Page 133 of Tamed By Her Touch

Kaelus shook his head.

“I don’t know. That’s what concerns me. But there’s more.”

Clair frowned.

“Oh, good. Because this wasn’t creepy enough.”

“It gets creepier,” Kaelus assured her and told her about Galandra.

By the time he finished describing the dead woman’s supposed accident, Clair was staring at him.

“Let me get this straight…Sendar’s wife was a scientist at the Blood Archive, and she was researching the ancient Savage Period records.”

Kaelus nodded.

“Yes. Records which he denied me access to, by the way.”

“That asshole!” Clair muttered. “Anyway, so his wife found inconsistencies and she became ‘obsessed’ with them.”

Kaelus nodded again.

“That was his exact word.”

“And then she took a sedative, got into a bathtub alone, fell asleep, and drowned?” Clair asked. “Doesn’t that seem suspicious to you?”

Kaelus gave her a grim look.

“Yes, it does. My thoughts exactly.”

“And Sendar just happened to be working late so he wasn’t there to save her. And all this happened on a planet where husbands practically follow their wives into the bathroom to make sure they don’t slip on the floor.”

Kaelus’s expression tightened.

“What I’m wondering is if there is any actual proof that he was where he said he was.”

“I doubt it,” Clair said skeptically. “I know the Kindred don’t hurt their wives but on Earth when a woman dies, the police always look at the husband or boyfriend first. Only here on Titus Four, where all the males are so careful and loving with their wives, no one would even suspect the husband.”

“So they wouldn’t bother to check further into Sendar’s story,” Kaelus remarked. “And we’re supposed to believe Sendar knew his exhausted wife was taking something strong enough to help her sleep and just left her alone to soak in a deep bathing pool?”

“And then she conveniently dies while investigating the exact records he refuses to let you see,” Clair said.

“Yes.” Kaelus nodded.

Clair shook her head.

“That man killed his wife.”

“We do not know that for certain,” Kaelus said cautiously. “We have no proof. All we can say is that we strongly suspect it.”

“I’m comfortable upgrading ‘strongly suspect’ to ‘pretty damn sure,” Clair said.

Kaelus frowned.

“I am not.”

“That is because you are annoyingly responsible,” Clair told him.

He gave her a look.