Thursday, March 16, 7:15 P.M.
Aidan slid his arm around her as she hesitated at the funeral home door. “Ready?”
Tess nodded, fast and hard. “Yeah, I think so.” But she trembled.
“Let’s get it over with. Then we’ll go home and let your father poke me with sticks.”
She chuckled, his intention. “He will not poke you with sticks. I hope.”
A man in black pointed toward a room filled with men in suits and women in tasteful dresses. A veritable who’s who of Chicago society, Aidan thought, recognizing a number of them from the black-tie affairs Shelley’s stepfather used to host.
A stillness fell throughout the room when they entered, conversations stalling until finally the only sound was the classical music piped in through the speakers. A frail-looking woman stood to one side of the mahogany casket, flanked by Harrison’s children.
“You want me to go up there with you?” Aidan murmured.
“No, stay here. I have something to tell her but I won’t be long.” She hugged Flo, whispering in her ear and Flo went still, tears rolling down her face even as her mouth trembled in a smile. Tess came back to where he was standing, her own eyes wet.
“What did you tell her?” Aidan asked, slipping his hand under her hair.
“I told her Harrison’s last words were that he loved her. She knew it, but she needed to hear it.”
“I’m glad then.” Looking over her head he scanned the room. “Do you see anyone you know here?”
She looked around. “I see lots of people I know, but nobody who hates me.”
“Let’s stay a little longer,” he murmured in her ear. “I want to see who shows up. I’ll stay back here and watch. You mingle.”
Who showed up first was Murphy, his wrinkled suit making him look like Columbo at a country club. “Did you trace Denise’s call?”
Aidan glanced over to where Tess stood, talking with the mayor. The mayor. Hell. Shades of Shelley. Just being around all these bigwigs was making him nervous. He focused on Murphy’s question. “Yeah. She called a company named Brewer, Inc. It’s listed as a beer importer.”
“Interesting, because after she made the call, Denise went straight to an apartment that wasn’t hers, but nobody was home. I talked to the landlady and she says it belongs to some guy named Lawe. She says he’s a PI and identified his picture.”
“Why would Denise go to see a PI? A lawyer maybe, but a PI?”
“Don’t know. The landlady said she saw Lawe yesterday morning, but he hadn’t been back since then. She has a package for him and he hasn’t come to claim it.”
“Maybe he went away for a few days.”
“Maybe. Except I got an itchy feeling so I called the morgue. They just brought in one man, same size and general shape as the PI. Except he’s charbroiled.”
Aidan flinched. “Ouch. Nasty.”
“Yeah, the stolen car he was in caught on fire, but the locals have real fast emergency response, so they put it out before it turned him to ash. Arson found remnants of a small pipe bomb hooked up to a manual timer. His chest was full of lead, same caliber as the gun that shot Bacon. Julia wasn’t in the morgue, but Johnson said they’d rush a dental match to prove the charbroiled guy is Lawe.”
“Tess has seen him before. She can’t remember where.”
“Maybe with Denise. The landlady thought Lawe and Masterson were an item.”
“Let’s talk to Blaine Connell first thing in the morning and see if this yanks any more out of him. I found out what Bacon and Nicole Rivera had in common.”
Murphy’s brows went up. “Dish, boy,” he said and Aidan chuckled.
“Nicole’s brother is in jail, waiting trial. Nicole’s roommate said she was saving every penny for a lawyer for him instead of the putz they sent from Legal Aid.”
“So both Bacon and Rivera were acquainted with the legal system,” Murphy said thoughtfully. “And speaking of the legal system, look who’s here.”
“Jon Carter and Amy Miller.” With a second man Aidan didn’t know. “Let’s mingle.”
“Detective Reagan.” Jon Carter shook his hand soberly.
“Dr. Carter. This is my partner, Detective Murphy.”
“I remember you,” Jon said. “You visited Tess in the hospital last year.”
Murphy shook his hand. “That’s right. Did you know Dr. Ernst?”
“We all did. Poor Flo. I can’t imagine what she’s going through. But mostly we’re here for Tess.” His jaw tightened, his face growing dark. “It’s a unified ‘fuck you’ to whoever’s doing this. They think that we’d leave her? That’s not going to happen.”
“Jon,” the other man murmured. “Not here. It’s not the place.”
Jon gave himself a shake, visibly forcing himself to calm. “I’m sorry. It’s just that this whole thing has me so damn mad. You do remember Amy, don’t you, Detective?”
