“Chris and I love each other,” said Liv. “We’ll always be part of one another’s lives, just in a different way.” She reached over and squeezed Gibbs’s hand.

“I don’t believe you,” said Charlie. “You’re lying. What I can’t work out is why.” She turned to Simon. “What do they have to gain by pretending they’re not sleeping together anymore?”

“Dunno.” He shrugged. “I suppose they’ll tell us if and when they want us to know. In the meantime, we can talk about something else. Charlie spoke to another real estate agent today,” he said to Gibbs. “From Bateman Yoke.”

Gibbs stared down at the table.

“We’re not lying!” Liv insisted.

“I don’t think Simon’s that interested,” Charlie told her. It was a good tactic. Deprived of the attention she’d been counting on, Liv might be forced into revealing the truth. “He’d be very interested to hear what’s really going on with you and Gibbs, though, and so would I,” Charlie said, ramming the point home.

“I’ve told you what’s going on—we’ve broken up, but we’re still best friends.”

“Liv, if they want to change the subject, there’s nothing you can do,” said Gibbs. “We’ve done our bit. Right?”

She pursed her lips. “Well, I just thought . . . No, you’re right. We’ve told them. It’s . . . fine!”

Charlie watched the complex sequence of eye signals that passed between them. At that moment, she’d have given her right arm and perhaps a few toes too to know what the hell was going on.

“Tell me about this real estate agent from Bateman Yoke,” Gibbs said.

Charlie opened her mouth, but Simon beat her to it. “He wasn’t one of the ones Nicki Clements asked to find her a house near Elmhirst Road last year—which is probably why she contacted him on March seventh this year and asked him what price she should ask for her Bartholomew Gardens house if she wanted to sell it as quickly as possible. She sounded upset, he said, and she didn’t seem to care about making a loss—just seemed desperate to get out of Spilling as soon as she could. The guy said he’d go around and do a valuation, but before he had a chance, Nicki had called him back and said she’d changed her mind and didn’t want to move. She canceled him.”

“Are you thinking the first call was immediately after she broke up with Damon Blundy?” Gibbs asked.

“That’s my guess,” said Charlie. “They had an affair; it went wrong; she wanted to get away from him, having only moved to the Culver Valley to be near him. Then a day or so later, her mood changed—she started to feel stronger and realized it was bad enough that she’d moved for him once. Twice would be pathetic.”