“Must be someone in the house,” he said. “There’s no one else here.” He frowned as he reread the note. “What do they mean? What aren’t they going to tell?”
She looked down at her hands, lying on her lap, and didn’t respond. She couldn’t tell him. If she did, he’d leave her, she just knew he would.
“Ona, please,” he said gently. “Just tell me.”
“I-I can’t,” she said finally, and burst into tears for real this time.
He placed an arm around her and pulled her against his chest, rocking her gently while she cried.
“It’s all right,” he said. “Whatever it is, it’s fine.”
“No, it’s not,” she said miserably. “It’s terrible.”
“Oh, come on. It can’t be as terrible as all that.”
“Oh, Max,” she said, turning a teary face up to him. “I did a horrible thing.”
“Tell me,” he urged kindly. “Let me be the judge of that. Please?”
She nodded, and started telling the story of the talent scout, the whole sordid tale emerging from her in starts and stops. He didn’t respond at first, but finally, when she was done, he cupped her face between two large, warm hands, and said, gazing into her eyes, “That wasn’t as bad as all that, now was it?”
“But it was. If people knew what I did—”
“So you took a meeting that was meant for your sister. It’s not the end of the world. And besides, your sister did great, didn’t she? She’s an amazing doctor, who’s helping lots and lots of people.”
“But—”
“Look, if your sister had a powerful wish to become a model, she would have become a model, no matter what. As I see it, it wasn’t a deep-seated wish, but more an idle young girl’s dream. The way some kids want to become a fireman, or a policeman, or an astronaut. You, on the other hand, really wanted to become a model, and so you did. Your sister, once she grew out of this dream of being a model, fulfilled her real wish—her heart’s desire—and became a doctor.”
“You think?” she asked, hope surging in her bosom. All these years she’d thought of herself as some kind of villain. So maybe she wasn’t so bad?
“Of course. Have you talked to Katey?”
She shook her head.
“Well, I think you should. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” He picked up the piece of paper. “And this person? I think you should tell the police. Cause chances are that whoever wrote this, killed Isobel Droba. I mean, how else did they know your secret unless they got it from Isobel’s laptop, which the killer took, right?”
She hadn’t thought of it that way. “You think I should tell the police?”
“Yes, I do. Is this the first note you got?”
“One arrived this afternoon.” She got up and took the first note out of her purse and handed it to Max.
“Better if I don’t handle it,” he said. “I don’t know for sure, but maybe the police can get a fingerprint off these notes, after taking your fingerprints for elimination purposes, of course.”
She smiled for the first time.“You know an awful lot about this, Max.”
“I watch a lot of crime shows,” he said, returning her smile, then placing a gentle kiss on her lips.
She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight. Her savior.“I’ll tell the police tomorrow,” she said. “And I’ll talk to Katey. Just in case this blackmailer decides to go public with my big secret. I want Katey to hear it from me first.”
“Good thinking,” he said, burying his face in her hair. “God, you’re beautiful.”
She smiled.“Keep talking.”
And so he did. And when one thing led to another, she finally forgot, for perhaps a few moments, the terrible events of that day, and felt happy again.
CHAPTER 31
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Marge and Tex were in bed. Even though the day had been long and filled with the kinds of events that leave a person reeling, Marge wasn’t feeling tired. Instead she felt sort of energized. She’d never been in this situation before, where the police thought she might actually have murdered someone. Well, apart from that time Chris Ackerman was murdered in her library, and for a short while she was the main suspect. This time there were many suspects, though, and as far as she could tell Chase hadn’t yet decided which one of them might have done it.
Not that he had given them the benefit of his thoughts. Chase liked to play his cards close to his chest when working on a case, which was only to be expected. Even Odelia hadn’t told her what was going on, just that they had one suspect under arrest, but she wasn’t convinced he had something to do with the murder.
“How much longer do you think they’ll keep us here?” she now asked.
“Not sure,” said Tex. “But I don’t mind, do you? Plenty of food, company… And maybe tomorrow I’ll finally manage to win a game for once.”
Tex had lost another game that day. A singles game against Max Stinger. A loss that had stung even more than their loss against the Alemans that morning, for Stinger was a doctor, just like Tex, only a specialist, of course, a fact he didn’t mind rubbing in from time to time. Clearly the old rivalry between family practitioners and specialists was still ongoing, with the latter feeling superior to the former.