“Of course,” Aidan said, noting the way Jon’s cheeks had grown red and the vein throbbed at his temple. The man was furious and controlling it well. “It’s nice that you all came for Tess. This has been a hard day for her.”
“A hard week,” Amy corrected sadly. “It’s nice to see you again, Detectives. Thanks for taking such good care of Tess. She’s not an easy person to care for.”
“You can say that again,” the second man said and held out his hand. “We haven’t met. I’m Robin Archer. I’ve known Tess a long time.”
Aidan’s eyes widened as he shook the man’s hand. “You’re Robin?”
Jon’s mouth curved in wry amusement. “I told you Tess and I were only friends.”
Aidan cleared his throat. “So you did. I hear you make soup, Mr. Archer.”
Robin grinned engagingly. “She hates it, I know. That’s why I keep bringing it.”
Aidan blew out a breath. “Well.”
Jon sucked in one cheek. “Well.” Then he sobered. “What have you found out, Detective? Tess told us today that the man you’d thought had done it, didn’t.”
“We’ve got some strong leads. I’ll let you know something as soon as I can. Dr. Carter, can I talk to you for a moment?” Aidan took him aside. “Since you told me about her father, I wanted you to know he was in town and they are talking.”
Jon sighed. “She told me. She also said he’s got heart disease. She’ll need support in the months ahead. To get him back, and now this . . . Poor Tess.”
“I have some other questions, if you don’t mind. Can you tell me about Phillip?”
Jon’s brows bent. “You think he’s involved in this?”
“I have to ask the questions. This is somebody with a very personal grudge.”
“But Phillip?” Jon sighed. “He and Tess met in med school. He was only part of our group because of Tess. The rest of us didn’t like him too much, but we never let Tess know. I never saw the attraction, but she seemed to love him. I always thought it was because he was so unlike her father. Her dad’s dramatic and loud and Phillip wasn’t either of those things.”
“Was he violent?”
“Phillip?” Jon seemed genuinely astonished. “Never that I saw. He was controlled. Fastidious. Tess found out he’d been cheating, two weeks before the big day. Man never even denied it. Just packed his bag and walked away.”
“That’s what Tess said,” Aidan said thoughtfully and Jon’s astonishment grew.
“She told you about Phillip? It took TNT for me to get that much out of her.”
But she’d told him easily as he’d held her in his arms. Tonight, he’d do the same. Trust her with the things that hurt. “Do you know who the woman was?”
“No. Phillip and I never talked. He’s rather . . . conservatively tied. I don’t have his home address, but he works at the Kinsale Cancer Institute.”
“And his last name?” Aidan’s smile was wry. “I know him only as ‘Dr. Damn-him-to-hell.’”
Jon laughed softly. “I like that better. It’s Parks. Phillip Parks.”
“One last question. You mentioned your group—who else is in it?”
His eyes widened. “You can’t possibly . . . I suppose you have to. Even me. Well, it used to be bigger, but people have moved on. Tess and me and Robin and Amy, of course. Gen Lake, Rhonda Perez, but neither of them come often anymore.”
“Who’s left the group in the last . . . six months?”
Something flickered in Jon’s eyes. “Jim Swanson.”
“Why did he leave?”
John hesitated. “He went to Africa to do a tour with Doctors Without Borders.”
There was more to that story, Aidan could tell. “Suddenly?”
“He said he’d been thinking about it for a while. Seemed sudden to the rest of us.”
He was sure Jon knew more, but decided to press from a different angle. He’d ask Tess later. “Thank you, Dr. Carter. I appreciate the information.”
“You can ask me anything, Detective. After Robin, Tess is my best friend.”
Thursday, March 16, 10:45 P.M.
“Come here, Tess.” Her father patted the cushion of Aidan’s sofa and she curled up next to him, her head on his shoulder.
“So, was it good? The ziti?” She’d planned a more elaborate meal, but going down to the police station this afternoon had forced her to throw together an old standby.
“Nearly as good as your mother’s,” he said loud enough for her mother to hear in the kitchen. Then whispered, “Just as good. So where is your young man?”
“Still out on call.” The call had shaken Aidan. For almost two hours she’d been trying not to think about who it could be this time. “It happens when you’re dating a cop.”
“He seemed . . . nice.” The word was grudgingly uttered, but made Tess smile.
“He is nice.” She listened to him breathe. “Dad, don’t take this wrong, but go home.”
