Dirty Blonde

upstate was nowhere to be seen here. It was all back to normal, and she was home.

“I know. Even the Philly press is gone.” Brady leaned over and shut the ignition. “He’s from Doylestown, I hear, that movie star guy. The reporters moved up in there. Stalking his high school principal. Finding his prom date. You know, who went to the prom with Mark Martinez.”

“Melendez.” Don’t you read Cosmo? Cate grabbed her bag and got out of the car, in her dumb outfit. She thanked Brady with an awkward hug good-bye and went up her sidewalk, feeling separation anxiety for her federal babysitter.

She climbed the steps to the front door and remembered that she’d lost her house keys in the snow, so she went into the secret lockbox hidden behind a bush out front, pressed in the code, and retrieved the extra key. She unlocked the door with Nesbitt in the back of her mind, with his yin/yang of magazine subscriptions. She wondered if she’d see him again, now that the murders were solved and nobody was trying to kill her.

Not that it mattered.

Cate stood at the granite island in her kitchen, talking to Gina on the phone and sorting her mail. There had been a stack of it, slid through the mail slot in the front door and spilling in a messy heap when she got inside.

“Of course you’ll see him again!” Gina said, on the other end of the line. “Only you could find a bad side to the fact that you’re finally safe.”

“I’m not sure I want to, anyway.” Cate had thrown away the newspapers that came in while she was gone. She didn’t need to see those headlines. At least she was yesterday’s news. “Is he my type?”

“He’s your new type. Strong, reliable, and out of jail.”

Cate smiled. “This is silly, this whole conversation. I mean, nothing’s going on. He was a detective assigned to the case, and that’s that.”

“He’s a man, and you’re an Italian. Enough said.”

“He’s not attracted to me. If he liked me, he would have found a way to drive me home.”

“He got busy, catching murderers. Give the guy a break. He called here to tell me not to worry about you and he sounded worried about you. That reminds me, did you see a shrink yet?”

“I’ve been a little busy, dodging bullets.” Cate set aside for disposal the catalogs for Nordstrom’s, Ann Taylor, Strawbridge’s, Bloomingdale’s, and Neiman Marcus. Then she retrieved the Neiman’s.

“Call. Soon. Now tell me what happened in Centralia. What a nut job! Russo tried to run you over?”

“It’s a long story. I don’t want to tell you while you’re driving around. I’ll tell you tonight. It’s Monday. Our date night.”

“I can’t tonight. Uh, Justin’s bringing over a DVD he wants me to see, The Godfather. I never saw it.”

“Are you serious?”

“Lots of people have never seen it.”

“No, that you’re ditching me for Justin!”

Gina giggled. “Yo. Suburban moms need bodyguards.”

“Is it a love connection?”

“I just like the guy. His brother has cerebral palsy, and he lives at Elwyn. So Justin understands, at least some things.”

“He’s thirty!”

“Younger works for me. Nesbitt’s older, right?”

“Older works for me.” They both laughed, and Cate warmed at the excitement in her friend’s voice. She hadn’t heard her that happy in years. “Good. Great. Go for it. I bought him through next week. Consider him a late Christmas present.”

Gina laughed. “I’m not above paying for it, especially when you are.”

Cate smiled, stacking a PECO bill on top of a Verizon Wireless bill. Then Comcast. “How’s the baby?”

“Fine. He likes Justin.”

“He does?” Cate came upon a bill for a Cosmopolitan subscription and thought of Nesbitt. “I’m jealous. He’s not allowed to like anybody except me.”

“Way to be possessive of a kid I’m trying to socialize.”

“Hey, maybe we can go on an imaginary double-date. You bring your imaginary law-enforcement hunk, and I’ll bring mine.”

“I have a bone to pick with you. It said in the newspaper that you were stepping down indefinitely. Chief Judge Sherman is quoted. What does that mean? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Gulp. “It means I’m fired, unless I sue the bastards. And first I need to find a lawyer willing to bite the hand that feeds him.” Cate came upon a yellow envelope forwarded from her chambers, according to the return address. The name on the front was in Val’s handwriting, and she felt a twinge of loss.

“I can’t believe this. They can’t fire you. District judges are appointed for life.”

“We’ll see what they can do. For now, I’m going to decompress and figure out my next move.” Cate opened the envelope and out slid a small white letter and a Sephora catalog bearing a Post-it from Val that read, “Miss you.” Cate thought, Miss you, too.

“You should get away. Take a vacation. Get some sun.”

“Nah.” Cate eyed the letter, feeling a draft from her back door, still boarded up from Russo’s break-in. The front of the envelope showed feminine handwriting, and it had been marked PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL, which was why Val had forwarded it unopened. Cate didn’t recognize the letter’s return address. “I have to do some things around the house. Things I’ve been wanting to do, to make it nice.”

“Who is this? You? Wanting to putter around the house?”

“Yes.” Cate opened the letter with a fingernail and pulled out a few leaves of white notepaper, folded in two. She skimmed the first few lines. “Dear Judge Fante, Please forgive me for writing to you, but you are my last resort and…”

Gina was saying, “Are you nuts? Miami’s perfect this time of year. Go to South Beach. Walk around Lincoln Road and buy shoes you don’t need, like we did last year.”

“I have enough shoes I don’t need.” Cate read, “I could tell by your compassion during our trial…”

“Then how about the Caribbean? Get away before the papers remember who you are.”

“…are the only person I could turn to and…” Cate set the letter aside to read later. Since she’d become a judge, she’d gotten so many letters from girlfriends, wives, mothers, and even children of inmates, asking for her help. They all believed their loved ones were innocent, and even if Cate agreed, there was nothing she could do except send a form reply. But something about this letter made her pick it up again. Then she realized who it was from.

“Or go to a spa. That’s the new thing. Cate, you there?”

“I know that you will feel the same way once you…”

“Hello?”

“I have to go, okay?” Cate folded the letter into thirds. “Talk to you later.”

“Where you going in such a hurry?”

Uh. “The bathroom? Give the baby a kiss for me.”

Cate felt a surge of renewed energy and ran upstairs to change.

CHAPTER 39

Cate left her heavy coat in the rental car, feeling warm enough in the black wool suit, and walked up the front path to a modest gray stone twin house, much like the others on this winding street in Wynnefield, about half an hour outside Center City. Her black pumps clicked on the frozen flagstone, the cadence slowing as she approached the front door.