"The Trouble with Rebecca," by Larry Light, in Alfred Htichcock's Mystery Magazine, November/December 2021.
Generally a piece of fiction has a premise (woman comes to private detectives seeking protection; one of them is promptly killed) and a plot (see, there's this statue of a bird rom Malta, and some very bad guys want it...).
And also generally, a reviewer can discuss the premise but shouldn't give away too much of the plot. This becomes a problem if the story is halfway over before the premise is clear. So I will be revealing a lot of the set-up because, what else can I do? Discuss the punctuation?
Max is a "tech geek," working for a company that does hush-hush security stuff. Because he hates the social side of work he invents Rebecca, a non-existent wife. This imaginary person is his excuse to avoid after-work events and the like.
All goes well until he falls in love with a flesh-and-blood co-worker. His tightly zipped employer does not approve of infidelity. Leaving Max with a thorny dilemma:
How do you rid yourself of a wife who does not actually exist?
This story is a real treat.
