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“How can you be so sure?” he asked

So I told him

The next day, I invited Roz over She ca her specialty casserole Tuna and canned peas mixed with mushroom soup concentrate, topped with cruolden brown She placed it on the counter then hugged me with the force of a boa constrictor I shuddered “Roz, I can’t breathe”

“Sorry, sweetie,” she said, her nicotine breath hot in my ear “How ya’ holdin’ up?”

She let go and stepped back “Roz How could you?” I asked

Roz blinked and withdrew a crushed pack of cigarettes from her jeans pocket “What?”

“How could you kill Ed? And how could you set it up to ht have done it?”

Her hand trehter shut with authority “How can you accuse ht ere friends, Lainie Besides, I gave you that PI’s na he fooled around with other men?”

I let out a long sigh “I never told you they were photos of men”

Roz’s ’s

“B-b-butyou did,” she sputtered “You did I rearette—”you, you were so rattled, I could barely get a coherent story out of you You did tell me” She lowered her voice “You just don’t remember”

I shook my head “No, Roz I told you there were photos, but I never said as in them The police told me not to discuss the men in those photos with anyone And, frankly, I was too asha onwas off, but I was too rattled to figure it out at the time Then I connected the dots You killed him”

Roz stood there mute

“My biggest question—what I really can’t understand, Roz—is why? If Ed was gay, ould you kill him? Why?” My voice rose

Roz’s face contorted She looked atnaïve, Lainie How you avoided learningknow”