“She shouldn’t have to go through this. It’s bad enough she found the body, helped drag it out of the water, without having to go over and over it again.”
“I’m sure they’ll make it as easy on her as they can.” She only sighed when he whirled and scalded her with a look. “Brian, there’s nothing else to be done, no other choices to be made. A woman’s been murdered. Questions have to be asked.”
“Jo sure as hell didn’t kill her.” He threw himself down on the porch swing. “It’s easier for you. Big-city doctor. Seen it all, done it all.”
“Maybe that’s true.” She spoke coolly to mask the hurt. “But easier or harder doesn’t change the facts. Someone decided not to let Susan Peters live any longer. They used their hands and they choked the life out of her. Now questions have to be asked.”
Brian brooded into the dark. “They’ll look toward the husband now.”
“I don’t know.”
“They will. It’s the logical step. Something happens to the wife, look to the husband. Odds are, he’s the one who did it. They looked to my father when my mother left. Until they were satisfied she’d just . . . left. They’ll take that poor bastard into some little room. And questions will have to be asked. Who knows, maybe he’s the one who decided not to let Susan Peters live.”
He shifted his gaze to Kirby. She stood very straight, very composed under the yellow glow of the porch light. She still wore Jo’s baggy sweats. But he’d seen her with the police, watched her relay information, rolling clinical terms off her tongue, before huddling over the body with the team from the coroner’s office.
There was nothing delicate about her.
“You should go home, Kirby. There’s nothing else for you to do here now.”
She wanted to weep. She wanted to scream. She wanted to pound her fists against the clear, thin wall he’d suddenly erected between them. “Why are you shutting me out, Brian?”
“Because I don’t know what to do about you. And I never meant to let you in in the first place.”
“But you did.”
“Did I, Kirby? Or did you just jimmy the door?”
Jo’s shadow fell between them before she stepped out. “They’re finished here. The police.”
“Are you all right?” Kirby moved over to her. “You must be exhausted. I want you to go upstairs and lie down now. I can give you something to help you sleep.”
“No, I’m fine. Really.” She gave Kirby’s hand a quick squeeze. “Better, in fact, for having gone through it step by step. I just feel sad and sorry, and grateful to be whole. Did Nathan go back?”
“Kate talked him into going upstairs.” Brian rose, walked closer to study her for himself. She looked steadier than he’d expected. “I don’t think it would take much to persuade him to stay here tonight. Cops may be tromping around the river for hours yet.”
“Then we’ll persuade him. You should stay too,” she said to Kirby.
“No, I’ll be better at home.” She looked at Brian. “There’s no need for me here. I’m sure one of the detectives will drive me back. I’ll just get my bag.”
“You’re welcome to stay,” Brian told her, but she flicked a cool, composed glance over her shoulder.
“I’ll be better at home,” she repeated and let the screen door slam shut behind her.
“Why are you letting her go?” Jo asked quietly.
“Maybe I need to see if I can. Might be for the best.”
Jo thought of what Nathan had said just before the world had gone mad again. “Maybe we all should start thinking about what makes us happy instead of what might be best. I know I’m going to try, because you start running out of chances after a while. I’ve got something to say to you that I’ve passed up plenty of chances to say before.”
He shrugged his shoulders, tucked his hands in his pockets in what Jo thought of as his gloomy Hathaway stance. “Spill it, then.”
“I love you, Brian.” The warmth of saying it was nearly eclipsed by the sheer delight of watching the astonishment on his face.
He decided it was a trick, a feint to distract the eye before she delivered the jab. “And?”
“And I wish I’d said it sooner and more often.” She rose on her toes to press a brief, firm kiss on his suspicious mouth. “Of course, if I had I wouldn’t have the satisfaction of seeing you goggle like a trout on the line right now. I’m going up and make Kate go to bed so she can pretend not to know Nathan’s going to sleep in my room tonight.”
“Jo Ellen.” Brian found his voice by the time she reached the door, then lost it again when she looked back at him.
