Hush: A Novel - By Kate White Page 0,131

been waiting in the wings.

“I haven’t wanted to pry, but the other night you mentioned that you were in a crazy custody battle.”

“Yes,” she said, sighing. “But the worst of that may be over.”

It was true. Hotchkiss had called her Monday with news. The weekend had provided evidence of Molly and Jack on board the bliss train all around Manhattan, and Hotchkiss had reported this news to Jack’s lawyer. Then on Tuesday night Molly had shown up at Lake’s apartment and broken down, admitted not only to having an affair with Jack during the marriage but also to keeping up the friendship with Lake to stay in the know about Jack’s intentions. Lake had filled Hotchkiss in immediately. It was perfect leverage, he’d said, just what they needed. He’d called back the following day to say Jack would accept joint custody.

“Excellent,” Archer said after hearing the full scoop. “Well, look, I don’t know how you have to play it in a situation like that, but I’d love to take you to dinner one night—in the not so distant future.”

The pure pleasure she felt at his words surprised her.

“I’d love that, Kit, but it’s still a little dicey until the final agreement gets signed,” she said. “For the time being, though, would you settle for a series of fun, thought-provoking lunches?”

“Absolutely,” he said, smiling.

The waitress arrived then to take their orders. When she’d departed, Lake looked back at Archer. She wanted to change the subject completely, to leave behind everything connected with the clinic, but there was still one thing she needed to ask.

“Question,” she said. “Do you think the police would have figured out that Rory was the murderer if she hadn’t attacked me?”

“Possibly. From what I know, they felt the wound on Keaton had been made by a woman.”

She reached for her wineglass and twirled it between her fingers.

“Oh—so then maybe they would have.”

“Of course there’s still that little mystery,” Archer said.

Lake swallowed, raised her eyebrows.

“Mystery?” she asked.

“A woman had sex with Keaton the night he died, and it doesn’t sound like Rory Deever took the time to make love to him before she slit his throat. Clearly this person hightailed it out of the apartment just in time. So, as I said once before, there’s a very lucky lady out there somewhere.”

“Yes, very lucky,” Lake said. She met his eyes and smiled.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to say a big thank you to those who helped me so generously while I was doing research for the book: Mary Dodge, PhD, associate professor and director of Criminal Justice Programs, University of Colorado, Denver; Caleb White, police officer, White Plains, New York police; Abigail Greene, managing editor, Cosmopolitan; Dr. Mark Howell, psychotherapist; David Razner, Esq., partner and co-chair of the Family Law Group at Fox Rothschild, LLP; Deb Shriver, PR guru; Dr. Paul Paganelli, chief of Emergency Medicine, Milton Hospital, Milton, Massachusetts; Chet W. Lerner, M.D., chief of Infectious Diseases, New York Downtown Hospital; Barbara Butcher, chief of staff and director of the Forensics Sciences Training Program at the New York City office of the chief medical examiner; Rachel Hayes, editor in chief, DailyMakeover.com; Bobbi Casey Howell, partner, chief customer strategy officer, Deutsch.

Also thank you to my fabulous editor, Sally Kim, and my killer agent, Sandy Dijkstra.

About the Author

KATE WHITE, the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, is the New York Times bestselling author of the Bailey Weggins mystery series—If Looks Could Kill; A Body to Die For; ’Til Death Do Us Part; Over Her Dead Body; and, most recently, Lethally Blond. White is also the author of popular career books for women, including Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do. Hush is her first stand-alone thriller. She lives in New York City with her family.

www.katewhite.com

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ALSO BY KATE WHITE

FICTION

If Looks Could Kill

A Body to Die For

’Til Death Do Us Part

Over Her Dead Body

Lethally Blond

NONFICTION

Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do

9 Secrets of Women Who Get Everything They Want

You on Top

Credits

Jacket art: Heart © istockphoto.com; Background Texture, Raised Letters, and Blood © Alamy

Jacket design by Christine Van Bree

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

HUSH. Copyright © 2010 by Kate White. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

White, Kate

Hush: a novel / Kate White.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: “An ordinary woman flees the scene of a murder—and realizes it’s not just the law that may be coming after her”—Provided by publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-06-155630-2

I. Title.

PS3623.H578H87 2010

813'.6—dc22 2009030651

EPub Edition © January 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-197645-2

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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