“Or I could stick to my story and you could back me up?” I offer her what I hope is a winning smile with lowlights of appropriate humility. “If the police believe I genuinely lost my mirror only a few minutes before they saw my car on Elmhirst Road, I’m pretty sure they’ll let me off. I told them I was going to take the car to the garage as soon as I’d dropped off Ethan’s gym bag at school, and look.” I pull the keys to my rental car out of my handbag and wave them in the air. “I rented a car to drive here, like a good responsible citizen.”

“How can you live like this, Nicki?” Melissa squints at me, as if I’m forcing her to look at something gruesome she’d like to turn away from.

Me. I’m that thing.

Fuck you, best friend. I haven’t killed anyone. I haven’t even driven without a side mirror—not recently, anyway. And nothing bad happened to any living thing—human, plant or animal—when I did. I’m not going to feel guilty about a so-called sin I committed that harmed no one.

“Scheming all the time, covering up, calculating . . . How can you bear it?”

“It’s called life on the planet earth,” I snap. “For those of us who aren’t perfect, that is.”

I shouldn’t let her rile me. I ought to be savoring my success. Plan B worked. She hasn’t said, “But, Nicki, your side mirror wasn’t missing when we went to the auction in Grantham. What are you talking about?”

What Melissa isn’t saying is ideal. Couldn’t be better. It’s what she is saying that’s hard to take.

“I’m worried about you, Nicki. You’re going to come a cropper one of these days.”

“You hope. You’ll have been painstakingly good all these years for nothing, won’t you, if I get away with the heinous crime of being me?”

She’s taken a mug from the cupboard to the left of the window and is shaking decaffeinated instant-coffee granules into it straight from the jar. “My answer’s no,” she says quietly. “I’m not prepared to lie to the police for you. People can end up in prison for that kind of thing.” She brings her mug of coffee over to the table and sits down opposite me. “And when I tell Lee about this conversation, he’ll probably call the police.” She sighs.

Nice of him.

“You know how he feels about honesty.”

I nod. “So . . . you’re not going to tell him?”

“I don’t know.” Melissa’s mouth twists. “I’d rather not be put in the position of having to make these horrible choices!”