Here She Lies

your records show a description of the earrings?”
    “White diamonds,” she said. “One carat, round studs in a platinum setting.”
    “What address were they delivered to?”
    “Let me see.” Fast, clicking fingers thousands of miles away. “It was a UPS store in Lexington, Kentucky, 838 High Street, Ashland Plaza.”
    I knew the place, I’d passed it, but I’d never gone in.
    “Is that the same address as on the credit card?” I asked.
    “No, it was not. I am not authorized to release that information. For that, you must call the credit card company.”
    “Can you please just tell me where the card was issued? What state?”
    “I am very sorry.”
    I took a deep breath and managed a polite good-bye, reminding myself that this was not Mary’s fault, that eight thousand dollars could probably feed her entire extended family for a year and she should be commended for managing to keep her disdain to herself.
    Bobby swiveled to face me. “Done. Equifax has the fraud alert and they’ll share it.”
    “Good.” Then I repeated my conversation with Mary. As I spoke, whispering, Bobby seemed to search my face. Then his gaze settled on my right ear; he was staring at my earring. He lifted a finger and gently touched it.
    “These are round,” he said, “and isn’t this platinum? I wonder how many carats they are.”
    “Zero carats, Bobby. And it’s silver, not platinum. They’re fakes.”
    His hand fell to his lap and he stared at me, thinkingsomething over, weighing the decision to speak his mind. Bobby was not the kind of person who made idle accusations and yet as soon as he started talking I knew what he was thinking. When Mary had described the earrings, I’d thought it too — she was describing my earrings — except for one crucial difference: mine were fakes and they didn’t cost eight thousand dollars. They were a gift from Julie and obviously she had nothing to do with this. Why would she? And anyway, Julie had bought two pair, one for each of us, and this charge was for only one pair. It took all my strength not to tell Bobby to save his breath. He had been very patient with me, forgiving in the extreme, and the least I could do was hear him out.
    “Those accounts and those charges start appearing about two months ago, before your wallet was stolen, right?” he asked.
    “Right.”
    “About the time of the other charges, the ones on our real accounts.”
    “The Lovyluv charges,” I said.
    His jaw ground a little at that.
    “Okay, the bogus charges I thought were gifts for Lovyluv.”
    “Exactly. Which were made around the time of the e-mails that we both agree were fake,” he said. “Right, Annie?”
    “Right, though I don’t get how such personal e-mails can be faked, you know? That’s what I can’t figure out—”
    “Annie!”
    “But it doesn’t make sense.”
    “It doesn’t make sense to me either, but they’re obviously connected to all this. Don’t you agree with that?”
    “Yes. Yes, I do, Bobby. It’s just...”
    I could see how frustrated he was getting with me, but my mind was stuck on the e-mails. I agreed that they were connected to the bogus charges; I believed that because it was logical. But why was this evil e-mailer of Bobby’s trying to ruin me ? My attempted replies to Lovyluv had bounced back, but surely they could be traced to a real person, and maybe this person (who knew so much about Bobby’s body) had sown this havoc in revenge. Maybe he had broken up with her when he realized I might really leave him; that was logical, too. Bobby had spurned his lover and she had gone berserk.
    “It’s just that... the description of your birthmark on your lower back, Bobby... the nickname... the description of you making love—”
    “I think Julie wrote those e-mails!” He blurted it out just like that.
    “That’s ridiculous !”
    “I confronted her about it last weekend—”
    “Are you saying Julie was your lover?” Even as I said it, I couldn’t believe it would be true.
    “No.”
    “Then why would she send the e-mails?”
    His neck had thickened and his face was red; he looked like he was tamping down an explosion. And then it just burst out: “Because she wanted to sleep with me. She tried to seduce me and I turned her down.”
    “What?”
    “It’s the truth.” He shook his head slowly as if he himself could hardly believe it. “I didn’t want to tell you. I knew you wouldn’t believe me, I know how close you two are, and