5 Alive After Friday (26 page)

He appeared especially serious, as he said, “And
what about you?”

“The grief is still there. But it doesn’t hit me
with a sudden wave anymore. I have an occasional recurring dream. Psychologists
say recurring dreams are unhealthy.”

“Nightmares would be. You want to tell me about
it?”

“I’m sorry, I still can’t talk about Chip without
getting a tightness in my throat. I have it right now, and I’ve barely said
anything at all.”

“Let’s change the subject.”

“I can tell you the dream starts with him
appearing in my apartment doorway in the middle of the night. Actually, haven’t
had the dream lately. Don’t be concerned. I’ll be fine.”

He tried to think of something as far from her
heartbreaking catastrophe as possible. “Hey, we have our money back. At least
all but five or six thousand that went God knows where. And it appears much
more will be pouring in.”

“Yes, thanks for lending me your half of the four
hundred thousand, Martin.”

“Any time.” He could tell she was still thinking
about Chip. “Winning that lawsuit wasn’t just about money for you. More of a
symbol, wasn’t it?”

“True. I haven’t been worrying much about money
for the past few months since our law practice is doing well. Not a great deal
of income but I was making it. I’d stopped financing my life on my credit card,
which I never should have done. So that was cleared up. And I was getting my
Miata MX5 paid off. A couple more payments. I’ve had that model for years even
though I never could really afford it and certainly never deserved it. Now,
I’ve earned it.

“So your finances are in pretty good shape. Now
you’ve got an extra two hundred thousand dollars in the bank, and more prosperity
is just around the corner.”

“From now on I’ll be buying the take-out coffee.”

“We’ll see.” He noticed she was smiling. Her eyes
were looking upward making some picture in her head. Must be good—she was
smiling. He waited until the silence became awkward. “So, will you be moving
into Chip’s house? Have you’ve even thought about that?”

“Is that place really mine? I did nothing to
deserve it.”

“It was a gift from Chip. He wanted you to have
it.”

“I suppose I’ll sell it. A great house, but too
many memories over there. Of course, I’ll move to a much nicer apartment. Hey,
do you want to go apartment shopping with me? I won’t buy right away. I don’t
dare spend all the money. I need a large operating reserve. Having money in the
bank gives me the freedom to pick and choose the cases I want from people of
modest means.”

“Do you trust me, Sandy?”

“Merely with my life, nothing more.”

“You should definitely keep the house, redecorate
and buy all new furniture. It’s a solid house and a great investment, should
you decide later to not live there permanently. You are a successful lawyer now
and such lawyers don’t live in temporary housing.”

“So keep it for investment purposes and for
appearances sake? That sounds rather dispassionate. Where do my emotions come
in?”

“You’ll be delighted and will find comfort in
having your own place, your own piece of real property. Plus, your emotional
well-being is tied up with your desire to be free and independent. You don’t
want to live under the rule of a landlord or even a condominium board of
directors.” He had always thought independence was part of her charm. In fact,
he’d never been able to visualize her married wearing an apron instead of
running around meddling, pestering and aggravating people to get at the truth.

She raised her eyebrows thinking. “Will you advise
me on the redecorating and then furniture shop with me?”

He gave her an enthusiastic nod.

They sat in silence there in the office for a full
minute before she got up. She casually walked around her office, running her
hand along the desk, touching the windowsill, the picture frames and the
bookcase. “I take all these things for granted. All the great things in my life
and they aren’t promised to me.”

“Tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us,” he said.

“Yes, I found that out didn’t I?” She came back to
the front of her desk, to the side where he was sitting and leaned against the
edge. “I need to get back in touch with my life. There are pieces I haven’t
thought about for too long, I’ve been so busy with Chip’s death and the
extortion matter.”

“You are definitely getting it all back together.
I can tell. Don’t rush yourself.”

“I haven’t needed to worry about life’s details lately
because you’ve always been around to take care of whatever I overlook.”

“I haven’t done so much.”

“I need to start taking better care of you. Something
has changed between us. I have a different feeling about you. Look how close
we’ve become. We really are partners now.”

“Just a couple of buddies.”

“More than that. I consider Eddie Jaworski my buddy.
We do on-the-job stuff for each other because we’ve built up a trust. He’s my
buddy, but I don’t have feelings for him...in the way I do you. Can I say it
like that?”

“We can say just about anything to each other now,
can’t we?”

“Really personal stuff used to be off limits for
us to discuss, but I don’t feel that way anymore.”

“Nice to hear that and I feel the same way about
you.”

“Martin, I’m aware that you think about me
romantically. Yet I don’t know what to do about it other than just separating
and getting out of your life. And that would make me sad, because I like being
around you.” She reached over and briefly squeezed his arm. “Geez, I’m really
selfish, aren’t I?”