His shoulders tightened. “Why?”
“Because you need to be close to your doctors.”
“Uh-huh.” He kissed the top of her head. “Why, Tessa? I can handle the truth.”
She sighed. “Because you’re not safe here. Three of my friends are dead. Aidan’s sister was hurt this afternoon. I just got you back. I don’t want to see you get hurt, too.”
“If you come with me, I’ll go.”
Tess frowned at him. “That’s not fair.”
He shrugged. “So sue me. That’s the deal, Tess. I’ll go home if you do.”
“You’re going home because you should be near your cardiologist. I’m staying here because I am home.” And it was odd that the picture that flashed in her mind was this very room. Living in Eleanor’s apartment had been wonderful, but Aidan’s house felt like a home. “Plus, I’ve got Aidan to watch out for me.”
“And I’ve got Vito, so we’re at an impasse. Did you say you made cannoli?”
She laughed. “You’re a stubborn man.”
“I know.” He pushed to his feet. “It was nice seeing Amy again. Almost like old times.” Amy had stopped by after Harrison’s viewing and shared their dinner. Seeing all their faces around the table really had felt like old times.
“She didn’t have to stay away because I did,” Tess said.
Her father pulled the cover off the cannoli. “She didn’t.”
“Michael!” Gina came to her feet and snatched the plate from his hands. “He’s not supposed to have that,” she added more gently.
“One won’t hurt.” He looked at her mother with puppy dog eyes. “Tess made them.”
“What do you mean, Amy didn’t stay away?” Tess asked.
“No,” her mother insisted and put the dessert away.
Her father sighed. “Amy came home every Thanksgiving. I thought you knew.”
Tess shook her head. “I didn’t. I spent Thanksgiving with the Spinnellis. Amy said she was spending it with friends from law school.”
“She didn’t want to hurt you, Tess,” Vito said uneasily, then backed up when Dolly sat up and growled. “That dog is a menace.”
“No, she’s just telling us Aidan is home.” A few seconds later she heard the garage door. Her stomach rolled, worrying about who he’d discovered dead, a note pinned to their coat. “Excuse me.” She slipped into the garage, needing a minute alone with him.
Aidan got out of his car and his shoulders sagged when he saw her. “Tess.”
“Who was it?”
His mouth twisted. “Danny Morris’s mother.”
“The little boy,” she murmured. “His mother was killed?”
Even from ten feet away she could see the cold anger in his eyes. “Killed herself. She left a note. Said she felt guilty that she hadn’t protected him. That I was right.”
She wanted to go to him but sensed he needed to be alone. “About what?”
He dropped his chin to his chest. “I knew she knew where the father was. Monday night, after the asshole’s pal hit me in the bar, I went to her house. Told her she was protecting a monster. Asked her what kind of mother would do that.” He looked up, his eyes anguished. “I pushed her too hard.”
“No, Aidan, you didn’t.” Unable to stay back any longer, she put her arms around his shoulders, pulled his head to the curve of her neck. “You didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know. And if she hadn’t cared about her son, nothing you said would have made any difference. Did she tell where you could find her husband in the note?”
His head lifted, their eyes inches apart. “Yeah, she did, but he wasn’t at any of the spots. How did you know?”
“I’ve seen it before. A person will often try to set things right before they take that final step. Sounds like she tried.”
His jaw tightened. “She should have stayed alive to testify against her husband.”
“You would have,” she said quietly and his eyes flashed.
“I wouldn’t have allowed some bastard to murder my son.”
“Not everybody does the right thing, Aidan. And not everyone is strong.” She kissed him, tenderly. “I’m sorry.”
Wearily he dropped his head back to her shoulder. “Do you know a Sylvia Arness?”
She shook her head, dread again descending to grip her gut. “No.”
He straightened, grasping her upper arms. “You don’t? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Her heart was pounding now, so hard it hurt. “Why?”
His grip tightened. “African American woman, age twenty-three?”
“No. Aidan, tell me why.”
“Because she’s dead. Howard and Brooks from our unit responded just as I was leaving the Morris scene. They called me when they found the note pinned to her coat.”
Her throat closed. “Be judged by the company you keep?”
“Yes. You’re sure you don’t know her? Sylvia Arness was the name on her ID.”
Slowly she shook her head. “Maybe it’s a copycat.”
“Maybe. Will you come downtown and take a look at her so we’ll know for sure?”
Woodenly she nodded. “Of course. I have to tell my folks I’m leaving.”
