“I know what it is. I also didn’t know where you were. You ran out of here right after the police came. You could have been in danger. Or hurt. How was I supposed to know? So if this guy had information that might put my mind at ease, or that helped solve your problems, wouldn’t it make sense for me to get it?”

She’d made her case coolly and clearly. And I couldn’t argue. If I’d been in her shoes, wondering where she was, I’d have made the same choices. But I didn’t have to be happy about it.

“Okay,” I said. “I get it.”

Amanda picked up her mug and blew across the surface of the liquid. I smelled the peppermint from across the room. She took a cautious sip, and so did Sam.

“Are you going to unclench your fists and hear the rest of the story?” she asked.

I hadn’t realized I was still standing in such an aggressive manner, like I was ready to charge into a burning building. I opened my hands and loosened my posture as much as I could.

“Happy?” I asked. “Is that all this guy did or said? Did you get rid of him?”

Amanda put her mug down. Sam watched her and then me like a spectator at a tennis match. I felt certain she’d never seen any hint of marital discord on display between the two of us. Amanda and I managed to keep any issues that existed between us private. We didn’t see any point in spilling our problems out for the rest of the world to view. If anything, we did the opposite. We only showed the happiest, most polished side of our lives on social media.

“Let me ask you something first,” Amanda said. “When I described the guy, you acted like you might know him. Who is he?”

So I told her about Kyle Dornan. How he was over at Sam and Blake’s house when I went there, how he was inside their house. And how he was very distraught over what had happened to Jennifer.

“They were dating or something like that, he and Jennifer,” I said. “And so he’s taking her death pretty hard. He’s blaming Blake, but Kyle’s acting pretty strange himself. When the cops showed up at Blake and Sam’s house, Kyle ran off. I mean, he ran out of the house like it was on fire. He must have come right over here after he did that. It’s easy enough to look up an address. He knew me from the Pig. Maybe he thought he’d catch me here, or maybe he thought he could talk to you. But he’s acting guilty. And the cops want him.”