“Exactly. And until they do, until they formally submit the request for payment, along with proof of violation, we sit tight.”
I almost smiled. “I have to admit that I like the idea of making them work for the money.” Especially after Lizzie’s continual refusal to answer the most basic questions that could give me peace of mind.
“It’s really just a delay tactic on our part,” Nasser said, “but we’re going to make them cross all of the t’s and dot all of the i’s before they get a penny.”
“I’m good with that. If that’s all, I’ve got to run.”
“Going somewhere?” he asked.
“I tracked down Lizzie’s ex-husband. I’m going to meet him now.”
Once I learned Lizzie’s full name, it hadn’t been hard to track down her ex-husband. Sean Price lived in Maryland and agreed to talk with me in person, suggesting Frederick, an hour’s drive from me, as a meeting point.
“Why do you want to talk to Lizzie’s ex?”
“Maybe he’ll have some insight into Ali and Lizzie’s relationship. I can’t help feeling that there’s a missing piece to this puzzle. Once I find it, maybe everything will make more sense.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Nasser asked. “This guy’s a stranger.”
“Don’t worry. We’re meeting during the day at a coffee shop,” I reassured him. “And I’ve got my pepper spray.”
“Good,” he said. “Keep it close.”
When I entered the quaint coffee shop in the historic section of town in Frederick, Maryland, I scanned the tables for Lizzie’s former husband. The place was mostly empty. It was four in the afternoon, long past the lunch rush and too early for happy hour. A man with a rumpled-professor look stood up as I approached.
“Amira?” he asked.
“Sean?” We shook hands. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“I knew there was an ex-boyfriend,” he told me after we ordered coffee. “I had no idea he was still in the picture until he visited her at her apartment after we separated.”
“He did?” My stomach dropped. “Are you sure?”
“I didn’t know who it was at the time. Now I assume the man who came to see her was your husband.”
“Did you get a look at him?”
He shook his head. “No. After Elizabeth moved out, I dropped by the apartment she’d rented to pick up something. I saw a man’s athletic shoes and bomber jacket in her foyer. He was obviously inside the apartment, but I didn’t see him.”
My heart thumped. “Did you ask her who it was?”
“When she realized I’d seen the man’s things, she volunteered that an old college friend was visiting for the day. I’d already gathered that, since the bomber jacket had the university logo on it and was a distinctive color.”
“Purple and gold,” I said. The university’s colors. I fought to keep my composure. Ali had a bomber jacket like that somewhere in the back of his closet, even though he rarely wore it. And it wouldn’t have been hard for him to get up to Frederick to see Lizzie. “After my husband died, I found out that he left her a house.”
“You mentioned that on the phone.” He frowned. “That’s very surprising. Elizabeth doesn’t need financial help. She came into some money when her father died. The family received a sizable life insurance payout, and she makes an excellent salary.”
“She does?” I hadn’t thought of Lizzie as someone with a career. “What does she do?”
“She’s a very talented interior designer.”
That explained the beautiful front-porch furniture at the house on Cozy Glenn Lane. “And you never suspected there was another man before you saw a man’s things in her apartment?”
“Not once. My wife and I just grew apart.” He paused for the server to pour our coffee before continuing. “Elizabeth definitely became more distracted, more distant, after we separated. But we didn’t have an acrimonious breakup. My parents had a terrible divorce. It was extremely difficult for me as a child. My experience made me determined to keep things amicable for our children.”
“How many kids do you have?”
“Three. Two girls and a boy.”
