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Back Lie to Me Save as PDF
Chapters (103)
  1. Cover
  2. Back Cover Text
  3. Praise
  4. Dedication
  5. In Which Introductions Are Made
  6. We Find a Body
  7. Ethan
  8. Something's Missing
  9. Did She, or Didn't She?
  10. There Are Cracks in Every Marriage
  11. Beauty and the Beast
  12. Discoveries Are Made
  13. A Twist of the Knife
  14. And Then They Were Three
  15. The Friends Come A-Calling
  16. Burn All the Lawyers
  17. The Tangled Webs We Weave
  18. Sids, or Not to Sids
  19. The Strange Case of the Missing Wife
  20. The Police Arrive
  21. Glory Days
  22. Tell Me Your Secrets
  23. What's Really Going on Here?
  24. The Investigation Begins
  25. Read All About It
  26. The First Break
  27. In Which We Receive a Clue
  28. Voices, I Hear Voices
  29. Another Dawn Is Dawning
  30. Life As We Know It Has Ended
  31. Francophiles in Franklin
  32. Stop the Madness
  33. She Who Knew Her Best
  34. An Unexpected Surprise
  35. A Video Is Worth a Thousand Words
  36. Good Timing, Officer
  37. A Trail Emerges
  38. I Hear You're Missing a Wife
  39. A Corrosive Beast
  40. Let's Go For a Drive
  41. Take a Walk on the Wilde Side
  42. The Ties That Bind
  43. Blackmail, or How Does Your Garden Grow?
  44. When All You Know Is False
  45. A Change of Heart
  46. I'm Coming Home, I'm Coming Home
  47. The Man Is Lying Through His Teeth
  48. A Cry, But Not For Help
  49. The Green Grass Across the Way
  50. A Challenge Is Given
  51. The News, The Damning News
  52. Not Everything Is As It Seems
  53. Live From a Crime Scene
  54. And Never the Twin Shall Meet
  55. Now the World Knows
  56. Now, Isn't That Odd?
  57. Sutton
  58. Memento Mori
  59. Elle est Arrivée
  60. Wife, Interrupted
  61. A Bit of Backstory
  62. The Ghost of Papa
  63. We Meet a Friend
  64. And So It Begins
  65. Hello, My Name Is...
  66. A Baby Is Born
  67. Café au Lait in Bed
  68. An Affair to Remember
  69. Past Lives Revealed
  70. Murder, She Wrote
  71. Those Sacred Hearts
  72. An Appointment Missed, A Disaster Avoided
  73. Secrets and Monsters
  74. American Woman
  75. The Headlines Are Grabbing
  76. Rise and Shine
  77. When Things Go Sideways
  78. An Arrest Is Made
  79. Sometimes, You Get Exactly What You Want
  80. Everyone
  81. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
  82. Ain't No Rest for the Wicked
  83. Admit It
  84. Once a Juvie, Always a Juvie
  85. Haze on the Seine
  86. Through a Glass, Darkly
  87. Poison Ivy
  88. About...Face
  89. Lean on Me
  90. The Trinity
  91. Leavin', on a Jet Plane
  92. Shine a Bright Light in the Corners
  93. Home Is Where They Have to Take You In
  94. Truth Will Out
  95. You Should Have Known
  96. Admissions of Guilt
  97. Be Shriven
  98. The Reckoning
  99. Death, and Rebirth
  100. Just When You Think It's Over
  101. Author Note
  102. Acknowledgments
  103. Excerpt from Field of Graves by J.T. Ellison

Holly had just gotten into her car when the phone rang. She put it on speaker as she put on her safety belt.

“Officer Graham? It’s Ivy Brookes.”

“Hello, Ms. Brookes. What can I do for you?”

“Could you come by the house? I have some more information I need to share.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in a minute. I’m close.”

“Yes, you are.”

The phone went dead. What was this about?

A Change of Heart

A CHANGE OF HEART

Holly was at Brookes’s door five minutes later. Ivy looked pale and drawn. She didn’t offer refreshments, just stood with her arms wrapped tightly around her body, clearly distressed.

“Come in.”

The door shut behind her with a bang. “What’s wrong, Ms. Brookes?”

“I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”

“I’m all ears,” Holly said.

Brookes was pacing now, walking the short length of her apartment with staccato steps. “Ethan killed her. I’m sure of it.”

“Why? Why the change of heart? Last time we talked, you seemed to think Sutton was the one who’d orchestrated this week’s drama.”

“I was trying to protect Sutton. To protect them both. They’ve been through so much. At first, when he told me she was gone, I really thought Sutton was just playing with him, punishing him. But now, I’m truly starting to think he hurt her, and I can’t stay silent any longer.”

“Go on.”

“Look.” A lightweight silver laptop was on the counter. Brookes turned it around to show an email account. “I just received this. It came in a few days ago. For some reason, it got caught in my spam filter.”

“What is it?”

“An email from Sutton, dated Friday night. I was out of town on business. I had an away message on. I wasn’t checking email. I didn’t see this. If I had...”

The email was open. There was no greeting, just the stark words in black and white.

Really bad one tonight. He gets worse and worse. I think he’s going to kill me one of these days. If something happens to me, make sure they know who did it.

Holly felt a punch of adrenaline. Was everything Ethan Montclair had just told her a lie? Was he that good of an actor, that he could look her in the eye and create a story? He was a professional liar, after all, paid to create stories out of nothing. Was she that big of a dupe?

“Wow. Rather damning.”