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“Looks like she made it tonight, after all,” Hale said. He’d been quiet since their conversation, not saying much of anything while he offered Savvy some dinner from the well-stocked refrigerator. She had chosen a chicken pasta salad and had made small talk with Declan while she ate it.
Savvy realized Hale’s mother had arrived.
Hale walked out to meet Janet, and Savvy heard him exchange hellos with her, sounding a bit stiff. Declan was finally on his feet and would have tottered out to see them, but they appeared in the doorway, driven by a blast of frigid air, which followed them into the house and swirled tendrils of cold into the den.
“What horrible weather,” Janet declared, shrugging out of a long black coat. Underneath she wore black slacks and a gold cowl-necked sweater. She was middle-aged, tall and sturdy. Her hair was short and dark, heavily threaded with gray, attractively layered.
“Janet!” Declan greeted his daughter with delight.
“Hello, Dad,” she responded, not so enthusiastically. She did not move forward to embrace him, but that didn’t stop him from hugging her.
“How’s Peter?” Declan asked.
“Fine. Working.” She dismissed her husband with a small shrug, then, catching Savvy’s glance, said, “Hello there. You look a lot like your sister. I’m so sorry about her accident. I didn’t know anything about it until Dad called. And the baby . . .” She glanced at Hale and added, “You can’t pick up a phone?”
“I was going to call you when I had more information. Kristina’s accident appears to be something more,” Hale responded coolly. Unlike Declan, he didn’t seem thrilled to see his mother.
“What do you mean?” Janet asked with a frown.
“Someone may have killed her.”
That stopped her cold, and she simply stared at Hale as if he’d said something so completely outrageous that she couldn’t process it. Instead of addressing it, she turned away, glancing down the hallway. “I’ve been traveling all day and I’m tired and hungry and I want to see that baby. Let me have a peek at him.”
Hale shot Savannah a glance and said, “Don’t leave,” and then he took his mother down the hall, with Declan following at a slower pace, leaning heavily on his cane.
Savvy did want to leave. Now that Janet was here, she definitely felt like a guest who’d overstayed her welcome. Maybe she could pump some milk and then head home.
Twenty minutes later Hale and Janet returned to the den, Hale gazing hard at Savvy as if he’d expected her to bolt at the first opportunity. “Declan’s down for the night in the other guest room,” Hale said.
“Which means I have the couch?” Janet asked. “Since you have the nanny tucked into one of the spare rooms and your grandfather in the other. I don’t really care, you know, but I’m sure your grandfather needs a real bed.”
Her tone was somewhat disparaging, as if Declan didn’t deserve it, and Savannah wondered what that was about. But she saw now that if she’d even entertained the idea for a moment that she might spend the night, there was no chance of that. Which was just as well, as sleeping in Hale’s bed had been too seductive, had felt too safe, and she knew she couldn’t let her guard down.
“Tell me what happened to Kristina,” Janet said to Hale. “My God. Killed? Who would kill her? Why?”
“That’s what the police are trying to figure out,” Hale said.
Janet’s attention turned to Savvy. “You’re a cop. What’s the thinking here?”
“I’m not investigating my sister’s death,” Savvy pointed out neutrally.
“It looks like Kristina was having an affair,” Hale said when Janet’s gimlet-eyed appraisal of Savannah went on too long.
“An affair? With who?” She looked aghast. “I don’t believe it.” Then, “This lover killed her?”
“I’m on the suspect list,” Hale said, which caused Janet to turn red with disbelief.
Savannah felt her pulse speed up a little at Hale’s casual comment. She looked down at her overnight bag, which held the breast pump. She should have told him what Mickey said, she realized. She should have laid everything out there—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and let him mentally pick through it. But then she’d given him a lot to think about already, half of which she didn’t believe herself.
“Oh, for God’s sake!” Janet turned to Savvy and asked fiercely, “Is that right, Detective? Hale’s a suspect?”
“We always try to rule out the family members first.”
“Well, Hale obviously didn’t kill your sister. He wouldn’t hurt anyone, for any reason. He’s good that way, not like his father or mine.” She seemed to be waiting for some kind of reaction out of her son, as if they’d gone over this particular territory many times already, which Savvy guessed they probably had by the annoyance that flickered across Hale’s face.
When he didn’t respond, Janet got tired of waiting. “You got anything to drink around here?”
“Whatever you want.” Hale was stiff.
