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getting serious with her, but you could never tell
with Teddy. One minute he loved you, the next he never spoke to you
again. He was a fickle sort of bastard. I don't have to tell you.
You knew him."
    "Well, that was a long time
ago."
    "Seems like yesterday to
me."
    "You're surely not here for a walk
down memory lane. So, what do you need to talk to me
about?"
    Jabber strolled around the living room, brushing
past Kitty before settling down in the corner.
    "The police were asking about
you."
    "Yes, we've established that. Now
why would they be asking about me? I don't have a relationship with
Ted. Hell, I haven't even been alone with him in years."
    "They know about you and me and
Ted."
    They knew about me. Kitty. Ted. What was to know?
That I hated him? Plenty of people did. He was an asshole. One of
those guys that you wanted to punch in the face every time that you
saw him. Maybe it was his nose that drove you to rage. It was
always turned up at you. Like he thought he was better than you.
Like he could own anything that he wanted. Even your fiancée.
    "Yeah, well, that's ancient
history," I said.
    "Well, the police don't seem to
think so. They were pretty interested in my story."
    "So you're telling me the police
think that I could have killed Ted?"
    This was outrageous. There was no
reason for me to kill Ted. He had nothing that I wanted. Nothing
that I needed. And, on top of that, he wasn't even on my social
radar. I never thought about him. If last night had never happened
I wouldn't have even remembered that he was alive.
    "I'm not sure, but they're not
ruling you out as—"
    "Wait a minute. You think Max
killed Ted?" Imogen appeared shocked.
    "I'm not saying that, Miss
Whitehall. I'm just telling you what the police told me. They found
it curious that Max used to be my fiancé—"
    Imogen seemed visibly annoyed at the fiancé
revelation. I had kept that under wraps until now.
    "Even if he was your fiancé ," she said with
an edge to her voice, "what would that have to do with
Ted?"
    The jig was up.
    "He was the one who stole her
away," I said before Kitty could beat me to the humiliating
punch.
    "Stole her away?" Imogen
asked.
    "I'm afraid so, Miss Whitehall.
Ted swept me off of my feet," Kitty said.
    "After we were engaged, Kitty," I
reminded her.
    "Yes, I know that,
Dutch—"
    "Why do you call him Dutch?"
Imogen asked.
    Kitty laughed. "It's an old
nickname. When Max and I used to go out to dinner, we'd go dutch.
We were both just starting out. So we used to split the bill. It
became kind of joke, so I started calling him Dutch. It
stuck."
    "Jesus, Kitty. Thank you for
that," I said, annoyed that she had introduced this nickname into
Imogen's consciousness.
    Imogen just sat and listened with a big grin on her
face.
    "Anyway, Max, it still bothers me
to this day that I did that to you. You didn't deserve that. No one
does."
    You could say that again. No one
deserved having their love stolen from them. But Kitty wasn't a
saint. She had allowed herself to be swept off her feet—fancy
clothes, fancy cars. I, on the other hand, had been in love. But if
money had been enough to capture her heart, it was clear that she
wasn't the one for me. The trouble was, knowing that hadn't made it
feel any better at the time.
    "Believe me. He's over it," Imogen
added in my defense. Yet another reason I loved her.
    "Of course he is. He's got you,"
Kitty retorted.
    I smiled at Imogen. She caught my
gaze and shot me a smirk back. I was glad that she seemed to be
taking this well.
    "Now that you've dropped a
bombshell on Miss Whitehall, is there anything else that you want
to talk to me about?"
    "I want you to help."
    "Help what? Write his
eulogy?"
    "No, Dutch. Help me figure out who
did this."
    "Kitty, I'm a lawyer, and barely
one at that, not a detective."
    I had graduated law school and had taken the bar but
had never practiced. Kitty had met me when I was a poor law
student.
    "But you're smart and you run in
the same circles as Ted.