at Tracy; then she dried her hands. “Janya’s got an idea there. You’re worried about fires all of a sudden. Let’s say somebody told you if there’s ever a fire at one of our houses, you could lose everything.”
“Lost everything already, remember? Been there, done that.”
“You still have this property. Makes you that much more worried, since it’s all you got.”
“I guess my insurance agent could have mentioned smoke alarms.”
“There you go.”
Tracy continued to think out loud. “I could run out and buy a couple, then wait until Lee leaves the house….”
“I’ll save you a trip to the dreaded Wal-Mart. I’ve got a couple extras out in the utility room. Ken’s been to one too many fires. He stocks up.”
“This doesn’t sound bogus? It’s believable?”
“It’s all we got right now.”
Janya glanced at the clock over the door, a bright pink plastic tulip surrounding a black-and-white dial. “I must go, but Tracy, I advise you to be careful. You may think I’m wrong about the plants, but if I’m not, Lee’s a violent man.”
“I agree. Let us know if you’re going in,” Wanda said. “I’ll come, or I’ll watch your back.”
Tracy smiled. “Is that how cops’ wives talk?”
“It’s right there in the manual. I’ll get you those detectors. The sooner you find out nothing’s going on in there, the happier we’ll all be.”
Tracy left with the detectors and a full stomach. At home, she set the smoke detectors beside the sink and worried about what she should do next.
She didn’t have more than a few minutes to consider. The mail truck passed. On the way outside to see what was in her box, she saw Lee’s car pull out of Alice’s driveway. Normally she wouldn’t have been able to get to his car before he was gone, but he stopped, then got out to retrieve a package on the ground beside the mailbox. She had just enough time to get out to the road and no time at all to think about what she was doing. When he saw her bearing down on him, she thought he was actually going to leap in and leave without acknowledging her.
He didn’t. He opened his car door and stood behind it, like a knight behind his shield. Unfortunately, she was more and more afraid Lee was nobody’s knight.
“Hey, long time no chat,” she said. “How are you?”
His smile was anorexic. “On my way out for a while.”
She glanced in the car and saw Olivia, but not Alice. She smiled at the girl, who smiled back, then looked straight ahead.
“I’ll just keep you a minute,” she promised, casting about for a way to penetrate his defenses. “I talked to Maribel last week. Her optimism about the market is always higher than mine. How’s yours?”
“Attitude is everything.”
“Have you had any responses from the flyers you sent about Happiness Key?”
“They only generated a couple of calls, and none of those went beyond the first inquiry.”
“Bummer, huh?”
“I’ll continue to talk it up.”
His initial flush of interest in the sale and in Tracy had faded. This was as obvious as his desire to get in the car and speed away. Since she had complete faith in her own attractions, she was even more suspicious.
“Has Olivia told you what an asset she is painting our mural at the center? We miss her when she’s not there.”
He looked as if he were casting around for something to say that wouldn’t put her in her place. Under the veneer of good manners, he was fuming.
“Summer is a good time for a child to be a child,” he said stiffly. “Sometimes she likes to hang out at home and unwind.”
Tracy was not that clueless. “I imagine she’s needed at home.” She pulled as much warmth as she could from a rapidly diminishing supply. “We haven’t seen Alice for some time. We’re all worried. Isn’t there some way we can help you?”
“I wish, but she’s very fragile and confused. She’s under doctor’s orders to rest and stay calm, which means visitors are out of the question. She needs quiet, familiar surroundings, no challenges.”
“Lee, is it just the teeniest bit possible you’ve misunderstood what the doctor wants? I’m sure he doesn’t expect you to wear yourself to a frazzle. And why would he isolate her? We could come and sit with her when you need us. We’re not strangers. I think Alice would find us comforting.”
A muscle throbbed in his jaw, but that made sense, since his teeth were clenched so tightly. “I know what