my bag to show her. I took them off the line where they hung in the darkroom, nabbing them before the police arrived. I’m not proud of it, but that’s what I did just minutes after seeing Dana’s body.

She stares at the photos, still slightly damp, in my bag. When she lifts her eyes to me, she lowers her voice and leans in close. “You tampered with a crime scene, Rosie.”