LITMIR.BIZ

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parking lot.”

      She grimaced. “I didn’t think about that.”

      “Stop looking so tragic,” he said gently. “You’re both free and single. Nobody’s going to make snide remarks to either of you about spending an afternoon together. Is it true about the cats?” he added quickly.

      “What…about the cats?”

      “That they’re so jealous of Kemp that visitors can’t get near him,” he replied.

      “They weren’t so bad,” she confided. “Well, I did sort of get scratched by one of them. But it was just a little scratch.”

      “The rumor is that the more Kemp likes someone, the worse the cats are,” he told her. “In which case, you’d better wear body armor if you go over there very much.”

      “Siamese do tend to be temperamental, I guess,” she said, wondering how many people had seen her car at Kemp’s house.

      “We had a dog once that hated Libby’s boyfriend, when she was about fourteen,” he recalled. “The dog sat and growled at him the whole time he was in the house. Then one day the boy brought him a beef bone. The next time he came over, the dog met him at the door and licked him half to death.”

      She pursed her lips and smiled mischievously. “I wonder if Siamese like beef bones?”

      He chuckled and went on out to work.

      Violet had halfway hoped that she might hear from Blake during the day. After all, they’d been lovers. But he didn’t call. It was a disappointment, and her self-confidence took a nosedive. All her hopes began to drown in doubt. She went through her normal routine, answering the phone and taking messages, and typing letters for Duke Wright after he dictated them. It was a normal day. Nothing out of the ordinary. She could have cried.

      Once, she almost picked up the phone and called his office. But that would never do. She couldn’t look as if she were chasing him. Perhaps he just needed breathing space, in order to get used to the changed relationship between them. Surely, it was just that.

      By the end of the day, she was feeling dismal. She wondered if perhaps Blake had phoned while she was briefly out of the office, because she had to run to town for Duke Wright and pick up a special delivery letter he was expecting, at the post office.

      She had the opportunity to ask him as she gathered her purse and sweater to go home. He walked in with a sealed letter that needed a stamp.

      “Could you drop that by the post office for me on your way home, Violet?” he asked.

      “Certainly.” She put on the stamp and gave him a shy glance. “Uh, there weren’t any, uh, messages for me while I was gone earlier…?” she faltered.

      He cocked an eyebrow and grinned. “From your ex-boss, you mean?”

      She flushed. “Well…”

      “There’s a hard case, if ever there was one,” he said. “You’re taking a chance, Violet. A big one.”

      “Sir?”

      “We all know you were out at his house,” he replied easily. “News travels like wildfire around here. We’ve heard that those cats don’t like company at all.”

      “They’re sort of antagonistic,” she confessed, without mentioning her scratches.

      “Kemp took another lawyer home for supper one day and the man had to go to the emergency room. He was allergic to cat scratches.”

      She cleared her throat. “They are sort of possessive,” she replied. “But I’m no threat. We’re just friends,” Violet said firmly. “He wanted to introduce me to his cats.”

      “That explains everything,” Duke mused, grinning. “It’s the cats who are interested in you, then?”

      Curt Collins poked his head in the door, shamelessly eavesdropping. “And of course, Kemp loves his cats, so he brings home strangers that he thinks they’ll like,” he added.

      “You two!” Violet exclaimed, laughing at the absurdity of it all. “I’m leaving. See you tomorrow.”

      They said their goodbyes and watched her go out the door.

      She knew what they meant about the cats.

      Mr. Kemp was a notorious loner. He never took women to his house. If he was entertaining Violet on the weekend, something was going on. She knew it was all over town if even Duke Wright knew about her visit. She wondered if the gossip had gotten back to Blake and that’s why he hadn’t phoned her. Of course, he could be feeling regret at his loss of control as well. She was feeling something similar. Her only excuse was that she loved him. Sadly, she knew it wasn’t the same with him. Desire wasn’t love.

      Violet spent a sleepless night worrying about her lapse of judgment at Kemp’s house, and his avoidance of her. She couldn’t forget what her mother had said, about his attitude toward children. She hoped with all her heart that there wouldn’t be consequences. Surely, she couldn’t get pregnant from one brief interlude!

      She went to work the next morning and found Duke Wright making coffee. He glanced up when she came in the door, and smiled at her.

      “I’ve got to be out of town today. Think you can hold the office together until I get back?”

      “I’ll do my best, sir,” she promised.

      “If Kemp shows up, you can have a long lunch hour,” he added with a grin. “But don’t let him know I said that.”

      “He’s not a bad man.”

      “You don’t have my perspective on him,” Duke replied quietly.

      She was aware of that. Duke’s divorce had been a messy one, and he blamed Kemp for his wife’s unreasonable demands. She didn’t say a word.

      He shrugged. “Sorry. I have bad memories. I’ll see you tomorrow, Violet.”

      “Yes, sir,” she said. “Have a safe trip.”

      “I hope to.”

      She watched him walk out with a sense of foreboding. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going on.

      And it was. Kemp walked into his office and motioned Libby Collins back down the hall with him.

      He told her the results of the state crime lab’s autopsy on her father, which was negative.

      She was relieved, and showed it.

      “But the opposite was true of Violet’s father,” he said quietly. “Don’t tell her, and don’t tell Curt until I’ve had time to get out to Wright’s ranch. I’m going to tell Violet in person and then take her home and help her break the news to her mother. It’s going to be an ordeal for them. If we can catch Janet Collins, we’ll charge her with first degree murder. Violet and her mother will both have to testify, and it will resurrect some terrible memories for old Mrs. Hardy. I’m not sure her heart will take it.”

      “What can be done?”

      He shrugged. “The only thing I know is to try and reach a plea agreement, if I can talk the D.A. into it. If Janet can expect something less than life in prison, she might confess. I’ll have to see. Right now, my priority is to make sure Violet doesn’t hear it on the six o’clock news. There were reporters sniffing around this afternoon.”

      “Poor Violet,” Libby said sadly. “Please, tell her if she needs me, I’ll be there.”

      “I will. But I’m sure she knows it already. Hold down the fort for me.”

      “You bet.”

      All the way to Duke Wright’s place, Kemp worried about Violet’s reaction. He was still aching from their brief interlude, and he was uneasy about facing Violet again. She was a shy, introverted woman who’d had no real experience

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