Laura Caldwell - Red Blooded Murder

We stared at each other.

“Boy, I’m messed up,” she said.

“You could probably use a little therapy.”

We both broke into nervous laughter that seemed to make the room lighter. But then our eyes fell again on that red noose.

“How many people have you done that with?” I vaguely pointed to it.

She shrugged. “More than a few.”

A shrill bleat cut through the air, making both Jane and me jump.

“Jesus,” she said, a hand on her chest. “It’s my cell.” She scampered in her bare feet to the nightstand, where she looked at the display on the phone. “Zac.” She sounded nervous. She threw a look at me over her shoulder, and I saw that fear again.

She answered. “Hey, hon,” she said. “Yeah, I’m all right. What happened? Well, we had a break-in. Sort of. No, nothing was taken. Not a thing. Whoever it was left something.” She quickly told him the story, leaving nothing out. She really did tell Zac everything. “Okay,” Jane said, “I’ll see you soon.” She turned around with a sigh. “He’s coming home. He’ll be here in an hour and a half.”

“We’ll stay until he gets here.”

She smiled, and it made her face light up. “Thanks,” she said simply.

I hugged her. I could think of little else to do to make her feel better, to feel safe.

“Please don’t tell Sam,” she said, her words muffled by my shoulder. “You know, about the scarf thing.”

“I told you, I won’t say anything to anyone.”

We pulled apart and went downstairs. Sam was standing by the unlit fireplace. He and Charlie were talking about rugby, but I could tell by the way Sam looked at me-eyebrows expectantly up, asking a silent, Are we ready to go?-that he’d had enough family and friends for the night.

I gave him an apologetic look. “If it’s okay, we’re going to stay until Jane’s husband gets home. They had a break-in.”

“Are you serious?” Sam looked alarmed. His arms tensed. He had a bulldog’s way of wanting to protect people that I’d always adored.

“It’s okay,” Jane said. “It wasn’t like a robbery. In fact, they didn’t even really break in. Someone came in the house using a key, as far as I can tell, and they left some flowers and…well, a gift.”

Sam’s face registered confusion. He frowned at me. There was more to the story, and he knew it. And I knew that he knew it. And yet here I was doing the same thing to him as he’d done to me-promising someone I wouldn’t tell anyone about a secret. And keeping that promise. All of a sudden, I felt both closer to Sam, and yet more distant, than ever before.

Jane brought glasses of water for us into the living room. We all sat on her couches for an hour, during which Charlie, who was oblivious to even a hint of social awkwardness, quizzed Jane about her broadcasting career, as if he were meeting her at a local pub.

Jane answered him openly, laughing at stories she must have told a thousand times, but seeming to enjoy them just the same. It reminded me of when I’d seen her with fans at the restaurant-Jane honestly appreciated the attention people gave her.

At 11:30 p.m., we heard a door opening at the back of the house. Jane flinched at the sound. Then said, simply, “Zac.”

Aside from the phone call the other day, I’d never met Zac Ellis before. But I’d seen recent spreads on him and his work in the New York Times and Michigan Avenue magazine.

He came into the living room. He was a short man, definitely shorter than Jane, with wavy, light brown hair. And he was sexy. You could see that from across the room. He wore gray jeans and a leather jacket that probably cost thousands, but was somehow beat-up and tough-looking on him.

“Hi.” He threw a glance at us before turning to Jane. “You okay?”

“I am now that you’re home.” Jane introduced us.

He shook our hands, but in a terse way. He glanced at Jane. “Can I talk to you in the kitchen?” He left.

“Be right back.” Jane followed after him.

I looked at Charlie and Sam. “Sorry about this, guys.”

Sam picked up my hand and rubbed it. “Don’t be. You had to be here for your friend.”

We sat in silence for a while, the only sound the ticking of the mantel clock which looked like a miniature grandfather clock.

When ten minutes had gone by, I stood. “I’m going to tell Jane we’re leaving.”

I walked to the kitchen, but stopped when I reached a pair of pocket doors that were closed most of the way. Through the six-inch crack I saw Jane and Zac standing close together. Her back was to the countertop on the left side of the room. With a wide-legged stance, he stood in front of her. She had her arms crossed, her head bowed. Her face looked splotched, as if she’d been crying, but now it was expressionless, almost devoid of emotion.

I must have made a sound, because both of them looked at me.

“Sorry,” I said. “Sorry, I was just coming to tell you-”

Zac stormed to the pocket doors and pushed them open.

Surprised, I backed up. He strode past me, the leather of his coat brushing me, and marched into the living room.

He looked at Charlie and Sam, then over his shoulder at me as I trailed after him. “Thanks for coming,” he said. “I appreciate you being here for Jane. But it’s time for you to leave.”

“C hilly,” Charlie said when we were on the street. He tilted his head at Jane’s house. He meant Zac. But that was about as negative as Charlie could get. “Weird night,” he said simply. “See ya, guys.”

He kissed me on the cheek, clapped Sam on the back and loped off down the street.

Sam and I stood on a now deserted street next to my silver Vespa.

“What was with the husband?” Sam said. “Just worked up about the break-in?”

“I guess.” And probably worked up about his wife’s stepping out. The whole thing made me wonder about Zac and why he had put up with her behavior for so long.

I stared at Sam, thinking how incredibly complicated relationships were. Such complications had never been so plain to me until the last six months.

“Why were you asking me earlier about cheating?” Sam said. “Is it because of Jane?”

Surprised, I hesitated. Then, “Why would you say that?”

He shrugged. “Just a feeling I got in there.”

I darted my eyes lower. “I don’t want to break a confidence.”

“You shouldn’t. I definitely don’t want you to do that.”

I met his eyes again. “Thanks.” I thought about Jane and Zac for a second. “What do you think about open relationships?”

“You mean where you’re together but you can date other people?”

“I guess. Or sleep with other people.”

He looked up toward the sky, as if he was thinking hard about this. His green eyes returned to mine again. “I don’t think they can work. I mean, monogamy is hard. It’s a major sacrifice, but I think that’s the only way marriage or a long-term relationship can work.”

“But what about all those long-term relationships that fail, even though both people are faithful?”

He said nothing for a second. I knew we were both thinking, Like our relationship.

“I think there’s a better chance of things working out if you’re monogamous,” Sam said.

“But there’s no guarantee.”

I glanced over his shoulder at the outline of the Sears Tower, its top lit with pink lights. It made me think of last spring, only a year ago, an uncomplicated time when we were happy, in love, almost boring in our contentedness. We would sit on my rooftop deck, Blue Moon beers on the table in front of us, and Sam would play guitar, the lights of the skyline behind him.

As much as I missed that, and as much as I was afraid of the lack of guarantees in the world of love, there was something about this new complexity that I liked, that made me feel alive.