“Nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing.”
“I was just kidding around.”
“But you weren’t smiling. You meant something by that.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it.”
She looked away, shook her head subtly and said quietly, “You think I don’t know you?”
“Cindy, let it go, okay? We were having fun here.”
She returned to her end of the kitchen counter. Jack could see the regret in her eyes, the way they’d slipped into their usual pattern. Without thinking, he ran a messy hand through his hair, giving himself an earful of sweet goo. Cindy snickered to herself. He chuckled, too, and sharing the moment helped to shake off some of the unwanted tension. As he snagged a paper towel to wipe it off, she came to him, grabbed his
“What?”
“I think I’m ovulating.”
“Huh?”
She arched an eyebrow, pointing with her eyes toward the bedroom.
He smiled and said, “Now that’s the kind of non sequitur I can live with.”
He started to wipe his face clean. “Don’t,” she said. She gently kissed a gob of the sweet mixture off the corner of his mouth, and the tip of her tongue was suddenly exploring his earful of
It tickled, and he recoiled-but only slightly. There’d been times when it seemed their marriage was hanging by a thread. But every now and then, out came the old Cindy and, oh, what a thread. “My, you’re a veritable box of surprises tonight.”
“And you are one lucky boy,” she whispered.
He smiled and touched her face. “Don’t I know it.”
Jack watched her as she slept, soothed by the rhythm of her gentle breathing. Even after a hot shower, the faint smell of
Sex wasn’t exactly a strong point of their relationship. In fact, it had been nonexistent when they were first married. What should have been the happiest time of their lives was marred by Cindy’s recurring nightmares. The medical doctors had ruled out sexual assault, but probably no one would ever know the details of what her attacker had done or threatened to do. Five years was a long time; five years was yesterday. At times Jack felt as though he could only guess how long ago it was in Cindy’s mind. The good news was that she’d finally pushed it far enough away to want to try to start a family. It had taken her all that time to convince herself that the world was not such an awful place that a child should never be brought into it.
Jack laid a hand lightly on her belly, wondering if this one would be the one.
The phone rang. It was down the hall in his home office, a separate phone line from the main number. Jack let it ring five times, and the machine got it. The caller hung up. A minute later the phone rang again. On the fifth ring it went to the machine. Another hang up.
Seconds later it was ringing yet again. It was as if someone had his number on redial and was determined to keep calling until a live person answered. If this kept up, Cindy would certainly wake. He knew she hadn’t been sleeping well the last few nights, so he sprang from the bed, wearing only his underwear, and hurried down the dark hall. He caught it on the fourth ring, just before the machine would take it.
“Hello.”
“It’s me. Jessie.”
He suddenly felt more naked than he was. “I’ve been trying to reach you. You didn’t return my calls.”
“That’s because I didn’t want to talk to you.”
“Then why are you calling now?”
“Because you pissed me off.”
“I pissed
“It’s odd, don’t you think? I was in a lawsuit for months, and the viatical investors never once accused me of fraud. They thought the diagnosis was all just a mistake. Suddenly, the case is over, and they’ve become highly suspicious. They think they were scammed.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because they’re poking around, asking questions. And I think you have something to do with it.”
“I haven’t said a word to anyone.”
“Liar. You and your investigator were on Grove Isle questioning Dr. Marsh’s wife, weren’t you?”
Jack couldn’t deny it, so he steered clear. “Jessie, we should talk.”
“I warned you, don’t ask so many questions. You have ticked me off bad this time.”
He bit back his anger, but he couldn’t swallow all of it. “I’m tired of you acting as if
“If you blow the lid off this, you are really going to regret it.”
“So you admit it was a scam. You did it.”
“We did it.”
He’d known since the elevator, but her admission still shocked him. “You’ve pushed it too far this time, Jessie.”
“Not just me. All of us. So watch yourself, or I’ll not only have you disbarred, I’ll have you sitting in the prison cell right next to Dr. Marsh.”
“What?”
“The simple truth is, I couldn’t have done this without you. You were a key player.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“No one’s going to buy that. Especially when I tell them the truth-that you were in on the deal all the way.”
“I can’t believe what you’re saying.”
“Believe it. Now watch your step-partner.”
The line clicked in his ear. She was gone before he could say another word.
9
•
Jack met Theo for a late dinner. Jack had a burger smothered in cheese and mushrooms. Theo opted for the five-alarm chili. Both were staples on the simple menu at Tobacco Road.
In Jack’s eyes, Tobacco Road was
Theo splashed more hot sauce on his chili, wiped the beads of sweat from his brow, and asked, “What we gonna do about Jessie?”
Jack had been ignoring Theo’s messages all week. It was clear that he’d viewed the interrogation of the soon- to-be-ex-wife of “Dr. Swamp” as just the beginning of the fun.
Jack said, “To be honest, I haven’t had much time to think about it.”
“What a crock.”