He stopped at the door. “You’ll give your father a . . . scare looking like that.”
Heart attack. He’d been about to say “heart attack” and checked himself. Drawing herself tall, she closed her eyes and focused. When her eyes opened, he nodded. “Better. He’ll still know something’s wrong, but it won’t scare him.”
“Thank you,” she murmured. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“You’re entitled.” He pushed open the door and greeted her waiting family with a tired smile. “I’m sorry I was gone so long. It was another case.”
Tess came into the kitchen behind him and met Vito’s eyes, saw he understood.
“Dad, it’s getting late,” he said. “Let’s go back to the hotel.”
Michael sat down in the kitchen chair, his jaw cocked stubbornly. “I’m not blind and I’m certainly not stupid. Tell me the truth, Tess.”
She squeezed Aidan’s hand. “Thanks for trying,” she murmured, then looked at her father. “Dad, Aidan did have to go out on another case. But as he was leaving it, something else came up that may or may not be related to me. I have to go help them out. Please go with Vito. You need to rest. I’ll call you, I promise.”
Michael rose, his chin lifted. “You won’t let her out of your sight, Reagan?”
Aidan shook his head. “I promise.”
Thursday, March 16, 11:20 P.M.
Spinnelli and Murphy met them at the morgue.
“If this is a copycat, this could get ugly very fast,” Spinnelli said.
“I want to know how a copycat would know about the message,” Murphy grumbled. “We kept that out of the press. Until now. The crowd around Arness saw it.”
Tess’s body was rigid against Aidan’s side. “Let’s get this over with.”
Johnson was waiting next to the metal table on which lay a person covered with a sheet. “She was shot at nine-fifteen. It looks like it was point-blank. The bullet was heavy caliber, probably a forty-five. It entered in her back, right at her heart and tore straight through.” His expression was kind. “If she felt any pain, it wasn’t more than a minute.”
“But she would have been afraid,” Tess murmured, her eyes fixed to the sheet and Aidan knew in her mind she was there with the woman as she faced her death. It was what she did. She entered her patients’ minds with them, lived their fears. Because she cared. It was an odd place to have that realization, standing in front of a corpse.
“The gunshot brought people running. There was a lot of confusion, so nobody saw anything,” Aidan said. “CSU is still combing the scene.”
“Wait.” Murphy held up his hand. “When he shot Rivera it was a twenty-two and Julia thought he’d used a silencer. Why use a forty-five at a time when people were around?”
“He wanted her to be found quickly,” Aidan said.
“But he took the time to pin the note to her coat, knowing people were coming.” Spinnelli’s mustache bunched in a frown. “That hardly sounds like our careful killer.”
Tess straightened her spine. “Please, can we just go ahead? I’m ready.”
Aidan squeezed her waist as Johnson pulled back the sheet, exposing the woman to her shoulders and for a moment Tess just stared.
“I’ve never seen . . .” She stopped. “Wait. Where was she found?”
“On the UI campus. She’s a—”
“Student there,” Tess finished for him, her voice nearly toneless, the color draining from her face. Johnson quickly pushed over a chair and he and Aidan lowered her to it. Tess moistened her lips. “I said ‘hello.’ That’s all.”
Aidan crouched down to look up into her face. “When?”
“Yesterday. I needed new boots. Because you had all my clothes and my shoes.”
Spinnelli gently squeezed her shoulder. “You met her in the shoe store?”
Stunned, she nodded.
“How did you know she was a student?” Murphy asked.
“She . . . she was flirting with Vito. The girls always flirt with Vito. I’d picked out my boots and was going to the register and she was behind me. I said ‘hello.’ After we left, I teased Vito and he said she was just a college kid. She’d told him so. I only said ‘hello.’” She barely inhaled, her breaths were so rapid and shallow. “That’s all.” Her hand covered her mouth, her eyes far away. “And now she’s dead. Oh my God. How can I warn people I don’t even know?”
Aidan knew how. “It’s time we took the offensive. Tomorrow I’ll call Lynne Pope at Chicago On The Town. We owe her a favor and I’ll give her an exclusive.”
“You’re gonna be a star, Ace,” Murphy said, tongue in cheek.
Aidan gripped Tess’s knee. “Are you okay with this? Everyone will know.”
She looked so lost his heart nearly broke. “Nobody will want to talk to me,” she murmured. “They’ll hide when I walk down the street.” Then her eyes lifted to Sylvia Arness’s face and her lips firmed. “But they’ll stay alive. Do you have Pope’s card?”
