thirty-five

I trudged up the front stairs to my apartment. I looked up and gasped involuntarily. Matt was sitting on the top step by my front door.

“Matt! What are you doing here?”

“Julia, sorry. I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes.”

“This is kind of a bad time.” I was wondering why he hadn’t just picked up a phone. His visit was peculiar to say the least and I had no desire to invite him in.

“I just talked to David. He told me about Brooke’s arrest. Do you know what’s going on?”

“Not in detail. I just came from seeing her.”

“You did?” Matt’s face paled. “How is she?”

“Not great, as you can imagine.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s at the 7th Street jail. But it might not be such a good idea for you to show up there. You’d be giving the cops a lot to think about.”

Matt nodded. “You’re right. I don’t dare go to see her. It could cause a lot of trouble with Rob. No one knows about us and I want to keep it that way.”

“Not even David?” I queried.

“Especially David. I wouldn’t want him telling Geneva. Not that I don’t trust them—I do. They’re both good friends. It’s just that neither Brooke nor I wanted to involve them. It was just better they not know about us.” He sighed heavily. “Look, I’m very nervous. I really hope you won’t ever mention what you know about this to anyone. I never thought when I gave you her birth information that you’d recognize it.”

“I understand. You don’t have to worry. Anything you tell me in a reading is absolutely confidential. I can’t tell anyone else. It’s completely private and will go no further. Not even to Geneva. Of course, if you tell me you’ve committed a crime, that might be different.” The words slipped out of my mouth before I thought about them.

Matt’s face turned pale. “Oh God, you don’t think I had anything to do with Moira, do you?”

“No, I don’t.” I realized as I spoke that I really didn’t suspect Matt. He was staring at me. “Don’t worry. Your secret about Brooke is safe. Unless you’ve told someone else, or Brooke has. But no one will ever hear it from my lips. You’re my client.”

He took a deep breath and his face relaxed. “Thanks, Julia. It could really screw things up for me. Business-wise, I mean. My firm handles Rob’s investments. Not to mention the trouble it would cause for Brooke. You understand?”

“I do.”

“I’ll let you go then. I appreciate it.” He turned and walked down the stairs.

Matt was definitely suffering from a guilty conscience, but if his affair with Brooke came to light now, the fallout could be disastrous for her. She could lose the support of her husband. Not to mention how the police might read it. I couldn’t help but wonder if their affair had really ended several months before. Was it stretching it to think a single attractive male would still be so smitten a year after the relationship was over? So smitten, in fact, that he was driven to talk to an astrologer? Perhaps I’d been a little too gullible in believing his version of events.