LITMIR.BIZ

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to leer at Mari as she disappeared out the door, he hitched up his wrinkled slacks to the bulge of his gut and sauntered over to Bryce.

      “Gonna visit the doc when she gets sent up?” he drawled. “After a few months of 24/7 with a bunch of broads, she might be happy to see you.”

      Bryce walked away from him without bothering to reply, but he doubted Hank was right. After this was over, he’d never look good to Mari Bingham again.

      “Where to, lady?”

      Mari slumped against the seat of the taxi and gave the driver her home address. She had planned on returning to the clinic, but she was just too wrung out to deal with anyone else right now.

      As they drove through the downtown area, she fixed her gaze on the passing scenery in order to keep her mind carefully blank of the day’s events. The cab passed the white clapboard building that housed the public library where she had studied with her friends back in high school, a couple of restaurants she’d eaten at more times than she could remember, The Cut ’n Curl, where she had gotten her first perm and a few bad haircuts, a clothing store and a run-down bar that had both seen better days. Scattered among the familiar downtown businesses were several empty storefronts with For Lease signs in their windows and a few pedestrians on the sidewalks.

      If she had been a serious drinker, she might have stopped in at Josie’s for a couple of belts before heading home. Even though Mari wasn’t on call tonight, the idea of parking her butt on a barstool while she inhaled secondhand smoke and listened to some boring drunk expound on his political views didn’t tempt her in the least.

      Gradually the businesses were replaced by small houses. Some were run-down, with dirt yards full of junk and old cars. A few houses were neat and tidy. Children played in the dust or on the sidewalk. Their parents sat in the shade of deep porches and sagging steps. A radio blared. Dogs lazed in the heat. A row of sunflowers added color to the washed-out scene. Oak trees, maples and dogwoods cast long shadows as the sun sank lower in the sky.

      The houses got bigger, surrounded by greener lawns, nicer fences and fancier flowers. The cars in the driveways were newer and the trees looked more stately.

      Finally the cab driver slowed, turning onto Mari’s street. Half a block down, he pulled up in front of a brick building tucked between a white oak and a walnut tree. Four blue doors, one for each two-story condo, were trimmed with identical ornate brass knockers. White shutters framed each window. Matching planter boxes sprouted red and white petunias and dark blue lobelia, and a flag was displayed proudly.

      After Mari paid the driver and entered her end unit, she dropped her purse onto the floor of the foyer and sagged with relief against the ivory wall. Lennox, her cat, looked up from the paisley couch where he liked to nap, ignoring his wicker bed.

      Jumping down to the carpet with his ringed tail twitching, he meowed a greeting.

      “Hey, baby. How was your day?” Mari asked as he rubbed against her leg.

      She was about to drop her keys into a pottery bowl on a small table when she remembered that her car was still parked at the clinic. Her hand closed around the key ring and she swung back toward the door.

      The quick spin made her feel slightly dizzy. What she needed right now, more than wheels, was something to eat. She’d splurge and call another cab in the morning.

      Steadying herself, she bent down to pat Lennox. The gray tabby butted his head against her leg, purring loudly. He looked up with adoring green eyes.

      He was the perfect roommate. His love was unconditional. He’d been fixed and—despite having six toes on each white paw—he hadn’t yet figured out how to work the TV remote.

      When Mari headed for the kitchen, he followed. All she wanted was to toss something frozen into the microwave, pour herself a glass of wine and watch a mindless reality show on television until it was late enough to curl up in bed with her cat and fall asleep.

      She filled Lennox’s fish-shaped bowl with food, gave him fresh water and nuked her own meal. When it was heated, she sat at her dining-room table, studying the vase of pale yellow roses from her grandmother’s garden. They were starting to droop and to lose their petals.

      Mari felt pretty droopy herself.

      As soon as she was done eating her pasta and shrimp, she disposed of her dish and settled onto the couch with her wine. Her feet were propped on the old trunk that served as a table. Normally the condo was her haven. She had done the decorating herself, using warm, rich tones and filling it with items she loved. Tonight, despite her exhaustion, she couldn’t relax.

      Ignoring the television, she turned on the stereo. The soothing sound of cool jazz filled the room as she released her hair from its untidy bun and rested her head against the back of the couch. Lennox jumped up and settled onto her lap, rumbling with contentment. Eyes closed, Mari stroked his fur with one hand while she clutched her wineglass with the other.

      She sipped her Merlot while she reviewed in her mind every procedure that she had followed in the neonatal unit earlier. It was terribly frustrating that her best hadn’t been good enough to save the Jenkins baby.

      Until she was able to line up the necessary funding and build her new research center, the more critical cases in Merlyn County would still be at risk. Babies would die and families would grieve.

      As Lennox slept peacefully, Mari let her mind shift gears, going from work to the investigation. Maybe she should have insisted on talking to Bryce and getting it over with, instead of fleeing like a rabbit that had been unexpectedly freed from a snare.

      Orcadol was a controlled substance, an opiate and a powerful painkiller. In the wrong hands, it could be extremely dangerous. Whoever was stealing it needed to be stopped.

      Until now, despite all the signs, it had been hard to convince herself of Bryce’s willingness, his obvious determination, to pin the recent thefts of Orcadol on her. After today, she had no choice but to accept that he would. At least she knew that he couldn’t possibly have any proof to support his accusation. She was innocent. In time, he would have no choice but to leave her alone and to pursue other leads.

      She still didn’t understand why he had changed his mind so abruptly today, first holding her in his arms in a clumsy attempt to comfort her and then treating her like a common criminal. Taking her into an interrogation room, but then letting her go without asking a single question about the case. If his plan was to confuse her, it was working!

      Mari finished her wine, catching the last drop on her tongue. Once upon a time she had believed Bryce to be a compassionate man—one who would stand by her and believe in her for as long as they lived.

      That man, the one she had loved with all her heart, would have known without asking that she wasn’t capable of doing anything as heinous as stealing drugs in order to sell them illegally. He wouldn’t have doubted her, not even if he had been confronted with a mountain of proof.

      She set her empty glass on the trunk she’d found at a flea market, tipped back her head and closed her eyes. She had certainly been wrong about Bryce, drastically so. Could it be possible that right now he was staring at whatever evidence he’d gathered and thinking the same thing—that he had been wrong about her?

      As the liquid notes from Kenny G’s saxophone faded into silence, the phone rang. It startled Mari and woke the cat, who leaped away like a launched rocket. She let the machine take the call, but when she heard her brother’s voice, she grabbed the receiver.

      “Geoff! How are you?”

      “Right now I’m a little upset,” he replied. “Someone I know saw you going into the courthouse with that detective who’s been harassing you. I don’t figure the two of you were down there applying for a marriage license, Mari, so what gives? And why didn’t you call me?”

      “I was going to,” she fibbed, picturing her brother pacing with his free hand clamped on the back of his neck. He did that when he felt pressured. “I didn’t want to interrupt your dinner and irritate Cecilia,” she added, trying to placate

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