'Excuse me.'
Jill had been in the middle of buttering a piece of wheatbread she'd bought fresh from the bakery earlier that day, and exchanging some choice gossip with Kate, when her phone rang.
She picked it up. 'Hello?'
'Hi. It's me, Mitch.'
She glanced at Kate, feeling guilty, the way she had when her older brother always smirked about her boyfriends calling the house.
Kate seemed to know immediately who it was.
'I'm sort of busy right now, Mitch. Kate's here.'
'This is business. Jill.'
'Business?'
'Yes. You heard about Eric Brooks?'
'Yes.'
'Well, my boss is going to question you, probably later tonight.'
'Isn't that normal? I mean, I was up there, seeing Eric.'
'Anything noteworthy take place?'
'Not really. Excuse me a second.' She covered the yellow receiver, the yellow matching the walls of the kitchen, and said to Kate, 'The police are going to question me.'
Kate frowned. 'Boy, that's all you need. Publicity again.'
To Mitch, Jill said, 'This is all routine, right?'
'I hope so.'
'You don't sound sure.'
'My Lieutenant iswell, I don't know if you remember me talking about him, but Lieutenant Sievers isn't exactly a criminology genius. He's very old-school. And he tends to pursue the first person who looks like a good suspect.'
She thought of tabloid journalists hiding in wait wherever she went. Could it all happen again?
'Eric was alive and well when I left there.'
'I'm sure he was.'
'Do you have any advice?'
'Don't let him rile you. The Lieutenant, I mean. He's very good at making people feel guilty, even when they're not.'
'God, I'm not looking forward to this.'
'Maybe…' He paused. 'Maybe I could come over and give you a little moral support.'
She glanced at Kate, still feeling embarrassed about talking to Mitch in front of her, probably because she knew that Kate still disliked Mitch for what he'd done to Jill.
She did not want to say what she said next. But somehow the words came, symbols of all the loneliness and tenderness and emptiness she'd known since Mitch had so abruptly left her life. 'I'd like that.'
'I'll be there in twenty minutes.'
She hung up and said to Kate, 'I guess I'm going to have company a little later.'
Kate looked at her levelly. 'You sure you want him coming around again, Jill?'
Jill smiled sardonically. ''That's the funny thing. I do want him coming around again.'