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Caroline supposed her daughter's disassociation was due to the series of traumatic events. But she wondered if there was more to it. Berry was entitled to her privacy, but harboring something for too long was often detrimental. Caroline questioned how long she should wait before inviting Berry to confide what was so obviously troubling her.
Ski and Dodge examined all the door locks to make certain they were adequate, then stepped out onto the balcony, ostensibly to check the connecting rooms' level of security, but Caroline could hear them in whispered conversation.
When they came back inside, she was standing with her hands on her hips and greeted them with a demand to know what they'd been whispering about. "Tell me. Neither Berry nor I wishes to be cosseted."
"What's that mean?"
"You know what it means, Dodge," she said irritably. "What's going on?"
"Media's on the story," Ski said.
Caroline groaned.
Dodge said, "Bloodthirsty jackals."
"According to people in my office, Sally Buckland's murder was a break-in headline," Ski told her. "Viewers are being promised they'll have the complete story on the ten o'clock news. They showed exterior shots of Berry's house. The CSU van. Allen and Somerville looking stone-faced as they left the scene. We got Berry out of there just in time. The reporter at the scene said she was un--"
"Unavailable for comment." Berry stepped through the bathroom door and tossed her cell phone onto the bed. "Which, of course, makes it sound as though I have something to hide. No one asked me to comment, not that I would have wanted to comment, but the phrase certainly has a negative connotation, doesn't it?"
"How'd you hear about it?" Ski asked.
She pointed at her cell phone as she sat down on the edge of the double bed, put her elbows on her knees, and her face in her hands. "God, is there no end to this nightmare?"
Ski waited a few beats, then said, "You're identified as the daughter of the real estate moguls, that's a quote, Caroline King and the late Jim Malone, which gives you a sort of celebrity status because their names are so familiar. The shooting at the lake house was referenced."
"As the result of a love triangle," she said without raising her head.
"Implied."
Dodge hissed something foul. Caroline sat down on the other double bed. She wanted to go to Berry but judiciously restrained herself.
Ski said, "What really pisses me off--excuse me, Caroline--is that the love triangle aspect is what they're exploiting."
Berry raised her head, saying angrily, "There was no love triangle."
"I get it, Berry," he said, matching her tone. "My point is that Davis Coldare's murder is being glossed over like it hardly mattered. It's a footnote. The media are playing up how Sally Buckland might have fit into a sordid little menage, while the important factor is that Oren Starks is a cold-blooded killer who's still at large."
Berry wilted a bit. "It's the juicy stuff that has viewers staying tuned until ten. Sex and scandal turns them on. Or off." She tossed back her head and used both hands to hold her hair away from her face. Caroline saw dried tear tracks on her cheeks. "Certainly my boss at Delray was concerned about my involvement."
Caroline glanced at the discarded cell phone. "That's who you were talking to?"
Berry nodded. "My days at Delray are no more."
"What!" Caroline shot to her feet. "He fired you?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Mother," Berry said with a bitter laugh. "If they had fired me over this, I would have sued them, and they know it. However--and it's a big however--Delray's position is that the company takes the mental health of each employee very seriously. In light of the succession of traumas that I've experienced in recent days, wouldn't it be in my best interest, and, by extension, that of the company, if I took an extended leave of absence? When I assured my boss that my mental health would be fully restored once Oren was in police custody, he insisted that I give myself time to recuperate from these disturbing events. In other words, he and everyone at Delray wish for me to make myself scarce."
"What about your presentation tomorrow?"
"Oh, yes, that. Regarding my participation in that campaign from here forward, the client wouldn't dream of being a source of additional stress during this difficult time. Therefore, they've agreed to wait until Ben has adequately recovered from his injury so that he can present the proposed campaign as well as assume total responsibility for its implementation."
Caroline was seething. "Wait a sec. Are you saying ... Am I to understand that you're considered mentally impaired by all this, but Ben Lofland isn't?"
"It would seem so, yes. And just in case there's any doubt of Ben's fortitude, emotional and/or physical, Amanda, in a lengthy and enlightening telephone conversation this afternoon, assured our boss that Ben is ready to take the lea
d and run with it. I rather imagine she painted me as a scarlet woman who's suffering the slings and arrows of my own treachery."
"That little bitch!"