Aidan pulled it from his wallet. “Tess, I’ll talk to her.”
“No, I will. I have a few things of my own to say to this asshole. I’m taking my life back. He thinks he’s going to drive me into a closet, make me curl up like a baby and . . . snivel. Well, he’s wrong. Johnson, I need to use your phone.”
“I won’t let you do this,” Aidan said, blocking her path. “You’ll make him so angry that he’ll come after you.”
She sucked in one cheek and stared up at him defiantly. “I have a hell of lot more protection than she did.” She thumbed back at Sylvia’s body. “I have all of you. She didn’t have anybody. And neither will the next person. And goddammit, there better not be a next person. Let him come after me. We’ll be ready.”
Friday, March 17, 2:35 A.M.
Tess sat down on the edge of Aidan’s bed. “It was nice of Lynne to meet us.” She and her cameraman had filmed the entire segment while Aidan paced in the wings.
The look he threw over his shoulder was wry. “She’ll get a decent share once this airs tomorrow.” He pulled off his tie, tossed it on his dresser. “I’d say it was a win-win.”
Tied in knots, she fought the urge to get up and pace as he undid each button of his shirt. “She said she’d air it on Good Morning, Chicago and Chicago On The Town with teasers at noon,” she said, knowing she was babbling, unable to stop herself. He shrugged out of his shirt and her mouth went dry. Clothed, the man was lethally handsome. Bared . . .
“Yes, she did.” He looked over at her carefully. “Tess, are you nervous?”
She closed her eyes, now embarrassed as well. “Yes.”
He sat next to her and pulled her against his side. “Why?”
“I just called a killer a ‘spineless coward’ and challenged him to come after me.”
He chuckled, once. “Now you think about that?” He kissed the top of her head. “You did what you needed to do, Tess. I don’t like it, either, but something’s got to give.”
The whirlwind inside her began to change, slowing to something harder and deeper. “I don’t want to go to any more funerals, Aidan.”
“I know. We’ll find him soon, and all this will be over.”
She lifted her head, met his eyes. “And then what?”
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “I don’t know. What do you want, Tess?”
She considered her answer as carefully as he’d asked the question. Her response could set the pace for their entire relationship—because they did have a relationship. Born in fear, it didn’t have to continue that way. Maybe that was why she was so nervous. “I want a home and somebody to love me.”
“You want a husband.”
There was a kind of wistfulness to his words that made her throat hurt. “Yeah.” She drew a breath. “And if that scares you away, it would be better to know that now.”
“It doesn’t scare me, Tess, at least not the way you mean.”
“Then how? Talk to me, Aidan.”
He grimaced. “I’m trying to. I guess I’m not doing a good job of it.”
She touched her lips to his lightly. “Would it help if you lay down on the couch?” Splaying her hand against his hairy chest, she gently pushed him to his back so that he lay half on the bed, his bare feet still solidly on the floor. She came down on her side next to him, propping herself on her elbow. “Relax.”
He looked at her from the corner of his eyes, wary. “Okay.”
“You’re not relaxed.” Slowly she fanned her hand across his chest, enjoying the way the coarse hair tickled her palm.
“That’s not making me more relaxed, Tess,” he said dryly.
Her hand stopped. “Sorry. Who was Shelley, Aidan? And how did she hurt you?”
His eyes slid closed. “For a while, she was my best friend. Or I thought she was.”
“Hurts inflicted by a friend can be twice as hard to heal.”
“When I was a kid, my best friend was Jason Rich.” He paused and his thumb began to stroke the back of her hand. “Me and Jason, we were tight. And trouble.” His lips quirked. “Did you know that green army men melt in a saucepan on a high flame?”
“No, but I did play with Vito’s G.I. Joe. Joe had the hots for my Malibu Barbie. I think I would have been mad that you ruined my saucepan.”
“My mother was.” He was quiet, thinking. “When we were ten, Shelley moved in next door. Her mom was divorced and that was a big hairy deal in our neighborhood.”
“Mine, too. So did Shelley join the army soldier meltdown mission?”
“No. See, Shelley had eyes for Jason and I was a third wheel.”
“Kind of like I feel when I’m at Jon and Robin’s,” she said lightly.
One blue eye opened. “You could have told me about Robin.”
“You didn’t ask.” She sobered. “And it’s never been important to me. They’re my friends. Did Jason and Shelley stay your friends?”
