The Innocent by Harlan Coben Page A

Olivia is having an affair?"
    "The evidence seems pretty clear."
    "But?"
    "But I've learned that evidence rarely gives you the full picture."
    Sonya nodded. "You should call her again," she said.
    "I did."
    "Try the hotel."
    "I did."
    "Not there?"
    "She wasn't registered."
    "There are two Ritz-Carltons in Boston."
    "I tried them both."
    "Ah." She sat back and put her hand on her chin. "So you know that, in some way, Olivia is not being truthful."
    "Yes."
    Sonya considered that. She had never met Olivia, but she knew more about Matt's relationship with her than anyone. She looked off.
    "What?" he said.
    "I'm just trying to find a plausible reason for her behavior."
    "And?"
    "And so far I've come up with nothing." She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee. "I've always found your relationship with Olivia an oddity."
    "How so?"
    "The way you hooked up ten years after a one-night stand."
    "It wasn't a one-night stand. We didn't sleep together."
    "Which may be the point."
    "I don't get what you mean."
    "If you slept together, well, the spell might have been broken. People claim that making love is the most intimate thing in the world. In truth, it's probably the opposite."
    He waited.
    "Well, this is an odd coincidence," she said.
    "Why's that?"
    "Clark is having an affair."
    Matt didn't ask her if she was sure or how she knew. He simply said, "I'm sorry."
    "It's not what you think."
    He said nothing.
    "It has nothing to do with what happened to our son."
    Matt tried to nod.
    "We like to blame Stephen's death for all our problems. He's become our big life's-not-fair card. But the reason behind Clark's affair is far more basic."
    "That being?"
    "He's horny."
    She smiled. Matt tried to smile back.
    "Oh, did I mention that she's young? The girl Clark is sleeping with?"
    "No."
    "Thirty-two. We have a daughter that age."
    "I'm sorry," Matt said again.
    "Don't be. It's the flip side of what we said before. About intimacy and sex."
    "How so?"
    "The truth is, like most women my age, I have very little interest in sex. Yes, I know
Cosmo
and the like will tell you differently, what with all that nonsense about men peaking at nineteen and women in their thirties. But in reality, men are always hornier. Period. To me sex no longer has anything to do with intimacy. Clark, on the other hand, needs it. So that's all she is to him, this young girl. Sex. A release. A physical need."
    "And that doesn't bother you?"
    "It's not about me."
    Matt said nothing.
    "When you think about it, it's simple: Clark needs something that I have no interest in providing. So he goes elsewhere." Sonya saw the look on his face. She sighed, put her hands on her thighs. "Let me give you an example. If Clark loved, say, poker and I didn't want to play…"
    "Come on, Sonya. That's not the same thing."
    "Oh, but isn't it?"
    "Sex and poker?"
    "Okay, fine, let's keep it on the physically pleasing. A professional massage. Clark gets rubdowns at his club every week from a masseur named Gary-"
    "That's not the same thing either."
    "But don't you see? It is. Sex with this girl isn't about intimacy. It's just a physical thing. Like a back rub or a handshake. So shouldn't it be okay with me?"
    Sonya looked up at him and waited.
    "It wouldn't be okay with me," Matt said.
    There was a small smile on her lips. Sonya liked mind games. She liked a challenge. He wondered if she meant what she said or if she was merely testing him. "So what are you going to do?" she asked him.
    "Olivia comes home tomorrow."
    "You think you can wait till then?"
    "I'm going to try."
    Her eyes stayed on him.
    "What?" he asked.
    "We can't escape it, can we? I thought…" She stopped.
    "You thought what?"
    Their eyes locked. "I know it's a terrible cliché, but it all felt like a nightmare. The news about Stephen. The trial. I kept expecting to wake up and find it was all some cruel joke, that everything was okay."
    He'd felt the same way. He was stuck in a bad dream, waiting for the
Candid Camera
climax when