Kate White - Hush

She felt Madelyn shift ever so slightly in the chair next to her, sensing trouble. Lake’s mind ricocheted, searching frantically for an explanation.

“Yes-I did get a call late that night,” she said, furrowing her brow. “I was sleeping and it woke me. But-I couldn’t make sense of what the person was saying, and then they hung up. I thought it was a wrong number.”

“Why would Ms. Deever do that, do you think?”

“I-I have no idea.”

She started to say more, to suggest that Rory had just been crazy, and then she held her tongue. Tell only the essential lie, she told herself.

To her surprise they said she was free to go.

“There’s another interesting subplot in all of this,” Archer said at their garden table, rousing her from her thoughts.

“With the clinic?”

“No-with Rory Deever. There appears to be no husband in the picture at the moment. The police have spoken to Colin Deever, but he split with Rory a few months ago. I’m still trying to find out more, but I wonder if it’s because he knew the baby wasn’t his.”

Lake touched her hands to her lips, thinking.

“You know,” she said, “on a subconscious level, I think I realized the husband was gone. There was no sign of him anywhere in the house.”

“What really surprises me is that Keaton returned to the clinic. Why come back when there was such a mess there with Rory?”

“Remember? According to Rory, she hadn’t told him about the baby at that point,” Lake said. She was on dangerous ground talking about Keaton, but she knew if she avoided the subject, it would seem odd.

“But wouldn’t he have started to pick up on the fact that there was something crazy about her?”

“That’s very possible. Maggie told me that when she was taking care of his apartment in March, there were signs someone had snuck in one night. It may have been Rory, and Keaton probably suspected it. But then he goes back to L.A. and he may have told himself that Rory’s obsessiveness had burned off. A short time later Levin asks him to come back, consider being a partner. He puts a toe in the water by consulting again and discovers everything’s cool. Rory appears happily pregnant. She certainly made everyone think there was a nice husband in the picture. She may have even planned to put Keaton out of her mind, pretend the baby was her husband’s. But after she saw him, she obviously became fixated again.”

“Keaton must have panicked like hell when he did hear about the baby,” Archer said. “I can’t believe he’d want to work there anymore.”

“Maybe he didn’t,” Lake said and then looked away.

She could feel Archer studying her.

“He didn’t drop any hints about bailing to you, did he?” he asked.

Oh God, Lake thought. Does Archer suspect? It took all her strength to return her eyes to him when she answered.

“No,” she said. “I hardly knew him.”

In that split second, she wished she could unburden her secrets to Archer. Maybe one day, she said to herself-and the words surprised her. For the first time she allowed herself to acknowledge how attracted she was to him-his humor, how easy he was in his own skin, even that crazy white hair. He had helped her when she was in danger, but what really intrigued her was that she had felt comfortable asking him for help. Would he want to stay in touch after everything was over? Or would he disappear now that he had his story?

“How’s your report coming, by the way?” Lake asked, shifting the topic off Keaton.

“Great,” Archer said. “I did a few quick items on the show this week as the story was breaking, but we’re putting a much bigger piece together. I’m hoping you’ll let me interview you. You should get credit for all of this.”

Lake smiled and shook her head. “I’m flattered but I think it’s best for me to stay in the background-especially in light of everything with the police. Plus, I just want my life to get back to normal.

“Oh, by the way,” she said, before he could push further. “They solved the mystery of my missing doorman that afternoon. He thought he was having a heart attack and hopped in a cab for the hospital without telling anyone. Turned out to be a panic attack.”

“Ah. And what about your cat?” he asked. “What do you think the story was there?”

“Just a coincidence, I guess,” she said, taking a piece of bread from the basket. “I think some teenagers must have shaved Smokey, just to be mean.” There was no way she could tell him that Rory had admitted doing it. That would raise the question of why Rory had been fixated on Lake at that point-and the answer pointed back to Keaton. She hoped he wouldn’t remember the catnip and ask about it.

“You were also worried about your doorbell ringing late one night.”

“Actually, I may have solved that one this morning,” Lake said. “There was a girl I’d never seen on the floor, and I think one of my neighbors, Stan, may be having a little fling with her-while his wife is out at the beach for the summer. We may be adding another divorce to the building.”

To Lake’s surprise, Archer picked up her hand and held it between both of his. Blood immediately rushed to her cheeks, as if it had been waiting in the wings.

“I haven’t wanted to pry, but the other night you mentioned that you were in a crazy custody battle.”

“Yes,” she said, sighing. “But the worst of that may be over.”

It was true. Hotchkiss had called her Monday with news. The weekend had provided evidence of Molly and Jack on board the bliss train all around Manhattan, and Hotchkiss had reported this news to Jack’s lawyer. Then on Tuesday night Molly had shown up at Lake’s apartment and broken down, admitted not only to having an affair with Jack during the marriage but also to keeping up the friendship with Lake to stay in the know about Jack’s intentions. Lake had filled Hotchkiss in immediately. It was perfect leverage, he’d said, just what they needed. He’d called back the following day to say Jack would accept joint custody.

“Excellent,” Archer said after hearing the full scoop. “Well, look, I don’t know how you have to play it in a situation like that, but I’d love to take you to dinner one night-in the not so distant future.”

The pure pleasure she felt at his words surprised her.

“I’d love that, Kit, but it’s still a little dicey until the final agreement gets signed,” she said. “For the time being, though, would you settle for a series of fun, thought-provoking lunches?”

“Absolutely,” he said, smiling.

The waitress arrived then to take their orders. When she’d departed, Lake looked back at Archer. She wanted to change the subject completely, to leave behind everything connected with the clinic, but there was still one thing she needed to ask.

“Question,” she said. “Do you think the police would have figured out that Rory was the murderer if she hadn’t attacked me?”

“Possibly. From what I know, they felt the wound on Keaton had been made by a woman.”

She reached for her wineglass and twirled it between her fingers.

“Oh-so then maybe they would have.”

“Of course there’s still that little mystery,” Archer said.

Lake swallowed, raised her eyebrows.

“Mystery?” she asked.

“A woman had sex with Keaton the night he died, and it doesn’t sound like Rory Deever took the time to make love to him before she slit his throat. Clearly this person hightailed it out of the apartment just in time. So, as I said once before, there’s a very lucky lady out there somewhere.”

“Yes, very lucky,” Lake said. She met his eyes and smiled.

I want to say a big thank you to those who helped me so generously while I was doing research for the book: Mary Dodge, PhD, associate professor and director of Criminal Justice Programs, University of Colorado, Denver; Caleb White, police officer, White Plains, New York police; Abigail Greene, managing editor, Cosmopolitan ; Dr. Mark Howell, psychotherapist; David Razner, Esq., partner and co-chair of the Family Law Group at Fox Rothschild, LLP; Deb Shriver, PR guru; Dr. Paul Paganelli, chief of Emergency Medicine, Milton Hospital, Milton, Massachusetts; Chet W. Lerner, M.D., chief of Infectious Diseases, New York Downtown Hospital; Barbara Butcher, chief of staff and director of the Forensics Sciences Training Program at the New York City office of the chief medical examiner; Rachel Hayes, editor in chief, DailyMakeover.com; Bobbi Casey Howell, partner, chief customer strategy officer, Deutsch.