“Not unless there’s some indication I need to go that far. For now, my business here is finished.”
“You’re leaving?” she asked in surprise.
“I am.”
“Just my house or...Whiskey Creek?”
“I believe I’ve learned all I can in this town.”
Could she finally be catching a break? She wasn’t sure whether she could rely on that as she followed him to the door. “May I ask you one more question?”
He nodded.
“Is it reasonable to suppose I’m in the clear?”
“That’ll depend on what turns up,” he said. “But if you’re as innocent as you say, you can relax. So far, I’ve seen nothing that leads me to think you played a significant role in your husband’s illegal activities.”
She sagged in relief. “I’ve made my share of mistakes in life, Agent Freeman. But I had nothing to do with what Skip did. I swear it. I was as blindsided as anyone.”
“I hope that’s true.” He gave her another long, assessing look. “Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time.”
She held the door while he stepped outside, but then he turned back.
“Mrs. DeBussi?”
Her heart beat a little faster. Was this when the blow would come? “Yes?”
“Although it’s none of my business, you need to be aware of a certain reality.”
She tensed. “What is it?”
He softened his voice when he saw that she’d clenched her hands, bracing for the worst. “You have to stay off the booze.”
Drawing a deep breath, she nodded rigorously to show she understood that. “Yes, yes, of course. I will. I came close a couple of times, like I said, but...I made it. I poured it all out.”
“You can’t buy more. You can’t slip up even once.”
Why was he making such a point of this? What concern was it of his? Whether or not she had a drink now, after the fact, couldn’t relate to the case. “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“That daughter you love so much?”
“Alexa.”
“If you end up back in rehab, your in-laws will sue for custody.”
The air rushed out of her. “They—they told you that?”
“They tried to convince me you weren’t a good wife, and you’re no better as a mother.”
She felt her jaw drop open.
“Be careful of them.”
“But...I do have a drinking problem. I told you as much. So...why...” She choked up, finding it impossible to finish.
“Why did I warn you? From what I’ve seen, you’re the one who loves Alexa best.”
She blinked rapidly to stem the tears. “How can you tell?”
“I have a kid of my own,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Just hang in there. If you really didn’t know what your husband was doing, you’re the biggest victim of all. What happened isn’t fair, but you have to stay sober or you’ll lose the only thing you’ve got left and the one thing that matters most to you.”
“Thanks.” She watched him stride to his car, feeling shocked that he’d try to help her—and hurt that a complete stranger would show more compassion than her in-laws.
7
Ted sat in front of his computer and read what he’d just written, then proceeded to edit it. Nothing he wrote seemed any good today; he couldn’t concentrate.
Shifting restlessly in his chair, he tried to devise a more believable method of getting his protagonist out of the building that contained the bomb. But every idea he came up with seemed so...contrived. It’d all been done before and, in his current frame of mind, he was pretty sure it had been done better. Hot Pursuit was turning out to be his weakest book—and yet he’d loved the premise when he first started the story a month ago.
What was wrong with him?
His cell phone rang, but he didn’t bother to get up and find it. He didn’t answer calls during the day. Refusing to be distracted was the only way he could finish his page quota and have any hope of meeting his deadlines. But someone had been trying to get through to him for the past hour. And after what Kyle and Callie had said at Black Gold Coffee last week about the possibility of Sophia DeBussi applying to be his housekeeper, he was afraid of who it might be. She had to do something to support herself and her daughter, didn’t she? What else could she do except go after any menial job that might be available? In high school, she’d partied so much she’d barely graduated. She had no college credits, no work experience.
He supposed she could model. She was pretty enough. But she couldn’t do that here in Whiskey Creek. And if her situation was as dire as he suspected from all the news reports, she wouldn’t have a car—at least not for long. She wouldn’t even have a house once the bank foreclosed.
Pushing away from his desk, he got up to stretch his legs, spotted his cell on a side table and scooped it up. The call he’d missed had come from his agent. Damn. He should’ve taken that one. But he’d deal with Jan Andersen in a minute; he had another call to make first. He’d limped along without any domestic help for the past ten years, since he started writing. He figured he could manage for a few more months, until whatever was going to happen to Sophia DeBussi happened, and he could interview applicants without fear that she might knock on his door.
Ed down at the Gold Country Gazette answered on the first ring. “What can I do for you, Ted?” he asked.
Caller ID, no doubt. “I’d like to cancel my ad.”
“But it hasn’t even run yet.”
So far, he’d posted on Craigslist, but hadn’t received much interest. A woman named Marta, who’d actually used Sophia as a reference, had applied; however she had a slew of other clients and couldn’t focus strictly on him. Besides, she didn’t cook, and she didn’t know how to use a computer. He wanted someone who would act as maid, cook and secretary. An all-in-one assistant wouldn’t be easy to find, especially since he didn’t have time to sift through applications. So it wasn’t just that he was afraid Sophia might apply for the job, he told himself. Delaying the process meshed better with his schedule.
“I’m aware of that,” he said. “I’m planning to hold off until after the holidays.”
“But the holidays are the busiest.”
“I don’t have time to interview, Ed. And I don’t have time to train anyone. Just yank the ad, okay?”
“Does that mean you’re pulling it from Craigslist, too?”
“Of course.” He was walking to his computer to do that this very second.
“I’ll take care of it. Let me know if you change your mind.”
Another call was coming in. Ted said goodbye and switched over. He wasn’t getting any writing done, anyway. “Hello?”
“Ted?”
It was his mother, Rayma, who’d raised him as a single parent after his father left them for his female law partner. He and his mother had moved to Whiskey Creek from affluent Atherton, south of San Francisco, when he was three years old and she was offered the position of vice-principal at the elementary school. She was principal now, and had been for twenty years, but recently she’d been talking about retiring and moving back to the Bay Area to be closer to her mother and sisters.
“What’s up, Mom?”
“Rough day,” she said. “Since when do sixth-grade students bring guns to school?”
“A twelve-year-old showed up with a gun?”
“The nephew of those trashy people in the river bottoms. Carl Inera and his clan.”