| Anne must have seen my displeasure, because her smile quickly vanished. “I’m sorry, Clint. No, what Nicky said was sweet. We’re lucky to have what we have. Call me greedy, but I just want more of it, that’s all. Do you know how many times in the past week I’ve heard someone tell me that this is proof you need to live every day like it’s your last? And the thing is, I’m not sure there’s any bigger lie. Can you imagine if people really lived every day like they were going to die tomorrow? Who would go to work? Who would exercise? Who would pay their bills? And don’t get me started on the fact that most people would immediately binge on drugs and hookers if they thought they’d be dead in twenty-four hours.” “Not me,” I said, looking into her eyes. “I’d spend it with you.” Her smile reappeared, but it didn’t reflect that she believed me. It was the look you give a child who’s telling you what Santa’s going to bring. “Maybe if you knew it was your last,” she said. “But since we’re not afforded that luxury, tomorrow life will go on as if we have all the time in the world, and whatever cautionary tale could be gleaned from Carolyn’s death will be forgotten. You’ll go to work and be there past ten. I won’t be home when you roll in, because I’ll be out chasing my dream. It’ll be the same as it’s |
white shirts. I wore the first during the initial pretrial conference, the second at the final pretrial conference, and the third on the first day of trial. That third shirt caused the problem. I had mistakenly included among my shirt purchases one with French cuffs, and at the time, I didn’t own a pair of cuff links. I might have simply put it back in the bag and reached for the next shirt in the pile. If I had, my life would have played out differently. But I didn’t. Instead, I remembered that Anne sometimes wore a French-cuffed shirt. She kept her jewelry in a large mahogany box. I’m not sure I had ever previously opened it or even seen its interior. The box had earrings on top, rings inserted in grooves, and a false bottom hiding Anne’s larger pieces. If only Anne had kept her cuff links on top with her rings… but she hadn’t. I removed the false bottom. There were the cuff links I was searching for—silk knots in a lavender shade—among the chains and pendants and lockets that Anne occasionally wore on special occasions. I shut the jewelry box and didn’t think of it again. That is, until Brandon Sherman put on the overhead projector a photograph of the sapphire pendant that Nicky had allegedly purchased for his mistress. At first, it was a memory I no longer trusted. Hadn’t I seen the exact same pendant in Anne’s jewelry box? Could two such necklaces |
