“Melissa Redgate. Find out if she drives. Find out if she can drive, but also if she does, and how she feels about it—does she have any issues about driving? Is she one of those women who won’t drive on a highway, or at night, or in the snow, or on a route she’s not familiar with?”

“No,” said Charlie. “You find out all those things.” She tried to smile at Sergeant Jack Zlosnik as he passed her, walking in the opposite direction. It was hard to snap at one person while simultaneously smiling at another.

“Will she only drive if her husband’s in the car, maybe?” Simon went on. “Also, find out if she’s got a car—not one she shares with her husband that she doesn’t have access to all the time, but her own car that she can drive whenever she wants. Has she ever been in a crash? Has she lost relatives in car crashes?”

“Why do you want to know all this?” Charlie asked.

“I’ll tell you when you get me the answers to those questions, and any others you can think of that I haven’t. Anything to do with Melissa Redgate, cars or driving—I want to know about it.”

“Like, is her car tidy or messy?”

“No, that’s irrelevant.”

“Ah. OK. As the asker of these questions, aren’t I more likely to be able to work out what’s relevant if you . . . Simon? You still there?”

Unbelievable. He’d cut her off midsentence.

CHAPTER 7

Thursday, July 4, 2013

ADAM IS DRIVING. I am thinking how much I wish we were driving to a police station because I’m kind of a suspect in a murder case, but one who has no other terrible problems. Not one who has just confessed to cyber infidelity, and been told she’s forgiven, and doesn’t believe it for a second.

“You can’t forgive me,” I say. “I don’t believe you have. Not so soon.”

Adam sighs. “Well, I have. I’m not sure what you expect me to do to convince you. I’ve not shouted, or refused to talk about it. I’m not being off with you, am I?”

He sounds anxious to please me. I sense he’s turned to look at me. I wish he’d be more careful while he’s driving. Keeping my eyes on the road, I say, “You’re being exactly the same as you always are. How is that possible? Don’t you care?”

I want him to care. Two days into my correspondence with him, King Edward asked me how I’d feel about us pledging to be exclusive to one another, though he made clear that this vow of exclusivity couldn’t include spouses. I said yes. I stuck to it too. It’s the only time I’ve ever been anything approaching faithful in a relationship.