The House in Amalfi Read Online Free PDF

woman.”
    “You are
contemptible,
Jammy Mortimer.”
    Lamour’s voice was thin with the kind of inner rageJammy had never heard in any person before, but she was committed and went remorselessly on.
    “The night Alex died in the car crash, he was on his way to meet the other woman. Her number came up on Alex’s cell phone, as did Matt’s—but not yours. The police called her first. When she showed up at the scene, Matt was already there. He said she was distraught, crying for Alex. She said he was her fiancé, that they were going to get married that fall. Matt swore she wore a diamond as big as the Rock of Gibraltar on her left hand. He had to tell her that there was already a wife—
you
—waiting at home. At first she refused to believe him, but when she heard Matt tell the police about you, she knew it was true. But after all, Alex was dead and there was no point in getting into a fight with you. She did the only decent thing: she left, and she never contacted you. Though she did keep that ring,” Jammy added thoughtfully, “and judging from Alex’s behavior she probably deserved it.”
    Lamour struggled to her feet. She stared blankly out the windows for a long moment. Then she swung round and with one wild sweep of her arm cleared the coffee table of the glasses and the martini shaker and the anemones. Silent with rage, she stomped the glasses into shards, grinding the olives into the black rug, kicking the silver shaker so hard it hit the window with a clang.
    Her dark curly hair had escaped from its ribbon and flew wildly around her head as she turned on Jammy. “Please leave,” she said in a low hard voice unrecognizable as her own. “Leave here, Jammy Mortimer, and never come back. You are not my friend.”

FIVE

Jammy
    Jammy was crying so hard by the time she got home, she could hardly see to drive. The car was a Lincoln Aviator SUV that Matt had said was too big for her because she was used to the smaller Volvo she’d had for years. Now she swung too close into the garage, groaning as she heard the left wing mirror scrape the wall.
    “Shit, oh shit,” she moaned, “that’s all I need. . . .”
    Still sobbing angrily, she slid from the car, hearing Bramble’s happy yap of greeting. Whenever she went out the dog would listen for the car and then come and wait by the door of the laundry room to be the first to greet her. He was older now and deaf and he didn’t always hear the car anymore, but tonight he was right there, as though he knew she was upset, and his anxious licks made her smile through her tears.
    Matt was right behind him, holding open the door to the kitchen. He looked warily at her teary face. “I gather the Alex talk was not a great success.”
    Jammy stood by the door, unable to move. “She didn’t want to believe me. She said I was a terrible woman to say such things about her perfect husband. She told me, ‘Please leave!’ She didn’t even say,
‘Get out!’
She was in this weird kind of control of herself, Matt, except when she swiped the martini glasses from the table and stomped the olives into that perfect black rug. God, there’s not even a cat hair in thatplace. There’s no
life
there, Matt. And I love her and now I’ve blown our friendship, all because of that bastard Alex. Matt, oh, Matt, what am I to
do
?”
    “Come here, honey.” He took her hand and led her gently inside. Bramble trotted anxiously next to them. In the kitchen, secure in her own world, Jammy sighed as Matt put his arms around her.
    “Wait, Jam, that’s all you can do,” he said gently. “Wait until the truth sinks in. Wait and see what Lamour does then.”

SIX

Lamour
    The sound of the door slamming behind Jammy reverberated through the apartment. Then there was silence. A hard, ugly kind of silence. There was nothing alive in this apartment except me and only the dull thud of my heart to remind me of that.
    My darling Alex
had
not
been a traitor. I told myself that over and over,