“Sure, but everything changed when we hit puberty. Jason and Shelley were inseparable. Shelley got pregnant when we were seventeen. She and Jason eloped.”
“Oh, dear,” Tess murmured.
“Shelley’s mom was married again by then and moderately comfortable. She moved and gave the old house to Shelley and Jason.” He sighed. “Then Shelley lost the baby. But she didn’t want to be divorced like her mom had been and she did love Jason, so they stayed together. I decided to be a cop like my dad and brother. So Jason did, too. I went on patrol. Jason went to Narcotics.” He shook his head. “He got caught ‘appropriating’ evidence for personal use. He got fired. Shelley was distraught. Jason was . . .” He pursed his lips. “Suicidal.”
Her heart was pounding harder. “Oh, no.”
“But he was thoughtful, my pal Jason. He didn’t want Shelley to find him dead. So he came to my apartment instead.” His throat worked as he swallowed hard. “He took a lot of pills. Washed them down with a fifth of Jack Daniel’s. And went to sleep. I came home from my shift twelve hours later and he was dead.”
“How cruel of him.” Her voice was harder than she’d intended it to be.
He opened his eyes. “I thought you had sympathy for suicides.”
“I have pity for the emotional trauma or mental illness that drives people to suicide. I have sympathy for the ones they leave behind. I have respect for the ones who get help. Jason had a life and wasted it. And he took you down with him. That’s despicable.”
His eyes flickered. “I always felt the same way and wondered if I should.”
“I would if somebody I cared about took their own life. Unless of course they were too mentally ill to stop themselves. Was he?”
“I don’t know. I guess I never will. But Shelley was devastated. She had no income, no life insurance. No pension. No education. No one to lean on.”
“Except you.”
“Except me. We got close. I’d always had a thing for her when we were kids, but she was always Jason’s girl. Now she was mine. I was happy.”
“And guilty because you were happy at your friend’s expense?”
“A little. Yeah. Anyway, I asked Shelley to marry me and she said yes. I’d saved some and bought her a reasonably sized ring.”
“Did she like the ring?”
“Said she did. But she didn’t show it off to our friends. Once she hinted at a bigger rock and I refused. I couldn’t afford it and that was that. But her mother’s new husband made a fortune when his business went IPO. Her mother bought Shelley a bigger ring.”
“Oh dear.”
“Yeah. It was the first big fight we had. It wasn’t the last. Stepdad was dripping in cash and generous with it. Shelley got new dresses, furs. Then she said she wanted a house in North Shore.” His jaw tightened. “Daddy was going to help.”
A blow to his pride. “And you said no.”
“Damn straight I said no. Asshole looked down at me every chance he got.”
That explained a great deal. “So what was the straw that broke the camel’s back?”
“Daddy offered me a job.” The sneer hardened his voice. “I wouldn’t take it and Shelley pouted. Said I could make three times a cop’s salary. Cop’s salary,” he spat it out. “She said it just like that. Like it was something to be ashamed of.”
Tess tried never to judge the motives of patients’ families that she’d never met. But this man wasn’t a patient. He was her lover, and he was hurting. “She didn’t love you if she would have changed you. And she didn’t know you if she thought she could have.”
His chest expanded as he drew a slow deep breath. “Thank you.”
She wriggled her fingers until they twined with his. “And?”
“That’s all.”
No, it wasn’t. But it was clear that was all he planned to say. “Okay.”
He opened one eye. “Okay? That’s all?”
She gave him a wry smile. “You want me to pout? Not my style.” She snuggled her head on his shoulder. “There is one thing I would like to get out in the open, though.”
He stiffened. “What?”
“Harold Green.”
Abruptly he sat up, leaving her lying on her side staring at his broad back. “No.”
Tess flinched. “Why not?”
“Because . . .” He stood up and walked to the window. “Because I don’t want to talk about him. It was an accident, nothing more. End of conversation.”
“That’s what you told your father last night.”
“Tess, let it go. Please.”
“I can’t. If you won’t talk, will you listen?”
“Can I stop you?” he asked curtly.
She tried not to be hurt. “Yes. Just tell me no and I’ll go to sleep.”
“I did tell you no and we’re still talking about it.” His voice was like ice.
“Fair enough.” And she tried to keep her voice even. “It’s late, Aidan. Let’s go to sleep.” With a helpless backward glance, she went into the bathroom and shut the door.