A wave of exhaustion swept over her, and not only because of the conversation with Emily. Physical pain, only blunted, contributed, as did the medication. All the revelations about her family that had come out in the past week suddenly seemed overwhelming. And Tony—Tony was going to hurt her, she feared. This was why a smart woman didn’t let herself get involved with a man too quickly. Apparently she hadn’t had enough experience to be smart, at least about men.
It had happened so ridiculously fast, but she’d never felt like this about a man before. But, while she believed he was powerfully attracted to her, this morning suggested that he’d had an end date in mind from the first time he kissed her. Maybe he would never really let himself fall in love. She could understand why, if he didn’t want to have children, given how involved he’d had to be in raising his siblings. They still needed him. His pride in his youngest sister’s ambition to be a doctor had been obvious. He already had nieces and nephews.
Chagrined at how depressed she felt for no good reason, she lay down on the sofa with her head on a throw pillow. She thought about pulling the throw over herself, but it was too hot in the house already, at not even 10:00 a.m.
As she closed her eyes, she resolved not to be a coward where Tony was concerned. Expecting him to introduce her to his family a week after they met was ridiculous. She didn’t want to let her own sense of inadequacy, her fears, rule her. Picturing the tenderness she so often saw in his eyes, she knew she had to take the relationship as far as he was willing for it to go.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“KEITH REISTAD?” Michael Longley sounded surprised. “Of course I know him. A number of his clients have come to me when they needed legal counsel.”
Counsel. That sounded like a euphemism to Tony, but call him a cynic. Cops in general hated all defense attorneys. Tony knew some he liked just fine, Phil Ochoa being one. Longley was too slick for him.
But, on the positive side, he’d taken Tony’s call, despite the way their last conversation had ended.
Leaning back in his desk chair at the station, Tony kept an eye on an altercation across the room, though two detectives appeared to have the furious man under control. To Longley, he said, “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but have you seen him or spoken to him recently?”
A short, suspicious silence. “Just yesterday he called with some questions about one of those mutual clients. Why?”
“Did you discuss Christine Marshall or the investigation?”
“Of course we did,” Longley said impatiently. “Who isn’t talking about it?”
“Specifically, did you pass on what you’d learned from speaking to Mrs. Marshall’s daughter, Emily?”
“If I did, is that a crime?”
“No, Mr. Longley, it is not. All I’m doing is attempting to trace the flow of information.”
“Then, yes, I believe I did. We’re friends who both cared about Christine. Discussing what we knew was natural.”
“I understand. Thank you for taking my call.”
Replacing the receiver, Tony did some more brooding.
He’d already brought his lieutenant up to date on the investigation, much as he hated admitting to not being sure where to go next with it.
“I’m not a fan of hypnosis,” the lieutenant had said, “but that might be one route.”
Tony had argued—and still felt—that it would be better if Beth came up with the memory naturally. Prosecutors were reluctant to file charges even partially based on memories recovered under hypnosis, since defense attorneys tended to rip them apart.
“Anything solid tying the artist to the killing will be hard to come by as it is,” he’d said. “Just because this guy had an affair with the murdered woman doesn’t mean he murdered her. Our best bet will be matching his fingerprints on the replacement sheet of wallboard. I might have been getting to the point of thinking I was wasting my time, if he hadn’t tried to kill Beth.”
“You’re sure—”
“It makes sense,” he had retorted. “Why else would an inoffensive woman be a target? This guy wasn’t trying to incapacitate her so he could rape her. It’s pretty clear his goal was to kill her. For now, that has to be my assumption.”