“We’re going to sit outside that office building until we see Samantha Price.”
“How will we know who she is? Do you plan to accost every woman who enters the building?”
“I haven’t figured that part out yet.” I started back in the direction of Perkins’s office. “All I know is that this is the closest I’ve ever been to either Carol Darius or Samantha Price. I’ll come up with a plan when we get there.”
We took up a position on a knee-high landscaping wall that offered an excellent view of the doors leading into the office building. Several people came and went, some using the circular doors, others walking in the regular entrances flanking the revolving door.
“This isn’t going to work,” I said after keeping watch for about fifteen minutes.
“Agreed.” Nasser stood up. “Let’s go.”
I started walking toward the building’s entrance. “We have to be inside.”
“What?” Nasser changed course to follow me. “Why?”
“I’m going to stand in the hallway outside Perkins’s offices. That way, we’ll be sure not to miss her.”
“You can’t be serious.” He followed me through the revolving doors. “I’m an attorney of some standing in this county. I can’t be stalking the client of a colleague.”
I reached the elevator and pushed the up button. “You don’t have to come.”
“Leaving you alone is an even worse idea.”
The elevator dinged, and the door opened. “Suit yourself.” I stepped inside. He came with me even though I would have gone on my own.
I was fed up with feeling like a dupe. How long had I lived in the dark, completely oblivious to what was really going on in my marriage?
Nasser stood across the elevator from me. “Are you sure you don’t want to rethink this?”
“It’s the best plan I can come up with on short notice.” Anticipation pumped through me. Was I minutes away from meeting Samantha Price? The prospect of finally getting some real answers made me jittery.
He shot me a wary look. “Even if you do somehow recognize her, what will you say to her?”
“I have no idea.” I took in his tense posture. “Relax. It’s not like I’m going to attack her. I just want to talk.”
The elevator pinged. We’d reached our floor. I strode down the corridor and took up a position several feet before the glass double doors leading to the Perkins Law Group offices. I felt surer of myself than I had in a long time. I was taking concrete action to find the answers I needed.
“Now what?” Nasser looked up and down the corridor. “We can’t just stand here in the middle of the hallway.”
“Face me,” I instructed, leaning a shoulder against the wall. Nasser did as I asked. “Good. Now we’re just two people having a conversation.”
“Are you planning to stand here all afternoon?”
“If that’s what it takes. But it’s already two o’clock. It can’t be too much longer. How late would an afternoon meeting be scheduled?” I studied my husband’s cousin. He had on a dark suit and wore it wellwith his wide shoulders and tapered waist. “You look very respectable. No one is going to think we’re up to no good.”
“Are we up to no good?”
“Of course not.” The elevator dinged. An older couple got out and came down the corridor toward us. I had a good view of anyone getting off the elevator and going into Perkins’s office. Every time the elevator sounded, it felt like a small animal leaped inside my chest. Twenty minutes stretched to thirty, then to forty-five.
“Shouldn’t you be at work?” I asked Nasser.
“I cleared the day of appointments. Just in case.”
“In case of what? Were you worried that we’d learn something today that would flip me out?”
The side of his mouth quirked up. “Something like that.”
“You know, I never liked you very much.”
