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It had reminded him again, like almost everything did, that the world had changed in the last two days.

Hale started thinking about his four-bedroom house and did a mental head count: one for the baby, one for Victoria, one for his grandfather, one for his mother, maybe, and one for himself. Not enough. When Janet showed, somebody was going to be sleeping on the couch. Of course, maybe it was a moot point, if Detectives Hamett and Evinrud decided he’d killed his wife, and hauled him off to jail.

Grabbing up his cell phone from where he’d left it on the counter, he went to his favorites list and touched the number for Savannah’s cell. Maybe she could give him an idea what the hell was going on.

CHAPTER 24

Savvy heard Hale’s ring tone and dragged her attention from the physical evidence report on the Donatella homicides. She scrabbled around in her messenger bag until she found the phone. “Hello?” she said a little cautiously. She was in the squad room, and she really wanted to talk to him without anyone overhearing.

“Hey,” he said, sounding relieved. “How’s it going?”

“Not bad, I guess.”

“Are you at home?”

“No, I’m at the department.”

“You went back to work already?” He didn’t try to hide his surprise.

“Yeah. How’s the baby?” she asked.

“Good.” He gave her a quick rundown of picking Declan up from the hospital and how the nanny was settling in, and the fact that his grandfather and his mother were heading his way.

“You’re going to have a houseful,” she said, her mind already moving ahead. “I hear you were visited by two Seaside detectives.”

“Yeah.”

There was a moment when neither of them said anything. Then Savvy said, “I’m working on some other angles.”

“To Kristina’s murder? Is that allowed?”

“Not really. No. But there are some questions that cropped up when I was in Portland that I wanted to go over with you.”

There was a weighty pause. Then he said in a cooler voice, “Are you buying this? That I had something to do with Kristina’s death?”

“I talked to a couple of people who believe Kristina was having an affair. That’s more where I’m going.”

“Who said that?”

She ignored the question and asked, “You never thought that? Never had a suspicion?”

“Kristina having an affair? No . . .” She could practically hear the wheels turning in his mind. “No,” he said again, then added, “One of the reasons I called was to talk about a memorial service for her.”

Savvy felt like a heel. “Absolutely. I’m happy to help any way I can. I’m sorry, Hale.”

“I know.”

“Look, I don’t mean to be a dog with a bone, but you never even got the inkling that she might be seeing someone?”

“What I thought was, she’s acting crazy. That’s about as far as it went. She thought she was going crazy.”

“It doesn’t seem right to me, either, but then I don’t know,” Savvy admitted. “I’ve got this strange theory, and it’s . . . I don’t want to talk about it now. I’ll come to your house.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to wrap things up here,” she said, thinking about the breast pump and a trip to the ladies’ room. “I’ve got a few things to do. Then I’ll come your way.”

“Bring an overnight bag, just in case. It’s terrible weather, and you might want to stay,” he said before he hung up.

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