“It was her all right,” Brad said, a mischievous grin on his face. “I’d recognize that ass anywhere. To be honest, she didn’t look half bad. I even gave thought to making a play for her. Most women aren’t spontaneous enough when it comes to sex. They have to go through all these rituals. Then there are dozens of restrictions, as if sex is some kind of sport that has to be played by their rules.”
Since Carolyn’s engagement to Marcus, Brad had made it a habit of constantly reminding her of their past relationship. It wasn’t because he was in love with her. She’d given up on that years ago. Everything was a form of competition to him. He counted it as a loss when a woman did something to forever close the door. As long as the woman was single, he knew he could always slip back in. “You’re talking about me again, aren’t you?” she said. “I had young children when we were seeing each other. I didn’t want them to walk in and see their mother having sex on the kitchen table.” She stopped and cleared her throat. “It’s not the right time for this kind of discussion, Brad Who was the man Veronica was with?”
“I don’t want to be distasteful. You said it wasn’t the right time to talk about sex.”
“Stop it, Brad,” Carolyn said, giving him a disgusted look. “I was referring to us, not Veronica.”
“She was on top and the windows were fogged up. My guess is it was another probation officer. It could have been a onetime thing, although Veronica didn’t look like she was riding this pony for this first time.”
“Maybe it was Drew,” Carolyn suggested. “He told me last night that they had trouble finding time to have sex because of the kids.”
“Anything’s possible. It just didn’t strike me as the kind of thing a couple who’d been married as long as they had would do. Of course, I’ve never been married.”
Carolyn fell silent as she thought. “I’ll have to confront Drew. This is too important to overlook. If Veronica was having an affair, her lover might have killer her. Maybe that was who she was meeting at the motel.”
“I don’t know Drew that well,” Brad told her, plucking a leaf off one of the shrubs. “He seems like an all-right guy. Before you ask him if he was banging his wife in the parking lot, check around first, see if anyone suspected Veronica was seeing someone on the side.”
Carolyn wondered what else she didn’t know about her friend. If Veronica had died of natural causes, she would have taken her secrets to the grave. Now her life would be scrutinized not only by the police, but by everyone who knew her. “You’re right. It would be cruel to mention this to Drew, especially so soon. What are we going to do about the workload in the unit?”
“I spoke to Cameron Wheeler this morning,” Brad told her, referring to the head of the agency. “He agreed to transfer in three officers from field services. Veronica’s death has shaken up a lot of people, Carolyn. Wheeler wants you to work in conjunction with the PD until this is resolved. He talked to the chief over there, and they’re putting together a task force. Hank Sawyer will run the show. You and he are big buddies, so I’m sure he’ll be glad to have you.” He stood and stretched his back. “You’re still going to have to pinch-hit for us. I’m trying to narrow down these transfers to officers with prior experience in investigations, but right now I’ll take anyone with a heartbeat.”
“That means training,” Carolyn said, feeling overwhelmed again.
“Oh, by the way,” he said. “On the day we had the blackout, I was curious so I counted heads to see who was missing once the lights came back on. Everyone was accounted for except Veronica and Stuart Greenly. She came in first. He came in about five minutes later.”
“But Stuart is married. I went to his wedding. His wife is a former model. They’ve only been married about a year. Not only that, he’s in his late twenties. Why would he be interested in a woman almost old enough to be his mother?”
“He’s a man,” Brad said. “Nothing says you have to be in love with a woman to have sex with her. If Veronica was offering it, not many guys would turn her down. Want to grab a bite in the cafeteria?”
“Not after that speech,” Carolyn said, narrowing her eyes at him. “I’m glad you reminded me of why we broke up. Whether you believe it or not, there are men out there who aren’t interested in having sex with anyone they can get.”
Brad stomped his foot, flashing his megawatt smile. “Damn, you’re cute when you’re mad.” He placed his arm around her neck, pulling her to him. “Don’t you feel better now?” he whispered in her ear. “Put that to work for you, and you’ll catch your killer. All this stuff about a person being innocent until proven guilty is for the courts, not the street. Everyone is a suspect, even me.”
Out of necessity, Carolyn abandoned her rule of not eating junk food and steered the Infiniti through the drive-through at In and Out Burgers. She inhaled her cheeseburger before she hit the next traffic light, then began picking at her fries.
She’d been trying to reach Drew all morning, but the line had been busy. He’d either taken the phone off the hook, or he was making calls to relatives. She decided to stop by the house on the way to the police station. She hoped he’d told the children by now. A second later, she changed her mind about seeing him.
Brad might be an insensitive oaf on occasion, but his advice was usually sound. She needed to fuel herself on outrage, not grief and sadness. Veronica would want her death to be avenged, and outside of her husband, no one would care as much as Carolyn. Walking into a houseful of weeping children could put her back where she was yesterday. She dialed Drew again. This time he answered.
“KADY has a broadcast van in front of my house,” he said, out of breath. “I caught one of their damn reporters with his nose against the boys’ bedroom window. What do these people want from me? Veronica wasn’t a celebrity.”
Murder sells, Carolyn thought. “Everything will blow over in a few days, Drew. You can stay with me if you want. Either that, or check into a hotel.”
“I’m on the phone,” he said to one of the children. “I promise I’ll come to your room in a minute.” He picked up where he left off with Carolyn. “I can’t stay in a hotel. I don’t even know how I’m going to pay for Veronica’s funeral.”
Carolyn wondered if they had life insurance. Even if they did, the company might not settle the claim until the coroner made an official ruling as to the cause of death. “Have you heard from Jude yet?”
“No,” he said. “Crystal is bringing her things over tonight. I’ll go out and try to track her down again. She wasn’t supposed to move in until next week.”
“Where is this woman going to stay?”
“In Stacy and Jude’s room,” he told her. “I’ll move Stacy’s twin bed into the master. As far as I’m concerned, Jude doesn’t live here anymore. Veronica and I had already decided to kick her out last week.”
“Do you really want to do that right now?” Carolyn asked him, shocked that he would be so heartless. “She just lost her mother. Where will she live? How will she support herself?”
“That’s her problem,” Drew said. “Jude is resourceful, Carolyn. She’ll probably move in with one of her friends, or shack up with one of the punks she hangs out with. I can’t have that kind of element around my house.”
“Did Jude go back to school?”
“Shit, no,” he said. “We were going to send her to college, but she blew that. Why? What did you hear?”
“Rebecca saw her at Ventura High. She was under the impression Jude was enrolled in classes, that she was trying to get the credits she needed to acquire her diploma.”
“I need to get off the phone,” Drew told