“Christ.”
“This is the part youwon’tlike.We had to let him go with a warning and a ticket for trespassing.”
“What?”
“Sorry, Damien.We couldn’t prove he’d done anything other than trespass on Witte House property.The pictures he had of you were from out in public areas.”
“His name wasn’t Paul, was it?”
There was a click of keys then Heath said “No.Cliff.Cliff Cassidy.”
“Okay.Okay, thanks.”
And, in a move that would get me one hell of a glare from my mother, I hung up without saying goodbye.
Chapter 19
By the time I was releasedfrom the hospital on Saturday morning, a whirlwind clean-up had hit Witte House.Ben had enlisted the help of a law school classmate to wrestle with insurance since the company didn’t want to pay on an arson-based fire but in the meantime had gotten the contractors to start repairing the damage to the floors and the pocket door.The divan had been sent out to be reupholstered but the rugs and curtains were a total loss.
“It’s not that bad,” Ben said when I expressed outrage at that.“Mom always hated those curtains anyway.”
I smiled faintly.“Well.A good redecorating is always therapeutic.”
He just nodded, eyeing the temporary drapes—a pair dragged out of the basement storage and a virulent mauve that could only have been Margie’s doing—up in the sitting room.“I suppose.”
“Are you sure you don’t need to head back tonight?”
Ben smiled, a faint twitch of his lips but for him that might as well have been a grin.“I don’t have any meetings scheduled until Monday after next.I’m good.Using up my PTO for the year.”
“If you’re sure,” I said, barely managing to hold back the monster of a yawn that’d been struggling to escape for the past few minutes.“I was thinking I’ll try to get hold of Paul Santos again.He hasn’t answered any of my emails and—”
“And,” he cut me off, “if he’s ignoring you, it’s probably a good reason.”
“But Anmorata—”
“One crisis at a time, please,” he groaned.“At least wait until Monday before you start this one.”
