whatever kept their mouths shut, which he speculates, and seems very likely. Anyway,” he said again.
Abra gave him a curious smile. “Anyway?”
“She liked it.”
“Who? The headstrong Violeta?”
“Who? No. My agent. My book. The chapters I sent her. She liked it. Or she’s lying to spare my feelings.”
“Would she? Lie?”
“No. She liked it.”
Abra sat on the coffee table to face him. “Did you think she wouldn’t?”
“I wasn’t sure.”
“Now you are.”
“She thinks she can sell it on the five chapters.”
“Eli, that’s great.”
“But she thinks she can make a bigger splash with the whole book.”
“How close are you?”
“Nearly finished the first draft. Another couple of weeks there, maybe.” Less, he thought, if it kept rolling as it had been. “Then I need to tighten it up. I don’t know exactly.”
“It’s an important and very personal decision, but . . . Oh, Eli! You should go for the splash.”
He had to grin at the way she bounced on the table. “Yeah, that’s what she thinks.”
“What about you?”
“The splash. I’d feel easier about having it done before she sends it out. She could be wrong and I’ll rack up the new world record for rejections, but I’d have finished it.”
She bumped her knee to his. “She could be right and you’ll have sold your first novel. Don’t make me get a smudge stick to banish negative thoughts and energy.”
“Can we just have sex instead?” He grinned at her. “I’m always pretty positive about sex.”
“I’ll consider it. When are you going to let me read it?”
When he shrugged, she rolled her eyes. “Okay, let’s go back to the previous request of some time ago. One scene. Just one scene.”
“Yeah, maybe. One scene.”
“Yay. You know, we should celebrate.”
“Didn’t I just suggest sex?”
Laughing, she slapped his leg. “There are other ways to celebrate.”
“In that case, we can celebrate when I’ve finished it.”
“Fair enough. I’m heading back to the dungeons.”
“I can give you a hand.”
“You could, or you could go back to work.” She lifted her joined palms, arrowed them down like a diver toward the water. “Poised for the splash.”
He smiled at her. “I should probably try for another couple hours. I’m going to lose time tomorrow. The investigator I hired is coming up to meet with me.”
“News?” she asked, sitting again.
“I don’t know. I read her report. Not much new, but she covered a lot of ground. The Suskinds separated.”
“It’s difficult to overcome infidelity, especially when it’s so public. They have kids, don’t they?”
“Yeah. Two.”
“Even more difficult.” She hesitated, shook her head. “And so I don’t repeat a mistake, I need to tell you Vinnie got in touch a couple hours ago. The bullets they recovered from Duncan’s body were fired by the gun I found in my cottage.”
He put a hand over hers. “I would’ve been surprised if they didn’t match.”
“I know. The fact that I called Vinnie when I found it weighs on my side. And the anonymous tip to Wolfe from a disposable cell phone—that seems sticky. But he wanted me to know that Wolfe’s digging into my background, my movements, trying to put you and me together before Lindsay’s murder.”
“We weren’t, so he can’t.”
“No, he can’t.”
“Relay all this to your lawyer.”
“I did. He’s on it. There’s nothing, Eli, and I think Wolfe only cares about me as a conduit to you. If he somehow links us to Duncan’s death, it’s more feasible you were involved in Lindsay’s.”
“It goes both ways,” he reminded her. “Since we’re clear on Duncan, it adds weight to me being clear on Lindsay’s.”
“Then you agree with him on the basics. The two murders are connected somehow.”
“I can’t believe I’m this close to two murders, a near fatal accident, a series of break-ins and an assault without there being connections.”
“I’m with you on that, but then everything’s connected under it all.” She rose again. “I’m going back to it so maybe we can figure out a way to be the hero and heroine of our own novel and help catch a bad guy.”
“We should go out to dinner tonight.”
Her eyebrows quirked. “We should?”
“Yeah. Barbie can guard the house. We should go out, have a nice dinner somewhere. You can wear something sexy.”
“Are we having a date, Eli?”
“I’ve let that slide. Pick a place,” he told her. “We’ll go on a date.”
“All right, I will.” She came back to lean down, kiss him. “You’ll have to wear one of your many ties.”
“I can do that.”
Good news, uneasy news, he thought when she left him. Questions to be asked and answered. But