Guardian of Lies Read Free

pictures had been left on the camera’s digital chip. Emerson had asked Katia about her family and where her mother was, in innocent conversation, or so she thought. She saw no harm in showing him the pictures.
    She never realized that the family skeletons might be more serious until Emerson printed the photos and started obsessing about them, asking her questions and constantly pushing for details. He knew something she did not.
    “You look tired. You should go to bed,” she said.
    He was yawning at the desk every few minutes now.
    “I have work to finish.”
    “You could do it in the morning.” She lay out, nearly horizontal in the grip of the drapes wrapped around her body, and bounced a little, testing the elasticity of the cashmere and the strength of the rod. This little act, à la Cirque du Soleil, was intended to annoy Emerson and catch his attention, getting him to think about things other than work.
    It didn’t. He ignored her, his focus directed through the magnifying glass at the photographs.
    She fumed. Her mind began to work. They had been living together now for nearly three months, first in Costa Rica and now here. Each night they slept together in the same bed, but he never touched her. By the end of the first week in the States, she began to suspect that the only reason she was in the same room with him at night was so he could watch her. The old man was a light sleeper. Every time she stirred or went to the bathroom, she noticed he was instantly awake.
    There were also other little things she noticed. Whenever they were out in public and he saw police in a car or walking, it seemed that he would always steer Katia in the other direction. She wasn’t sure about this. So she tested him. In the mall one afternoon, she saw two cops patrolling on foot. She decided to approach them for directions to a shop in the mall. Before she had gone three steps, Emerson had grabbed her by the arm with such force that it left pressure marks on her skin.
    Then ten days ago something had happened that told her she must leave—and soon. Periodically Emerson gave her money to send home to deposit for the support of her mother. Katia had left her part-time job when she came to the States. It was a kind of unstated understanding when they left Costa Rica. They would send it by Western Union online to a friend of Katia’s in San José who would deposit it for her in Katia’s bank account. Emerson would use one of his credit cards for the transaction.
    But though cash went south, Emerson never gave Katia money to spend while she was here. The most she ever had in her purse was twenty dollars, this in case of an emergency or to buy incidentals. Emerson knew she didn’t have a local bank account or a credit card, so he had to know she had no money. Perhaps he didn’t think she needed much cash; after all, they were always together.
    Emerson had bought her some jewelry and without telling him, Katia had sold it. She did her best to conceal this from him. She had pawned it downtown while he was seeing a client. He always left her to sit in the car or go window-shopping by herself for an hour. But she used the time to pawn the jewelry. A couple of days later Pike saw the pawn tickets in her purse.
    At first she was afraid he would be furious. But he wasn’t. He didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, it was almost as if he’d expected it.
    It was what happened next that unnerved her. He took the cash she had gotten from the pawnshop. Then he allowed her to send an equal amount by Western Union on his credit card to her family back home. She was, of course, grateful, but extremely puzzled. Why wasn’t he angry? He certainly didn’t need the cash. He would always spend lavishly on her whenever they went shopping, in some cases paying thousands of dollars in an afternoon. She had netted just a little over six hundred dollars for the jewelry. So why had he taken it away from her?
    The more she thought about this the more