“Justice,” I say.
“Exactly. If there’s any substance to the claim, you don’t settle. You don’t take your money and slink off into the darkness. That girl was hysterical-and I use the word advisedly, well aware of the negative connotations. I caught her cheating, and she responded by trying to destroy me.” She gets a faraway look. “Their claims had no basis in fact. None of them do.”
“None of what?”
“The claims,” she says. “The rumors about me.”
“What kind of rumors?”
She laughs the question to scorn. “I have never been involved with any of my students. Oh, I could give you a list of colleagues who have-but I’m not one of them. I don’t know how stories like that get started, but once they do, you’re branded for life.”
“What about Simone? She wasn’t one of your students.”
“Was I involved with her, is that what you’re asking?”
I hold her stare without repeating the question.
“There are reasons other than money to want to have someone under the same roof. And at my age, sex isn’t one of them.”
“You’re not so old,” I say.
“For me it was never-” She stops herself, conscious of Cavallo moving in the background. “Never mind what it was. I’ve answered your question, Detective.”
“Why did you invite Simone to live with you?”
“I just wanted someone to be here. Is that so hard to understand? I never had children, never wanted them, and I was happy to see my husband go. And yet, once he was gone I felt alone. You may find this hard to believe, but people don’t naturally gravitate toward me. I’ve never had the gift of attraction. But having a tenant made it easy.”
“Only she wasn’t paying the rent.”
She concedes with a tilt of the head. “It didn’t take Simone long to figure out that the money wasn’t a big concern for me. What I really wanted was. . companionship.”
“And when she didn’t give you that?”
Silence.
“How did you feel when you realized she was taking advantage?”
“I pitied her. Simone could be selfish and manipulative, but after all, she was just a single-cell organism repeating her basic programming over and over again. Once you’ve realized that about someone, it’s very hard for them ever to hurt you.”
Cavallo returns from the bookshelves, shaking her head at my raised eyebrows. No sign of the book. She sits on the sofa next to Dr. Hill.
“Do you remember me, Professor?”
Hill leans back, like she can’t focus without some distance between them. “I do now.”
“Only it’s strange,” Cavallo says. “The way you’re describing Simone Walker sounds a lot like the way you described Shayna Zachariassen the last time we met. Maybe you do attract a certain type.”
The professor says nothing, letting the words hang in the air.
“You must be quite a reader,” I say. “So many books on the shelf. You haven’t read all of them, have you? People must ask that a lot.”
She blinks in slow motion, making her contempt for my banter unmistakable.
“There’s a particular title I’m wondering about, a true crime book about a case here in Houston from ten years back. It’s called The Kingwood Killing. Have you ever come across that particular book, Joy?”
“I don’t read that sort of book,” she says. “I find them sordid. And that goes for the people who read them, too.”
Charlotte and the Robbs hold down a table for us at Hungry’s Café, rising in unison to take turns giving Cavallo a hug. They say the usual things about not seeing her often enough. I smile and nod through it all like I’m paying attention, like my mind isn’t still on the job.
I’m as far away as ever from Simone’s killer. As far away as ever from her, too. Everyone in that girl’s life was using her. And she was using them, too.
Beside me Charlotte slips her hand into mine. Her face is radiant in the gold artificial light. To anyone but me, she would appear happy. But it’s a frantic sort of joy, a smile that never reaches the eyes.
“You okay?” I ask under my breath.
She ignores the question.
Carter and Gina wear the same awkward, excited expressions they always do when they’re taken out to dinner, anxious to please and be pleased. Carter must have raided the laundry basket. Instead of the usual ironic T-shirt, he’s found a tight-fitting plaid cowboy shirt with pearl snaps.
“So are you two working together again?” Gina asks Cavallo.
“Not really. March here hijacked me from the office, that’s all. He was having trouble getting any of his Homicide buddies to do the heavy lifting for him.”
“Well, it’s good to see you,” Charlotte says. “How is your husband doing? You get to talk to him, don’t you?”
“I worry a lot more about him than he worries about himself. But the good news is, when he finishes this tour, that’s it. He’s finally had enough. He’s not going to re-up again. I’m not going to let him.”
“He was crazy to go back in the first place after you two got hitched,” Carter says. “Not to be critical or anything.”
“You can be critical.” Cavallo smiles. “He was crazy, and now maybe he realizes it. I’m not getting any younger, so if we’re gonna start having babies, it’s time. Speaking of which. . congratulations.”
She raises her glass, getting nothing but Cheshire cat grins out of the Robbs.
“Congratulations about what?” Charlotte asks. She looks back and forth between Cavallo and Gina, pulling her hand out of mine, a quizzical smile on her lips. “Is there something I don’t know? What’s the big secret?”
Gina’s cheeks flush with embarrassment.
“Are you-?”
As the truth dawns, Charlotte pushes her chair back. She reaches toward Gina but clips the side of a water glass by accident. A slurry of ice slides over the table. Carter scoots back to avoid getting wet. Gina stays frozen. I grab the glass, setting it upright.
“Oh,” Charlotte says, covering her mouth with both hands. “I’m such a-”
“It’s okay,” I’m saying, while Carter gives an awkward laugh.
Cavallo: “Did I spoil the surprise?”
It takes a moment, but Charlotte recovers. She gets up and goes to Gina, throwing her arms around the still-seated girl, hugging her from behind.
“That’s wonderful,” she says. “I’m so happy for you.”
A waiter comes by and helps me mop up the mess. Before I know it, the seating arrangements have changed. Carter takes Charlotte’s place beside me while the two older women close in around his wife, showering her with attention.
“Get used to it,” I say. “For now on, you’ve officially dropped off the radar screen.”
The specter of looming fatherhood doesn’t seem to faze Carter, though it should. He didn’t make much working at the church and makes even less from the outreach center, and I know for a fact they don’t have health insurance. The rent they pay for the garage apartment is next to nothing-but that’s no place to raise a kid.
No, they’ll have to move out.
Out of the apartment and out of our lives.
The thought leaves me empty inside, suddenly nostalgic for the present. Looking at the smiling faces around the table, hearing the lilting voices, I now realize this will all come to an end. It will end, it will end, and tonight we celebrate the high tide.
Charlotte catches my eye. “Hey, we’re supposed to be celebrating.”
“I was just thinking about Carter changing his first pair of diapers.”
He laughs. “I’m trying not to think about that.”
“I’m so jealous,” Cavallo says. “By the time she was my age, my mama already had three girls. So when you need a baby-sitter, you call Aunt Terry, you hear me?”
“Have you thought about names yet?” Charlotte asks.
Gina shares a smile with Carter, then shakes her head. “And we’re not going to find out if it’s a boy or girl. We want it to be a surprise.”