“Don’t change anything. I can handle it. Yes, I
had wished things were different between us. Even so, I believe we both have a
clear understanding of our star-crossed relationship. I’m not stopping my life
because of you. I’m beyond all that. My affection for you now isn’t based on romance.
So, I don’t believe we have a problem with being close companions and personal
confidants.”

“Aren’t we something, Martin? Do you remember what
we both said a moment ago?”

“You mean about going to the beach today? Yes, I
remember.”

She shook her head. “I said I couldn’t talk about
Chip, and you said you didn’t want to talk about your love life. We both are in
some kind of limbo just now, aren’t we?” As she looked at him, her mind wandered
off for a moment trying to remember why she had always thought a love affair
with him was out of the question. He really was an appealing, marvelous man. He
sat there smiling at her, waiting for her to go on. She regained her earlier thought,
“I guess I really do want to talk about Chip...one of these days. When I can do
it without getting that tightness in my throat.”

“I’ll be around.”

The End

About the Author:
Rod Hoisington has a
background in education and business and lives in Florida where he devotes
full-time to his compulsion to dig into the souls and lives of fictional
characters.

The first book in this popular 4-Star mystery
series featuring the feisty and irrepressible Sandy Reid is
One Deadly
Sister
. Followed by
The Price of Candy
,
Such Wicked
Friends, Chasing Suspect Three
and
Alive After Friday.

One Deadly
Sister

Four Star Mystery
Novel Rating

She doesn’t carry a gun but then neither
does a pit bull ~

An almost-too-clever young law student reluctantly
attempts to rescue her estranged brother caught up in woman-trouble and a
murder charge in a hostile Florida town. He isn't looking for trouble, but
doesn't have a clue about women, and gets seduced and framed—leaving the sister
in an ever-increasing entanglement of deceit, double-cross and danger.

One
Deadly Sister available at Amazon (US)

One
Deadly Sister available at Amazon (UK)

The Price of Candy

Four Star Mystery
Novel Rating

Passion makes fools of us all ~

An old acquaintance interrupts Sandy Reid’s law
studies and gets her seriously involved in unraveling the mystery of a body on
a Florida beach. Sandy uncovers the identity of the prominent Congressman who
gave the beautiful hitchhiker a ride to Florida and confronts him. Now that the
naked body has been discovered, he risks having his misdirected passion exposed
and his reputation and prosperous way of life devastated.

The almost-too-clever young law student must solve
the mystery surrounding the unidentified dead woman on the beach, unscramble a
related child kidnapping that the mother won’t report and clear herself of a
murder charge that threatens to destroy her dream of becoming a lawyer. Along
the way, she discovers she has fallen victim to a sensuous passion of her own.

The
Price of Candy available at Amazon (US)

The
Price of Candy available at Amazon (UK)

Such Wicked
Friends

Four Star Mystery
Novel Rating

Sometimes your friends are more dangerous than
enemies ~

Sandy Reid stumbles over a potential client—shot
between the eyes. She believes the murdered woman is asking her to find the
killer. How else to explain the mysterious spot of blood Sandy later discovers
on her own hand? Then a friend kills himself. Or was it a second murder
cleverly disguised as suicide? Now with two people dead, Sandy can’t resist
getting involved and is drawn into a plot that stretches out to national
ramifications. At the last moment, she discovers her gutsy scheme to entrap the
killer is more dangerous than expected and must play out exactly right for her
to get out alive.

Such
Wicked Friends available at Amazon (US)

Such
Wicked Friends available at Amazon (UK)

Chasing
Suspect Three

Four Star Mystery
Novel Rating

Clients don't just hire her, they turn her
loose.
~

Sandy Reid is back and the assertive young
criminal defense attorney finally lands her first big murder case. As she digs
in and begins to destroy the state attorney's case, she is convinced her client
is lying. Is she rushing to save an innocent woman or helping a killer get away
with murder?

She faces a client who seems innocent of shooting
her husband until she opens her mouth, the client's mysterious boyfriend who
has no past and although shady doesn't cast a shadow and the victim's sister
whose fashionable façade hides a layer of predatory sex, and who happens to be
a former girlfriend of Sandy's lover and wants his romance back in her life.
And they all have a reason to lie.

Sandy finds herself questioning her lover's
faithfulness at the same time she's deciding whether to go too far with an FBI
agent with movie-star looks who won't take no for an answer. Her gutsy search
for the killer leads her away from her quiet Florida ocean side town and down
to the tropical palms along Biscayne Bay and the steamy streets of Miami that
are dark with something more than the night.

Chasing
Suspect Three available at Amazon (US)

Chasing
Suspect Three available at Amazon (UK)

~ Watch for the next Sandy Reid mystery ~