“That’s an unusual way to keep your knives.”
Ellery looked to the kitchen. The industrial-style loft came with a magnetic strip over the sink to use as a knife holder, and Ellery’s displayed a carving knife, a butcher knife, and several paring knives. “I like to keep them handy,” she said. “Easy reach in case I need them.”
“Oh, do you cook?”
“Nope.” She went to fill Bump’s water bowl. As she stood at the sink, she saw her reflection distorted in the knives. She called back to Sarit, “Reed says you’re moving to Houston.”
Sarit’s gasp was loud enough to make Bump tilt his head. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Houston,” Ellery repeated as she turned around with the water. “You’re job hunting there?” She set the bowl down on the floor.
“He said that—to you?”
“I believe Tula said it to him,” Ellery replied, and Sarit stammered in response.
“I n—never—I didn’t mean … nothing is settled yet. That’s why I haven’t brought it up to Reed.”
“Yeah, I don’t think Tula got that memo.”
Her parenting under judgment, Sarit recomposed herself and folded her arms. “My partner, Randy, has a job offer in Houston, and he’s asked us to join him there. If I can also find work, it could be a great opportunity for all of us.”
“Not for Reed. He would be far away from Tula.”
“I will never stop him from seeing his daughter. But it’s funny that you’re the one making this argument to me and not him.”
“He loves her.” She hesitated. “I would hate to see him punished because you have a problem with me.”
Sarit sniffed. “It’s not about you.”
“Tula didn’t get that memo, either,” Ellery said steadily, and Sarit’s expression turned guilty.
“Look, you have to understand—Reed has a bit of a savior complex. Yes, his instinct to help people is an admirable quality, but he takes it too far. He doesn’t know when to say when.”
“Meaning me,” Ellery said, her voice hard.
Sarit shrugged in a you said it; I didn’t kind of gesture. “You have to admit you met under difficult circumstances—historically dramatic, even. Adrenaline running high on all sides, I’m sure.”
“You seem to know a lot for someone who wasn’t even there. For your information, we barely exchanged any words back then. He wasn’t my case manager. He wasn’t my doctor or my shrink. He wasn’t anything to me.”
Sarit clucked at her. “Now who’s kidding themselves? No normal woman could ever hope to compete with you where Reed is concerned. I used to wonder, you know, what it would take to keep him from running out the door after the next missing kid or suspected serial killer. You’ve found the formula, I guess. You are his obsessions brought to life.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know him better than you do, apparently. Do you really think he’d be here with you if not for your shared history? Do you really think you’d pick him above all men—a workaholic who’s twice your age and comes with a seven-year-old daughter?”
“He’s not close to twice my age.”
“Sure,” Sarit said, now sweetly magnanimous. “Quibble about the margins. We both know I’ve drawn up the essence of it correctly.”
Ellery slumped, exhausted from the long day and this conversation. “Think what you want,” she muttered, walking away. “Hate me if it makes things easier for you.”
“I don’t hate you,” Sarit blurted, and Ellery halted with her back to the woman. “I quite admire you, actually. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in the shadow of that monster. Whatever he did to you, whoever you’ve become as a result of that, it’s not your fault.”
Ellery clenched her fists. “Thanks so much for the absolution.” She turned around and locked eyes with Sarit. “Just because your name is on a book about me doesn’t mean you know who I am. You know the facts of the case. You don’t know me.”
“And you don’t know where my daughter is.”
“She’s not my daughter.”
“Exactly. She’s not yours. You don’t love her. And yet I’m supposed to let her come here where there are knives and guns and unsupervised teenagers, and that’s just what I know about. She’s my child, it’s my responsibility to keep her safe, and I will do whatever it takes to uphold that duty.”
“Even if it means taking her from her father.”
“Even that, yes. If he’s not looking out for what’s best for her.”
Ellery shook her head with sadness. “I would never do anything to hurt Tula.”
“That’s not enough for me,” Sarit said in a clipped tone. Then her face softened. “It’s not enough for Tula.”
A ruckus at the front door caused Bump to leap up and bark. The doorbell rang three times in quick succession, and Ellery heard Reed’s baritone reverberating in the hallway. “That’s them,” she said, going to open the door. She flipped the locks in turn and revealed Reed, Ashley, and Tula on the other side.
“Sorry we’re late,” he said. “We stopped for hamburgers.”
“You haven’t been answering your phone,” she replied as the kids pushed past her into the apartment.
“No service on the T.”
“Too bad. You could have had advance warning.”
“Warning?” he said, his expression troubled. “Warning of what?”
Behind her, Tula shrieked with delight. “Mommy!”
The color drained from Reed’s face as Ellery gave him a tight smile. “Your ex-wife is here.”
26
Reed’s first thought when Ellery unlocked her bedroom door and left him inside with Sarit was how long it had been since he’d been alone with her in an intimate space like this. After eleven years of sharing the same bed, they met in common areas now—kitchens and living rooms and occasionally Tula’s bedroom with its menagerie of stuffed animals and their wide unblinking eyes. Sarit repeatedly tucked her hair behind her right ear, a gesture Reed recognized as nerves. Good, he thought. She’s not sure about this. Aloud, he said, “You didn’t tell me you were coming up to Boston.”
“I called. You didn’t answer.”
He had already checked his phone and seen her messages. “You called four hours ago, already in town, I take it.”
“I had a story in Connecticut, so it was just a quick trip from there.”
“Ah,” he said mildly. “To check up on me.”
Her chin rose a notch in defiance. “The stories Tula’s been telling are concerning, Reed. Sleeping on the floor? Spending time in the care of a teenage runaway? And this place—it’s like a den of thieves designed it. Knives hanging on the wall in the kitchen. Look, there’s her gun right over there where anyone could grab it.” She pointed behind Reed at Ellery’s holstered weapon sitting on the dresser.
“Ellery’s used to living alone. I’ll talk to her about the gun, okay?”