Shakespeares Christmas Page 0,28

was Bartley's best. It sold only upscale furniture and appliances, and it was located on the town square, having gradually crept through two or three buildings on one side.

"Emory have any criminal record?"

Jack shook his head. "None of these people do."

"Surely there's something that excludes Eve Osborn?"

"You know her?"

"Yes, I do. The Osborns own the little place my sister lives in. It's right in back of their house."

"I've driven by. I didn't realize your sister rented the cottage."

"Did you know that Meredith Osborn baby-sits both Anna and Krista from time to time? I met the mother and the little girl, Eve, when I was at Varena's a couple of days ago."

"What did you think?"

"There's a new baby, a girl. Mrs. Osborn is about as big as some twelve-year-olds, and she seems nice enough. Eve is a ... well, a little girl, maybe a little shy. Real thin, like her mother. I haven't met Emory."

"He's small, too, thin and blond. He's got that really fair coloring, light blue eyes, invisible eyelashes. Looks like he still doesn't have to shave. Very reserved. Smiles a lot."

"So, where was Eve born?"

"That's why she can't be eliminated. Eve was a home birth," Jack said, both eyebrows raised as far as they could go. "Emory delivered her. He'd had some paramedic training. The baby evidently came too fast for them to get to the hospital."

"Meredith had the baby at her house?" Though I knew historically that women had been having their babies at home far longer than they'd had them in hospitals, the idea jarred me.

"Yep." Jack's face expressed such distaste that I found myself hoping Jack was never trapped in a stalled elevator with a pregnant woman.

We stayed snuggled in the bed and each other's warmth a while more, talking ourselves in circles. I could not make this go away, and I could not stop Jack from investigating, even if I thought that right... which I didn't. I had tremendous pity for the anguished parents who had been wanting their child for so many years, and I had pity for my sister, whose life might be ruined in the three days before her wedding. There didn't seem to be anything I could do to affect the outcome of Jack's investigation.

It had been a long day.

I thought of the scene in the doctor's office, the devastation that had visited the two aging workhorses in their old office.

Wrapping my arms around my knees, I told Jack about Dr. LeMay and Mrs. Armstrong. He listened with close attention and asked me a lot more questions than I could answer.

"Do you think this could be connected with what you're investigating?" I asked.

"I don't see how." He took off his glasses, put them on the night table. "But it does seem like quite a coincidence that they're killed this week, just when I come on the scene, just when there's a new development in the Macklesby case. I've tried to be very discreet, but sooner or later in a town this size, everyone's gonna know why I'm here. You're providing me with cover right now, but it won't last if I ask the wrong questions."

I looked at Jack's watch then and slid out the bed. The room felt even colder after I'd been warmed by Jack. I wanted more than anything to lie beside him tonight, but I couldn't.

"I have to get back," I said, pulling on my clothes and trying to make them look as neat and straight as they had been earlier.

Jack got out of bed, too, but not as rapidly.

"I guess you have to," he said with an attempt at wistfulness.

"You know I have to go to their house tonight," I said, but not harshly. He'd pulled his slacks on by then. I was putting on my jacket when he began kissing me again. I tried to push him away when he made his first pass, but at his second, I put my arms around him.

"I know that you having gotten the implant, me not using a condom anymore, means you know I'm sleeping only with you," he told me.

It meant something else, too. "Ah ... it means I'm not sleeping with anyone else, either," I reminded him.

After a moment of pregnant silence, he squeezed me so tightly I could not breathe, and he made an inarticulate noise. Suddenly I knew we were feeling exactly the same thing - just for a second, a flash, but it was a flash so bright it blinded me.

Then we had