Kara Was Here. William Conescu

Pepper said.

      “Steve’s the old guy Kara was crashing with,” said the Asian girl with the nose ring. “The dude with the mullet.”

      “Oh . . .”

      “Speaking of her guitar player,” Collin said, “has anyone told him?”

      There were some shaking heads. “I thought you were going to invite him to this,” said the nose ring.

      “I wouldn’t recognize him in a lineup of one,” Collin said. “I only heard about him through Pepper.”

      “I don’t know him either,” said the guy with the goatee. “But I waited on him once . . . and had inappropriate thoughts about him later.”

      “He hasn’t been by the restaurant in a while,” Pepper said. “I think Kara said he was going on tour with some band.”

      “Fancy,” someone said.

      “We should all keep an eye out for him,” Pepper added, in a serious tone.

      “That’s going to be a fun conversation,” mumbled the man with the eyeliner. “‘Can I take your drink order, and by the way . . .’”

      “Who is this?” Margot asked.

      “Toby,” Collin said.

      “A guy Kara was seeing a little bit,” Pepper added.

      “Recently?” Margot asked.

      Pepper nodded. “A couple of months, maybe. It wasn’t serious, but I mean, someone should tell him, right? I wish I knew the name of his band. Did Kara ever mention him to you?”

      “No,” Margot said. “This is definitely the first I’ve heard of him.”

CHAPTER THREE

      BRAD WAS STILL THINKING ABOUT MARGOT’S CALL WHEN HE ARRIVED AT HIS office. Last night, while he and Val were playing Trivia Master and eating take-out Italian on their couch, Margot had been to Kara’s apartment. Not the one where she’d died; the one before that.

      Strange to think that a gathering like that had taken place without his even knowing, that he might have been there if circumstances had been different. He knew it was Kara’s birthday. The awareness had passed in and out of his mind all day, while he was showing houses, answering email, changing for yoga class, picking up dinner. He’d wondered about Gwen, how she was handling the day over in Greenwood Park. But it hadn’t occurred to him that in New York a bunch of Kara’s friends would have gotten together to recognize the occasion.

      Brad turned on his computer and pulled up the prior day’s home sales and new listings.

      If he’d lived in New York, he probably would have gone, too. Surely someone would have thought to invite him. If not that Collin guy, then Margot. She’d have called, and Brad would have driven out for the occasion. Maybe he and Margot would have driven together.

      Brad scrolled through the latest home listings. Nothing terribly exciting. One three-bedroom that might appeal to a couple he was seeing later in the day. Another house that was iffy, but he printed out the information sheet anyway.

      When she called, Margot had made a big deal about the fact that Kara might have been seeing someone other than her fiancé. “Not just might have,” Margot insisted. “Was. Everyone who worked with her knew about the guy. Don’t you think that’s a little strange?”

      But it made sense to Brad, in a way. Or at least he derived some private pleasure hearing about it. Engagement ring or not, Kara and Steve couldn’t have been the happy couple.

      “I’m struggling to believe they were together at all,” Margot said. “He wasn’t at the party. No one there talked about him. The only times Kara ever mentioned him to me, she called the man ‘Mullet.’”

      “Classic.”

      “I don’t recall her saying one nice thing about him.”

      Well, if Kara was cheating on him, what did Margot expect?

      “Could you really see her with him?” Margot asked. “Did you talk to him? After I left?”

      No, of course he hadn’t.