Dana thought about denying it, but couldn’t find the energy. “On the money.”
“Bad idea,” Kate shot back. “You’re too close to this one. I know you were one of the best private eyes in the business. That’s how we met, remember? You found the proof I needed to take that low-down ex of mine back into court and show that he had hidden assets in half the states in the country, even though he claimed he couldn’t come up with child support. I know you have contacts up the wazoo, but this is personal. You can’t be objective. You won’t be cool and rational, the way you need to be. You won’t be able to analyze the risks. You can’t very well sashay around gang turf asking questions. You’ll stand out like a sore thumb.”
Dana wasn’t about to be dissuaded. “I’ll just have to work even harder to keep my emotions out of it....” The way she had done it last night, busting into the Yo, Amigo headquarters without a plan, she thought dryly. If Kate ever heard about that, she’d be muttering “I told you so” for the rest of Dana’s days.
“What about the boys?” Kate demanded.
“What about them? They’re perfectly safe with my parents,” she said. “They like the new school well enough. Best of all, there are no sad memories for them in Florida. They’re adjusting, better than I am, as a matter of fact.”
“That’s all lovely, but they need you. I don’t care how well adjusted they seem.”
Dana sighed. “I know, Kate. And they’ll have me, they’ll have my full-time attention just as soon as things are taken care of here.”
Kate clearly wasn’t satisfied. She leveled another of those penetrating looks straight into Dana’s eyes. “This could wait. They should be with their mother so they won’t start to worry that they’ve lost her, too.”
That last one cut. It stirred guilt that she’d worked hard to bury. “You’ve made your point,” Dana said tightly. “Now drop it.”
Kate was a wonderful friend—compassionate, thoughtful, levelheaded. She was also tenacious. Dana figured she was wasting her breath trying to shut her up. Kate’s next words proved it.
“I will not drop it. You can’t put yourself in danger, Dana. It’s not fair to your sons. What if something were to happen to you? Their sense of security is already shaken by losing their dad. As for your parents, they’re great people, but they’re older. How long will it be before three rambunctious boys get to be too much for them?”
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t considered everything Kate was saying. She had, over and over again. In the end, all those things had been outweighed by her conviction that finding Ken’s killer was the first step in healing for all of them. She would be no good to her children if she weren’t at peace with herself.
“It’s not fair to Ken that he’s dead and that no one knows who did it,” Dana retorted stubbornly. “Look, you can fight me on this, but it won’t do any good. I’ve been over every single argument, time and again. Believe me, my mother and father repeated most of them morning, noon and night, up until the minute I got on the plane. The bottom line is that I have no choice.”
“We always have choices.” Kate stepped closer and wrapped her arms around her. “Sweetie, I know how much all of this hurts, but getting yourself killed isn’t the answer.”
Dana returned the fierce hug, then stepped away. “I’m a professional. I know how to minimize risks.”
“Oh, really?” Kate retorted skeptically. “Is that why I got a call at the crack of dawn from Rick Sanchez, telling me to keep an eye on you, suggesting that you were behaving irrationally?”
Obviously she’d been saving that little tidbit for its shock value. It worked, too. Astonishment left Dana speechless for thirty seconds. Then her temper kicked in. She snatched up the wall phone, glanced at the list of numbers posted next to it and punched in the one for Yo, Amigo headquarters. Kate reached over and cut off the call. Dana whirled on her, furious.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Keeping you from making a fool of yourself. He called me because I asked him to let me know if you showed up there.”
Dana’s mouth gaped, unsure which stunned her more, Kate’s foresight or her betrayal. “Why?”
“Because I know you. It was only a matter of time before you decided to charge in there, demanding answers. Of course, even I didn’t expect you to sneak in in the middle of the night like a common thief. It’s nice to know you haven’t lost your touch with a set of lock picks,” she said with more wry humor than genuine admiration.
“Thanks,” Dana responded anyway, recalling the surge of adrenaline rushing through her as she’d felt that lock give way to her touch. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed living on the edge until that moment.
“I’d feel better, though, if you hadn’t gotten caught.” Kate scowled. “What is wrong with you? Didn’t that prove you’re too rusty or muddleheaded to be doing this?”
“Rusty, maybe,” Dana conceded. “Right now, though, I’d prefer to know just how cozy you and Rick Sanchez have gotten in my absence. I didn’t even know you knew him.”
“I didn’t. He came around looking for you one day when I was here to bring in the mail and water the plants.”
“What the hell was he doing here?”
“I imagine he came to offer his condolences.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I liked him,” Kate said. “I also thought he was being sincere. He thought a lot of Ken. I could tell. He walked out to the cemetery and stayed for the longest time. When he came back, he had tears in his eyes.”
“Big deal!” she said, adding an expletive for emphasis.
“Dana!” Kate protested.
She was clearly as shocked at hearing such language as Dana was at having uttered it. She’d learned to temper her tart tongue the day she’d fallen in love with a minister. Ken had never voiced his disapproval of her tendency to curse, but she’d seen the disappointment in his eyes whenever a particularly foul word slipped out. She’d been home less than twenty-four hours and she’d been cursing a blue streak ever since. She doubted that Kate had ever said anything harsher than darn in her life.
“Okay, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I can’t help it. It’s just that the thought of Rick Sanchez brings out the worst in me. He got Ken killed.”
Kate was shaking her head before Dana could complete the sentence. “You know better than that. Ken was at Yo, Amigo because that was the kind of compassionate, caring man he was. He saw the good in those kids. He wanted them to have a chance. You wouldn’t have loved him if he hadn’t tried to live up to his own ideals, if he hadn’t put himself on the front line, no matter the cost to himself. Ken believed in that program. He believed in Rick Sanchez.”
“And he died because of it,” Dana repeated. “I can’t forgive Sanchez for that. I won’t.”
“Is he the one you can’t forgive, or is it yourself?” Kate asked quietly. “Are you sure you’re not taking risks to punish yourself?”
Dana’s eyes brimmed with stinging tears, and her throat clogged up at the softly spoken question. That was the trouble with having a friend who knew your deepest, darkest secrets. All those confidences could come back to haunt you, Dana thought.
“I should never have told you,” she whispered.
“Yes, you should have,” Kate contradicted, automatically handing Dana a pristine hankie from her pocket. “If you hadn’t told me that you and Ken had fought that night, it would have eaten away at you. You have to forgive yourself, sweetie. Ken was going to Yo, Amigo that night, whether you two had argued or